The Mind Body
Spirit Institute
Compassionate Professional Renewal
Stress is not the result of bad things that happen to us or too many demands on our time. For a patient, a diagnosis, living with a condition or disease, or facing their mortality can and often are often extremely stressful. For providers, witnessing the suffering of those can produce secondary trauma and may lead to burnout.
How we respond and relate to those stressful events and realities determines whether we thrive or break down. While we cannot always control the stressors we encounter in life, we can learn how to manage our reactions to them.
MBSI’s customizable Compassionate Professional Renewal (CPR) classes and workshops take the notion of employee self-care from a vague concept to an obtainable reality – guiding employees and management teams through academically-informed instruction and experiences. Meditation, lecture, peer discussion and movement techniques are utilized to identify the effects of stress in the workplace and the means to reduce them.
MBSI’s director, Dr. Alejandro Chaoul, previously served as the director of education at MD Anderson Cancer Center’s Department of Integrative Medicine and remains on faculty there. With over twenty years of service to patients, providers and caregivers in the Texas Medical Center, Dr. Chaoul looks forward to sharing his experience with the broader community.
Workshops
Tailored to your organization’s needs, CPR workshops provide brief, impactful introductions to techniques and perspectives that will improve your life at work and home. Here is an example of one of our workshops:
No Sweat: Thrive in Life and School by Responding Differently to Stress
Program Description:
Stress does not come from bad things that happen to us or from too many demands on our time. It is how we respond to events that determines how we are able to serve our students and fellow staff. While we cannot always control the stressors we encounter in life, we can learn how to control our reactions to them. In this brief workshop, we will learn simple, life-changing tools to help us take control of our responses to stress so that we can provide a more meaningful educational and nurturing experience for our students.
Objectives:
- Illustrate the damaging effects of stress on our personal and professional lives.
- Describe the benefits of meditation for health and satisfaction in life and work.
- Learn meditation techniques to acknowledge stress, manage distress, and stay calm.
- Develop a meditation tool box for use at work and at home
Transformational personal growth program for individuals
Program Description:
Occupational stress has been proven to adversely impact the quality of life and ultimately the productivity/efficacy of both staff and management. Our Transformational Personal Growth Program is designed for leaders who are seeking more individualized mentorship to strengthen their stress management skills, broaden their tool box for self-care and thereby increase their ability to engage their staff with greater meaning and connection.
Details:
This program is customized to your individual needs, learning style, and budget. Following an initial consultation and outline of our work, the process usually involves three phases:
Phase 1 – Identifying Goals
Phase 2 – Introducing Tools
Phase 3 – Integrating Lessons (Ongoing Support)
- Who are you? What are your needs? Are there obstacles preventing you from reaching your full potential as a leader, or provider in your personal life, professional life or elsewhere?
- What techniques, tools, and perspectives have been useful to you before? Are you still using them now? Here we introduce you to new ways of working with your situation, acknowledging the full range of human experience through contemplative and inclusive frameworks of understanding and practice. Theoretical and practical in nature, this aspect of our program supports the inner work necessary to show up for others.
- How does this change my life? How do I measure growth after the program? We are here to support and guide you as you integrate your growth into both your personal and professional lives.
- Dr. Chaoul has a long history of mentoring service-oriented, community-minded people all over the world, and through web platforms like Zoom, we can meet you where you are.
- Our team is excited to talk to you, so feel free to message us at MBSI@junghouston.org to schedule an initial consultation.
Costum retreats, for individuals and organizations
From one hour to a weekend, our retreats are tailor-made for organizations that recognize that the benefits of self-care deepen as we practice and become more familiar with the positive qualities of positive emotion, engagement and connection with ourselves, our coworkers, and our purpose. Customized to your organization’s needs, our retreats offer both social support and the time necessary to cultivate inner focus. These retreats range from three hours to extended multi-day engagements depending on your needs and our availability. Contact MBSI@junghouston.org for more information.
Organizational consulting
Dr. Chaoul has a long history of working with a myriad of educational, healthcare, and corporate organizations in a consulting capacity. You can learn more about our recent collaborations in our four areas of impact (healthcare, education, corporate, community) [hyperlink to subpages] where we have successfully implemented mindfulness, meditation, and a more integrated approach to education into the organizational structure. The Mind Body Spirit Institute looks forward to working with you and your organization.
MBSI Faculty
We pride ourselves in the diversity and range of perspectives that form our Mind Body Spirit Institute Faculty. This group of seasoned mind-body practitioners are excited to bring their experiences and teaching to your organization. If there is a particular Faculty Member which speaks to your needs, please contact us directly to begin the conversation on how we can collaborate in a way that makes sense for your organization.