Elvis is a lawyer, accredited mediator, and lecturer at the master’s degree in Dispute Prevention and Resolution at the University of Sherbrooke on improving professional ethics through mindfulness and wrote a book on the same topic. He is a qualified MBSR trainer and has sat numerous retreats over the past decade. He regularly offers mindfulness training in organizations on professional ethics.
Mindful ethics: the challenge of embodying professional values
Sunday, May 3, 2020 — 9:30AM – 10:30 AM
The codes of ethics of numerous professions explicitly require their members to uphold specific values like integrity, respect and in some cases even impartiality. It is safe to say that most professionals, having been trained for several years in their respective fields, understand from a theoretical perspective why these values are important to their profession and therefore make these values their own.
However, there is a difference between values, which are mental/emotional in nature (i.e. wanting to be respectful, impartial) and personal qualities, which are behavioral in nature (i.e. being respectful, impartial). Most of us can recall a moment in our lives, whether professionally or personally, where we failed to live up to our values through our actions while still holding this value as important in our mind and heart. So what are the obstacles that are preventing us from embodying our values and acting in a way that is congruent with our intentions? How can mindfulness help overcome these obstacles and live a more ethical professional and personal life?
In this presentation, we will explore these questions through the case study of a 45-hour masters’ degree course that has been developed for professionals in alternative dispute resolution at the University of Sherbrooke which uses mindfulness as the primary tool for professional development and truly brings back to the forefront one of the three pillars of a genuine mindfulness practice which is often overlooked in western mindfulness: the art of living an ethical life.
Participants will come away with:
- An understanding of the necessity of developing personal qualities in order to be able to act ethically in a professional context
- The main psychological obstacles preventing us from embodying our values
- How mindfulness can help overcome these obstacles and embody our values