You may find that the stresses of your role can sometimes cause you to feel overwhelmed or unwell, either physically or mentally. You may indeed already be aware of the concept of self-care, but are unsure about how best to practice it or how you can help yourself improve your level of self-care. You may want to be able to improve patient or client outcomes by improving your own physical and mental health.
It is absolutely vital that those working in a helping capacity attend to their own self-care on a regular basis. As the saying goes, “you can’t pour from an empty cup”.
This essentially means that you are less able to help others if you do not take some time to look after yourself.
We see it in emergency scenarios on planes, where people must fit their own oxygen masks before helping others, and why should this not be the case with mental health too?
If you are interested in learning more about self-care, the National Counselling Society has created a short online course that will help you to put together a comprehensive self-care plan and build a habit of self-care that will stick.
This course aims to teach you about what self-care is (and what it isn’t), and provide you with the skills and knowledge to make an effective self-care plan. You will learn a variety of theories and be given a range of resources to help you learn more about self-care, and put into practice what you have learnt.
For more information about the course, and to register please visit:
https://www.counsellingcpd.org/product/practitioner-self-care-2-cpd-hours.