8:30 am - Noon, Conference Room 1

Clinicians’ Work-Life Balance:  Learning to Practice What You Preach

Dr. Rebecca Kennedy
University of West Florida
Director, Health and Counseling Services

3 CE Hours

Workshop Overview:

Many clinicians struggle to “practice what we preach” when it comes to work-life balance.  This workshop will focus on helping move clinicians from a pre-contemplative, contemplative, or action stage to a maintenance stage when it comes to balancing work life and personal life.  Participants will leave the workshop having examined their own life, identified any concerns about work-life balance, and developed an implementation plan to achieve better work-life balance.  Participants will begin by discussing the issues unique to clinicians and then be guided to identify what keeps each participant choosing the current balance they have, especially if they have regrets about it.  Participants will identify what is most important to them in their work and in their personal life and evaluate whether their priorities match up with the balance of how they are currently living.  Participants will discuss how they get stuck and choose what they do, even when it doesn’t always match up with what they report to be most important to them in life. Time will be spent learning reasons participants may want to consider a different balance and then each participant will take time to develop a personal five year pilot plan to move toward their best work-life balance.

Educational Objectives: 

Instructor Bio:

Rebecca Kennedy, PhD received a B.S. in Psychology from George Mason University and a Ph.D. in Counseling Psychology from the State University of New York at Buffalo.  She is a Licensed Psychologist and has worked in a variety of settings with children, adults, and families. Dr. Kennedy moved to Pensacola in 1999 to work at The University of West Florida.  There she has provided outpatient treatment to individuals, couples, and groups, crisis intervention assessments, substance abuse assessments, and consultation to parents, staff and faculty.  Additionally, she has presented over 200 educational workshops, taught psychology classes at the graduate and undergraduate level, and been extensively involved in the training of new counseling professionals.  In 2006 Dr. Kennedy was promoted to her full-time position as Director of Health and Counseling.  In this role she is the administrative director of the Student Health Center and Counseling and Wellness Services. Dr. Kennedy enjoys being a therapist and helping individuals and couples make sense out of what is going on for them.  She works with her clients to find ways to either cope with or eradicate the problems or concerns they are struggling with.  Her goal is to help individuals and couples avoid when possible, getting into the same painful situations in the future or to simply survive what has happened to them and find ways to move forward and pursue one’s passions.  In general, her goal is to help people live life well and enjoy it.