Assignment: Develop a Self-Care Plan

Counselors engage in self-care activities to maintain and promote their own emotional, physical, mental, and spiritual well-being to best meet their professional responsibilities.
—2014 ACA Code of Ethics, Section C: “Professional Responsibility,” Introduction

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To be successful in your mental health counseling career and remain passionate about serving clients, it is necessary to maintain personal and professional wellness. Helping clients, while intrinsically rewarding, is difficult work. Counseling sessions are often filled with intense client stories, experiences, and emotions that can be stressful for you as well as for the client. Focusing solely on clients and losing sight of yourself can have a significant impact on your effectiveness as a counselor and can potentially lead to burnout.

For this Assignment, you will develop a Self-Care Plan that you can use to help maintain your personal and professional wellness.

To Prepare:

Review the results from your VIA Survey of Character Strengths, which you completed in this week’s Discussion.
Review the Learning Resources related to self-care.
Review the Self-Care Plan Template you will use to help create your plan.

Assignment:

Complete your Self-Care Plan using the template.

Self-Care Plan

Created by:

On Date:

This is your Self-Care Plan. There are no right or wrong answers. There is no “perfect” way to complete it—you can do so with words, pictures, links, or other creative ways. Be authentic and identify what is right for you at this time. Remember that you can always change your mind and adjust your plan! This document is evolving and flexible, a place to start. This is your contract with yourself to prioritize your health and well-being throughout your graduate school journey. Welcome!

How do you know when you are stressed and need to practice extra self-care? What are the signs?

Take some time to think about your current self-care. What do you currently do?

Mind

Current Practices:

Body

Current Practices:

Social or Cultural

Current Practices:

Spirit

Current Practices:

Identify new, quick, and easy practices that you could consider trying for each area (examples are given below; you can use these examples if you wish, but come up with your own as well!)

Mind

(e.g., watching a comedy on TV or reading a book)

New Practices:

Body

(e.g., going for a short walk or dancing in the living room)

New Practices:

Social or Cultural

(e.g., game night with your kids or calling a friend)

New Practices:

Spirit

(e.g., closing your eyes for 2 minutes and breathing deeply, or listening to your favorite music)

New Practices:

Identify three people you can call or visit to talk about your thoughts and feelings:

Identify three affirmative statements, inspirational quotes, images, or links to videos that remind you of your strengths: (e.g., “I know I am strong enough to accomplish this goal,” or listing your strengths from your VIA Survey of Character Strengths)

Emergency Self-Care Contract

If I notice any of the following signs or symptoms of stress, I commit to find time to take my own good advice. I will avoid doing the following:

Instead, I commit to taking care of myself and nurturing my well-being by engaging in the following activities, behaviors, or actions, keeping in mind that my mind, body, socio-cultural self, and spirit all need to be cared for (list at least three, but feel free to list as many as you like):

I will contact one of the following people to talk to them about my feelings and thoughts:

I will review the following to remind me of my strengths:

If appropriate, I will reach out to one of the following available Walden resources if I find I am struggling in school because I am overwhelmed: