Burnout: The Importance of Self-Care for School Counseling Professionals

Christina Celfo and Jaclyn Macchi Montclair State University

Compassion for others begins with kindness to ourselves. Pema Chodron
Key Concepts
Research Findings
Collaboration and Future Research
Critical Readings
Implications for Counselors
Writer Thomas M. Skovholt (2001) provides an analogy to
demonstrate the effects of stress on counselors:
Counseling often involves attaching and being wired emotionally
to the other [clients] [Its] as if ones battery is connected to the
others battery to jumpstart it (p.87).
The process of jumpstarting is equivalent to school counseling,
the exploration of the negative emotions students feel and the
recovery to a healthy mindset.
Counselors have a direct connection to stress-inducing emotions,
thereby increasing the likelihood of burnout.
Burnout is chronic, occupational stress that debilitates a
counselor personally and professionally. Self-care entails
burnout preventative measures that promote a congruent lifestyle
and a positive, healthy attitude.
Concepts include:
Counselors experience psychological and professional stress
when providing therapeutic services to students.
Failing to implement and acknowledge the need for self-care
results in burnout.
Proactive self-care plans ensure the well-being of the
counselor and ultimately the student.
Self-care empowers counselors to recognize when they are
in distress and to decide what remedies best fit their needs.
Evans and Payne (2008) argue it is imperative for counselors to
implement self-care into their daily routines, thus ensuring a
healthy lifestyle personally and professionally.
The high demands of school counseling, specifically addressing
mental health issues of students, has been a topic of interest
since the 1990s (Gunduz, 2012, p. 1762).
The ACA Code of Ethics advocates self-care in standard C.2.g.
Impairment it is the counselors professional duty to be alert
to the signs of impairment from their own physical, mental, or
emotional problems . . . [and] seek assistance for problems that
reach the level of professional impairment (pp. 9-10).
Figley (2002) discusses disengagement as a cognitive
technique that enables counselors to set up protective
boundaries. This response is commonly known as compassion
fatigue.
Counselors are advised to increase their self-awareness, and
create and implement a self-care plan when experiencing
burnout symptoms.
OMara suggests a self-care plan includes:
(1) Getting sleep, (2) Eating nutritiously, (3) Taking time to relax,
(4) Getting in touch with your inner self, and (5) Exercising.
Collaboration
Connecting with other counseling professionals to stay relevant on
new self-care practices.
Establishing a support network for counselors within their
respective school districts.
Brainstorming and testing new self-care techniques with fellow
counseling professionals.
Future Research
Tracking school counselors mental health over a period of time (1,
5, 10 school years) to gauge the efficacy of self-care plans.
Investigating the most common and most successful self-care
practices in the school counseling field.
Acquiring Counseling Skills: Integrating Theory, Multiculturalism, and
Self-awareness. (2010) MacCluskie
Breakthrough counselor burnout: Having a balanced lifestyle is key to
helping others. (2009) OMara
Compassion fatigue: Psychotherapists chronic lack of self-care. (2002)
Figley
Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association. (2010)
Self-efficacy and burnout in professional school counselors. (2012)
Gunduz
Support and self-care: Professional reflections of six New Zealand high
school counselors. (2008) Evans and Payne
The Resilient Practitioner: Burnout prevent and self-care strategies for
counselors, therapists, teachers and health professionals. (2001)
Skovholt
CHRISTINA CELFO AND JACLYN MACCHI MONTCLAIR STATE UNIVERSITY