On 3rd May NIVA members turned out to the Seagoe Hotel, Portadown for the NIVA Spring Meeting.  Following the business meeting Vets, Nurses, Practice managers and their friends and family arrived to hear Dr Des Rice give an excellent, very practical presentation teaching five useful skills to help you cope in life.  Everyone in attendance seemed to really enjoy trying out some of these techniques in the practical demonstrations that Des included in his talk.  Des is a partner in the coaching business CCO, an acronym for Creating Collaborative Organisations.  He coaches individual Executives and teams to become the best they can be.  He gives clients the tools to modify attitudes and behaviours that cause unworkability and underperformance for themselves, their team and the business.  Frequently this involves helping individuals deal with stress, overwhelm, anger, anxiety, panic, depression and even suicide.  Find out more about CCO by visiting the CCO website.

Des also introduced some of the Vet Support (NI) colleagues and demonstrated how they might support members of the wider profession.   The Vet Support (NI) Team have been trained with a variety of supportive measures including coping skills, reflective listening, goal setting and other coaching techniques.   Visit www.vetsupportni.co.uk for confidential support for the profession in Northern Ireland

Some of the delegates are pictured below practicing the 7-11 breathing technique, one of the many ways of helping to reduce stress and stay calm.  If you missed the opportunity to attend this very useful talk and would like to find out more about the techniques taught on the night you can find a list of tips on the http://www.vetsupportni.co.uk/tips/