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Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) for Therapists & Educators

About the Event:

Career Speech Language Pathologists and Audiologists whether they work in healthcare, private practice, or university-based settings face a wide variety of stressors that can impact their own health and their ability to be their best for the individuals they work with. These same stressors can impact educators and therapists working in our school-based models of learning and can lead to compassion fatigue and career burnout. Career SLPs and Audiologists who work directly with individuals are highly susceptible to burnout syndrome according to several research studies (Brito-Marcelino, et.al 2020). Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR), which was developed in 1979 by Jon Kabat-Zinn at the University of Massachusetts in Boston, is considered the gold standard for mindfulness training. It is the oldest and most widely studied program for well-being and improving health and has been incorporated in numerous healthcare corporations and higher-learning academic programs to support employees and healthcare students. The eight-week interactive course has shown benefits in reducing negative emotions, enhancing compassion and altruism, enhancing behavioral self-regulation, coping with stress, connecting with patients, and reducing burnout-inducing negative emotions and anxiety (Barbosa, et al, 2013; Chiesa & Serretti, 2009; Lykins & Baer, 2009).

Presenter: Bethany Davis, Davis, SLPD, CCC-SLP, CBIS

Learning Objectives:

  1. Participants will develop tools to work with and transform stressful situations and reactions.

  2. Participants will be able to define three styles of communication and how these can impact our interactions with others.

  3. Participants will perform mindfulness practices including sitting and walking meditation, mindful movement, body awareness, and other informal practices.

About the Presenter:

Bethany Davis, SLPD, CCC-SLP, CBIS, is an SLP with 25 years of experience, working with both pediatrics and adults in skilled nursing facilities, hospital-based inpatient and outpatient rehab, and post-acute brain injury programs including home and community settings. She has been in private practice since 2009, contracting with schools in Central Washington within Kittitas County, while continuing to work with adults living with acquired brain injuries on an outpatient basis. She has been a Certified Brain Injury Specialist with the Brain Injury Association of America since 2017. In 2020, she graduated with a clinical doctorate from Northwestern University’s SLPD program, completing a systematic review of effective support group interventions to improve the quality of life for individuals living with acquired brain injuries. It was the culminating project that has inspired Bethany to pursue more formal training in mindfulness. Bethany is currently in the Teacher Training Program through Mindfulness Northwest for the Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) course.

Disclosures: Financial: owns private practice Brainstorm Rehab. Non-financial - president of the Washington Speech and Hearing Association and is enrolled in the Teaching Training Cohort MBSR with Mindfulness Northwest.

Introductory Level – up to 2.5 ASHA CEUs

OSPI Clock Hours – 25 hours

ASHA CE Provider approval and use of the Brand Block does not imply endorsement of course content, specific products or clinical procedures.

WSLHA charges a processing fee of $10.00 for ASHA CEUs ($15.00 non-members) and $10.00 for clock hours payable prior to the workshop.  

Credits must be purchased prior to the program. Any requests for credits after the date of each workshop will be denied.

Class will be capped at 35 seats.