Before facilitating School Compassion Resilience groups, please reference these tips for facilitating small groups and the engaging participants with questions resource.
E. Facilitator Guide
Author: ericnbrill
G. Facilitator Guide
Before facilitating Health and Human Services Compassion Resilience groups, please reference these tips for facilitating small groups and the engaging participants with questions resource.
B. Facilitation Guide
Before facilitating Parent and Caregiver Compassion Resilience groups, please reference this facilitator guide for tips and additional background on the contents of the toolkit. Also included below is a reference to use when structuring your questions for participants.
A. Additional Mindfulness Activities
The goal of mindfulness is to be fully present with our emotions, with others, with our bodies, with our environment and with the universe (Davidson, 2012). It is through being fully present and aware and observing mindfully that we can participate most effectively in building our own resilience and wellness. We incorporated a mindfulness practice at the beginning of each agenda to model a compassion resilience practice and to give participants a moment to become mentally present in the space. The practice we incorporated into each agenda is the same one. If you’d like variety or if your participants would like additional time practicing mindfulness together, please feel free to utilize the resource linked below.
8. Wellness and Resilience Strategies
The four sectors of the compass model — Mind, Spirit, Strength and Heart — not only contribute to our overall wellness, but also provide guidance on strategies to help build our compassion resilience. Before delving in further, you may want to take a self-assessment of your current wellness practices if you weren’t able to in Section 3. This assessment is meant to provide you with insight into your wellness practices and perhaps give some suggestions on additional things you can try.
Circle Agenda
Circle Agenda for Section 8, In-Person Spanish Version
Use this agenda if you are leading your group in a session in-person.
Circle Agenda for Section 8, Virtual Spanish Version
Use this agenda if you are leading your group in a session virtually.
Handouts to Support Content Covered in Circle Agenda
Content Review Visual Spanish Version
Wellness Compass Assessment Spanish Version
This assessment was first distributed during Section 3 and is a fillable PDF that can be printed or completed on an electronic device.
Appreciative Inquire Reflection Sheet Spanish Version
Designed to support the virtual circle agenda, this document can be shared with participants as a fillable PDF to aid in completing the appreciative inquire activity towards the end of the agenda.
Post-It Note Directions Spanish Version
Download this word document and fill it in with the names of your participants. Include this direction sheet when you distribute post-it notes for the closing activity. This was also included in Section 7 materials.
7. Influencing Your Family Culture
“Family culture is the manifestation of your priorities – not what you say, not what you wish were true, but what you actually do on a daily basis. You create your family culture with your choices.” — Lori Pickett
Circle Agenda
Circle Agenda for Section 7, In-Person Spanish Version
Use this agenda if you are leading your group in a session in-person.
Circle Agenda for Section 7, Virtual Spanish Version
Use this agenda if you are leading your group in a session virtually.
Handouts to Support Content Covered in Circle Agenda
Model of Influence Reflection Sheet Spanish Version
This version of the Model of Influence Refection Sheet works best for printing and distributing as a hard copy.
Model of Influence Reflection Sheet as a Fillable PDF Spanish Version
This version of the Model of Influence Refection Sheet works best for distributing to participants to complete on an electronic device.
Post-It Note Directions for In-Person Groups Spanish Version
This activity is part of the circle agenda for Section 8. Distributing this direction sheet and post-it notes at the end of Section 7 will allow participants to complete the activity ahead of time. Prior to printing, download this word document and fill it in with the names of your participants. Please note, this activity is done differently when facilitated virtually.
6. Compassionate Boundary Setting
“Without boundaries, you will act, sleep, work, groan, feel used and fulfill basic responsibilities rather than make choices to live and love fully, to work hard and nobly, to fulfill your purpose and to contribute passionately to your world.” (Black, J. and Enns, G, Better Boundaries: Owning and Treasuring Your Life. Oakland, CA. Raincoat Books)
Circle Agenda
Circle Agenda for Section 6, In-Person Spanish Version
Use this agenda if you are leading your group in a session in-person.
Circle Agenda for Section 6, Virtual Spanish Version
Use this agenda if you are leading your group in a session virtually.
Handouts to Support Content Covered in Circle Agenda
5. Expectations from Self and Others
Parents and caregivers experiencing compassion fatigue are often competent people with high expectations for themselves, who may feel overworked and underappreciated. We give the very best of who we are every day, yet all too often struggle to feel like anything we do is good enough. We carry with us beliefs about how a parent or caregiver “should” look, think, feel, act, and be viewed by others. We often expect more from ourselves than we can reasonably give. As caregiving demands add up, our self-image, self-esteem, and sense of worthiness may erode, thus changing our perceptions of ourselves and our children. Our compassion resilience may decline. Understanding, and at times challenging, our own expectations and perception of others’ expectations is key to learning to identify, transform and overcome unrealistic beliefs that may limit our ability to approach others and ourselves with compassion.
Circle Agenda
Circle Agenda for Section 5, In-Person Spanish Version
Use this agenda if you are leading your group in a session in-person.
Circle Agenda for Section 5, Virtual Spanish Version
Use this agenda if you are leading your group in a session virtually.
Handouts to Support Content Covered in Circle Agenda
Understanding Temperament Spanish Version
Affirmation Worksheet Spanish Version
This activity was also referenced in the Introduction Document for this section. Formatted as a fillable PDF, you can send this document to participants to complete on an electronic device or print and distribute as a hard copy.
Caregiver Bill of Rights Spanish Version
4. Locus of Control
As we have discovered in the previous sections of the toolkit, the goal of compassion resilience can be reached with the application of personal skills and perspectives combined with regular connections with individuals and organizations that operate from a base of compassion. In this section we will focus on the factors that can negatively impact our compassion resilience and explore our response and potential role in making
positive change.
Our families are imperfect systems made up of imperfect people. When we look outside of our own family to those that we rely on to provide for our health and well-being, we find more imperfection. The first step in lessening the negative impact of the systems we rely on is naming what it is about the systems that contributes to our compassion fatigue. The second step is to discover which items on that list we can change, which ones can those who support us address, and which ones we would best be served by letting go. This section will guide us through these questions together.
Circle Agenda
Circle Agenda for Section 4, In-Person Spanish Version
Use this agenda if you are leading your group in a session in-person.
Circle Agenda for Section 4, Virtual Spanish Version
Use this agenda if you are leading your group in a session virtually.
Handouts to Support Content Covered in Circle Agenda
Buckets Handout Spanish Version
This is a fillable PDF that you can either send to participant to complete on an electronic device or print and distribute as a hard copy.
3. Compassion Fatigue
In this section of the toolkit we will delve more deeply into the concept of compassion fatigue and the stages that we might experience if compassion fatigue is not addressed. As we face the complex reality of parenting, our ability to maintain an open and compassionate approach to our children can be challenged. Compassion fatigue can develop slowly overtime and go unrecognized. This section gives us insights that can guide us to avoid or stop compassion fatigue as early as possible.
Circle Agenda
Circle Agenda for Section 3, In-Person Spanish Version
Use this agenda if you are leading your group in a session in-person.
Circle Agenda for Section 3, Virtual Spanish Version
Use this agenda if you are leading your group in a session virtually.
Handouts to Support Content Covered in Circle Agenda
Compassion Fatigue Cycle Spanish Version
Wellness Compass Assessment Spanish Version
This document is formatted as a fillable PDF that can be printed or completed on an electronic device.
