Over the last couple of weeks I’ve written two blog posts on physical and psychological self-care for helping professionals. Today I’d like to talk about emotional self-care. This is an important aspect of self-care for helping professionals because of our exposure to intense emotions and traumatic experiences in our work with clients/patients. As helping professionals (and caring human beings) it’s normal to feel a variety of emotions during our work (e.g., exhausted, drained, sad, mad, etc.) with clients and patients. Maintaining professional boundaries in our practice takes effort, and it’s important for us to attend to our own emotional self-care.

Consider the following questions about your current level of emotional self-care from a place of curiosity, rather than judgment.

Do you make time for professional supervision or mentoring? Do you have other professionals within, or outside of, your discipline that you can talk to about situations or emotions that come up for you in your practice?
Do you make time for your own personal psychotherapy when needed?
How often do you spend time with others whose company you enjoy?
How would you characterize the frequency in which you stay in contact with important people in your life?
How often do you seek out comforting objects, activities, people, relationships, and places?
How often do you allow yourself to cry or express other emotions?
How often to you give yourself positive affirmations?
What do you love about yourself?
What things make you laugh?
Are you involved in social action or community service that you’re passionate about?

Self-Care Reflection:

What trends did you notice in your emotional self-care behaviors?
What strengths in your emotional self-care behaviors do you have?
Are there areas of your emotional self-care that you would like to begin addressing?

Pick one or two areas of emotional self-care that you would like to, and are willing to, consistently work on. Describe at least one strategy that you are willing to consistently implement.

Example: Spend more time with friends whose company I enjoy

“I will plan, or accept invitations, to spend time with friends at least once a month (e.g., getting together for coffee, going for a walk, meeting for lunch, etc.).”

As you work on your emotional self-care, notice and journal about your feelings. How does it feel to make time to get together with friends whose company you enjoy?

All the best,

Nicole

Nurture Notes for Helping Professionals- Emotional Self-Care