The Effect Of Spending Time On Nature And Its Stress Reducing Capabilities

Counseling is defined as ”the use of therapeutic strategies to help clients address personal concerns and mental health issues” (Nystul, 2016). Pursuing counseling as a career involves many years of formal study and certification or licensure. After receiving licensure to practice as a professional counselors it is a requirement to maintain involvement and certification in certain associations in order to hold your license. These association often require further education and/or professional practice in order to maintain membership in these associations. It is quite obvious that counseling requires a large amount of commitment and passion in order to pursue it as a career and maintain a title as a counselor. I have conducted an interview with a professional counselor in order to further understand the experience of being a counselor. The interview that I conducted explores the requirements of maintaining and receiving a counselling career, the experience of being a counselor, and what characteristics or skills a professional may have. The Individual who agreed to the interview was a counselor by the name of Susie Facio. Susie Facio, through this interview, will be giving us a look at what influenced her to become a counselor, what her work entails on a day to day basis, and what qualities and skills she has acquired in order to become a successful counselor.

The National Association of Social Workers’ Code of Ethics acknowledges the challenges caused by compassion fatigue and promotes the importance of self-care in the social work profession. According to the NASW Code of Ethics, “[p]rofessional self-care in social work is critical to maintaining ethical and professional behavior and providing competent services to clients across diverse settings” (NASW, 2009, p. 269). They also provide ways in which to support social workers and help alleviate the stress of the profession. Along with the services already provided, the NASW supports “the development of creative and innovative support services for social workers, which may include supports groups, professional retreats, Web site resources, online support, and chat groups” (NASW, 2009, p. 270). The National Association of Social Worker’s view on self-care is very beneficial and complimentary to the way in which I also view self-care.

Burnout is defined as an internal psychological experience that involves feelings, attitudes, motives and expectations. Burnout means the energy of an individual has been consumed by helping others. Energy crisis occurs when the psychic demand exceeds the supply. Burnout is often experienced with a state of physical, mental and emotional exhaustion caused by a long-term involvement within an emotionally demanding situation. Burnout is often accompanied by physical depletion, feelings of helplessness, disillusionment, negative self-concept and negative attitudes toward employment, people and life in itself. Burnout represents a breaking point where it’s hard for an individual to cope with the environment surrounding them. Compassion fatigue is often caused by a work related stress and it is also an increase of loss in compassion over a period of time. Compassion fatigue can share similar

Self-care, by definition, is to take care of oneself without professional supervision (Self-care, n.d.). It is imperative for both seasoned as well as upcoming counselors to understand this term and how it should be applied in the field of Clinical Mental Health Counseling. In order for the counselor to benefit from this knowledge he or she must understand several aspects related to self-care strategies. To name a few are as follows; successful adherence to a self-care plan, personal development theory as it relates to supervision or mentoring, and understanding the qualities that lead to a therapeutic self.

Oser, Bieble, Pullen, and Harp (2013) report taking a vacation is always a good thing for someone who is experiencing burnout. Although, it is easier to commit to a prevention plan to help yourself from suffering from burnout, than trying to eliminate or reduce it after it has set in. Lenz and Sangganjanavanich (2015) report it is important that counselors maintain their wellness if they are to be affective in helping their client to achieve their own personal wellness. The mental health counseling field can be exhausting, and if the counselor is not taking care of themselves prior to meeting these demands it can be mentally, physically, and emotionally

Social workers deal with intense situations daily. It is important that social workers are aware of how they are affected by these interactions. Priscilla Dass-Brailsford explains in her book, that countertransference, vicarious trauma (VT), secondary traumatic stress, compassion fatigue and satisfaction, and burnout are all different ways that counselors can be affected (Dass-Brailsford, 2007). This is where it is important for social workers to have a plan of self-care and stress management resources to use.

According to Wester, Trepal, and Myers (2009, p. 91), “well counselors are more likely to produce well clients.” Thus, the mental, physical, and emotional health of the counselors has the ability to affect their clients. ACA (2005) states that “Counselors act to avoid harming their clients”. Moreover, counselors have an ethical obligation to evaluate, address, and improve their wellness when necessary (Wolf, Thompson, Thompson, & Smith-Adcock, 2014). Research shows that higher organizational stress was associated with lower client participation in the treatment program (Landrum, Knight, & Flynn, 2012). In addition, the working alliance between the counselor and the client is diminished due to high stress and burnout (O’Sullivan, 2012). A counselor who experiences burnout may lack empathy, respect, positive feeling, therapeutic gridlock, and or boundary violations (Wallace, Lee, & Lee, 2010). Therefore, it is vital for counselors to remediate their impairments when they occur. Counselors have to be aware of the signs and symptoms related to their own mental or emotional problems (ACA, 2005). Likewise, counselors should build resiliency against burnout. Resiliency is built by a continuation of healthy decision making (Wester, Trepal, & Myers, 2009). Counselors should seek help or assistance when they observe warning signs of personal impairment, not just for themselves, but for the wellbeing of

The implied message is that therapists should always be aware that they could become tired of helping people, because after so long with helping numerous clients, they can start to feel wore out. The appeal being used is pathos, because therapists must use strong emotions with their clients to help their outcomes become successful. This book discusses the main causes of burnout, as well as several techniques used to keep burnout from happening. This book is an informative read, and really reaches into the deep issues of burnout in therapists, which will help me with plenty of ideas for my

When attempting to identify as a professional counselor, it is important to understand the basic elements of counseling as it pertains to individual specializations. The wellness model and the key philosophies of the counseling profession: wellness, resilience and prevention are examined. The ability to articulate the roles and characteristics to understand how they relate to the different professional roles is

When a counselor or Therapist work in agencies they need have a wellness plan in place to prevent these types of symptoms from being over worked with limited support available to delegate other responsibilities of their workload to others. Since agencies may put the counselor or psychotherapist at a higher risk due to emotional exhaustion. A state of isolation and detachment causes a person to experience compassion fatigue when counselors or psychotherapists constantly interact with clients who experience distress. Compassion fatigue impede on a counselor’s empathy which causes them to extreme

Working as a therapist can be exhausting, but yet, rewarding at the same time. As a therapist we deal with daily encounters of other people’s lives, issues, problems etc. Taking multiple cases of providing therapeutic interventions has an effect on the human body and the psyche. The wear and tear over time begins to haunt us without recognizing how neglectful we can be towards ourselves because our focus is for the sake of other people’s sanity. The profession is hard, and can be detrimental to professionals who do not take care of themselves. Self-care is an important aspect when working as a therapist. Our health, mental health, spiritual values, etc. should matter just as the client’s health, mental health and spiritual values matters

summary, a fair amount of research has been conducted on burnout and compassion fatigue. it is important to understand the individual factors that lead to the development of burnout and compassion fatigue. Another purpose is to understand whether or not the experience of STS is limited only to those who have direct contact with individuals who are experiencing trauma symptoms. Additionally, most literature that discusses coping with compassion fatigue focuses on self-care techniques rather than on an effective style of cognitive appraisal. Common assumptions are that effective coping styles for healthcare workers will generalize to the mental health field. The present study also aims to identify a coping profile indicating whether or not a

Identifying the problem statement is the first step in determining what the issue is and why it is important for research. Once that has been determined formulation of the problem can been done which helps lay the groundwork for writing a research paper. In addition, the problem that has been chosen as a topic for research is, Are social workers at a higher-risk for burnout and compassion fatigue because of job stress? The problem statement is will educating social workers about burnout and fatigue decrease the possibility of burnout. Furthermore, this paper will discuss the scope of this problem such as the background and what the differences are in compassion fatigue and burnout and the purpose of why this research study is important in social work practice.

However, they are contributing attributes to compassion fatigue. Since the 1980’s, burnout has been a topic researched and impacts three elements, emotional exhaustion, cynicism, and professional inefficacy (Garcia-Izquierdo, Meseguer de Pedro, Soler Sanchez and Isabel Rios-Risquez, 2018). This mental distress leads to substandard care, putting the safety of a patient at risk. Additionally, nurses who suffer from this syndrome, experience poor quality of life and compromised personal health. In like manner, secondary traumatic stress can also exacerbate manifestations of compassion fatigue. “STS is a multifaceted state of exhaustion and dysfunction in which employees take on an emotional strain and burden and suffer themselves,” (Syed Muhammad Imran Haider, Yaqoob, & Saeed, 2017, p 314). Routinely exposed to traumatic situations as a result of caregiving, puts an emotional strain on the nurse causing them to suffer themselves. With this, work place environments are equally fundamental when completing a complete study of compassion

It is evident that the relationship between work stress and mental health has been established by numerous research studies. As discussed in Koesky (1993), the fact that all jobs involve some degree of stress makes it all the more alarming as to the level of stress experienced by individuals working in the human services. That is, given that these individuals are heavily involved in the lives of others, they often develop mental health symptoms that are characteristic of work-related stressors. In fact, “This involvement, which requires caring commitment and empathic responding, places workers at risk for a special type of strain commonly referred to as 'burnout'” (Koesky, 1993, p. 319).