SHAPING SELF COMPASSION:
A HANDS ON WORKSHOP FOR DOCTORS
When we make something, we reconnect with a quieter, more creative part of ourselves.
It is often in that space that self-compassion becomes possible.
Tuesday May 19th 2026
7pm - 8.30pm
Online - via Zoom
with
Dr Alison Smith & Dr Paula Redmond
“You can’t use up creativity.
The more you use, the more you have.”
“Alison is amazing - she brings an abundance of empathy, ease and joy to her work and is incredibly talented at creating spaces where people can flourish. Words that come to mind in describing Alison’s approach to her work are thoughtful, sensitive, creative, generous, and filled with integrity. She is deeply committed to her workshop participants and works hard to ensure that they have a richly rewarding experience.
What makes Alison particularly wonderful is the breadth of her skillset and the way she blends her previous professional experiences in order to offer such unique and high quality gatherings.
”
“What a gift to witness the connection, calm, and courage shared here. The way you hold space for women in medicine, is nothing short of sacred”
Your Investment £85
Medicine asks a great deal of us. We are trained to hold the suffering of others with skill and presence, yet rarely given space to tend to ourselves.
Caring for others is part of who we are. Yet directing that same warmth towards ourselves is something many of us find genuinely hard.
This workshop offers something different. Held online in a small, confidential thinking circle, for doctors only, it is an invitation to slow down, create, and reflect.
Using air-dried clay and natural foraged materials, you will make two small pieces across the evening. The process of making becomes a way in: into your own inner narrative, your relationship with self-compassion, and the quieter questions that clinical life rarely leaves room for.
Space to create. Space to reflect. Space to share: if and when it feels right for you.
“If you are continually judging and criticising yourself while trying to be kind to others, you are drawing artificial boundaries and distinctions that only lead to feelings of separation and isolation”
WHAT TO EXPECT
A different kind of workshop
This is a small, carefully held online gathering where you can think, reflect, and share - if and when you feel ready to.
Expect warmth, honesty, and room to breathe.
What the session includes:
The session moves gently through two rounds of making and reflection:
First Round: Making a Pot
Begin with a grounding practice to help you arrive.
Then, guided gently by Paula, work with clay to make a simple pot. Paula offers soft spoken guidance to help you stay present: noticing the sensations of the material, what arises in the body, what moves through the mind.
In the thinking circle that follows, there is space to share what the making brought up: or simply to be present and witness others.
Second Round: Self-Compassion
Guided by a series of quiet invitations, you will create a piece that speaks to your own relationship with self-compassion. A second thinking circle follows: deeper, more spacious, with room to share if it feels right and to simply be present if it does not.
Your Box of Materials
Before the workshop, a beautiful box will be delivered to your door. Inside you will find everything you need: air-dried clay, ingredients to help create an easeful environment on the day, and items to support you in continuing this journey after the workshop at your own pace. You are also invited to forage or collect a few natural items beforehand: leaves, stones, seed pods, bark: to bring into the session.
Numbers will be kept small deliberately. A space to be human, held with care.
How the space is held; a thinking circle
Everything that is shared in the session stays within the group. What is said here, stays here.
There is no pressure to share, and no expectation that you will.
When someone does speak, they will be listened to fully and without interruption. We ask that everyone holds back from offering advice or solutions - this is a space for being heard, not fixed.
Alison and Paula will expertly hold the session with warmth and compassion throughout, creating the conditions for honest, gentle conversation.
WHO THIS IS FOR
You might find this workshop useful if…
You give so much care to others that you have little left to offer yourself — and somewhere along the way, forgot that you matter too
You find it hard to sit with your own pain, mistakes or struggles in the way you would so naturally sit with someone else’s
You have never thought of yourself as "creative" — or perhaps creativity feels like a luxury you haven't earned yet
You carry a quiet exhaustion that goes beyond tiredness; a sense of running on empty and not quite knowing how to be refilled
You want to explore self-compassion not just as a concept, but through your hands, your senses and your whole self — in the company of others who understand the weight of this work in medicine
You are ready to be gentle with yourself, even if only for a few hours
All specialties and career stages welcome.
Come as you are — all that is needed is a willingness to show up.
Dr Alison Smith
GP · Coach · Facilitator and Founder, Earth and Bloom
A former GP and experienced coach and facilitator who works with doctors. Alison brings her own lived experience of creative practice through floral design as a tool for wellbeing, alongside deep knowledge of the pressures and realities of working in medicine.
Alison has also written about her own path back to creativity.
Creativity as Medicine: One doctor’s journey back to colour
Psychologist · Founder of Creative Restoration · Podcast Host
Paula is an HCPC-registered Clinical Psychologist with extensive experience supporting doctors and healthcare professionals. Alongside her clinical work, she is the co-founder of Creative Restoration, where she brings together her psychological expertise and personal knitting practice to explore what craft can offer our mental health. Paula understands from the inside how something as simple and rhythmic as knitting can create conditions for ease, self-kindness and reflection — and she brings that same quality of attention to the spaces she holds.
Is this space right for you?
This workshop offers something that medicine rarely makes room for - the chance to slow down, speak honestly, and feel genuinely heard alongside others who understand. It is designed to be a therapeutic experience, held with warmth and care. It is not, however, therapy, and Alison and Paula are not acting in a therapeutic or clinical capacity within it.
This space works best when you are well enough to:
Sit with your own feelings and those of others
Reflect on your experience without becoming overwhelmed
Hold what arises with some degree of steadiness and perspective
A facilitated peer space cannot offer what a therapeutic or clinical relationship can - and you deserve the right level of support for where you are right now.
If things feel too raw, too fragile, or too much at the moment - please be kind to yourself. Seek the support you deserve, and know this space will be here when the time is right.
If you are unsure whether this is right for you, you are welcome to reach out to Alison or Paula before booking. We would rather have that conversation with you than have you arrive feeling unsupported.
If you need support right now:
NHS Practitioner Health — free, confidential mental health and addiction support, self-referral — practitionerhealth.nhs.uk
BMA Counselling & Peer Support — free and confidential 24/7 counselling and peer support line for all doctors and medical students — you do not need to be a BMA member to access this https://www.bma.org.uk/advice-and-support/your-wellbeing/wellbeing-support-services/counselling-and-peer-support-services
Doctors in Distress — free, confidential, professionally facilitated online support groups running three times a week for any healthcare worker struggling with their mental health doctors-in-distress.org.uk
Doctors' Support Network — a confidential, friendly self-help group for doctors with mental health conditions, with an anonymous online support forum dsn.org.uk
Samaritans — 116 123 (free, 24 hours) https://www.samaritans.org/how-we-can-help/contact-samaritan
