Newfoundland and Labrador

Heather White
2009-2011

Heather White has been involved in education and mental health for over twenty years. She has offered training experiences to thousands of participants and provided individual interventions for hundreds more. Since 1996, she has been increasingly involved in conflict resolution, team development and organizational wellness. She has held a variety of roles in staff development, Employee Assistance, workplace training, change management and policy development. Since 1999, she has also been teaching at Memorial University, Faculty of Education.

Currently, Heather works as a Respectful Workplace Coordinator with the NL provincial government. In this capacity, she offers individual, team, and organizational interventions to build healthy work environments. This includes the provision of employee assistance interventions and a range of conflict resolution services (coaching, mediations and facilitations, workplace assessments and interventions, research and policy development, program planning and government wide collaborations). Heather has been certified as a mediator through the University of Windsor as well as Community Mediation Services. She also holds a Certificate in Health Care Collaboration from Dalhousie and Memorial Universities.

Heather holds a Master of Education in Educational Psychology (MUN), a B.A. Honours in Psychology and Law (Carleton University), a Graduate Certificate in Teaching (MUN) and has completed additional graduate studies in Education at University of Ottawa. Heather is professionally certified by the Canadian Counselling Association.

Directors's Report - May 2010

Abstract

The second half of year in my role as Director is clarifying my understanding of my roles as director, ethic committee member, education and policy committee member and board liaison to the Pastoral and Spiritual Counseling Chapter. Balancing national and provincial demands on my time continues to be a struggle. Time spent with members and potential members as well as organizing PD events within the province has been both exciting and demanding. The collaborative process that we have been engaged in to bring Gabor to NL has been quite successful and has created lots of excitement about his visit in May.

Connections and Communications

• Presentations to MUN M.Ed. students have been well received
• Discussions with undergraduate students interested in doing M.Ed have been ongoing and regular.  Many students have indicated interest in becoming members so that they can learn more about the field and association as well as meet other practitioners
• Professional development (PD) session has been offered on “Spirituality and the Counselling process” and was well received generating a waitlist for future offerings
• PD session to be offered in May entitled “Working with Men who Use Abuse” which has been co-offered to CCPA as well as NLEAPA members (local EAP association) and has been extremely well received.  A waitlist has been generated for future offerings as demand is  quite high.
• Gabor Mate will be speaking to our members on May 31, June 1 & 2.  The session has been co-sponsored by CCPA as well as the NL Homeless network (and including a range of other partners such as PSC, Eastern Health, NLTA, NLEAPA, City of St. John’s, etc).  Information has been circulated through a range of partnering associations including nurses, Social Workers, teachers, school counsellors and teachers, psychologist association, NLTA, and MUN Faculty of Education.
• We have offered a range of mini PD events at our local monthly meetings topics including: Addictions Services and Interventions; EMDR; Meditation; and, Using textiles and other art forms in counselling
• Regular communication regarding upcoming PD events is sent to members
• The interest and demand in PD has been so strong in the province that we are now exploring setting up a NL Chapter to focus on managing this provincial piece of work.
• I have been invited as a guest on a local radio show to speak on behalf of my work in healthy workplace and conflict – I will also speak to both Gabor’s PD event as well as CCPA.
• There have been multiple contacts with various CCC certified members regarding their difficulty in getting hired with our local health districts.  Ongoing support, discussions and strategizing is happening to enhance our profile with this group.
• Distributed Newsletter to NL members in January.
• Ongoing explorations with NLEAPA regarding formalizing our relationship….I have been invited to speak to this group at a future meeting to discuss further

Contributions and Celebrations

• This is difficult to answer; however, I get regular and consistent feedback in two main areas: how much members appreciate both the PD notifications as well as the PD offerings; as well as; feedback from other professional association recognizing and appreciating the collaborations that have been occurring and their appreciation for learning more about CCPA.
• I am happy with the level of PD offerings and especially happy about CCPA role in the collaboration that is bringing Gabor here – delighted that NL members as well as other professional colleagues will benefit from hearing him speak of his work. 
• I am gaining increasing understanding of my role as Board member as well as committee member and chapter liason, this is helping me better manage my time with each. 
• The Ethics Committee continues to be busy and engaging.  I am enjoying the work and the team synergy that occurs.
• Also happy to see the movement that is occurring on the national level regarding PD as well as the work of the Policy and Education committee.  Though my role is relatively small, it’s exciting to be a part of it.

Concerns and Challenges

• Time continues to be a challenge but as I learn the roles and expectations better, this is becoming easier
• Provincial PD demands are becoming very time consuming requiring that I continue to balance this with other national demands on my time. Exploring other ways of managing this has proven helpful.
  • Help with managing registration process remains an outstanding issue

Coming Attractions

• Gabor Mate!!!!!
• Workshop: Narrative Counseling with Men who are Aggressive, MSW
• Monthly meeting mini-PD event “Using creative arts in counselling”