Therapeutic Self-Care

When identifying uses and meanings of ‘self-care’, I first looked in a dictionary. The concept was defined in the Shorter Oxford dicitonary as, “Self-care (noun) taking care of one-self; self-interested behavior.” I searched the internet to get a generalized view of how the concept was being used and it was defined on Wikipedia as, “Self-care refers to actions and attitudes which contribute to the maintenance of well-being, personal health, and promotion of human developent.” I searched data bases for scholary peer reviewed articlew and retrieved limited amount of English articles on self-care. Key word searches consisted of self-care, self-care maintenance, and self-management. The definitions and uses of the concept were fairly broad. I narrowed the search to post-op patients and self-care. The two uses for the concept in the post op patient would be self-care of the post op patient and also supportive care to promote self-care of the post-op patient. The supportive care could be from a nursing system or a family member.

The philosophy that underlies the counseling profession is unique among mental health professionals. According to Remley & Herlihy (2014), the philosophy is made up of four components. First, counselor 's view mental health challenges through a positive, wellness-oriented lens. The primary goal of the wellness model is for the client to achieve the highest degree of mental health possible. Psychiatrists, psychologists, and social workers follow the medical model of mental health. The goal of these clinicians is to cure the client’s illness, which differs drastically from counselor’s view of clients.

“Counseling’s focus on development, prevention, wellness, and treatment makes it attractive to those seeking healthy life-stage transitions and productive lives” (pearson). In the early 1900’s, there was a movement within the counseling profession that centered on promoting the prevention and the objects that provided purpose in a person’s life. The idea was to help individuals avoid problems and “focus on wellness, development, mindfulness, meaningfulness, and remediation of mental disorders” (pearson). This was the beginning of one of the three philosophies that comprises the key philosophies of counseling.

This How a client perceives a counselor is very important in how they effective they feel they

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.

During the following assignment I am going to explore how I myself, through the studying of counselling skills and theory, have developed my understanding of self and how I apply this within whatever environment I am placed in.

Values, Morals, and Beliefs are components that play a role in an individual’s self-identity. The establishment of these components shape human nature, behavior, and the development of an individual’s purpose. The basis of these fundamentals has contributed to my desire to become a counselor. This paper will discuss my views of human nature, factors of behavior changes, goals of therapy, the roles of a therapist, and the counseling approaches that I chose to incorporate in a practice.

The first portion of this paper will cover the current research that relates to the topic of self-care. Kathleen Cino (2016) wrote an article on Learning Balance: Self- Care in Nursing Curriculum and she discusses the thoughts on finding balance between the work of nursing and working on ourselves. The author talks about the importance of allowing time for reflection and relaxation. Allowing personal time for these matters allows for better, quality care to patients, and being able to teach patients

This essay intends to introduce the reader to the most important skills involved within developing and maintaining a therapeutic relationship between a client and the therapist or counsellor. The onus will be on Humanistic counselling but many of these skills are central to all counselling types.

Counselors have a responsibility to monitor their effectiveness, in order to do this they need someone who is trained to assist them in understanding what is effective. Counselors have to seek supervision when appropriate and in order to do so a program needs to be in place that has supervisors readily available. The absence of clinical supervision may lead to counselors-in-training to lack the necessary skills to be a successful and productive counselor. Counselors need to develop a comprehensive understanding of the setting, population, needs, contexts and tasks of a counselor. As explained by Milne and Oliver (2000), Clinical supervision is central to initial professional training and to continuing professional development. It is necessary for counselors-in-training to refine their skills and get assistance in applying theories to any issues they may encounter with their clients. In addition to the everyday assistance necessary, a supervisor needs to present/model ethical behavior and counseling practices. In any profession the need for improvement is prominent and therefore any assistance and feedback given is appreciated and necessary. Expectations are increasing and therefore supervision is expected. Evidence shows that supervision results in school counselors’ increased effectiveness and accountability, improved professional development, and improved job performance, confidence, and comfort

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

As a counselor, being aware of the theoretical approaches and which ones best suit your perspective on human nature, complications, and change for an individual is vital. Not only is understanding the approaches important, but the counselor’s own values and personal philosophy are equally fundamental for the counselor to do their job efficiently.

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

Samuel Seium. I believe in the importance for self-care with counselors because we need to be fully available to our clients so that we can help them in dealing with their concerns. I personally understand the importance of self-care because when I was a counselor at a program that works with severe mental ill and substance abuse clients, I did not know anything about self-care, which caused me to get burnt out at work. Once I was burnt out, it was hard to get my energy back and I found myself getting quickly frustrated at work. That was when my manager explained to me about self-care to prevent burnout. Since that conversion with my manager, it has been my goal to avoid burnout by participating in self-care activities.

This is an overview of personal thoughts regarding the views of human nature and goals made therapeutically as a professional counselor. The paper will include a description of my therapeutic process and evaluations of other theories which I believe to share common ground with and other theories I do not agree with. The roles and duties of a counselor will be clarified. The relationship between the counselor and client will be illuminated, regarding what the relationship should consist of. There will be shared insight on what is believed to bring about changes in behavior.