Wellness Programs for Teams and Institutions
Retreats, workshops, and coaching programs that restore connection, rebuild meaning, and help teams practice medicine more sustainably.
”Words cannot express how profoundly your retreat for us changed so many things in my life and in the life of my partners. “ - Dr. Elizabeth Arias, PAFMG Hospitalist
Exactly What Your Team Needs Right Now
Is your team exhausted, overwhelmed, and burnt out? Are you struggling to retain and hire physicians? Wouldn’t it be amazing if your colleagues were more engaged and excited about practicing medicine?
If you are a wellness leader looking to bring meaningful and impactful wellness interventions to your group, look no further.
Pause and Presence retreats, workshops, and virtual coaching programs are an opportunity to restore, connect, and transform — collectively and as individuals. They are a cost-effective, high-impact investment in rebuilding community, collegiality, optimism, and hope.
A planning meeting to clarify goals, format, and timing is the next step.
“Thank you for your incredible dedication to wellness and helping our doctors find meaning and purpose in their work. “
- Maria Ansari, MD, FACC, CEO and Executive Director, The Permanente Medical Group
Wellness That Works
The way we were taught to think during professional training helps us complete the arduous process of training, but it also makes it challenging to enjoy sustainable, satisfying, and “well” careers.
Trained thought patterns add to the stress and distress of working in a broken healthcare system. They also seep into our personal lives, our parenting, and our intimate relationships.
Pause & Presence team retreats are not simply a day of respite.
Teams who work with me me leave happier, healthier, and more connected and fulfilled. They share a common language and a deep compassion for each other. They leave inspired as and hopeful empowered with effective tools to move forward more sustainably and productively.
It’s challenging to find offerings that feel meaningful rather than performative—especially for exhausted physicians who have heard many well-intended but misguided solutions.
This work is designed to meet physicians and clinicians where they are. It’s grounded in what true about healthcare right now, honest about challenges on all sides, and oriented toward what actually helps.
“This was so valuable. Forget the Zoom wellness events or free apps.
What we need as physicians is this!
-Palliative Care, UCSF
What Changes After a Pause & Presence Retreat
These retreats are about much more than self-care. They are about change.
Teams leave retreats with:
A shared language for what’s happening beneath the surface and more compassion for each other
Practical tools to support individual nervous system regulation and sustainable performance
Perspective-shifting frameworks that get carried back into clinical culture the next day
A felt sense of collegiality, community, and a sense of being valued
In Their Words
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“This was an amazing day and just what my soul needed! I would attend again any time of year, any day.”
- Primary Care, Sutter Health
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“Great way to help make the ongoing practice of medicine sustainable and fulfilling.”
-Hospitalist, PAFMG
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"This retreat was like medicine for life. Prepare for a day learning many critical life skills to help you. ”
-Pediatrics, Sutter East Bay
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“Truly an amazing and transformative experience. Nourishing mind, body, and spirit. Jessie is amazing at what she does.”
- Physician Leader, Women In Cardiology
“Well” Teams are More Productive
They function with more ease and efficiency—and they provide higher quality care.
If your organization is trying to improve engagement, reduce turnover, and rebuild trust inside teams, this is the kind of intervention that supports both people and outcomes—because it helps physicians relate differently to pressure, responsibility,
and each other.
“Don’t underestimate the potential positive practical impact of this experience on improving all aspects of your team’s life.
I encourage all physicians and all teams to invest in this.”
-Chair, Department of Medicine, Santa Clara Valley Medical Center
Organizations who have already brought this work to their team
Organizations who have brought this experience to their teams include the American College of Cardiology, American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Jefferson Healthcare, Santa Clara Valley Medical Center, The Permanente Medical Group/Kaiser, Dignity Health, Sutter Health (including Palo Alto Medical Foundation, Sutter Lakeside, and Sutter East Bay Medical Group), UCSF, Golden Gate Pediatrics, Santa Clara Valley Medical Center, Providence, the Medical University of South Carolina, Tufts, and others.
Are You Hosting Your Own Retreat and Wanting Me to Come Speak?
Some organizations hire me to facilitate the full retreat experience. Other teams already have their retreat planned and want a keynote or workshop inside their event.
If you’re primarily looking for a speaker, head here.
If you’re not sure what you need, choose the planning meeting and we’ll get clear quickly.
“Dr. Mahoney brings the complete package to any wellness event. She is a dynamic leader, innovative teacher, engaging facilitator, and inspirational speaker whom I hold in the highest regard. ”
— Dr. John Chuck, Chief of Regional Physician Wellness, The Permanente Medical Group
Details & Planning
Retreats Include:
Transformative interactive coaching and team-building workshops, yoga and mindfulness sessions with Dr. Jessie Mahoney
A farm-to-table plant-forward vegetarian meal, tea, and treats created by Pause and Presence’s private chef, Mark Mahoney
Retreats can also include cooking classes, forest bathing, and sound healing
CME can be made available for an additional fee.
A short planning meeting helps us choose the right format for your group size, goals, and timeline.
Team Retreat Location
Nicasio Creek Farm is a private 4-acre sunny oasis nestled amidst a redwood forest. It is a purpose-built space 45 minutes north of San Francisco.
It is 15 minutes off 101 on Lucas Valley Road.
The property features a creekside outdoor bamboo retreat deck, a beautiful indoor bamboo yoga studio, a large manicured lawn, an organic micro farm, and luxurious facilities.
*If you would like me to facilitate a full retreat at another location, set up a planning meeting.
Costs
The cost varies depending on the number of participants expected.
Current rates for a one-day team retreat depend on the number of participants. Costs range from $8000 for 4 participants to $17,500 for 20 participants.
Need assistance brainstorming funding options?
As a former wellness leader in a large institution, Jessie is skilled at helping teams secure grant funding, institutional and HR support, and/or funding through cost-sharing using CME
What’s the ROI of a Retreat?
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“This retreat helps encourage a change in mindset that can be crucial for both the MD, their colleagues, and their patients.” – William Cheng, MD, Hospitalist
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“This retreat is profoundly impactful.” -Mundeep Chawla, MD, PAFMG Hospitalist
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“What an absolute joy! Should be a required course! So glad I went.” - Sutter Health Physician
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“I took away granular and actionable tools to practice more mindfully, which will improve my patient care and my professional well-being.” - Adam Janik, MD
Sample Team Retreat Schedule
9:30 am
Connect & Gather
9:45 am - 10:45 am
The Science of Intention
11:00 am - 11:15 am
Experiential Mindfulness & Self-Compassion
11:15 am - 12:30 pm
What Are You Practicing That’s Not Medicine?
12:30 pm - 1:00 pm
Nature As Medicine
1:00 pm - 2:00 pm
Food-As-Medicine and Community Building
2:00 - 2:30 pm
Attending to Your Parasympathetic Nervous System
2:45 - 3:45 pm
The School of Unlearning - Mindset, Mindfulness, & Self-Compassion Coaching
3:45 pm - 4:15 pm
Transition Well - Pearls for Successful Integration
About Dr. Mahoney
Dr. Jessie Mahoney is a wellness expert, certified coach, and yoga and mindfulness instructor. She is also a board-certified pediatrician and former institutional physician leader with over 20 years of experience leading physician wellness at The Permanente Medical Group/Kaiser Permanente.
In 2019, Jessie left TPMG to create Pause & Presence, where she designs and facilitates wellness programs that offer exactly what she knows physicians need to navigate a sustainable and healthy career in medicine today.
She coaches individual physicians and other high achievers, leads bespoke and impactful wellness retreats for teams and individuals, and speaks nationally on the wellness “dilemma.” She is cohost of the Healing Medicine Podcast. She is a graduate of Dartmouth College and UCSF Medical School.
Jessie speaks through the lens of kintsugi—honoring what has been strained or broken without trying to hide it—and offers tools to create something stronger and more sustainable from what has been difficult. She has coached more than 1,000 physicians and physician leaders across the United States and Canada.
“Jessie is a fabulous facilitator - She is truly a deep, wise, curious, brilliant teacher.”
- TPMG San Rafael, APIC, ICU MD
Request a Planning Meeting
I always like to connect in person (virtually or by phone) to discuss and clarify:
what the current challenges on your team are
your current team culture
the outcomes you’re hoping for - engagement, retention, connection, leadership, sustainability
the best format (half-day, full day, workshop series, virtual coaching, add-on CME)
logistics: location, size, budget range, and timing
Looking forward to talking to you soon.
1:1 Physician Development & Leadership Coaching
Leadership Development Workshops
Small Group Coaching Programs
Show humanism and a true commitment to sustainable and high-quality care by supporting your physicians and clinicians with mindset coaching. Mindset coaching is integral to EVERY effective wellness program.
What is coaching?
It is an effective, high-quality, cost-effective, and evidence-based intervention designed to lessen burnout and emotional exhaustion and improve quality of life.
Coaching empowers you with tools and strategies to maintain a fulfilling and sustainable career by helping reduce burnout, anxiety, shame, imposter syndrome, guilt, over-responsibility, and toxic independence. You learn how to take better care of yourself, your family, and your patients/clients.
It’s simple, easy, and quick for Jessie to create an effective virtual coaching program for any institution, anywhere in the world.
Alternatively, sponsor coaching for physician leaders, new physicians, struggling physicians, or mid-career physicians.
Reach out to design an effective and impactful program for your team.
“I can personally attest that as a Family Medicine physician and co-director of Primary Care as well as a mom of two young kids, with a commute, and a partner who also has a demanding job,
I may have left a job I love if it weren’t for my physician coaching and development work with Dr. Mahoney .”
- Dr. Samara Nebendzahl, Sutter East Bay Medical Director & Wellness Lead
What is Coaching Like?
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“Coaching is an incredible value - we need more of this as physicians, and as humans.”
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“The tools I learned apply to so many areas of work and life. I am already seeing a difference in myself and my interactions.”
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“The way Jessie communicates helps you understand the root of your issues and frustrations and makes solutions and changes feel simple to implement.”
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“Jessie reframed situations that allowed me to see things in a different light and invite peace and compassion into situations that initially felt stuck and hopeless. I feel ten times more resilient to the stresses of being a doctor “
Evidence Supporting the Efficacy of Physician Coaching in Improving Quality of Life and Decreasing Physician Burnout
Support your physicians, and improve retention, productivity, quality of care, and physician performance by sponsoring physicians to engage in professional development and leadership coaching
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“Dr. Mahoney brings the complete package to any wellness event. She is a dynamic leader, innovative teacher, engaging facilitator, and inspirational speaker whom I hold in the highest regard. ”
— Dr. John Chuck, Chief of Regional Physician Wellness, The Permanente Medical Group
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“Dr. Mahoney helped me understand my professional goals and how they align with, rather than compete with, my personal goals. She listened to my very specific concerns and helped me outline a plan for work that was achievable. “ - ANESTHESIOLOGIST
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“If you are burned out, tired, or need any coaching and reframing, Jessie is mind-blowingly amazing." - ER MD
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“When I started coaching I felt like I had to save myself or be a doctor. Now I can take care of myself AND do my job well.” - ONCOLOGY
