Testimonials
“I've been a practicing chaplain for almost 20 years, and I believe this is the first time I have ever heard anyone address the unique health needs of chaplains.”
-- Overcoming Burnout Workshop Participant who is a
Board Certified Chaplain & ACPE Certified Educator
"You don't have to get up at 3 a.m. and go meditate on a rock! This feels manageable."
--Hospital Chaplain Client
Who Is This For?
If you’re a chaplain or spiritual care provider but have been struggling with burnout, don’t know where to find support that “gets” you and fits your real life, or are afraid you don’t have enough time to focus on your health, you’re in the right place.
We want to help as many people as possible, but admittedly, this isn’t for everyone. So who is this for?
- You’re a chaplain, spiritual care provider, pastor or other congregational leader, or someone working in a helping profession.
- You want your spiritual beliefs to be an integral part of your wellness journey.
- You’ve been burned by self-care advice that just doesn’t apply to your work & life.
- You’re burned out to the point that even though your mission to help others is still important to you, you are at the brink -- thinking of changing jobs or retiring early because you just can't do this anymore.
- You’re at a point where something’s got to give (or already has).
- You've started to sacrifice your health, your most important relationships, the things you love to do outside of work.
- You need new tools that fit your life & are easy to implement.
- You want focusing on your health to feel fun!
I look forward to hearing about you and your unique situation when it comes to burnout and getting your energy back.
–Charlotte
You can Dramatically Improve Your Energy
in 90 Days
...without needing to overhaul your entire life or relying on outside circumstances to change. In a world where burnout and poor health among those in spiritual care and helping professions is all too common, how can you get your energy back?
The strategy is simple, straightforward, and fun.
- Close the gap between knowing and doing by incorporating habits that easily fit into your day.
- Build positive momentum as you experience how easy this is to do.
- Discover new tools that help you move through challenges so you don’t experience the same pitfalls that kept you stuck in burnout in the past.
- Find out your own personal tendencies according to your dosha (your own unique energy balance in Ayurveda).
- Understand how knowing your dosha can unlock your resilience for the long haul.
This 3-step system is what allows you to boost your energy and overcome burnout for good, even in the midst of the challenges life brings.
Who is Charlotte Hoffmann?
Charlotte helps burned-out chaplains and spiritual care providers regain their energy. After struggling through repeat burnout cycles - ending with multiple health issues following a hospital shift schedule and process of deep grief - Charlotte finally found ways to restore her energy. She believes resilience is a way of life, not a diet. She outlines simple steps to build sustainable energy and healthy routines in her Restore Resilience program. Charlotte returned to her roots to live in Bloomington-Normal, Illinois.
In addition, she has worked in long-term care during the pandemic, is an Integrative Nutrition Health Coach and Ayurveda Wellness Counselor, and is a commissioned member of the Federation of Christian Ministries.
Step 1: Erase the Gap Between Knowing and Doing to
Hit Pause on Your Burnout Cycle
You can probably name one or two things you could do right now that would boost your energy and improve your health. Yet, many people aren’t actually doing the things they know have helped them be healthy in the past, or that would support their health right now.
In fact, only 3 in 100 people are practicing key habits needed for good overall health. Of those 3, only 2 are “practicing some habits essential to good health” and only 1 is “practicing most habits essential to good health.” This quote comes The Healthy Deviant: A Rule Breaker’s Guide to Being Healthy in an Unhealthy World, written by Pilar Gerasimo, citing the Mayo Clinic Proceedings and CDC. The real kicker? This book was published in January 2020…before the pandemic!
Lots of people get stuck on this step, and that’s what keeps them in burnout. I was stuck there for years. It took me a full year to do a breathing exercise every morning. And that’s an exercise that only takes 3 minutes! If getting over burnout were as simple as doing a breathing exercise, lots of people would be doing it, and very few people would be burned out. As you know, it’s not that simple.
Maybe you’ve tried common self-care advice, and it just hasn’t fit your life as a chaplain on call. Or acknowledged the spiritual aspect of the work that you do.
To be used for the long term, healthy habits need to fit into the flow of your days and your week. They need to fit your life, and they should be fun. Over and over, I hear clients say things like, “You don’t have to get up at 3 a.m and go meditate on a rock! This feels manageable.” “It feels doable.” “That sounds like fun.” “I’m excited to try it.” They can already see how they’re going to fit a healthy habit in that week and genuinely look forward to it. That makes all the difference.
Testimonial:
I worked with a pastor client who planned ahead and used these tools to get through the busiest week of his entire year, without burning out. For him, this was Holy Week in the Christian tradition, filled with 10- and 12-hour days. I ran into him a year after we’d finished our work together, and he shared he’s still using these tools daily. And they continue to make a huge positive difference for him in his life.
Erase the Gap Between Knowing & Doing so You can Thrive, Even in Your Busiest Times
Step 2: Learn the New Resilience Tools to
Boost Your Energy Right Now &
Dissolve the Barriers that are Keeping You Stuck
Many people come to me, saying that, at this point in the pandemic, they’ve tried everything they know…and it isn’t working anymore. Or, it isn’t relevant to the situation of a multi-year crisis, short staffing, etc. That they feel a toll not just on their physical energy, but also emotionally, spiritually, and mentally.
Chaplains and spiritual care providers are professionals with many tools in their toolbox already. They’re savvy people and know a lot. Yet, often, people who reach out to me say: I’ve got a lot of tools in my toolbox already. But I need some new ones. I need to do something different to get where I want to go.
So we unveil the New Resilience Tools that help them in the moment with a wealth of options for any given situation. They can reach for these anytime they need a boost of energy in the middle of their day. And these New Resilience Tools help them get unstuck when they need to…so they can be healthy in the moment.
Over and over again, my clients share examples of how these New Resilience Tools helped them in the midst of their workday, or their everyday life outside of work. They reach for their new tools in places where they used to get stuck, or reach for old habits or unhealthy ways of eating. That’s what makes this so transformational. Instead of getting stuck or going back to the old thing, they’re using their New Resilience Tools.
Take it from one of my hospital chaplain clients. During our work together, she has faced: multiple family caregiving situations, challenging on-call shifts with little sleep, the whole household getting sick at once, a reduction in staff for the summer, and a loss of volunteer back-ups to share on-call shifts. That’s a lot in the span of just 2 or 3 months, especially when you’re coming off of 2 years of a pandemic!
But she has not let any of this stop her. She’s had every excuse to give up. Yet she has been resilient, used her new tools, and not gone back to old habits that led to burnout before. She said she absolutely knows she would have gone back to old habits and ways of coping without our coaching. She described it to me this way, “If not now, when?” Then she used this amazing image. She said, “This isn’t a test drive anymore. I’m off-road now, with all the bumps. And my 4-wheel drive works!”
"This isn't a test drive anymore...I'm off-road now, and my 4-Wheel Drive Works!"
Step 3: Discover how Your Dosha can Unlock Your Resilience &
Sustain Your Energy for the Long Term
How do you know which tools work best? You’ve probably noticed that what works really well for one person may not be helpful for someone else, or for you. That’s what brings us to the final step: your dosha.
It’s one thing to recover from burnout. But how do you know your personal strengths and potential pitfalls when it comes to your energy – so you can stop the burnout cycle for good?
The concept of dosha is a core piece of Ayurveda, the traditional medicine of what is now India. Ayurveda is over 5,000 years old and focuses not only on helping sick people be well again, but just as much on helping healthy people stay that way. Understanding someone’s dosha, or unique bio-energetic blueprint, gives key clues about what will help that person support wellness on a day-to-day basis.
You can imagine that we are all born with our own unique dosha, like a bio-energetic pie that has 3 slices. But the way that pie is sliced, the combination, is unique to each of us. The 3 doshas are Vata, Pitta and Kapha. Each dosha has different tendencies when it comes to burnout, and specific things that will help them recover from burnout and sustain energy for the long term.
Here's some of my story:
"Knowing my dosha transformed my view of past burnout cycles. It reminded me in some ways of other frameworks I love (Myers Briggs, Enneagram, StrengthsFinder) - but deepened my understanding beyond what those frameworks offer. All of a sudden, I understood why I was more prone to repeat burnout cycles. I also knew why I had a sweet tooth. These weren’t my fault; simply a part of my makeup as a human being. Better yet, I knew how to balance those tendencies and amplify the unique strengths of my dosha. This created a long-term solution that helps keep me resilient.” –Charlotte Hoffmann
"Knowing My Dosha Helps Keep Me Resilient"
3 Simple Steps to Unlock Your Resilience &
Boost Your Energy in the Next 90 Days
To summarize, the 3 simple steps needed to help you stop the burnout cycle and regain your energy are:
-
Erase the gap between knowing and doing to hit pause on your burnout cycle.
-
Learn the New Resilience Tools to Boost Your Energy Right Now and Dissolve the Barriers that are Keeping You Stuck.
- Discover How Your Dosha can Unlock Your Resilience and Sustain Your Energy for the Long Term.
When you implement healthy habits that fit easily into your day and are fun, you build positive momentum. When you have New Resilience Tools, you can move through challenges that used to keep you stuck in the burnout cycle. When you know your dosha, you easily know what drains your energy, what boosts your energy, and what keeps you balanced – so you can be resilient for the long term.
Now more than ever, the important work of chaplains and spiritual care providers is needed in this world. You need a simple, proven path to regain your energy so that you can live out your mission to serve others – while still keeping your well being a priority and enjoying a life outside of work.
Can This Really Work for Anyone - Even in the Midst of Real Life?
Just to be clear, although this can work for many people, this solution isn't for everyone.