Stress Management and Burnout Prevention

“How can I identify the root causes of my stress and burnout?”

“To what extent do my sexual identity and caste contribute to my stress? If they are factors, how can I manage those stressors?”

“What is self-care, and how can it help those who are stressed or on the verge of burnout?”

“What does self-care mean in the context of work? How can workplaces and collective spaces take care of their members?”

Stress management and self-care for service providers and communities have been an important element of our work since we began our Helpline in 1996. Over the past two decades, our understanding of the importance of burnout prevention and stress management has evolved, and we now recognise self-care as an often neglected but vitally important feminist issue.

TARSHI’s workshops highlight the importance of burnout prevention and self-care from the point of view of individuals, organisations, and movements that one may be a part of. You can find our previous work with Nazariya on Stress Management and Burnout Prevention. We also have a website, Self-care Essentials, which consists of resources for people doing people work, featuring ways to approach self-care and resources to help those doing people work to manage stress and prevent burnout.

WHAT DOES THE TRAINING OFFER?

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Nuanced understanding of stress and burnout

Concepts of Stress and Burnout have been an integral part of TARSHI’s work since our inception as a helpline offering information, counselling and referrals on issues related to sexuality. In TARSHI’s many years of work in this area, we know that stress, burnout and wellbeing are important topics that usually take a back seat with activists, case workers and members of marginalised communities. TARSHI’s workshops fill this gap and help participants to understand stress and burnout and identify their unique stressors conceptually.

Centering institutional and systemic lens to wellbeing

“How is gender and sexuality even connected to our wellbeing?” TARSHI is aware that organisations working on issues of human rights face compassion fatigue, need to be mindful of the vicarious trauma and undergo challenges in sustaining hope that is very real for these staff members. TARSHI’s workshops provide a holistic view of stress and burnout and shape our understanding of how gender, sexuality and other identities influence our wellbeing. Participants are able to broaden their perspective on stress, not just as an individual concern but also stemming from workplaces, families, socio-economic or political factors.

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Techniques for Self-Care practices

“Emotional Freedom Techniques? Art Therapy? ASMR? What would work for me to manage stress?” TARSHI’s workshops present you with various tools and techniques that are simple and practical to apply for self-care and collective care practices. Also, we facilitate a safe space for participants to share their expectations and thoughts and create opportunities to bond with other participants.

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Staff wellbeing policies and practices

At TARSHI, we believe that wellbeing is not just an individual responsibility, but as a collective. Everyone can nurture and contribute to stress management and burnout prevention. Our workshops seed the idea of collective care within organisational spaces for contributing towards the growth and sustainability of all team members. We help the organisation build a roadmap for the sustained wellbeing of the staff members and help in strategising self-care and collective care needs within the workplace. Read our report capturing experiences of non-profits in making workplaces Safe, Inclusive and Self-Affirming (SISA).

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Resources

Here’s your chance to take the learnings forward for self-care and collective care practices. Along with our workshops, we provide our self-care worksheets, a guide to accompany you on your self-care journey. In it, you will find worksheets that have simple “exercises” of different kinds. We also offer our course “Reflect, Realign and Renew”: Manage Stress and Keep Burnout Away at a discounted price. To learn more about the course, click here.

WHO IS THIS TRAINING FOR?

Staff members of any workplace, collective or movement addressing human rights issues
Counsellors, activists or caseworkers engaged with people work

DURATION

2-3 days for conceptual understanding of stress and burnout, and learning self-care and collective care techniques

Language

English or Hindi

LOCATION

Virtual, or anywhere within India and South Asia

PREVIOUS TRAININGS CONDUCTED WITH:

We conduct announced as well as on-request trainings and workshops. A few organisations for which we have conducted such workshops/sessions are Jagori New Delhi, WOREC Nepal and ACCESS, New Delhi, Feminism in India, Nirantar Trust and Breakthrough.

Team members of WORED Nepal participating in an activity

“I find this training very informative, helpful and effective and this training is based more on self-care. After the training, I feel more confident, comfortable and relaxed. At the same time it has also enhanced my counselling skills.”

Testimonial from WOREC, Nepal

“Firstly I am grateful, my organisation arranged these sessions for us. If many of us choose to adapt ways of stress management, then collectively we will definitely see positive changes. As the first step, it’s definitely an introspection at an individual level.”