Loving yourself as you love your neighbour

A workshop led by Dr David Mair: this training is especially intended for ALM pastoral workers, but is open to others.

In this 90-minute session, we will be thinking together about how the stories that others bring to us in our helping roles affect us personally. We’ll also think about how we maintain appropriate boundaries when drawing alongside someone who is struggling or suffering. We will consider a model of personal interaction which may help us to be clear about what we are doing when we offer our support to another, and we’ll also take some time to think about ways we can ensure our own wellbeing while we support others. There will be time to talk – in small groups – about our own experiences and the challenges we sometimes face in our respective roles, and we’ll also do a practical exercise, focusing on our own individual needs and how we can respond with compassion to ourselves and our own vulnerabilities.

Dr David Mair is Bishop’s Advisor on Pastoral Care and Counselling. David has worked as a therapist for thirty years in a variety of settings and was Head of Counselling and Wellbeing at the University of Birmingham until 2017. His initial training was with RELATE in the 1990s and he continues to work with couples in therapy in private practice alongside his work for the diocese. He is also an Associate Lecturer with the Open University on their psychology and counselling undergraduate degrees.

Click here to book via Eventbrite