Self-Care and Advocacy for Helping Professionals

Numerous research studies have been done on self-care, taking care of own well-being in various way, for the helping profession, but there is a lack of research for advocacy, support within a profession. There is a need for advocacy in this profession to not only help the profession but also allow more studies to be done to better help professionals understand and use advocacy in their everyday work. Many articles stress the need for self-care to better help clients along with their selves.

These studies allow professionals to see how self-care and advocacy can help, but also see suggestions that have worked for other professionals. Advocacy and self-care are both very important to help helping professionals to avoid burnout. Burnout can be caused by exhaustion, cynicism, and inefficiency. Attending to their own health and wellness is very beneficial.

Literature ReviewSelf-Care“The self-care framework offers a starting place for social work practitioners to assess their engagement in self-care and to establish a systematic and well-considered approach to effectively engage in a comprehensive self-care plan.

”  Not paying attention to self-care can be a downfall for individuals and organizations as a whole. Self-help can help a professional personally and professionally. There is a wide range of definitions for self-care based on various professionals. “A reading of the literature would suggest that self-care has primarily been characterized as a multidimensional phenomenon in which caring for oneself is achieved through the implementation of strategies in the following areas: physical, psychological and emotional, social, spiritual, leisure, and professional”.

Get quality help now

KarrieWrites

Verified

Proficient in: Lawyers

5 (339)

“ KarrieWrites did such a phenomenal job on this assignment! He completed it prior to its deadline and was thorough and informative. ”

+84 relevant experts are online

Hire writer

Realizing that personal self-care and professional self-care are different can help someone have engagement in self-care and prevent burnout.

Stress management is a big factor that goes along with self-care. Many helping professionals use coping mechanisms such as rest/sleep, physical activities, religious activities, support groups, and cooking, but they found nature to be easy and cheap, but beneficial. “The principle of entitlement was founded to be connected with what is needed to believe that “you have to care for yourself first, before you care for others”. Another self-care skill is to change up your daily routine. Partab (2014) suggests to change your music preference, read comic strips before the front page of the newspaper, or wear fun outfits. On top of those skills, there are several more. Meditation allows a professional to only think about one thing at a time, which helping professionals rarely do. Using 5 steps of meditation, preparation and posture, breathing, centering, visualization and imagery, and the word .

Music/dance/ movement therapy is a good way to use their emotional, cognitive, physical, and social integration. Storytelling can help us let out our emotions and help us heal from personal or secondary trauma. The value of humor is very important when it comes to self-care. According to Partrab (2014), this is used as a buffer, which reduces anxiety and improves mood and it reduces pain. Lastly, post-session reflection can help by receiving help from co-workers and debriefing such as in storytelling.According to Lee and Miller, the professional self-care framework presented identifies six primary structures of support that contribute to professional self-care such as the following: workload and time management, attention to professional role, attention to reactions to work, professional social support and self-advocacy, professional development, and revitalization and generation of energy (2013).

Workload and time management is a way for professionals to find efficiency and balance with the work they do with clients and their worker needs. Attention to the professional role allows professionals to fully understand their role and be more likely to refer out or ask for help when they are outside of their role. Attention to reactions to work “may take shape by attending to the cognitive, affective, or behavioral impact of the practitioner’s work with an eye toward self-awareness, stress relief, incorporation of feedback, and preparedness for practice.”. Professional social support and self-advocacy are seen as resources and building a network, according to Lee and Miller (2013). Professional development allows professionals to feel comfortable with their knowledge. Revitalization and generation of energy are having energy and hope about the work you do which keeps a professional going every day.

These are many aspects of professional self-care that allow a professional to take care of themselves to better help others.“Self-care suggestions for therapists routinely include the reminder to establish and maintain healthy emotional boundaries with clients ” (as cited in Maltzman, 2011, p.310). Some suggestions by Maltzman (2011) to establish this are mentally leaving work at work, self-care and self-awareness at work, managing secondary trauma, and supervision. When mentally leaving work at work Maltzman suggests using a transition period from work to home, but should not count the drive home as this time (2011). Self-care and self-awareness at work is important to self-reflect by understanding self and looking at their work. Managing secondary trauma is identifying triggers that could bring on secondary trauma. Secondary trauma is trauma that a person receives from hearing or dealing with someone else’s trauma.

Supervision can be used as support and a safe environment. These few self-care suggestions could make a big difference in a professional’s everyday work day optimally preventing burnout. Intimacy of the counseling profession can cause burnout, and impairment can occur when self-care is not used. Counseling professionals must look at how they describe life, which can change how they counsel others. Showing compassion for ourselves and understanding our trauma does not only help the professional but also the client according to Rudick (2012). “A way of life oriented toward optimal health and well-being in which body, mind, and spirit are integrated by the individual to live life more fully within the human and natural community. Ideally, it is the optimum state of health and well-being that each individual is capable of achieving” . The wellness self-assessment used with the client can be used for counselors to see where they are at according to burnout by looking at certain factors.

Physical health can impair emotional and cognitive health too. Taking care of physical health is easily accessible by doing hinge such as walking, sport hobbies, yoga, and more. It’s easy to find ways to release tension from our bodies such anaerobic exercise and stretching. Mental health self-care can be accomplished by journaling, allowing the professional to be with their thoughts and feelings. Spiritual self-care is finding a connection with reflecting such as meditation, prayer, reading, gardening, time in nature, and finding a community with people that think the same . Connecting these self-care attributes is very beneficial for counseling professionals. Professionals need to keep their hierarchy of needs in mind when participating in self-care.

“Physiological; basic survival needs, safety and security; have shelter and feel safe, love and belonging; needs for affiliation, self-esteem; have confidence in yourself, and self-actualization; fulfillment and realization of potential”. Even when a professional focuses on their needs they need to learn how to respond to stress. Some examples are resting, eating well, exercising, using humor, relaxing, seeking professional help, reflecting, and managing time. Personal growth is key for a helping professional to better self. Personal growth challenges personal ideas and becomes more vital in training and career. Making rest stops along the way allows professionals exchange support and encouragement with their peers.

This also allows time to reflect their experiences. Lifelong learning goes hand in hand with personal and professional growth. Continuing to learn throughout the career experience allows professionals to learn new ways and take time to reflect and self-care. Being intune with basic needs a human needs allows professionals to also participate in self-care.Self-Advocacy and Professional AdvocacyProfessional advocacy can help professionals with their self-care by allowing people to know and understand the profession. Professional advocacy can be established by a common identity, public image, interprofessional and intraprofessional collaboration, counselor advocacy, practitioner research, curriculum materials and resources for advocacy, and a comprehensive plan. Common identity should include clearer identification of what the profession is, provide education on professional advocacy, and facilitate the development of professional identity in trainees and counselors.

Public image includes promoting public’s awareness and access to these services. Interprofessional and intraprofessional collaboration is by being a part of a professional organization. Counselor advocacy is used with training and practice. Practitioner research and curriculum materials and resources for advocacy are advocating for training and research towards the profession. A comprehensive plan is putting all of the advocacy tips together to allow full advocacy for the profession. Advocacy helps professionals to advocate for themselves and their career to allow better self-care to prevent burnout. Recommendations by authorBased on the literature review above the author recommends the following for self-care and advocacy;Self-careChange the daily routine Movement therapyValue sense of humor Social support and self-advocacy (manage workload)Self-reflectionYoga (breathing/physical exercise)Professional development/lifelong learning.

AdvocacyEstablish common identity of the profession promote public’s awarenessConstant training/lifelong learningConclusionSelf-care has a variety of areas that help a professional cope with the grueling profession of counseling and prevent burnout. Although, advocacy does not have as much research for the profession of counseling, making the need for advocacy to be even more necessary in this time period. Advocacy and self-care are essential within the helping profession but are not always utilized. By advocating for the profession, it will allow the awareness of this vigorous job to increase, along with the increase of self-care of these professionals and prevent burnout.Based on the literature review above the author finds many ways of self-care to be beneficial, depending on the professionals need.

The author believes all categories of self care such as: physical wellness, spirituality, reflection, etc. and subcategories of each such as: yoga, value humor, lifelong learning, etc. are key to a well rounded professional.The author finds it very important to change up the seal-care used as it allow the professional not to get into a rut. The author thinks the start for advocacy is in public awareness of what the profession does, the need for it, and the lack of resources for it. This leads to better understanding and more resources for the profession. The author finds a variety of self-care to be most helpful in a grueling helping profession along with great public awareness of the counseling profession itself.