Introduction
Self-care is an important personal activity which involves spiritual, ethical, and professional development. All professions who practice care for other patients must also have a self-care plan which is commonly referred to as 'inner therapy .' Counselors have a responsibility to help and care for others and must be healthy and fit to do the job. If a counselor is not mentally or physically healthy, his services to the clients will not be of the best quality. Some of the self-care practices will help improve the counselor’s health, spirituality, and professionalism. The American Counseling Association provided that counselors should take regular breaks from their duties to attend to their needs (Shallcross, 2011). The initial step to self-care development is to have a personal assessment and plan of the activities that are necessary.
With the self-assessment, one needs to have a plan and establish if they are able to take care of themselves without feeling guilty. Also, the counselor should have a self-belief that self-care is necessary for their lives as much as their profession requires much work. Other priorities that should be in place in self-care development include (Geldard and Geldard, 2005):
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The counselor should understand the need for self-care and not compare the activity with self-indulgence. Most people professions assume that self-care is an initiative of luxury and hence may end up working other than having a resting time.
Self-care is not a weakness and should not be associated with laziness or lack of interest in your profession. The counselor should serve themselves just as they serve others and ensure that their problems become a priority. When one feels that they are not important than their clients, they end up not having proper care on their lives and even neglect their families.
Should be okay to slow down and avoid working pressures sometimes. Every person needs a break from work, and a counselor should at times take fewer duties than the usual days. The slow down of work will give them more time to think and plan on their past performances and what they are expected to improve.
Also, have a list of activities and make leisure time a priority. A good planner should have a timetable of the working activities and what they will do after work. The plan can do exercises, meet with friends , go out to parties and dinner, and also have part-time studies. Most often, a counselor will postpone a leisure activity to help a needy client.
Make self-care a habit where the counselor should make it a habit of working at a specified time in a day and after the working hours take a rest. This will also give them time to improve themselves emotionally, spiritually, and physically. When a habit is persistent, the self-care plan will be effective and will no longer be a luxury.
Some of the activities that the counselor will undertake to have self-improvement will be physical, spiritual, emotional, and cognitive (Skovholt, 2001).
Personal and Physical Activities
A counselor should have a list of activities which will help in improving their personal development and physical improvement. First, they should have a healthy and nutritious diet plan by eating properly. A nutritious health meal will improve their health plan, and the individual will be able to work efficiently. With a well-managed diet, the counselor should do regular exercises to ensure that they are fit for doing their duties. The exercise process may be under the supervision of a physician or a gym instructor. The counselor should also have a strategic exercise plan to avoid overworking. It is also advisable to drink plenty of water to avoid health complications such as dehydration. One should also treat themselves to a message and yoga exercise. The physical exercise will make the counselor be more relaxed and will improve their working progress. The counselor will also be able to advise other people on the importance of having personal care as their professional advice.
Professional Development Exercise
A counselor should plan on improving their professional careers as per the market and current developments in the nation. The professional development exercise will help them offer quality services to the young and old generation. The main activity is to ensure that they have attained the required education and profession. The counselor should also try and learn new things especially those that will help them serve different personalities. They should have an ethical profession where they can be able to guide people on the importance of ethics. Another profession is to have a psychology study so that they can understand the clients they are dealing with in terms of their thoughts. Professional development ensures that the counselor is aware of current matters and issues that are affecting most individuals. For example, when they have done psychology study with the modern education, they are able to advise the young students on the peer pressure effects, drugs, and sexual abstinence.
Spiritual self-care
With the spiritual self-care, it is necessary to meditate on the importance of spiritual life since it’s where life begins. A spiritual life and practice makes someone to be strong and will be able to encourage other people on life issues. The counselor will ensure that the read spiritual texts as part of the spiritual self-care activity. He/ she should listen to spiritual songs from different singers as it will motivate them to understand different spiritual terms. Other activities involve having spiritual groups that they can connect with and share the spiritual information. The spiritual groups will improve community connections and development since they will plant trees, help the needy children, and build homes for the needy children. When a counselor is spiritually developed, they will be able to serve their customers and encourage them to live positive lives.
Self-care for a counselor does not only mean the spiritual, physical, and professional development but they may also seek counseling and professional help from others. Thus, everyone deserves to appreciate themselves and be appreciated for their efforts at work.
References
Geldard, D. and Geldard K. (2005). B asic Personal Counselling; a training manual for counselors . London: Pearson’s Education.
Shallcross, L. (2011). Taking care of yourself as a counselor. A Publication of the American Counseling Association . Counselling. Retrieved from http://ct.counseling.org/2011/01/taking-care-of-yourself-as-a-counselor/
Skovholt, T. M. (2001). The resilient practitioner: Burnout prevention and self-care strategies for counselors, therapists, teachers and health professionals . Needham Heights, MA: Allyn & Bacon.
