Serenity Program
Many professions in healthcare are physically, emotionally and mentally demanding. Very often professionals are faced with difficult, even traumatic circumstances. They regularly have to communicate about emotionally difficult subjects in situations with heightened emotions. They very often need an extra dose of resilience.
We deliver one day, two day or retreats focused on professional personal development. Our programme uses evidence-based wellbeing and psychological techniques which participants practice and can use in their daily lives. Participants leave with tools to support their own serenity.
What is the toll of repeated exposure to death and dying on those healthcare professionals who witness it daily? Mireille Herbert Hayden writes about Life, Death and Serenity for BACP. Working with palliative care teams and carers, Mireille shares how she supports this workforce.
This article first appeared in the January 2025 issue of BACP Workplace, published by the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy. https://www.bacp.co.uk/bacp-journals/bacp-workplace/ ©BACP 2025.
“We wanted to offer the entire team who work in the hospital’s palliative care beds a full day to get together, to reflect, to take a step back, to take care of ourselves and our team.
So we took a day out, away from the ward, away from the hospital, with doctors, nurses, care assistants, day and night teams, psychologists, physiotherapists, managers and social workers.
We talked freely about end of life. We discovered tools for serenity and well-being, for recharging our batteries at work when faced with difficult situations, for accepting our emotions, for taking better care of our patients at the end of life, and for questioning our own representations of the end of life and death.
Accustomed to academic training aimed at acquiring new knowledge, improving care techniques and analysing our own professional practices, this day was completely new and enriching, because it focused on our own person: “How do I take care of myself when death is part of my daily life?
Mireille Herbert Hayden offers a caring, attentive, non-judgemental framework in which to take time out, gain perspective and move beyond the theoretical framework of training courses, using a rigorous approach based on recognised scientific studies.
She calls on us to be present to ourselves and to others.”
Pathway to Serenity Retreat
The Pathway to Serenity retreat was created by Health Psychologist Mireille Herbert Hayden, using tools and insights that draw on 20 years of clinical experience. Originally designed to support palliative care professionals facing emotionally demanding roles, these tools have been integrated into a retreat format to benefit anyone—professionals and individuals alike—seeking greater clarity, calm and confidence in their personal or working lives.
At the heart of the retreat is a gentle invitation: to slow down, reconnect with yourself, and rediscover your natural state of ease. Guided by evidence-based tools and compassionate facilitators, you’ll learn simple, powerful practices to meet life’s challenges with resilience and inner steadiness.
Come just as you are. Leave feeling grounded, refreshed, and with practical ways to stay connected to a deeper peace.
What we offer:
Transformation
Focus on personal growth and life changes, meditation and wellness practices to help individuals achieve significant life transformations.
Meditation and Emotional Wellbeing.
Immersion in meditation and emotional processing practices for enduring peace and personal growth.
Connection
Connection with other like-minded people, connection to ourselves, connection to something greater.
Let Nature be a healer
Walking in nature to promote mental clarity. Being in Nature to reduce any stress, anxiety or low moods.
Digital Detox
With the increasing dependence on technology, creating a break from digital devices. Our retreats encourage mindfulness and self-reflection by providing a space free from digital distractions… Leave the laptop at home and set a phone-use boundary (ideally airplane mode throughout the retreat!). Your brain deserves a break.
