Selfish? The Necessity of Self Care for Mental Health Professionals

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In this episode we talk about the necessity for self care among mental health professionals and why it is important for us to take care of ourselves. We also discuss the stigma behind mental health professionals seeking therapy and sharing their own mental health issues, while also touching on compassion fatigue and burnout.
Here are some of the most common signs of compassion fatigue:

• Diminished feelings of empathy
• Inability to stop thinking about work
• Dreading going to work
• Difficulty sleeping
• Low mood, anger, or irritability
• Social isolation
• Lack of motivation

Self-Care Strategies and Techniques (from positivepsychology.com)

Physical

1. Maintain a healthy and nutritious diet. Ideally with the help of a nutritionist, planning your diet can be vital.
2. Drink plenty of water. Therapists often forget how much energy is being spent listening and talking to patients. Therapists have water set aside for patients; why not for themselves as well?
3. Get enough sleep. Without proper sleep, fatigue may make therapists less able to exert the needed concentration in sessions with patients.

Cognitive

1. Read for leisure. Taking thoughts away from sessions and redirecting them toward things to relax with and enjoy, such as books, can help.
2. Being aware of self-talk, inner thoughts, judgments, and feelings can reduce stress and burnout (Lomas et al., 2019).
3. Participate in personal therapy. It is important to have a separate space for therapists to discuss stressful thoughts and behaviors brought on by delivering therapy.

Emotional

1. Find things that oppose the negative emotions experienced during a session. For example, if a session was particularly sad, watch a funny movie.
2. Practice using positive affirmations, such as praising yourself. As a therapist, you may not feel as if positive praise is warranted for your work, but what you do is important. Positive affirmations can benefit emotional wellbeing, lowering stress and rumination (Koole et al., 1999; Wiesenfeld et al., 2001).
3. Allow yourself to cry. All therapists can feel overwhelmed by emotions; a need to cry can be prevalent. Crying in personal therapy, as well as on your own time and in your own home, can be appropriate.

Spiritual

1. Make time for self-reflection at home, in nature, in a journal, or with a therapist.
2. Be open to not knowing. Therapists ground themselves in research and evidence-based work, but that does not mean therapists always have the answer. Not knowing can be stressful, but accepting that you don’t know everything and releasing yourself from this pressure are important parts of self-care.
3. Spend time in nature. The commute to the office, interactions with many people, and day-to-day administrative tasks can feel like too much at times. Escaping to nature is a key aspect of a self-care break.

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