Dr Wendy’s Blog
Through Dr Wendy’s blog I aim to provide helpful and informative posts that add to the personal and professional lives of my readers.
With over 30 years as a health professional (clinical, education and research), I have a strong interest in better education and training for all people working with people. I’m passionate about things like Professional Boundaries, Nursing, Training, Professional Supervision, links between childhood trauma and mental illness and workplace bullying. I’ve been training in Psychodrama for over 20 years – some might say a life-long learning – and I’m committed to using experiential learning in the work I do with individuals and groups.
I also have the great honour of being invited to regularly present and facilitate at national & international conferences on the topics of boundaries, bullying and mental health in the workplace.
I hope that you’ll take a few moments to see what I have to say, and I encourage you to respond with your comments. I’d love to hear your opinions and insights on the topics I discuss here, to have you a part of this conversation…
To read a post, click on either the title of the post, or the ‘more’ link at the end of an entry below.
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The Limbic System
New T-Shirts – The Limbic System
I have been delivering education on professional boundaries since 2005. Over that time I have worked with many groups from diverse organisations. I have worked 1:1 with professionals who have transgressed professional boundaries with patients, clients, and customers. Through the stories from participants in workshops or in 1:1 work, it is clear that in many cases there are significant links between their adverse childhood experiences and transgressing boundaries as an adult. Old systems get activated when at what I call the boundary crossroads – to establish a boundary or defer to old role responses to keep safe.
(more…)
My, oh my…
…is it 2024 already?
by Debb
I looked back at my last blog posted in 2022 and, believe it or not, we were all still in lockdown. Seems such a long time ago now. I am thinking back over those past years and how much Davaar has achieved, or should I say ‘Wendy’ has achieved in that time. Zoom is certainly the way to go. It’s workable for all parties when it comes to ‘finding time’ and convenience. Add to the mix, the usual face-to-face workshops in all states of Australia, and a conference in Melbourne and before you know it, the months rush by and we’re heading into…
2023 – also a year of travel. January saw a trip to Cambodia. Both Wendy and Colleen presented for 41⁄2 days covering such topics as: Defining trauma and where stress and PTSD fit; the impact of trauma in the workplace; exploring trauma; understanding the interplay between trauma, the limbic system, and chronic health conditions; substance use for self-care; what is transference; professional boundaries; and many more.
They both had a wonderful time in the land of stunning colours, amazing temples, and mind-blowing food. Picture if you will: à la-cricket naturale. And I have the photo to prove it! A fun year looking back.
Fast forward to 2024. Our diary started filling up at an encouraging rate, starting at the end of last year. But, hey, I am not complaining! The diversity of my workload keeps me from getting bored ..
. not to mention ‘on my toes’. We have booked three huge workshops, from
Feb to May. For the exciting details and registration form please go to our website calendar. For your colleagues, staff, and self – you don’t want to miss out on these.
There’s a Trauma Informed Interpreting Practice Training workshop via Zoom in April & May for our friends in the UK – but open to all who don’t want to miss this unique opportunity. (more…)
New Workshops for Q1 & Q2 2024
I’m excited to be presenting two new workshops in 2024.
Click the button to see our full schedule Schedule
Before the Diagnosis of Bipolar Personality Disorder, There was a Child
This eight-hour workshop, split into 2 x 4-hour sessions, dives deep into the diagnosis of borderline personality disorder (BPD).
During each session, Dr. Wendy will engage participants to reflect on the relationships they have, and the work they do, with individuals diagnosed with BPD. Case scenarios will be used in the sessions to demonstrate different aspects of support and care that can be provided to individuals who have a diagnosis of BPD. These will be interactive sessions in which you the participant can bring your curiosity and questions.
Woven throughout all sessions will be the importance of boundaries and safety, and a focus of these sessions is Duty of Care to Self.
Objectives of the workshop:
- Understand what is meant by the term borderline personality disorder and diagnostic
criteria - Identify easy-to-integrate communication skills to foster healthy interactions with
individuals who have BPD, promoting empathy and reducing stigma - Identify crisis intervention strategies recognising and responding to crises associated with BPD, emphasising modulation of arousal and promoting a supportive
environment - Understand the importance of collaboration with other people invested in providing
support for individuals diagnosed with BPD - Identify strategies for self-care of professionals and carers.
For full details and dates, click the image to download the flyer and registration form.
Navigating Professional Presence and Boundaries – Presented both as 1-Day Workshop, and as 2 half-day sessions for 8 CPDs.
In this dynamic workshop, participants will explore the crucial art of maintaining a strong professional presence while establishing and preserving effective boundaries. Through interactive sessions, participants will enhance their communication skills, cultivate a positive image, and learn strategies for setting and maintaining professional boundaries to foster a healthy and successful work environment.”
Themes covered:
- Communication skills
- Establishing & maintaining boundaries Resolving conflict
- Self-awareness
- Duty of care to self
- Spontaneity and creativity
For full details and dates, click the image to download the flyer and registration form.
Dr. Wendy McIntosh PhD
I hope to see you soon,
Wendy McIntosh
Guest Appearance… EP. 33 Your Health Matters Podcast
Guest Appearances – Speaking on Professional Boundaries
I’m honoured to have recently been invited by the Nurses & Midwives Support team to have a conversation about Professional Boundaries with the host, Mark Aitken, on episode 33 of their always educational and often insightful, Your Health Matters podcast. They invited me to provide you with the facts, information, resources, and support you need to confidently assert your own boundaries.
Nurses & Midwife Support regularly hears from nurses and midwives that managing their professional boundaries can be difficult and confusing, and they offer support to nurses and midwives impacted by boundary transgressions or with questions about boundary management and know that navigating professional boundaries is rarely easy, or black and white. They know that understanding professional boundaries is vital for nurses and midwives to meet registration requirements, practice safely, and protect ourselves and the public from harm. Unfortunately, asserting professional boundaries isn’t always easy.
2022 – Who would have thought…
2022! Who would have thought…
… we would be going onto our third year since Covid made its first dramatic entrance. Two+ years of talking of nothing but ‘lockdown’, ‘mandatory’, ‘isolation’ or ‘quarantine’. No more ‘do you think it will rain today’ more like ‘have you been vaccinated’. April 2020, my first thought was ‘what’s going to happen to me and my work’. Well, I shouldn’t have worried one little bit. Yes, Davaar teetered for 2 seconds but my boss, whose brain never shuts down much, has come out of it for us. Long story short, Wendy continued to think outside the box.
Davaar workshops and supervision went from face-to-face to Zoom. So even though quite a few of our workshops and supervision appointments were cancelled or temporarily postponed, we also picked them back up due to no travel, organising training rooms, venues, or catering. Thank you Zoom. Also, a very big positive was the early development and forethought of Davaar’s Online Training. Yes, we may have wobbled a bit but we continue to grow stronger.
Early this year, Wendy came up with ‘Professional Boundaries Flash Cards’. We designed cards of the alphabet with beautiful scenery per letter. For example, ‘A’ stood for ‘Aware’, ‘Alert’, ‘Appreciate’.
Professional Boundaries Flash Cards
- Aware: refers to self-awareness of the professional in relationship with the client.
- Alert: remain alert to subtle changes in the dynamics of the professional relationship words spoken and behaviour.
- Appreciate: the unique journey that you experience in the professional relationship with clients you see.
This theme continues through to the letter ‘Z’, in full colour and complete with a calico carry bag.
These flashcards were designed to be used to facilitate discussion about boundaries and what different words mean for participants in face-to-face and virtual workshops. A very different approach and one that will be a lot of fun when used. Click one of the images to learn more.
Enter 2022. Wendy will continue focussing on professional boundaries.
Wendy first started teaching the importance of professional boundaries in 2005. The theme she discusses in her podcasts (the Podcast Book is now complete), and in the Safe Professional Boundaries internet tool, resonate with people around the world from a number of different professions including health, teaching, and prison officers. In 2022, at Davaar, we will continue to build on the body of work we already have through a series of videos and other education options.
Something exciting to us that must be mentioned here, and something we are very proud of, is that the professional boundaries podcast has been picked up by the School of Health and Social Care, at Edinburgh Napier University to be used in their curriculum.
2022 will also be the year that Wendy will release a series of videos on professional boundaries. These will be available for 5-minute viewing before deciding to purchase.
Now, a little bit about Wendy that you may not know … she is a passionate Rotarian. She, and her friend Sue, came up with the Charter, Global Nurses & Midwives Rotary Club (GNMRC), which officially kicked off in late December 2020. It is a wonderful and exciting new Rotary chapter and one that I have been honoured to assist Charter President Wendy with developing certificates, guestlists, shirts, posters, videos, etc. At the end of December 2021, we asked members to send short videos of themselves, their family or home which we would put together to celebrate a) One Year of the new club, b) Christmas, and c) Friendship. It was a great review of the year and a lot of fun.
Davaar continues to proudly support GNMRC and projects that the club is doing for nurses & midwives around the world.
In the meantime, whilst isolating at home, my veggie garden hasn’t looked so good in years. An abundance of peas and beans (some of which ended up with the cattle), mini capsicums, and corn. The best part of growing your own is ‘bartering’ with the neighbours. I supply my neighbours with lemons and mangoes, and they exchange with limes, blueberries, and cucumbers.
I sometimes wonder if this is what will continue happening in the foreseeable future with the different strains threatening us. All I need now is a milking cow and a paddock of wheat (and a bread maker!).
Till next blog, stay strong, stay safe.
Debb
Why Rotary for Nurses & Midwives?
Why indeed?
A very special podcast this time – with the exciting news that a new Rotary Club being formed for a very special group. Announcing the new Provisional Global Nurses and Midwives Rotary Club.
Episode #31: Dr Wendy McIntosh on Rotary for Nurses & Midwives
https://nmemporium.com/index.php/2020/10/11/rotary-for-nurses/
Sue Walker (of Nurses for Nurses Network and Nursing CPD Institutex) and Charter Member of Provisional Global Nurses and Midwives Rotary Club poses the question: “… why is our nursing and midwifery voice not being heard where decisions about how health and community services are delivered?” So, why ARE our nursing and midwifery voices not being heard? How do we even start to get people to listen and truly hear what is being said? Wendy has a solution.
In the first half of the podcast, Sue talks to Wendy about her role as a Rotarian. What is involved in becoming a Rotarian? Wendy describes her role, experiences and contribution as a ‘newbie’ Rotarian (joined 2011) who is ‘humbled by being a citizen of the world’. ‘Is there a place for nurses and nursing skills in Rotary’? Wendy takes us on her 30-year journey of nursing & 9 years of Rotary, meeting like-minded enthusiast Sue Walker along the way and together with the leadership group, putting their heads together to form the Global Nursing & Midwives Rotary Club (GNMRC).
In the second half of the podcast, in the discussion between Sue and Nic, the listener learns that 50% of the global health workforce are nurses and midwives, yet the profession’s representation in policymaking, at the political level or in the boardroom is at best… scant. Through volunteering, fundraising, grants, exchange programs, sponsorship – Sue and Nic talk about a perfect platform for lasting change; understanding others’ needs, getting involved and making an impact both locally and internationally.
It IS indeed exciting times. As we come towards the end of the International Year of the Nurse and Midwife the chartering of a Rotary Club specifically for Nurses and Midwives is a great initiative – a global opportunity to join a tribe.
Working together as a team, Sue, Wendy & Nicole Nash-Arnold (Nurse Manager HQ) … you couldn’t find a more interesting and formable combination of passion and experience to introduce this exciting new concept to the world. There’s that ‘e’ word again … exciting. When listening to this episode you can feel the enthusiasm, and yes, again, excitement, our speakers share with their listeners.
As Wendy asked … what’s possible? Let’s be challenged and let’s figure out a way to meet those challenges.
2020 International Year of the Nurse and Midwife … “This is our Time”.
Podcast Special Guest Appearances
Special Guest Appearances: Dr Wendy McIntosh
Nursing and Midwifery Education is a platform put together by Nicole Nash-Arnold (of Nurse Manage HQ) and Sue Walker (of Nurses for Nurses Network and Nursing CPD Institute) to give nurses the information, resources and stories that they need to live their best nursing life. Nursing + Midwifery Emporium was born for exactly that reason. Sue and Nic’s vision was to create a place where nurses could access a variety of non-clinical information about their careers and the lifestyle of being a nurse.
Wendy has appeared on the NMEmporium Podcast twice so far in 2020, and we thought it might be helpful for our podcast listeners to include links here for those appearances, so without further ado:
Episode #21: Dr Wendy McIntosh on Nursing Professional Boundaries
https://nmemporium.com/index.php/2020/05/28/nursing-professional-boundaries/
Episode #26: Wendy McIntosh on Clinical Supervision
https://nmemporium.com/index.php/2020/08/27/clinical-supervision/
Dr Wendy McIntosh PhD shares insights and strategies about developing and maintaining professional boundaries. Professional Boundaries are not limited to the clinical or therapeutic arena. If you are in a professional role – a nurse, a teacher, support worker, doctor, police officer, a prison officer, a council worker, healthcare worker, or hairdresser. If you are a volunteer or belong to a theatre group, a choir, a sports club, there will be something in this podcast for you and the relationships you have with others. Setting boundaries in our life is necessary for our emotional, psychological, spiritual and physical well being. Setting boundaries is about our safety.
Since 2005 Wendy has been developing her knowledge and interest in the area of professional boundaries. Wendy delivers workshops on boundaries in Australia (where she now lives) and Internationally when invited to do so. She is continually integrating learning and insights she gains from the work she does in professional boundaries. Wendy comes from a nursing, and predominately psychiatric nursing, background.
Wendy consistently receives feedback on her passion, knowledge, and creativity as a presenter and facilitator. Enjoy exploring boundaries in these podcast episodes as Wendy takes you on your own reflective journey on your professional boundaries, and clinical supervision.
Reason to Thrive
Reason to Thrive – Equine Assisted Learning Programs
Debb @ Davaar – August 2020
Nearly 2 years ago I had the fortune of meeting the lovely ladies from Reason To Thrive. Their organisation offers “… equine Assisted Learning programs for skills development and personal growth. Equine Assisted Learning is a ‘hands-on’ innovative approach to learning where the participant learns through interaction with a horse.”
A fantastic initiative that supports at-risk children and youth, offers a special needs school program and women’s empowerment for survivors of domestic violence. Visit their website … https://www.reasontothrive.org/
I was asked to represent Davaar Consultancy at the opening of their Thrift & Thrive Shop at Kenmore. A great turnout with a local councilman and staff present, cutting the ribbon. Coffee & beautiful cakes … it was very enjoyable and I felt honoured to be there. Dr. Wendy, on behalf of Davaar, supports their cause, so when the lovely ladies were thinking about team 
building workshops we were the first ‘guinea pigs’ to be contacted.
We needed to organise 6 people. Easy enough. We were then presented with three options and Dr. Wendy with her wonderful sense of humour and adventure chose ‘Brainiac’ !! We’re in trouble already.
So, what was Brainiac all about? We were given our briefing and put in teams of three and allotted a horse per team. In hindsight, these magnificent creatures were the true ‘brains’ of the team! And I don’t mean that lightly. As a team of three, we linked arms.
The person in the middle was the ‘brains’ (obviously me – tongue in cheek); the person on the left was the ‘left arm’ and the person on the right ‘right arm’. One of those ‘arms’ held the horse’s reigns. Around the arena, there were ‘tasks’ to achieve. For example, there was a set of upstanding poles. ‘Brains’ had to instruct her ‘hands’ to direct them around the poles, or put a halter on our horse. Oh and did I mention, that only the ‘Brains’ could talk – neither the ‘hands’ NOR the horse were allowed to speak.
There was also a row of logs that the ‘Brains’ had to instruct her team to walk over, and a piece of cloth in a semi-circle. ‘Brain’s had to instruct her ‘hands’ to gently guide the horse to stand on that cloth. That one was a doozy – and, thankfully, in our case, our might steed knew exactly WHAT to do. He was either frustrated with our pathetic attempts or he was getting bored and wanted to get back to some feed as soon as possible. ‘Enough of this silliness human person! There is some real food to be had over yonder.’
It’s all about teamwork.
We finished by brushing down our exhausted steeds, thanking them for their patience and reassembling for a debrief … not to mention some yummy wraps & cake.
A fabulous day of learning was had by all.
Tenderness is about you looking after you
Tenderness is about you looking after you
This is my first blog in a long time. Such a long time in fact that my PA Debb took it upon herself to write a blog to get the blog energy back into Davaar. How fantastic is that and what a funny blog she has written, I trust you enjoyed it and smiled as much as I did… Starting out with Davaar
The theme of tenderness was created in me a couple of years ago during a supervision session with a group of supervisees. As one of the group was describing work she had done with a client, I experienced a great softening and tenderness in her whole being. When I shared what I experienced with her and the group, the supervisee moved deeper into tenderness with herself. Her body softened further, her body relaxed more. As she got more tender with herself, I became aware that I experienced increased tenderness for her. It was such a touching and vivid few minutes for me. As I kept reflecting on the interaction between us and the experience for both of us, I wondered about the power of tenderness and the absence of acknowledging tenderness in our language today.
Trying to locate information about tenderness in the literature has been difficult. I am going to be bold and state there is a dearth of information about tenderness in contemporary literature. Perhaps, that in itself is a clue: if we are not writing about tenderness, not talking about tenderness, not exploring tenderness with each other, and in groups is it possible, then, that tenderness does not exist?
Of course, tenderness exists I hear you say. Ok, so reflect further – how often do you use the term in your work with clients, or thinking about and interacting with colleagues, or expressing tenderness with loved ones? Do a quick check-in now and respond to the following:
1. When you hear or think about the word tenderness – what presents for you (colour, image, name, person etc……allow your creativity to create)
2. In what ways do you demonstrate tenderness with a client?
3. What factors trigger tenderness in you for another person?
I have been running workshops on the theme of ‘Tenderness – Looking After You’ for a couple of years and from those workshops, it is clear that participants struggle with the notion of tenderness for themselves. I concur with them that tenderness may not be an easy idea, concept, experience to grasp. Then I notice an interaction from a participant, I experience their tone of voice, a shift in their body position and I say to the person – “what’s happening for you right now?”, they pause, they respond, I propose “this is you being tender with you right now” and their body softens more. “There you go,” I say “deeper into your own tenderness”. From interactions such as this, a whole new world of understanding about what tenderness means and how tenderness is experienced by that person (and the group) opens up. Is it possible that tenderness is simply about being with self or being with another in a gentle tender way?
The first known use of the word ‘tenderness’ was in the 14th century. According to the Cambridge Dictionary tenderness is defined as “the quality of being gentle, loving or kind”. Other descriptions of tenderness that I have found in the literature include:
- a feeling of concern, gentle affection or warmth
- a pain that is felt when the area is touched
- a tenancy to express warm compassionate feelings
- concern for the welfare of others.
I think of the tenderness, the softening that can occur for adults and other children around a newborn baby. I smile in tenderness when I experience an infant taking those first tottering steps and falling down. I sit in tenderness with clients when they share their heartfelt and heart wrenching experiences of workplace bullying, of losing themselves in traumatising and cruel systemic processes. I experience tenderness when clients share the moment they knew that they had made a significant positive impact on the life of a patient they provided care to.
Imagine if individually we took more notice of tenderness. Notice how we experience tenderness, notice how we share tenderness. As we notice, we collect all those tenderness moments in a glass jar. As we see the jar fill up in and with tenderness, we can be reminded even in those harshest, darkest moments and days, that as humans we have an enormous capacity for tenderness. Enormous capacity to be tender with ourselves and with others….. now that is just heart-warming….. and tender.
Follow my blogs on… https://davaar.com.au/dr-wendys-blog/
If you are interested in attending our tenderness workshops visit our Events calendar or email debb@davaar.com.au or wendy@davaar.com.au for more information.
We’ve scheduled a 3 module workshop via Zoom.
Dates/times: Wednesday 16th September, Wednesday 23rd September, Wednesday 30th September 
Starting out with Davaar
Starting out with Davaar
Debb @ Davaar – July 2020
I’ve been with Dr. Wendy for a couple of years now. Before Dr. W, I was admin in the education system. Two years later, employment nursing courses went online, so staff were made redundant. Dr. W offered me a job with Davaar, and as the saying goes, the rest is history!
So what’s it like working for Dr. Wendy and Davaar Consultancy? Well, it’s been the best thing to have happened to me since … oh gosh, ok well, I can’t remember that far back but it’s been oh-so-good! Don’t get me wrong, I’m still ‘a work in progress’ when it comes to the Scottish accent and terminology – or as I call it ‘Wendy-Speak’ – but I hope I am slowly ‘getting there’. With my hand on my heart, there’s never been a dull moment I can tell you. She is certainly one very resilient lady! (a workshop participant called her a ‘pocket rocket’) – and with ‘proven consistency’, as per our Instagram posts. In between podcasts, workshops (face to face), online training, Rotary (Past President), supervising, one-on-one sessions, being hassled by me – she still makes time for her own mental health by throwing in a game of golf!
Starting backwards – Covid-19 has certainly brought a ‘what are we going to do?’ question to the drawing board. Here I was panicking, very concerned about my own welfare, at the same time trying to think outside the box. Well, surprise surprise, Dr. Wendy was already outside that box … waiting for me to catch up! She and IT guru Nikki had already set up online training and published the first 6 podcast episodes ‘Professional Boundaries‘ – something to relax and listen to while self-isolating, and/ or working from home. Add into that organised mix came ‘You Supporting You … Your Sentence, Your Story, Your Week’ … and gently stir. We had such a positive response that it is now on our website for one and all to download.
Check out the booklet for yourself … it’s really cool … and yes, I am blowing my own horn! I loved designing thisbooklet especially using Japanese influenced illustrations from Pixabay (thank you Pixabay).
Click on the cover to learn more.
One of our customers loved the book so much she gave us this testimonial to use:
“The best part for me is the title ‘YOU Supporting YOU during this time’. I am a strong advocate of people helping themselves. I often talk about the three-prong approach to recovery with my clients: doctors and medicine, counselling therapies, and most important ‘what can you do to help yourself??’ This fits perfectly in with that model!”
Without carrying on too much, that’s what I love about this diverse ‘job’ (dare I call it a ‘job’?) – the love of design – webinar PowerPoints, training flyers, workbooks, documents, booklets, and everything in between – like I said ‘never a dull moment’ with this talented woman.
Dr. Wendy also completed a very successful VIRTUAL workshop, this July month, with Linguistpd in the UK via Zoom. Over the past couple of years, Wendy would take the opportunity to catch up with friends and relatives when these workshops were scheduled; however, this time around the workshop was facilitated virtually. Will it work? Will anyone turn up? Will it be successful? Well, yes indeed, the feedback was very positive and humbling. Another exciting chapter to add to the memoir!
I will fill you in on more amazing feats blitzed by Dr. W in the next month’s blog. Stay well, stay safe.
Online Courses – CPD
our registration form