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.

  • BC520 Workplace January 2025 AW01 Hayden Images 0
  • BC520 Workplace January 2025 AW01 Hayden Images 1
  • BC520 Workplace January 2025 AW01 Hayden Images 2

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.

Mireille Hayden
“There needs to be a wider organisational approach, an upstream intervention to teach staff to learn to use tools and develop practices that will help them to process the continued challenges they face in their roles and enable them to develop their own resilience and positive mental health approaches. Ultimately, this will result in healthier staff and better care for those who need it”
Mireille Herbert Hayden, BACP workplace Jan 2025

Case Study

Gentle Dusk delivered a Serenity day for a hospital palliative care team including Doctors, nurses, care assistants, psychologist and physiotherapists.

I enjoyed learning new tools to better understand my/our emotions

I enjoyed having a day away from the ward so that we could talk in complete confidence and get everyone’s views and feelings.

The different tools proposed for our well-being and being able to put them into practice was great

Retreats

We offer a series of retreats for both public and professionals. These focus on wellbeing and serenity.

We offer time, care, reflective space and the personal experience of our evidence-based serenity tools.

The retreats include time to pause and recharge batteries, time to share, as well as learning of evidence-based tools to regulate the nervous system; scientifically proven psychological techniques; as well as emotional processing tools to help understand and manage the depth behind feelings and express them within a non-violent communication approach.

To find out more email: contact@gentledusk.org.uk