Breathing Words Slowly: Creative Writing and Counselor Self-Care—The Writing Workout

Abstract

Professional counselors work daily with compassion and connection, yet must also manage trauma and pain. Clients' stories of loneliness, fear, abuse, and anger frequently fill the landscape of a counselor's work. Counselors may experience burnout, compassion fatigue, and vicarious trauma by failing to recognize and adequately address the negative emotions and thoughts they may unintentionally carry from their work. By prioritizing and attending to self-awareness and self-care, counselors maintain their clinical efficacy and personal well-being. This article presents creative writing as a valuable self-care technique, offers a writing structure for counselors to use, and includes two brief illustrations of creative writing that promote self-care.Spring comes with its flowers, autumn with the moon, summer with breezes, winter with snow; when useless things don't stick in the mind, that is your best season.

Dear Mental Health Practitioners, Take Care of Yourselves: a Literature Review on Self-Care

“…Researchers have recommended a variety of methods for improving awareness among mental health practitioners, including participation in an Acceptance and Commitment Therapy course (Pakenham 2017), mindfulness and meditation training (Boellinghaus et al 2013) and self-reflection (Knapp et al 2017;Ng et al 2017). Creative writing is another practice that has been recommended to foster awareness among counsellors (Warren et al 2010). While it has been argued that Btoo much^self-awareness can hinder professional work by distracting the practitioner during a therapy session (Williams et al 2003), the literature generally supports the need for mental health professionals to practice on-going self-awareness of their experiences (Barnett et al 2007).…”

“…In fact, engaging in professional development on a regular basis is recommended for therapist self-care (Knapp et al 2017), and is increasingly being made mandatory by professional associations. Other practices that can promote flexibility are setting and reappraising goals (Wityk 2003), engaging in expressive writing or journaling (Baddeley and Pennebaker 2011;Warren et al 2010), and engaging in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (Rudaz et al 2017).…”

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“…If there were greater accessibility to personal counseling services, there may be a higher likelihood that personal counseling would be used by the counseling profession. The results of these goals may include counselors who are more effective at treating others, less likely to damage clients, more prepared when their own personal issues arise as a result of their professional work (they would already have the connection to supportive services), and may prevent levels of burnout, compassion fatigue, and/or vicarious trauma (Warren, Morgan, Morris, & Morris, 2010). Rizg & Target (2008) identified positive results from engaging in personal counseling, such as relationship-building can lead to more detailed emotional stories, endorsing the experience, and supporting it as a requirement.…”

Falling From Grace: Understanding an Ethical Sanctioning Experience

“…Journal writing can be an effective way to promote reflection, self‐awareness, and understanding (Gladding, 1987, 2007; La Torre, 2005; Pennebaker, 2004; Warren, Morgan, Morris, & Morris, 2010; Williams, Gerardi, Gill, Soucy, & Taliaferro, 2009). Excerpts from C.C.…”