Infusing Self-Care and Wellness into CACREP Curricula: Pedagogical Recommendations for Counselor Educators and Counselors during COVID-19

Abstract

Although self-care and wellness practices are important in counselor education, they have yet to be mapped and incorporated into the CACREP curriculum. Counselor educators are called to teach and model these practices for counselors in training (CIT) in a post-pandemic reality. The authors provide specific recommendations for integrating self-care and wellness practices across the CACREP curriculum in counselor education training programs, as well as pragmatic approaches for professional counselors, to address the paucity of literature.

Review about Online Educational Guidance during the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…The pandemic situation had a great impact on guidance work, as the functions of the guidance counsellor had to be adapted and expanded; therefore, there was an imbalance in their established functions [30], while others had to be reduced or even dispensed with. The impact on guidance work could be seen as mainly negative; however, the fact that it has Of particular interest are the articles by Tandon (2020) [32] and Wise (2021) [7], with 103 and 34 citations, respectively.…”

“…Because of this rapid adaptation and shift towards the full use of ICTs, educational counsellors who have provided services for the duration of the COVID-19 pandemic may be at increased risk of post-traumatic stress and burnout [29]. They may also have difficulty balancing their roles as educators, professional counsellors and supervisors in ways that result in the neglect of their practices [30]. To avoid this situation, some research proposes that it is important to highlight the importance of the cultivation of resilience and self-care practices by counsellors [29].…”

COVID Issues: Impact on Families and Family Planning

“…While counselors are still learning about the psychological influences of this global pandemic, their increased understanding of previous detrimental consequences of engaging in social isolation can be extremely beneficial in assisting their clients in navigating the new challenges that they encounter, particularly in navigating challenges related to family planning concerns. Just as self-care strategies are recommended to counselors to decrease burnout during the pandemic (Harrichand et al, 2021), counselors can recommend self-care strategies to their clients who are coping with concerns related to reproductive issues during the pandemic.…”

COVID‐19 and pre‐tenure counseling faculty: A collaborative autoethnographic investigation

“…With the onset of the global pandemic, higher education institutions made a series of decisions in response to growing COVID‐19 concerns in early 2020 (Gibson et al., 2020 ; Harrichand et al., 2021 ; Levine et al., 2021 ; Malisch et al., 2020 ), including adapting to online and hybrid formats and developing new policies and procedures. For counseling faculty, this included altering advising, practicum, internship, and clinical supervision, as well as ensuring COVID‐compliant programmatic standards and policies aligned with the Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs (CACREP, 2015 ) standards.…”

“…In early career, faculty depend on institutionally valued contributions (Brazeau & Woodward, 2012 ), pursuing excellence in research, teaching, and service while building professional dossiers for promotion and tenure (Gibson et al., 2020 ; Levine et al., 2021 ; Stephens et al., 2020 ). The pandemic exacerbated the challenges (Harrichand et al., 2021 ): canceled conferences and presentations; minimal guidance in online education; decreased teaching evaluation scores; increased departmental service for addressing COVID concerns; and research stalling as participants, reviewers, and researchers struggled with the pandemic (Levine et al., 2021 ; Stephens et al., 2020 ). Pre‐tenure faculty encountered exceedingly high expectations from students, administrators, and senior faculty while processing and navigating their own pandemic experiences (Levine et al., 2021 ; Stephens et al., 2020 ).…”