Introduction
Today, much attention and resources are defined and spent to offer professional counseling to the population. In most cases, counselors are individuals who help clients manage their lives and empower individuals to solve their problems, make decisions, and maintain emotional and physical well-being. It is expected that an expert in this field is able to put aside personal judgments and cooperate with different patients. It is not enough to establish trusting relationships but also to offer help without directly interfering in their lives. Thus, the burden level is hard to recognize, and self-care plays an important role in professional counseling practice in predicting work stress, dissatisfaction, and turnover. Education, cooperation, behavioral changes, and communication are the main aspects of self-care interventions for counseling professionals to be integrated through education and social support.
Need and Purpose
The conditions under which counseling professionals work vary, depending on the population’s needs and other external factors that affect human behaviors. The need for this advocacy project is to prove that even the best professionals should take care of themselves and learn the interventions that might improve their well-being. The purpose of the project is not only to describe counseling obligations and challenges but identify the strategies and prove the possibility of their implementation today.
Population
In this project, the population is a group of professional counselors who report low job satisfaction, stress, and burnout. According to Posluns and Gall (2020), counselors are mental health practitioners who have to work in a one-way caring culture. These professionals should demonstrate compassion, empathy, and patience to their patients and develop relationships for emotional support (Posluns & Gall, 2020). As well as any other employees, they cannot deal with job burnout on their own and professional help must be found in other settings.
Goals
The goals or intentions of the current project are directed at the improvement of counseling professionals’ well-being. First, counselors need to keep learning and manage their time to discover new and interesting things and ideas. Second, the strategies should be individual, so it is easy for counselors to take self-care anytime they need it. Finally, most interventions must address burnout and other work-related challenges and problems. It is possible to find experts who cooperate with counselors and show potential threats to solve. At the same time, the idea of self-care is the encouragement for counselors to improve their well-being and create a safe working environment independently.
Strategies
Education is one of the most effective interventions to promote self-care for counseling professionals. Although most people have a solid academic background in the field, additional training and courses on self-care are highly recommended (Lemmons & Zanskas, 2019). Educational booklets, access to current and reliable literary sources, and behavioral guidelines should be available to counselors at home and at work (Dineen-Griffin et al., 2019). It is not a shame to admit that new knowledge is obligatory for experts because modern technologies, preventive techniques, and additional support are constantly developing. Counselors should have some time to learn innovations and apply them in their professional life.
Another strategy is based on what counselors can do to improve their behaviors and thinking abilities. Yoga and massage may be offered to relieve physical and emotional stress (Lemmons & Zanskas, 2019). Diaries and mobile applications allow to control their changes and identify the factors that bring positive and negative emotions (Dineen-Griffin et al., 2019). Communication with colleagues is another way to endorse self-care during regular meetings. It is possible to ask questions, share personal and professional experiences, and observe how different people cope with similar problems. Self-care is a chance to improve health without addressing medications and other pharmacological interventions but focusing on personal needs.
Roles and Responsibilities
When counseling professionals address some help to manage their emotional conditions and solve their working challenges, they want to cooperate with another expert and learn something new. Thus, the roles and responsibilities of helping professionals should be clearly identified and fulfilled. First, it is necessary to listen to the client and recognize the core issue of the problem. Second, additional resources, recommendations from specialized organizations, and written guidelines must be developed and shared (Dineen-Griffin et al., 2019). Communication is a good way to promote self-care, but counselors might want to work independently, and printed material can be effective (Lemmons & Zanskas, 2019; Posluns & Gall, 2020). Following ethical standards and maintaining confidence are the two critical responsibilities that are never ignored.
Individuals who cooperate with counseling professionals understand that these patients are special because they are highly aware of possible interventions and lifelong hints. Thus, helping professionals focus on professional issues, time management, and mindfulness to support their clients (Posluns & Gall, 2020). Instead of asking questions, they might predict answers and make counselors participate in these care processes. Self-care practice needs to advance understanding of a situation, and helpers introduce the best sources and innovative techniques.
Intended Outcomes
If all recommendations are properly followed, and the goals of strategies and interventions are achieved, several positive outcomes may be observed. First, the level of stress in clients will be significantly reduced (Posluns & Gall, 2020). This achievement will allow predicting the development of other cardiovascular diseases, depression, and obesity (Dineen-Griffin et al., 2019). When a person is able to recognize stress symptoms and turn for help immediately, mental and physical health improvements will be noticeable. Compared to stress, when emotions are overactive, and energy is lost, burnout is characterized by blunted reactions, the feeling of helplessness, and poor motivation. The possibility of managing burnout is another outcome of self-care interventions. Finally, improved self-esteem and self-confidence will be observed because counseling professionals learn how to solve their concerns.
Instead of avoiding problems, counselors will be ready to continue their practice and help others do the same. Personal experience in self-care is a good chance to understand what other people feel and need when they are at risk of stress and burnout complications. Self-care is a source of inspiration and additional motivation for creating an encouraging culture of wellness (Lemmons & Zanskas, 2019). Cooperation, communication, and a work-life balance will be restored in counselors to complete their primary function as mental health practitioners.
Conclusion
Despite the common thought that counseling professionals should help the population and solve someone’s problems, this group of practitioners might also need assistance from time to time. Work overload, burnout, depression, and stress provoke low self-esteem and reduce their readiness to offer professional services. Self-care strategies need to be developed and implemented for counseling professionals to reboot and find new sources of inspiration. Education, communication with colleagues, physical training, and mental practices are effective methods in such situations. This project shows how to cooperate with a counselor and introduce self-care as a solution to follow.
References
Dineen-Griffin, S., Garcia-Cardenas, V., Williams, K., & Benrimoj, S. I. (2019). Helping patients help themselves: A systematic review of self-management support strategies in primary health care practice.PloS One, 14(8). Web.
Lemmons, R., & Zanskas, S. (2019). Residential counselors and self care: A retrospective qualitative Study of archival interview data.Health Services Research and Managerial Epidemiology, 6. Web.
Posluns, K., & Gall, T. L. (2020). Dear mental health practitioners, take care of yourselves: A literature review on self-care.International Journal for the Advancement of Counselling, 42(1), 1-20. Web.