Wellness Plan/Self Care

Self-Care

         The ACA Code of Ethics states that self-care should be in their routine to remain competent in their field. The ACA states, “In addition, 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” (ACA, 2014). A counselor will have a lot of emotions and buildup of situations to where it can wear out the counselor, and if self-care isn’t in their routine, the counselor is at stake to overwhelm and become a problem for their clients and lose their license.

With the requirement of self-care in the life of a counselor, I need to know what ways I will indulge in self-care and how I can remain competent to help clients. I plan on creating a balanced work and personal life by have “me” time as well as time for my friends. I like to socialize and creating time to go out and have fun with friends is a necessity for me on a day to day basis. A change of routine is important to me because I realize that it helps me maintain a sense of un-expectation to avoid burnout. According to Boy and Pine, they state that another way to avoid burnout is to create professional goals which will increase role demands. A counselor can also develop a personal question that is “who am I and where am I going?” (Boy & Pine, 1980, p. 161-163). Usually if I feel down from burnout, instead of cooping up in my bed with tv, I socialize and that makes me feel better. A way I maintain this balance is planning. I will plan a night within the week with friends to hangout, and other nights to do other self-care activities. Some other self-care activities I participate is in physical activity. I usually workout, play with my cats, and dance. I realized that being a dancer, it overall keeps me balanced physically and mentally. Dancing to me is a way to express my emotions, like venting to a friend, and it keeps me active, so I do not gain weight. Working out plays the same role as dance, it clears my mind as well as keeping me in shape. Animals are also a relief of tense emotions I sometimes go through. My cats are like emotional support animals and seeing them be all cute and playful makes me destress and be happy.

Some other self-care activities like reading a book or meditating are something I would like to start getting involved in. I have meditated in the past and sometimes it helps, but other times it does not because my brain is so active. Reading also usually does not work with my brain as well, I always have too much going on around me that deters my focus. I can always separate myself from what is going on around me to be able to meditate or read a book as well. I can see it being easier in the future when I do not have a million things going on as I do currently. Some red flags that I may need to address to avoid impairment is to not put too much on my plate because it creates a mood to not do anything. Usually that is just a lack of motivation, but I once had too much on my plate to the point where I did not want to do it, and eventually was wanting to quite my passions like dance. A sign of this is my motivation to socialize, so the lack of drive to socialize is a red flag to me. It shows that I am drained from my life and I need to bounce back. Because this did happen to me, a way I fixed it was just more personal time as well as cutting my hours. I went from working every day to just four days a week and that helped. I found my drive, found a purpose, and in the end, found happiness again.

If a counselor has the feeling that they need counseling themselves, then they are more than welcome to have a counselor. I don’t disagree if a counselor wants to attend counseling themselves, and sometimes they may need it for themselves. Certain feelings like “no one is here to support me while I am here supporting everyone” my come around, and at that point, a counselor can attend counseling. There are many counseling services available in the area to attend counseling. Phoenix is a large town and there is counseling everywhere, and if a counselor doesn’t have the money for it at the moment or doesn’t want to attend counseling but wants someone to talk to, there are many websites or apps that can help that counselor as well. Some examples are 7cups or BetterHelp. Some services on the websites or apps require a payment, but some is free and if a counselor wants to save money to afford something else, this could be an option for them.