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KEYNOTES >>

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DANCING ON THE ARK: facing change in uncertain times
LEADERS LEADING LEADERS: More than just bosses
BREAKTHROUGH: A prescription for healthy productivity how to get the most out of life
WORK HARD AND LIKE IT: Attitude and latitude >>
GRIEF: From dark despair to new beginnings >>
ICONS OF HOPE: The mentor / teacher as elder in the community >>
THE WAY IN: The arts in recovery >> WORKSHOPS >>

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BURNOUT: Understanding that there ARE limits
FROM DOING TO BEING: A pre-retirement workshop

Change is normal for our time. We must learn to dance with new ways of providing the best product possible in order to meet the needs of our clients. While some accept change with delight, others have to stretch beyond their imagination in order to be both productive and content. We need to find ways to survive and thrive in these times of radical pressure and change.

This session will

• Motivate you to embrace rather than fight change
• Help you realize that change will be never-ending. Face it.
• Offer you 13 ways to maintain personal health and sanity
• Make you take stock of how you deal with change and pressure
• Pull your group together through music, movement and laughter
• Give your group hope and courage for the future

Although it is true that true leaders are born not made, they need to be trained for great leadership. Most leaders find that they are simply "thrown into the job". They need to be made aware of their gifts, convinced of their abilities and directed in the role of leadership in order to succeed.

Kelly Walker has always been a leader. As Prior of the Dominican Order, he assumed heavy responsibilities in his early 30s. As a therapist he developed great skills of listening. As a speaker, mentor, author and entertainer he has influenced people in their leadership roles for many years.

This presentation on the art and skill of leadership will help your employees embrace this important role with enthusiasm, care and joy.

The following topics will be treated with insight, humour and skill. As a result, you will

• Understand that good leadership requires "practice"
• See that power does not automatically mean authority
• Gain tools for better self knowledge and self actualization
• Be readier to be present to your employees
• Realize that all people in your organization count
• Be aware that you should be able to articulate your vision for everyone
• Find ways to clear out dead wood
• See the value of a mentor for yourself
• Celebrate your company
• Prescribe hope

We've all climbed mountains. We've all dealt with difficult situations and survived. We've all gone places we'd never dreamed we'd go. That's life. But when new challenges present themselves, we often forget that we've done terrific things already and freeze. We need to reclaim our strengths and soar to new heights that can bring us contentment and rewards and point us to a greaterfuture.

KELLY WALKER has faced more challenges than most and has arrived at a mature point in his life where he experiences peace and prosperity. At the age of 40 he left a Dominican Monastery where he thought he'd live his whole life, in order to start a new life. From the piano bar to the stage; from the role of therapist to author and international speaker; from the terror of cancer to the freedom of aging well, Kelly has discovered wisdom and humour that can help others shape a positive and productive life.

This session will help you:

• Reclaim your own story
• Find new ways to position yourself for success
• Discover that attitude and latitude are capital
• Realize that good team effort maximizes results
• Grow better as you grow older

Kelly Walker has never been stuck in the mud. Some have criticized his twists and turns in life as signs of instability. On the contrary, he has always been ready to forge ahead in new ways with daring and great courage (and a bit of fear). He has mastered the art of creative living and has been able to live an exciting life at every turn of the bend. He looks forward with great anticipation what life will look like in his eighties. His wisdom could become yours.

Like anything else in life, work can lose its lustre. What began as an interesting and challenging opportunity can sometimes fade into boredom and drudgery. This keynote address explores the issues surrounding job, career and great work. We look at the gifts that you bring to the workplace but within the bigger context of your relationship to the world and the communities you find yourself in. We look at ways to improve, fortify and creatively explore your attitudes and aspirations in the ever-changing world that we are all living in. This session will give you practical ways to work better and prescriptions for liking what you do best.

This session will help you:

• Assess your present work life in the light of your signature strengths
• Re-think your choices that bring you frustration/contentment in your work
• Think green. Not only in terms of ecology but personal spirituality
• Look beyond worn down paths and honour the un-imagined possibilities
• Dare make imaginative choices for YOUR future

Kelly Walker has never been stuck in the mud. Some have criticized his twists and turns in life as signs of instability. On the contrary, he has always been ready to forge ahead in new ways with daring and great courage (and a bit of fear). He has mastered the art of creative living and has been able to live an exciting life at every turn of the bend. He looks forward with great anticipation what life will look like in his eighties. His wisdom could become yours.

When someone close to us dies, part of us dies too. Recovery is often a long process and sometimes we feel that we will never be normal again. People around us often prod us into being somebody we can't be and ask us to be in places we are not ready for. The struggle for a new IDENTITY often overwhelms us.

Many times we feel like giving up and dying too. Many want to be left alone or go into hiding. We no longer have the old "props" that helped in ages past. We live in a culture that wants to deny death and as a result denies the pain and normal grief that is part of that reality. And death is a normal human reality as is the pain and emptiness that accompanies it.

This keynote will explore the dynamics of grief, the feelings that normally accompany loss through death and the mystery of inner re-adjustment that is part of the process. We will explore how the body-system functions during this time and how the body-system can be used in the healing process. We will explore as well the social dynamics of loneliness, re-integration and new relationships.

Each era has new challenges. And with the birth of each generation, new people emerge with new insights to how to be human. Children are born with the tools they need for survival. However, the elders in each epoch serve as the bridge between the past and the future. It is for them to tell the stories, pass on the courage and hope that they have acquired through their lives. This session is designed to help the teachers be conscious of what will best serve the next generation for their survival and for their fulfilment. We will explore ten themes which will awaken the elder within you.

• The present scene
• The role of elder
• Our common 'earth-creatureliness'
• How to talk TO
• Reclaim our body nature
• Learn to gather
• Play together
• Encourage passion
• Be still together
• Re-member each other
• Stay awake together

Many are of the opinion that today's North American lives enslaved by systemic addiction. Food, drink, consumerism, sex, work etc. seem to rob many of their "souls". Therapeutic recovery work has introduced the notion of the CHILD as being the core of our being. It is out of deep wipe-out or shame that we embrace the addictive behaviour or substance. In my work as a therapist as well as an artist, I have discovered that the "way in" that embraces the deepest parts of the wounded child's eco-system is through music, art, dance, drama. This session will explore that process which is a key to the liberation of humanity.

CONTENT:

1. EXPLORE THE DIMENSIONS OF THE CHILD IN PEOPLE
2. IDENTIFY WHAT DISTRESSES THE CHILD WITHIN US
3. SHAME
4. FROM CORE GRIEF TO SACRED WOUND
5. ACCESSING THE INNER CHILD THROUGH THE ARTS: AN EXPLORATION
6. COMPASSIONATE LIVING:TO DANCE IN HARMONY WITH THE UNIVERSE
7. RECOVERY: THE WAY OUT




No one has to burn out.

Some people work hard and get tired. They rest, recover and get at it again. Others never seem to be able to get out of "driven" mode. They become work. They find that they are boundary-less, unable to stop, and constantly overwhelmed. They become a health hazard to themselves and eventually become a hazard in the workplace. Bosses love them because they accept every request. However, rage builds up within them and they begin to explode in a variety of manners. They begin to lose themselves and retreat. In some cases, death awaits from systemic exhaustion or suicide. This session is designed to help that kind of person as well as those colleagues who have to put up with it all.

• We will explore the symptoms that accompany this inner sadness.
• We will look at roots.
• We will explore way to prevent burnout.
• We will consider various approaches to healing.
• There will be presentation and discussion if the group is small enough.
• In the end, we will learn ways to assure vibrant and happy work.

As a result, you will

• Know what signs to look for in yourself and in your employees
• Be better prepared to help them find the appropriate approach for their healing
• Understand how to deal with those who are on the path towards burnout
• Understand what old scripts encourage burnout in individuals and in teams
• Look for signals in your recruitment procedures that will help you choose appropriate persons for your company
• Help co-workers cope with people who are overwhelmed and often overwhelming
• Realize that burnout can be prevented and cured.
• Know that certain conditions need to be present for a happy workplace.

This workshop can be two hours, half-day or whole day. It is also adaptable to clients and their spouses/life partners/family members.

The very word retirement brings smiles to the faces of many. To others it generates fear, anger and insecurity. For many it means leaving work and beginning a period of leisure. For others it means leaving the one thing that gave them meaning. For many it is about a future filled with absence of identity, boredom and poverty. This workshop addresses these issues. Whether or not the retiree desires to leave work, there still ensues a period of grief, lack of definition and fear. New identities are difficult for us. We will identify the blockages to positive retirement. We will work on the dynamics that help provide a smooth flow into a new lifestyle - family relationships, work relationship, communications issues. We will also address issues about creating a stimulating future. And we will look at whole-health factors that will insure a longer and more vibrant life after retirement rather than fear and possible death.