19. Physician Wellbeing: How to Receive Your Own Healing and Restoration

In this Heal the Healers podcast episode, Dr. Inga Hofmann shares her personal journey through professional and personal challenges and miraculous healing that inspired the vision for this life-changing retreat. Not only will you hear the testimony behind the vision and heart for the Heal The Healers Retreat. This episode is also full of practical tips you can take to overcome burnout, exhaustion and find restoration in the Lord.

Learn about the transformative 'Heal the Healers for Physician Retreat' in Madison, WI on November 1st-2nd, designed to offer physicians rest, restoration, community with like-minded physicians, and spiritual renewal. Featuring inspiring sessions and keynote speaker Judith MacNutt, this retreat is an essential getaway for any physician feeling burned out, disconnected from their faith or those who want to go to a deeper level in their relationship with God. Register today and don’t miss this chance to reconnect with your faith and vocation and integrate faith and medicine.

00:00 Introduction and Purpose of the Podcast
00:08 The Importance of Self-Care for Physicians
02:15 Personal Testimony and the Retreat Vision
07:32 Challenges and Miracles in Medicine
11:03 Integrating Faith and Medicine
12:27 The Vision for the Retreat
15:39 Finding Places for Spiritual Renewal
16:16 The Importance of Retreats
16:32 Overcoming Obstacles to Attend the Retreat
17:00 Personal Testimonies of Transformation
17:35 The Vision for Healing and Restoration
20:00 Challenges in Healthcare and the Need for Healing
21:33 Equipping for Ministry and Healing
23:22 Retreat Schedule and Registration Details
25:17 Final Encouragement and Closing Remarks

Register for the Heal The Healers Physician Retreat
👉👉👉 https://healthehealersretreat.org
📆When: November 1st and 2nd, 2024
📍Where: Upper House, Madison, WI
Registration closes on October 31st! Get your tickets now!

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👉https://www.ingahofmann.com/healthehealers
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Transcript

Restream recording Oct 11, 2024 • 07:54:25 PM: 0:00

Hello there and welcome to another episode of the Heal the Healers podcast. I'm so happy to see you today. And today I want to talk a little bit about how we as physicians very oftentimes Run so hard to serve other people to help other people, whether it's our patients or even within our organization, or even within our research round that so often we forget to actually take care of ourselves. And I know you heard this many times before, but the thing is, are we actually doing it? And from my personal experience, I can tell you, we often run our race so hard and. well in many ways, but eventually the wheels are falling off and we are exhausted and have nothing left to give. And that is not a great position to pour out to others. So I want to talk about that today and encourage you what to do differently. Welcome to the Heal the Healers podcast, where we explore the intersection of faith and medicine, discover your God given potential, and experience Christ's healing in the midst of medical burnout. I'm your host, Inga Hoffman, a pediatric hematologist, physician coach, and follower of Jesus. Together, we will navigate the challenges of medicine, integrate faith into our personal and professional lives. Experience spiritual renewal and find restoration in Christ. Welcome to the Heal the Healers, where Christ heals one physician and one patient at a time. Well, hello there and welcome back. And so good to see you. And today I want to talk about how we as physicians can make time, some time for rest and restoration. And I believe this is really an important time to talk about. Time for restoration, healing and equipping. And I want to go into this episode a little bit more to share about the retreat. I know I've shared a lot about it, but I want to share a little bit, my personal testimony, how this came about and also give you a really deep insight. some important nuggets. What we actually be looking at specifically as it relates to restoration to making sure we take time to just get out of the noise, unplug and get in a space where we can truly replenish. We can, we can find some healing and restoration for ourselves, whether that's just physical exhaustion, whether that's mental,. Or what, whatever else might be going on a lot of times as physicians, we have the tendency to hide this kind of stuff. Because we feel like we have to keep it all together. I don't know about you, but that definitely has happened to me. I'm so focused on helping that next pediatric cancer patient or that next transplant patient that it becomes really challenging to remember. No, not only do I have to eat and drink and go to the bathroom and sleep a little bit, but I also have as believer, I have to take time to retreat, restore, and sometimes that is critical for us to be ready for the, next thing, for the next battle we are facing, whether that's inside or outside the hospital. And I think in this time and season, we are living in this space. Especially what we have experienced over the last several years, further escalating in healthcare. We cannot afford not to take this really to heart. So that's why I want to chat with you today because my goal is that you will find time that you will not only find time, no, that you choose to make time to set aside time for your own healing, for your own restoration, for your own time with the Lord, whether it's in a daily activity or in something more focused like the retreat we're planning. But before I go into it, I would love it if you do me a favor and number one, subscribe and follow us on this channel, whether you're watching on YouTube, you're following the podcast, or even on our social media platforms, whether that's Facebook, YouTube, that's usually where I hang out the most. Please follow and subscribe because that helps us a lot. That helps me a lot and I really appreciate it. And it helps other people actually find this content. That's just how the algorithm and the math works behind the scenes. So thank you so much for subscribing. And sharing the show. And if you want to leave a review, I so appreciate it. And thank you for that. So with that, let's dive right in and really talk about what it means to have healing and restoration. So. And I want to talk a little bit how this retreat came about, because I think it is critical, important it was in and I will share lessons along the way that will be valuable to you. So it was around October of 2022. I don't have the exact date with me, but I have it in my notebook where I was just in a time and season that was quite unique, I would say, but where the vision of the retreat came to me is in a worship service that October at a different church. I was worshiping the Lord. I was doing the little, daily, weekly wellness activities that we should be doing as Christian physicians to really not just go to a wellness activity at your work, but rather know that our restoration, our rest, our healing, everything lies And if we don't get that right, all the wellness programs at your workplace will not cut it. They will not make a difference. There can be very helpful things in there, like practical tips. But this was what I was doing. I was at the worship service and God often talks to me. During worship services. Now this is a pretty regular occurrence, but I have to tell you back then that was not a regular thing to that same degree as it is now. And so it really caught my attention. But what I want to tell you is. That is actually the season leading up to the retreat as well as that worship service where I got the vision that I believe was from the Lord. I'm gonna get the mic a little closer here. So what has happened at the time is that I was personally going through a challenging season in my workplace and in my family. The workplace, you know, was. was fine. It was very supportive. I loved my job as a pediatric bone marrow transplant doctor. I was the director of the program. I'm no longer. But there were a number of things that came together largely related to my one of my Children that had a lot of challenges at school. He is very gifted, but he had a lot of challenges. And there were a series of events happening that already got me into a different, how should I say, headspace. And then there were other things converging with all of this that were a miraculous healing, really, For one of my patients, I shared this in an earlier episode, that testimony, what happened to this patient, but in short, I began to intercede for a patient that was very sick, a bone marrow transplant patient of mine, and as I was praying and interceding, the Lord showed me things that would happen with this patient to Already intercede for different organs and complications. And the long story short through really prayer and intercession and really sensing, I'm really stepping into the gap on behalf of this family and this child and contending with the Lord for healing that really wonderful miracles happened and he changed my heart. In my posture towards prayer through this process at the same time in parallel, I received and experienced some of my own larger degrees of freedom and healing, whether it's, it's just mental, emotional, some physical things that I was dealing with, and I didn't even know how much I was dealing with them because honestly, It's exactly like I said, as physicians, we run our ways. We run really, really hard. We don't mind working hard because In general, that comes from a heart of compassion for our patients, and we have always been working hard, so, but we don't often realize how much that actually affects our body and our mind and our mental well being. And these days, I have to say, It actually upsets me, I hadn't thought about this so closely, but how high suicide rates amongst physicians have gotten. And this is just a side note, it has to stop. We have to rise up and do something. And again, thank you. I think there are much deeper things going on than bare physician burnout. It's not just we work hard, you know, my colleagues in the eighties worked hard, right? There is something much more deeper going on, and we should probably converse and discuss that on another episode, but I want to say a number of things converged leading up to the day when I was in that worship service, getting this vision and one thing that became very clear to me, though, over the course of time that Medicine is very broken. And as I mentioned, I personally was struggling even on the surface. I was doing great. I've been a coach for many years. I can cope. I coach others. I didn't feel like I actually had a problem and I don't think I had a deep problem, but there were things that the Lord showed me that he wanted to take care of that. I felt like, well, they're just kind of up for the game. They're part of this journey that we exhausted and tired. I had headaches and migraines. all the time, like literally every day and praise God, I don't really have them anymore. But these were all little things that affected me. And what I saw is that medicine and health care is broken, which is no secret to you. And we, as physicians, often live in this tug of war between medicine and physicians. faith. It's really this constant tension that we're feeling and do not make any mistake unless you and I are able to integrate that. And I teach people a lot on how to do until we integrate that very, very intentional and asking the Lord for help here. We will not be able to walk out of this. Our calling, our profession, and it will tear us apart when you are in tug of war and under constant tension, having faith over here and medicine over here, and you're sort of toggling between these two worlds, you're going to fall apart eventually. you're not careful. So you really have to learn to work with your mind to let the Lord show you what needs to be integrated, how he wants to work with you because we are not two divided beings. We are one creation in Christ, and that is really important to remember. So as I was learning how to integrate that more. And even though I thought I was doing pretty good, I learned a lot over the years. And it was really an encouragement to see that as I was bringing my faith more in what the outpouring and the result and the blessing as a result came to later. So I could tell a lot more about that, but I will just leave it at that, when I have that vision for this very retreat in October 2022, there were a lot of events leading up to this, and there was a personal posture leading up to this, and there was also a season where I became more diligent. and thirsty and hungry, spend time with God to spend time in his word to spend time in prayer, which honestly, years prior, I did in a seasonal cyclic pattern, but not consistently for a long duration of time. And I probably had established by the time this all happened, the miracle, the healing, the vision for the retreat. I probably had spent a solid two hours in real consistent quiet, not two hours. I'm sorry, two years and pretty consistent solid quiet time, which was not always the case before. And I know we all go through seasons, but we also can decide To shift and make a decision to say, no, this is my lifeline. This is my priority. So when I had that vision in that worship service in October 2022, it was really amazing because I was just worshiping the Lord. I wasn't thinking about anything and I love it because I was at a different church, meaning I kind of just can be in that space. and receive. And that is a very important point. I want to make sure that you hear me right here. You and I need to get Ourselves in spaces where we can just receive where we don't have to be the mom or the dad for anybody, where we don't have to be the physician that takes care of the patient or the person who constantly gets bombarded with questions because our job, especially people look to us for solutions. I feel like every time I was on service, you know, I loved it. The end of the day, you're kind of exhausted. Like, please don't ask me any more questions how to do with this or deal with that, or have one more conversation because people have a lot of demands. They pull a lot of demands on you in the medical field, whether it's the trainees, the patients, the nurses, or your colleagues. And when you constantly have that pull on demand on you, it eventually depletes you and you have to know absolutely to the core of your being. How do I get replenished? How do I find restoration? And that can be only found in the Lord. And if you don't find the place of quite time to do that, then in the long term, eventually you're gonna be in trouble. I have certainly been there and perhaps you have experienced this. So being at that worship service, At a different church where I don't serve as a prayer minister, where, where I could just be and receive is very powerful. So I want you to mark that down, write that down and say, reflect on places where you can go. And just receive where nobody has an agenda for you other than, you know, you're in the presence of the Lord and the people that are ministering are here to to pull you into the presence of the Lord. And that's it. So you need to find places like that. That could be sometimes visiting a different church, obviously a quiet time, critically important, but sometimes we want to be in a company of other people and there is something powerful to worship with other people. So that's what this was all about. And that is actually what the retreat will be all about. It is a time for you to unplug and for you to get in a state where you don't have to worry about anything. And just receive. Now I know what you're saying. You're like, but Inga, I would love to come to the retreat, which by the way, November 1st and 2nd at Madison, Wisconsin, I will share the details in the end. I know what you're thinking, but I have so many things going on. My kids have sports. I'm busy running around. I have work. And we are only closing in on three weeks on this retreat and I hear you I don't understand, but I can tell you. From personal experience, every, every single time I made that sacrifice and I showed up and said, Lord, I'm hungry. I know I need to be there. I know it's costing me time and money investment and probably some discomfort and maybe even a stretch in my faith. Actually, not maybe most certainly every time when something I'm significant transformational happened in my life. I had to stretch myself quite significantly. I praise God. He did amazing things through that. So so that's important know that this is a time for restoration because you need to replenish. And if you don't do it intentionally, and if you don't pull away to receive, you will not do it. That's just how we physicians are wired. Let's be real here. We're going to run until we fall over. And then sometimes it's too late. So I want you to hear that. And I want you to understand that this retreat that the vision is really to bring healing. Restoration, but also equipping, because often as doctors, we hold all these broken pieces of all these people. I'm a pediatric cancer doctor. I've seen a lot of really sad things, and probably you have too, no matter what your specialty is. And you hold all these broken pieces in your hands, and you wish you could mend them back together. And you do your best pouring out into people, and you know, in the end, only the Lord can can really bring healing and restoration. But as we're holding these broken pieces, A lot of times there are pieces that break in us if we're not careful. And that is exactly what I'm talking about. When I received my own healing and restoration to be honest, I thought I was coping so well as a pediatric oncologist. I never, I mean, I, I wept over my patients. I was sad when they passed away, but I felt like, you know, I'm not burned out. I'm, I'm coping really well. And it wasn't until I got in the presence of the Lord and did some deep work that I'm like, Oopsie, there is a lot of things going on that the Lord wants to touch and release me from. And this is what I want for you because the more you found freedom and healing and restoration, the more effective you can be running your race, whether that's as physician in your job or other things the Lord maybe put on your heart to do. So this is really important. So our goal here is provide restoration and just a time for replenishment to unplug. Heal any broken pieces and restore them, whether that's physical, mentally, emotional, spiritual, in any way. So everybody is really welcome and then equip you. And that's also really important. We are in a very challenging season in healthcare. It has not gotten any easier. And I, I fear that there are more challenges coming our way. We have gone through difficult, I would say, to some degree for some of you, trauma with COVID, you have had maybe been in a specialty that cost you a lot of trauma, maybe moral injury from a broken health care system and chances are there are some deep things that need to be healed and nothing is hidden from the Lord. And he can do it but it is hard to get it done to get the job done if we're not finding time to pause and say. You know, I need to pause here and I need to receive and I need the Lord to touch those places that maybe I've very calloused up over my work career over the years. And it sometimes takes to come to that place where you can receive and that's what we want to provide for you, providing you a safe space for you to receive from the Lord. And to be healed in whatever way you need to be touched. And you might not even realize what those places are, but God knows. And isn't that beautiful? And he loves us so much that he really wants to share those things with us, that he wants to spend time with us. that he wants to provide that healing and that restoration. Largely, we want to equip you. You're going to learn a lot at this retreat about the ministry of Jesus, how he ministered to people. And we're going to take a very careful look. And our keynote speaker, Judith McNutt, is the most amazing woman of God. You will really be in awe and be very blessed learning from her at this retreat. Very, very wealth of experience over four decades, having worked with with people, with patients with mental illness. This will really serve you well, and we want to equip you not only to receive your own healing, but also have a better understanding what your patients might be going through. And as you are equipped in the ministry of healing that Jesus showed us as an example. You will be able to go out there. And say, okay, what else can I do here? Because there is much more to restoring and healing patients than our medical knowledge. And while he gives you wisdom for that, and he gave us a brain to do that and skills to do all that. There are deeper things often at play that we don't even recognize because we don't really know. It's just like you weren't aware of medical things until you studied them. And the same thing is true with spiritual aspects of our lives. We have to actually study them to understand and then be aware and apply those. And that's what we will be teaching you. And then in the end, we'll pray over you. There will be lots of ministry time for you to To just have interaction with us be prayed over pre prayed for going to have a healing service Sunday night. So you really don't want to miss that. Now. I had planned to go a little bit and share a little bit over the schedule of what we're going to cover in terms of some of the keynote lectures and, kind of ministry times. And why don't I do that in a part two so that this doesn't become too long. But I do want to encourage you before you go, check out the registration and probably why would you wait? Let's do it right here. So I'm going to put a QR code up here in the corner. Should I put this up? earlier. Scan this QR code which leads you to the registration page for the Heal the Healers for Physician Retreat. As in the banner below, you can see the retreat will happen in Madison, Wisconsin on November 1st. and second. So that is Friday night. We're going to start around five. You will be done Saturday, probably 9 10 p. m. We're going to have a pretty packed day on Saturday. However, there will be time for breaks. All your meals will be right there and provided so that you can interact and get to know other physicians that are also believers and that you form connections and make friends. Speaking of friends, we have a last promotion before we have to close out on the catering for anybody that's registering before the 13th. So you have 2 more days. You can scan this QR code, then register. And type in friends as a coupon code at the checkout page and get a hundred dollars off. So that is my gift to you. And you have to do it before the 13th, though, because we are needing to finalize things with catering and I need to know exactly how many people are there. So with that, I hope this blessed you really if this spoke to you at any level at all, and you're like, yeah, Inga, you have a point, and I do feel like I'm running dry and you're not sure, like, how am I actually going to make this happen to make it to the retreat? I would say commit, pray and figure it out. And God always makes a way. I've done some crazy things over the years that I wasn't sure like, whoa, flying to a different country for a conference that was non medical, but Christian, or or just going away for a week, leaving my family behind. Not easy. Praise God for my supportive husband. But that isn't, that's not easy. easy by any means. It would be much easier to stay at home. But I can tell you that every every single time I did this, it is a sacrifice and an offering in a way that we not only make to ourselves, but we make to the Lord and the Lord sees that effort. And Don't worry, he will take care of things at home. He will take care of things that need to be taken care of. You just get yourself there and we will take care of you and God takes care of the rest. So God bless you. You have a wonderful day and I will come back and we'll share with you a little bit more about Just the type of topics we're going to cover because I think it will be really interesting to you. So God bless you and talk to you soon. My prayer is that you were encouraged, perhaps even convicted with this episode today. If this podcast has blessed you, would you help share it with your friends and colleagues and even share it on social media? Also leave us a review on the podcast platform where you are listening to this content. It would help us a lot. Together We can share the good news of Jesus and transform medicine, one physician and one patient at the time. Have a great day. God bless.