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Professional “Take Away” from Reviewing Resources: 

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Professional “Take Away” from Reviewing Resources: 

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The biggest takeaway is that self-care is recognized as such importance that is specifically outlined in Ethics and Standards, so much so that is is declared unethical not to attend to your self-care as a practitioner because it may ultimately endanger those we serve.

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Reflection on Importance of Self-Care in the Helping Profession: 

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Reflection on Importance of Self-Care in the Helping Profession: 

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Self-care is a critical component of professional school counseling because not only must we mitigate burnout to remain effective in our role, but we also need to model the practice of self-care to our students and colleagues authentically to promote practices that ultimately contribute to safer and healthier schools and communities.

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This graphic is a reminder that I need to stay aware of each dimension and strive for self-care that promotes balance for them all.

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PROACTIVE Self-Care is the most EFFECTIVE Self-Care

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PROACTIVE Self-Care is the most EFFECTIVE Self-Care

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"Remember, when self-care is most effectively practiced, it isn’t just in response to stressful experiences, and it isn’t about waiting to practice self-care until the summer when you’re off work or less busy. Practicing self-care is a year-round necessity." Jacqueline Zeller, Ph.D. The Ethics of Self-Care, 2018

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As a school counselor, your career can be incredibly rewarding. You get to form meaningful connections with students and their families, guide students to postsecondary success and watch them grow into successful adults. However, school counseling can also be a challenging, demanding career. Given your professional responsibilities for young people, taking care of yourself is essential so you can function most effectively and ethically.

The ASCA Ethical Standards state that school counselors should "monitor their emotional and physical health and practice wellness to ensure optimal professional effectiveness." And, "School counselors seek physical or mental health support when needed to ensure professional competence."

Our K-12 students often look to us and other school staff to model how to deal with challenging situations. We can also help graduate students recognize the importance of self-care for school counselors and model how to balance the multiple demands of the school counselor's role.

Warning Signs and Vulnerabilities

When you're able to recognize vulnerabilities connected to your role and warning signs that stress might be negatively affecting your work, you'll be better prepared - to take action should you need support, to re-evaluate your self-care plan and to maintain your ethical practice.

As a school counselor, you may experience burnout, vicarious traumatization and compassion fatigue associated with hearing emotionally difficult stories and dealing with others' needs every day. Burnout signs include physical and/or mental exhaustion, loss of interest in your work and your co-workers and/or feeling overly negative about your job. If you're feeling unable to be sympathetic with students or experiencing intrusive imagery in response to hearing about traumatic experiences, these are warning signs of compassion fatigue and/or vicarious traumatization. Such experiences often initially develop because you're working with students with high emotional needs and you care about helping those students. However, if left unaddressed, burnout, compassion fatigue and vicarious traumatization can impair your work.

Following are some suggestions for practicing self-care.

Supporting emotional wellness: Practicing gratitude, such as journaling or regularly listing what you're grateful for, can go a long way in supporting your emotional wellness. Consider focusing on specific aspects of your work as a school counselor that you're grateful for, such as forming positive connections with students, promoting students' social/emotional wellness or helping students successfully transition to postsecondary options. Focusing on the most motivating aspects of your job can give you a helpful reminder of why you do this important work, particularly on more challenging days.

Consider practicing gratitude on a regular basis by ending each school day with a reflection on a part of your day when you felt most helpful, effective or positive about your role. Journaling or practicing gratitude doesn't have to be an onerous task. It may be as simple as writing down one sentence each day about something that went well or thinking about your daily successes on your commute home. You may want to look into bullet journaling to capture your thoughts and gratitude quickly. Don't make practicing gratitude such a time-consuming task that it's yet one more thing on your to-do list stressing you out.

Similarly, practicing mindfulness, even for a brief period, can be useful. The exciting business of the school day can make your job challenging if there isn't room to take a break. Even taking short breathing breaks to focus on the present moment can help center your thinking and awareness during the school day so you can better focus on your duties. Practicing self-compassion, keeping appropriate boundaries and recognizing when you need support from colleagues and other professionals are useful strategies to cope with challenging aspects of your work.

Fostering relationships: To address potential isolation, incorporate regular consultation and supervision into your schedule. Holding the weight of difficult situations or stories alone can harm your emotional health. Consultation and supervision also help you perform more thoughtfully and ethically in your role. Of course, you need to address confidentiality issues appropriately, but putting systems in place so you have outlets to discuss difficult cases and make more informed decisions both supports your self-care and improves your work as a school counselor.

Fostering professional relationships is also important so you're better equipped to get perspective from a colleague or supervisor should you experience difficult imagery or be personally triggered in response to a particular case. This consultation can help you recognize your own blind spots and get your own counseling or supports when needed.

Furthermore, all professionals have areas where they might benefit from more professional development or consultation. Recognizing those areas and seeking out opportunities for professional growth and collaboration help you practice more ethically and perform more effectively. For example, advocating for a particular professional education opportunity might help you feel more equipped to support your school population, while also bolstering your energy and excitement for your career.

Physical health: Staying active also goes a long way toward good self-care. Take a short walk during the school day if you can fit it into your schedule, or make time for some physical activity before you transition from work to home. Take a few moments to enjoy nature and the world around you. Just like practicing gratitude, physical activity shouldn't be onerous. You don't need to train for a marathon or become a champion weight lifter. Find something you enjoy doing, be it walking, riding a bike, swimming, hula hooping, skating or countless other ways to be active while having fun. Being mindful about your eating or scheduling a healthy lunch with a colleague during the school week can also support your physical health and feeling of connectedness.

Outside of work: Connecting with your loved ones and strengthening relationships with friends outside of work also helps with self-care. Practice leisure activities that make you happy or calm, and prioritize those leisure activities in your regular schedule. For some people, leisure might mean yoga; for others, it might mean painting or going to the movies. Make time for whatever fuels positive feelings in you.

Self-care will look different from person to person. What works for your best friend may not work for you. Making your own self-care plan helps you set personal goals and monitor those goals. Consider how you might integrate a variety of self-care and wellness practices into your regular schedule. How can you include self-care in your work day? How will you integrate it at home or outside of work? What are your self-care strategies within different categories of wellness?

Remember, when self-care is most effectively practiced, it isn't just in response to stressful experiences, and it isn't about waiting to practice self-care until the summer when you're off work or less busy. Practicing self-care is a year-round necessity. You know what they say - put on your own oxygen mask before helping others.

Jacqueline Zeller, Ph.D., is part of the faculty at the Harvard Graduate School of Education's prevention science and practice/CAS in counseling program. She can be reached at zellerja@gse.harvard.edu.

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As a school counselor, your career can be incredibly rewarding. You get to form meaningful connections with students and their families, guide students to postsecondary success and watch them grow into successful adults. However, school counseling can also be a challenging, demanding career.

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Personal Self-Care Strategy 1 : Nourish my Body

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Personal Self-Care Strategy 1 : Nourish my Body

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Replace foods and beverages that lead to fatigue, pain, and negative feelings or behaviors with an Anti Inflammatory Diet, or Mediterranean Diet.

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Featured Expert:

Chronic, systemic inflammation is a serious health concern that can be made worse - or better - with diet. Lara Snead, clinical dietitian at Suburban Hospital, explains what chronic inflammation is, and how what you eat can keep you safer from the chronic diseases inflammation can cause.

What is inflammation?

If you've ever cut your finger, bruised a toe or had a throat infection, you have likely experienced at least some of the four signs of inflammation: redness, swelling, pain and heat. Acute inflammation is your body's natural response to illness, injury or infection and usually resolves on its own.

"But there is another kind of inflammation ― the kind that affects the whole body ― which we call systemic. Systemic inflammation can become chronic; it can persist for months, or even years."

Chronic, systemic inflammation is a factor in diseases such as:

Inflammatory Foods

What causes inflammation? Snead explains it can result from exposure to environmental toxins, a lingering virus, aging or chronic stress. But what you eat contributes, too.

What foods cause inflammation? Unfortunately, a lot of them, according to Snead. In particular, she recommends avoiding these inflammatory foods:

Red meat, such as steak and hamburgers

Processed meat, such as bologna, bacon, sausage and lunchmeat

Commercial baked goods such as snack cakes, pies, cookies and brownies

Bread and pasta made with white flour

Deep fried items such as French fries, fried chicken and donuts

Foods high in added sugar, such as candy, jelly and syrup

Sugar-sweetened beverages such as soda, bottled or canned tea drinks, and sports drinks

Trans fats, found in margarine, microwave popcorn, refrigerated biscuits and dough, and nondairy coffee creamers

Cooking methods can make a difference

When you want to reduce inflammation, baking, steaming or fast stir-frying are preferable to deep frying or grilling.

"Cooking meat, especially red meat, on the grill creates compounds associated with cancer," Snead explains. "Meat on the grill can drip fat onto the flames and release these compounds, which can end up in the food on your plate." She notes that the same is not true of grilled vegetables or low-fat fish, which are safe (and delicious) on the grill.

And, she says, don't feel bad about resorting to the microwave when you're short on time. "Microwaving cooks and heats by activating water molecules, and it is actually healthier than frying or grilling at high heat," Snead says.

Also, bear in mind that the benefit of healthy items like fish and vegetables can be reversed if you are not careful with sauces and dressings. Many of these condiments and extras are high in inflammatory ingredients such as sugar and trans fat as well as sodium.

Processed Foods: Read the Label

It's important to check the ingredients list of prepared or processed foods. Many prepared foods contain hidden sugar. It can be hard to tell, since sugar tends to assume aliases: By some estimates, there are over 50 names for added sugar in prepared commercial foods, such as "cane crystals" and "crystalized cane juice," syrups and many ingredient names that ends in "ose" (chemical shorthand for sugar).

"Reading the labels is so important," Snead stresses. "For instance, any food that lists partially hydrogenated oils as an ingredient should be avoided since these are trans fats."

Anti-inflammatory Foods

While there isn't one specific anti-inflammatory diet, Snead emphasizes that overall healthy eating patterns can help you get rid of inflammation and stay healthier. In particular, she recommends some food types that can help bring inflammation down:

Omega-3 Fatty Acids

One form of these powerful inflammation fighters is found in fatty fish such as salmon, herring, mackerel, sardines, tuna, striped bass and anchovies. "You can get the benefit from eating the fish or by taking fish oil [supplements]," Snead says.

Vegetarians and vegans have options, too. She notes that another form of omega-3 is plant based. Eating nuts and seeds and cooking with canola oil can supply these nutrients and vitamin E, another inflammation fighter.

Vitamin C

Ascorbic acid, also known as vitamin C, is a powerful antioxidant. Antioxidants help address cellular wear and tear that can set off inflammation.

"You'll find vitamin C in fruits and vegetables, which are the basis of a healthy diet," Snead says. She adds that in addition to well-known vitamin C sources such as citrus fruit and juice, tasty bell peppers are also packed with the vitamin and may yield fewer calories.

Polyphenols

There is a reason why the Mediterranean diet and other healthy eating plans stress colorful, plant-based foods, whole grains and olive oil.

Polyphenols are naturally occurring compounds in these foods that protect the body from inflammation.

And, Snead says, you can get polyphenol power from your favorite pick-me-up: Coffee, tea and even dark chocolate are rich in these beneficial compounds.

Gut-Healthy Foods

A healthy population of beneficial bacteria (flora) in the intestines can help keep inflammation at bay. To cultivate healthy intestinal flora, Snead recommends enjoying plenty of probiotics and prebiotics.

But she advises, "Not all fermented foods have probiotics. Check the label and ensure that live microorganisms are listed in the ingredients. Yogurt and cottage cheese will have live active cultures noted on the packaging.

"Prebiotics, in the form of dietary fiber, are like food for the helpful bacteria," she says. "Jerusalem artichokes and foods rich in inulin, such as asparagus, bananas and chicory, help keep the beneficial flora healthy and plentiful."

How to Reduce Inflammation: One Meal at a Time

Snead says that in terms of well-known diets, the Mediterranean diet may be the most beneficial in helping people get inflammation under control. It emphasizes omega-3s, vitamin C, polyphenols, fiber-rich foods and other known inflammation fighters.

For those who want to start gradually, Snead says, "One strategy is substitution: finding alternatives to foods that cause inflammation." For example:

Charcuterie boards

Vegetable slices with hummus

French fries

Baked sweet potatoes

Sauces with butter or cheese

Olive oil, vinegar and herbs

Grilled burgers

Grilled eggplant or portobello mushrooms

Bakery cakes and pies

Dark chocolate with raspberries or grilled peaches

Inflammation: You Can Fight It

Snead notes that it can seem challenging at first to eat for lower inflammation with so many inflammatory foods commercially available, but over time, small changes can turn into lasting habits.

"No one food reduces inflammation," she says, "but building a healthy, holistic dietary pattern can help lower your risk of inflammatory disease and transform your health."

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Inflammation is a factor in developing chronic disease. A dietitian explains how eating anti-inflammatory foods can help address the risk.

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Personal Self-Care Strategy 2 : Nourish my Mind 

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Personal Self-Care Strategy 2 : Nourish my Mind 

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Replace negative thoughts and feelings by focusing on Gratitude, specifically implementing daily 3-2-1 journal method.

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In this tutorial I'll show you how to assemble the 3-2-1 Gratitude & Creativity Tracking Journal

It's easy to get off track when life gets busy, and before you know it days and sometimes weeks have passed before you even notice that your good habit has fallen by the wayside. It used to happen to me also from time to time, but I'm very committed to a regular creative practice, so to help me stay on track I developed my own simple tool - the 3-2-1 Creativity Tracking Journal.

It takes only minutes a day to use - a few minutes in the morning, and even less time in the evening. This is the perfect journaling tool to keep you right on track.

How the 3-2-1 Journal Works

Morning
The first two questions (3 and 2) are completed in the morning as a way to set up your day. Doing this in the morning also acts as a reminder that that one creative thing needs to be done sometime during the day.

First set an intention for the day, something you can use to focus on during the day such as wanting to feel good, to be more productive, or even to make time for some creativity.

List three things you are grateful for - and why you are grateful for them. Knowing "why" you do the things you do adds a layer of thoughtfulness to the process and you'll sometimes be surprised by what you discover.

Make a note of how you want to feel today and list two things you can do to feel this way. Having a positive attitude and outlook is a great way to go through the day - and life!

Evening
The last question (1 thing) is completed in the evening.

List the one creative thing you did today. Over time, you can use this as a way to track your creative activities.

Simple right?
Plus it's amazing how much creative work you can get done when you do it on a consistent basis.

I designed the 3-2-1 Journal to keep myself motivated, and found it to be such a useful tool I'm now sharing it with you to help you stay motivated also. It takes only minutes a day to complete, but will make a world of difference to your life if you stick with it.

Assembling the 3-2-1 Gratitude & Creativity Tracking Journal

1. The 3-2-1 Gratitude & Creativity Tracking Printable Journal Kit

To get started assembling the journal, you first need the 3-2-1 Gratitude & Creativity Tracking Printable Journal Kit. If you don't yet have one, you can find it here in my online store.
You can find a list of supplies and resources here
The printable kit includes 7 pages:
- cover
- backing page that can be printed on the back of the cover and/or elements
- double writing page
- writing/journal page
- full-size double writing page that can be printed on the back of pages
- full-size double plain writing page that can be printed on the back of pages, or can be used to make a notebook
- page of elements including pockets, journaling tags and a bookmark

The full-size pages that can be used to print on the back of the standard-size pages, which will ensure that the backs of the pages are fully printed.

2. Print the Cover and the Pages

Print the cover and elements page using a heavy cardstock such as 110lb cardstock, and print the pages using paper that has a heavier weight than the standard type of day-to-day copy paper. Paper that is has a heavier weight is better for writing on, and the extra thickness will help prevent the ink from seeping through to the other side. I like to use 24lb weight paper.

If using the double writing pages, print 8 double-sided letter-size or A4-size pages which will give you 32 single writing pages. This is more than enough pages for the month.

If you like to journal every day, use the writing/journal pages which has space for additional writing.

3. Trim, Crease & Fold the Pages

Trim the pages to size, then crease and fold them. I like to use a Trim and Score Board.

Alternatively, you can use a rotary cutter or an x-acto knife, and a clear quilting ruler to cut the pages to size.

Then use a paper creasing tool to crease and fold each of the pages in half.

Open the pages and stack them inside the cover so that they are centered along the fold. The cover is slightly larger than the pages along the top and bottom and the right side, so that the pages fit neatly inside. Attach some binder clips to hold the pages in position, and using a pencil, mark five equidistant dots along the center fold line.

Using an awl, poke holes through the marked dots.

Cut a piece of booking binding thread or hand embroidery thread approximately 44″ long. Using a book binding needle or a large hand embroidery needle, start sewing at the top on the outside. Bring the needle through to the inside, leaving approximately 12″ of thread on the outside. Then through the next hole to the outside, and then back to the inside.

Sew back up to the top and tie off in a knot at the top on the outside of the cover.

Tie a metal charm to the end of the threads. Fold the threads over to the inside of the journal and you have a simple bookmark.

Print the page of elements and cut out the pieces. Crease the tabs on the pockets and glue to the inside of the front and back cover.

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3-2-1 Gratitude & Creativity Tracking Journal > Creative ArtnSoul