ORIGIN STORY

I began work as a hospitalist at an academic tertiary care hospital in 2000, thriving on the mix of clinical care, teaching, and leadership. Growing a group of skilled passionate clinician-instructor colleaugues, learning how to teach hospital medicine in ever more attuned and impactful ways, and developing a hospital-wide presence for hospitalists, including consult/liaison, co-management, and system-improvement roles was rich and rewarding. It felt like exciting and unchartered territory.

As the reach of managed care and resident work hour restrictions grew, however, and in combination with personal loss, I began to slowly burn out. Eventually, by 2010, the lack of engagement, joy, and mastery alongside a feeling of depletion and stress hit a critical inflection which demanded change.

In response, I began training as a psychotherapist while continuing medicine part time. During my training, I repeatedly had the vivid sense of:

Psychotherapeutic training offered conceptual frameworks, skill sets, and integrated approaches to the types of patients and dynamics I had seen for close to 15 years in medicine. They seemed extraordinarily relevant, clarifying, and supportive.

My personal experience with burnout, multiple focus groups with physicians and trainees, insights from leading Balint groups, and my psychotherapy practice working with clients who were healthcare providers all aligned: everyone was reporting difficulty with similar personal and interpersonal challenges. It was then that my mission to create an integrated, multi-modal and comprehensive approach to wellness began. This mission continues to unfold.

I currently work part time as an internist, part time as a psychotherapist, and teach and consult in connection with Resilience in Healthcare. I have practiced and taught all of the elements of the modules and processes described and offered to you here.

Christophe Gimmler, MD, LMFT

Creator and Founder of Resilience in Healthcare