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.
If you’d like to subscribe to our blog feed, click the RSS icon here to receive our entries in your feed reader: 
You Supporting You – Workbook to Download
You Supporting You – Your Sentence, Your story, Your week
It is our great pleasure here at Davaar to provide this resource for your own musings, a reflective writing process packaged in a free downloadable workbook.
Click the cover to download your copy of our PDF workbook.
Creating this resource grew out of the Covid-19 pandemic that has had such a significant impact on our world and peoples of the world. What began as a social media exercise has developed into a soothing six-week daily personal reflection process.
The aim of this reflective process is to assist you as the writer to connect or perhaps reconnect with your strengths, your dreams or your purpose in life. To support more inspiration and deeper reflections we have included the mediums of images, music, stories and art to arouse the creative genius in each of us. (more…)
SPECIAL EPISODE – Boundaries and COVID-19
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SPECIAL EPISODE – Boundaries and COVID-19
It’s April 2020 and the world is in the grip of a global pandemic. During this trying time, each of us needs help navigating this crisis. In this special episode Dr. Wendy McIntosh PhD, from Davaar Consultancy, discusses tapping into your support networks, the pressures of being at work during the COVID-19 pandemic, and the immense challenges of maintaining safe Professional Boundaries when we’re all operating under additional pressures.
Wendy also talks about the stresses of working from home, teaches us how to use Box Breathing to get some relief, and how to use The Third Space model to use the shift between work and home to find a little peace, even when work and home are in the same location.
Use the links above to subscribe in your favourite Podcast app, or click the play button to listen. Visit our Podcast page to see all episodes. Stay tuned for the Season Two, coming soon. (more…)
Ep.6 Strategies to Set and Repair Boundaries
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 45:41 — 26.0MB)
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Episode 6 – Strategies to Set and to Repair Professional Boundaries
In Episode 6, Dr. Wendy McIntosh PhD, from Davaar Consultancy, shares a Professional Boundaries scenario set in a child care centre. Although the lure of becoming friendly with the parents of the children who are cared for each day is attractive, it can be a pattern that can be tricky to reverse.
Wendy describes steps to remedy this awkward situation and some hints on ways to help refocus the attention back on the customer and their child, rather than the staff member’s family. Also discussed are strategies for establishing better boundaries in collegial relationships, and how it’s important that front office staff also exhibit a unified boundaries front.
This is the final episode of Season One, and rounds up our first season of the Professional Boundaries Podcast. Use the links above to subscribe, or click the play button to listen. Get access to all episodes here. Stay tuned for the Season Two, coming soon. (more…)
Sponsoring entry to ACN Nurses Forum August, 2020
We’re getting ready for the 2020 International Year of the Nurse & Midwife
And to celebrate it, Davaar Consultancy is excited to sponsor the registration of a nurse or midwife to attend the ACN Nurses Forum in Canberra on 19th – 21st August 2020.
Simply tell us who is your Nursing or Midwifery Role Model (currently or historically).
- What is it about the person or their work that you most admire?
- If you were to meet them today what question you would ask them?
- If they were to ask you – how do you envisage your professional role in 50 years? How would you respond to them?
Ep.5 Reasons for Transgressions
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 59:43 — 33.6MB)
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Episode 5 – Reasons for Transgressions
In Episode 5, Dr Wendy McIntosh PhD, from Davaar Consultancy recounts a Professional Boundaries scenario about a Police officer in a small town and the various events that led to his transgressions.
You’ll hear how, in hindsight, it was clear that unresolved issues from his own history left him at risk of this particular boundary violation.
Learn about how taking a candid look at our own history might give us hints about Red Flags warning us of likely vulnerabilities before problems transpire.
Wendy also discusses Consistency or the lack of it, a particularly powerful Red Flag that usually deserves our immediate attention.
This is the fifth part of a dialogue that be will be continued in the following episodes. Use the links above to subscribe, or click the play button to listen. (more…)
Ep.4 Those Red Flags
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 39:29 — 26.4MB)
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Episode 4 – Those Red Flags – What are they and do I really want to listen to them?
In Episode 4, Dr Wendy McIntosh PhD, from Davaar Consultancy shares another potential Professional boundary transgression scenario, the red flags that were apparent, and how responding to those red flags in a different way could have prevented a challenging situation for a male teacher.
In this episode, Dr Wendy discusses what the alerts that we call Red Flags might look and feel like, in more detail and some clever ways to respond to them. 
This is the fourth part of a dialogue that be will be continued in the following episodes. Use the links above to subscribe, or click the play button to listen. (more…)
Ep.3 Professional Boundaries Framework
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 44:16 — 29.6MB)
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Episode 3 – The professional Boundaries framework. Staying in the Zone of Helpfulness
In Episode 3, Dr Wendy McIntosh PhD from Davaar Consultancy shares another Professional Boundaries scenario and ways to identify when a professional’s behaviour risks boundary crossings or violations, or if a transgression might already have occurred.
Listen as Dr Wendy explains the Professional Boundary Framework model she uses in her workshops to help participants get a visceral feeling of the Professional Boundaries continuum. This episode introduces powerful and specific questions to ask while examining situations that are ripe for crossings or 
transgressions and delves deeper into the reasons that they occur. The discussion of Red flags continues in this episode.
This is the third part of a dialogue that be will be continued in the following episodes. Use the links above to subscribe, or click the play button to listen. (more…)
Ep.2 Definitions and language of Professional Boundaries
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 34:13 — 23.3MB)
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Episode 2 – Professional Boundaries: Your safety, your well-being
In the Professional Boundaries Podcast – Episode 2 – Definitions and language of Professional Boundaries, Dr. Wendy McIntosh PhD from Davaar Consultancy shares a potential Professional Boundaries crossing scenario from her own nursing career, revealing some of the risks of crossings and transgressions when working with clients, customers, patients, and colleagues.
In this episode, boundary crossings are explained, and how they can so easily slide along the over-involvement and under-involvement continuum into transgressions and some of the reasons why. Wendy also begins the talk about Red flags – what they might signify, and how to spot them.
Listen as Dr. Wendy continues her discussion on maintaining Professional Boundaries, and why the context of the relationship is so important. This is the second part of a dialogue that be will be continued in the following episodes. Use the links above to subscribe, or click the play button to listen. Listen to Episode 3 about the Professional Boundaries Framework here. (more…)
Ep.1 Professional Boundaries: What are they?
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 22:25 — 14.0MB)
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Our New Podcast – Professional Boundaries: Your safety, your well-being
In this very first episode of the Professional Boundaries Podcast, Dr. Wendy McIntosh PhD from Davaar Consultancy shares a short story from her own career and talks about Professional Boundaries and why it’s so important for you to be aware of them when working with clients, customers, patients, and colleagues.
In this episode, Boundary transgressions are explained along with under-involvement and over-involvement and why they matter. Listen as Dr. Wendy begins a discussion on strategies to avoid transgressions and crossings. A conversation that Wendy will continue in the following episodes. Use the links above to subscribe, or click the play button to listen to Episode one. (more…)
Trailer: Professional Boundaries Podcast
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Professional Boundaries: Your safety, your well-being
Available 25th November, 2019
In the Professional Boundaries Podcast, Dr. Wendy McIntosh PhD from Davaar Consultancy shares insights and strategies about developing and maintaining professional boundaries. Using examples from her own experience, Wendy will describe and explain Professional Boundaries for anyone in a public-facing job or role.
There are 6 episodes planned in this first season of the Professional Boundaries Podcast and we hope you’ll enjoy and learn from each of them.
Dr. Wendy McIntosh welcomes both your interest, and curiosity. Send Wendy questions at wendy@davaar.com.au
Professional Boundaries are not limited to the clinical or therapeutic arena. If you are in a professional role – a teacher, support worker, police officer, a prison officer, council worker, 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 this podcast series as Wendy takes you on your own reflective journey on your professional boundaries.
Music from https://filmmusic.io
“Kool Kats” by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com)
License: CC BY (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) &
“Long Road Ahead” by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com)
License: CC BY (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)
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