Mar 14, 2023
A 90-minute session that looked at how your quality of your life improves when you connect with your emotions and vulnerability. This session was led by Dr. Ieleen Taylor MD CCFP and Dr. Ghazala Radwi MBBS FRCPC - Internal Medicine RCPSC – Hematology.
What’s involved:
- A 90-minute session on Zoom where you are ‘on-camera’ with everyone else in the session to provide a sense of connection and community.
- Commitment to confidentiality.
- Guidance through:
- Concepts related to improving the quality of your life through connecting with emotions and vulnerability.
- Physicians will participate in reflective writing, sharing narratives (voluntarily) and their experiences, with the opportunity for collegial discussion.
This may be for you if you:
- Learning from shared wisdom and shared humanity.
- Are curious about what it looks like to lean in to your emotions and feelings.
- Are willing to acknowledge to yourself that not leaning into your emotions and feelings may be impacting you and you’re ready to explore that territory and take some time to do so.
- Feel curious and or tentative being vulnerable.
- Are interested in finding a different way of being in relationships.
It might not be a fit for you if you:
- Are not ready/comfortable to talk about feelings and being vulnerable right now.
- Generally prefer “head over heart” approaches.
- Prefer to go around rather than through the discomfort this may bring up.
This session is not:
- Therapy, nor a comprehensive process nor a quick fix and there will be no singing of Kumbaya.
What you’ll need:
- Zoom using both audio (headphones are helpful) and video.
- A dedicated quiet place where you will be relatively undisturbed.
- An item of comfort (a blanket, your pet, a special photograph, your favorite stuffy) to ground you as you explore any difficult emotions.
- Pen and paper.
About the Speakers
Dr. Ieleen Taylor is a clinical lecturer for the University of Alberta and a family physician who has been serving the community of Sylvan Lake for over 20 years. She was the first female physician in Sylvan Lake where she spearheaded bringing learners to that community with that clinic becoming a rural site for a 1 month family medicine block.
Dr. Taylor has been pursuing her passion for wellness and personal development most notably through:
Palouse Mindfulness;
- The Way of the Council from Circles of Resilience;
- the Remen Institute for the Study of Health & Illness (RISHI);
- Kristin Neff’s Self-Compassion work;
- Jon Kabat-Zinn’s Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction;
- and dedication to practicing and sharing what she learns.
Notably, the Rural Alberta South Residency program (RAS) has adopted a Reflections in Medicine program that Dr. Taylor led them in developing and launching. For the Rural Alberta North (RAN) family medicine residents, she initiated, developed and implemented a customized structure for wellbeing groups.
Although born in the tropics, she has learned to embrace the Canadian winters with skiing, movies, and beach holidays. She lives in the summer village of Jarvis Bay with her 4 almost grown-up girls and their furry friends.
Dr. Ghazala Radwi is a Hematologist and Transfusion Medicine physician based in Edmonton. She is the Medical Lead, North Sector for Transfusion Medicine at Alberta Precision Labs.
Dr. Radwi’s path of physician wellbeing was sparked by her own experience with burnout over a decade ago. She is a strong proponent of creating safe and inclusive spaces to empower trainees and colleagues with skills that lead to fulfilling personal lives, compassionate patient care, and engaged teams. She has formal training through Brown University to teach MBSR (Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction). She is also trained in the Mindful Practice curriculum (an evidence-based program designed for healthcare professionals) through the University of Rochester.
Dr. Radwi has a deep interest in psychology. She is trained in Dr. Gabor Mate’s Compassionate Inquiry model which is a trauma-informed psychotherapy approach, and the Polyvagal Theory which is the science of safety and connection. She is the safety and wellness representative on the Hematopathology Residency Training Committee. Dr. Radwi advocates for trauma-informed leadership and has been working with the Office of Advocacy and Wellbeing at the University of Alberta, to help develop programs that shift culture within medicine to one that promotes compassion and brings joy.