About Us
Our challenge.
As a qualified yoga and meditation teacher and having burnt myself out while working as a General Practitioner, I knew that there had to be a better way to go about supporting doctors to continue doing the amazing work that they do and hopefully preventing others from getting to the same point that I did. Yet in a profession that is built upon caring for others, it struck me as ironic that the care of those who did the caring was not the priority that it should be.
Whole Hearted Medicine was built upon the recognition that we all need and deserve support to implement the crucial foundations of wellbeing into our lives, and that just because we do this for our patients, doesn’t always make it easier to do it for ourselves.
Our educational retreats create the perfect environment to:
- Learn how to implement Mindfulness Based Cognitive tools into our work and lives to help to build self awareness, decrease emotional reactivity and improve mental health.
- Have honest and vulnerable conversations about how hard it can be to balance life and practicing medicine and work towards finding that balance for yourself.
- Learn how to take care of ourselves when we’re innately driven to take care of others.
- Find the right balance between caring for the health and wellbeing of our patients, without it coming at the expense of our own health and wellbeing.
- Make meditation, mindfulness and self care fundamental practices in the lives of healthcare professionals.
- Integrate conversations and teaching about self compassion into our everyday working lives.
It can be hard to be vulnerable in medicine. Our patients, friends and family look to us to have the answers for them on health, wellbeing and self care- so what happens when we need support with those things? Where do we turn to? Whole Hearted Medicine started out of a desire to open up conversations of vulnerability amongst those of us who work in healthcare in a nurturing and supportive retreat environment. None of us are immune to facing challenges in our lives and just because we work to heal others doesn’t mean that we don’t ever need support or healing ourselves.
Our mission.
Whole Hearted Medicine is committed to our aim of embedding wellbeing education into the accredited framework of Continuing Professional Development for all doctors. So that doctors are unequivocally supported by their workplaces to engage in wellbeing education throughout their professional lifetimes and providers of this education are held to the highest standards of curriculum design, delivery and outcomes.
Through an innovative and acclaimed curriculum that includes seminars, interactive workshops and guided practical masterclasses our goal is to provide time for supported reflection on health and wellbeing in all doctors who attend our educational retreats. We guide doctors in connecting with their own sense of self awareness which in turn helps them be better able to identify and manage feelings of burnout in themselves and others.
As an organisation we hope to lead the path towards a more holistic and proactive role in supporting the wellbeing of doctors and all healthcare providers, not only ensuring their own feelings of fulfilment but also their professional longevity in an often demanding profession.
In starting Whole Hearted Medicine I envisaged a business that embodied the sense of completely holistic care that I loved so much about working in General Practice. Passionate about quality medical education that values the autonomy of adult learners and delivers an evidence based and trauma-informed curriculum in a nurturing and psychologically safe environment, my dream of building this innovative model of supporting doctors in their wellbeing had the very personal catalyst of my own experience of burnout.
In the years since experiencing burnout for myself out I have come to feel so authentic and at home now supporting my colleagues in healthcare to find balance in their own lives by creating & facilitating these amazing retreats. Drawing on my skills as a registered yoga & meditation teacher as well as my generalist medical and focussed psychological skills training, I approach teaching about stress, self care and mindfulness in a truly holistic way.
Outside of Whole Hearted Medicine, I work as a surgical assistant & locum doctor, I’m a professional speaker & workshop facilitator, I tutor medical students in mindfulness, stress management & healthy lifestyle and I work really hard to practice what I preach when it comes to finding balance in life.
Our team.
Jess Hart-Davies
Jess is the organisational wizard behind the scenes who keeps Whole Hearted Medicine running like clockwork. She is also the friendly face who makes sure our retreats run smoothly and that our doctors feel totally cared for and nurtured. As an experienced medical receptionist and enrolled nurse, Jess completely understands the intense demands of healthcare and the importance of supporting doctors to maintain their wellbeing in this demanding field.
Outside of work Jess enjoys going to the gym, has 3 beautiful children and loves to spend time at the beach with her family.