The year’s just started.
Planning your schedule for the year’s CPD?
2018 has just started but for our line of work, it is crucial to keep your head in the game with ongoing professional development, no matter your experience and skill level, as a therapist, psychologist, counsellor, psychiatrist... to fulfill your professional obligations. But that’s it, is it an obligation or is it an opportunity to keep your head screwed on right. Use this opportunity to sharpen the spear, and build our therapeutic and professional capacities.
However, some may approach this matter with the attitude of just jumping through the hoops, and plainly going for whatever that’s available. Hey, don’t get me wrong, we can only sign up for what’s actually within the timeframe, and we can’t pull a rabbit out of the bag, despite having some money in the pot ready for spending. Where some organisations actually say they encourage professional CPD, but fail to grant approvals for to attend a course, given inadequate justification. Others just don’t have a culture of encouraging ongoing training, despite some buttered up lip service.
Uh huh...? What’s your point?
It’s up to us...to steer away from a misaligned spine and keep our eyes fixated on proper ongoing development that keeps us ahead of the game. Refusing to accept the status quo, to stoke the flames of knowledge and help us be better at our jobs.
Dr Graham Wilson, author of “The Confidant”, wrote an article about this very topic on the current issues in attending CPD trainings, and reminds us what we should be mindful of while we consider our own professional development. He encouraged us not to attend CPD’s to warm up our bums and to have the balls to own up to our own deadness within our professional decorum.
Find his article here, entitled:
ARE YOUR BUM AND BALLS UP FOR SOME CONTINUING PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT (CPD)?
So, remember what we’re thinking of when we have to drag ourselves to the next CPD, and consider what’s good for us, just like opting for a good soup when we need something that hits the spot.
Instead, look at what you would like development in, possibly focus on some area that you’ve neglected thus far, and make a point to turn off your mobile phone and put in some effort when you do attend a workshop of some sort - this would help make your experience a much more wholesome and meaningful one.
