Managers in organizations globally have been challenged with adjusting to a post-pandemic sense of normalcy. COVID-19 has challenged traditional models of wellness directed at promoting health, social connection and mental well-being (e.g. The Eight Dimensions of Wellness, SAMHSA, 2012) and has brought to light many of their limitations. Many organizational face unprecedented levels of stress and burnout seeing an increase in work demands, with autonomy, imbalance between workplace rewards or recognition and efforts expended on the job as well as finding a balance between work and personal life. Stressors in the work environment have a direct impact on job satisfaction, quality of work life, productivity and burnout.

This workshop proposes to experientially utilize advances in contextual behavioral science to identify limitations and challenges as well as skills and opportunities that enhance and promote personal wellbeing and sustainable professional productivity and longevity.

Key learning points:

• To experientially learn in an interactive environment the underpinnings of wellness and challenges to traditional approaches to wellness in a post-pandemic world;
• To identify barriers and behaviors that interfere to psychological well-being and address solutions to challenges that interfere with maintaining balance;
• To apply innovative principles of contextual behavioral science to develop individualized plans that promote sustained engagement in actions that promote personal and professional wellbeing.
• Mindfulness for reducing stress and cultivating well-being in challenging times

Instructors:

Tim Encinas

Licensed Clinical Social Worker

Assistant Program Director and Interim Director at Didi Hirsch

Tim Encinas has worked in the field of Behavioral Health for over 10 years. Tim is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker. In addition to his role as Assistant Program Director and Interim Director, at Didi Hirsch, Tim is a Diplomat of the Academy of Cognitive Therapy, and is involved the Association of Contextual Behavioral Sciences. He is active in mentoring pre-licensed Clinicians, and has involved himself internal strategic planning committees related to managing burnout, employee retention and engagement and organizational and professional development.

Tim attended undergraduate and graduate school at the University of Southern California, earning a Master’s of Social Work with an emphasis in Organizations, and a Bachelor’s of Arts in Economics with a Minor in International Relations.

Helping individuals reach their potential, and, developing healthy, supportive environments to prevent burnout has been a focus of Tim’s work. Having a former career in institutional finance, Tim has seen many talented individuals leave employers or limit their own career trajectory due to personal limiting beliefs and/or barriers that presented as challenges within organizations that they worked for. Operating within the Metro Los Angeles community, Tim has focused on working with individuals to realize their own internal strengths, identify opportunities and work towards creating a personal and professional life worth living.
Tim is an avid reader and enjoys board games, exploring the City, engaging in mindfulness practice, spending time outdoors and quality time with his dog, Nugget.

Diana Winston

Director of Mindfulness Education at UCLA’s Mindful

UCLA’s Mindful Awareness Research Center

Diana Winston is the Director of Mindfulness Education at UCLA’s Mindful Awareness Research Center (MARC) www.uclahealth.org/marc. She is the author of The Little Book of Being: Practices and Guidance for Uncovering your Natural Awareness, and the co-author, with Susan Smalley, PhD, of Fully Present, the Science, Art and Practice of Mindfulness. Called by the LA Times “one of the nation’s best-known teachers of mindfulness,” she has taught mindfulness since 1999 in a variety of settings including hospitals, universities, corporations, nonprofits, and schools in the US and Asia. A sought-after speaker, she developed the evidence-based Mindful Awareness Practices (MAPS) curriculum and the Training in Mindfulness Facilitation, which trains mindfulness teachers worldwide. She is a founding board member of the International Mindfulness Teachers Association.

Her work has been mentioned in the New York Times, O Magazine, Bloomberg, the Los Angeles Times, CNN.com, Women’s Health, and in a variety of magazines, books, and journals. She has been practicing mindfulness meditation since 1989, including a year as a Buddhist nun in Burma. Currently Diana’s most challenging and rewarding practice involves trying to mindfully parent a pre-teen. More recently, Diana’s meditations were featured on the California governor’s Covid-19 Response website She can be found at www.dianawinston.com and on the UCLA Mindful, Waking Up, and Ten Percent Happier Apps.

If you have any questions regarding the seminar, please contact Olga Svitlynets via email at OSvitlynets@ceo.lacounty.gov, or Don Belton via email at dbelton@animalcare.lacounty.gov, or Tracy Jordan at TJordan@coc.lacounty.gov.