Essay Sample on Counselor Self-Care

Introduction

Working with children and adolescents is likely to cause burnout. Burnouts are work-related stress that is detrimental to both physical or emotional exhaustion and draws someone away from achieving their goals and relate to their personal identity. It is often easy to spot burnouts and find strategies to deal with them. This essay discusses the most challenging aspects of dealing with children and how I cope with those challenges. Also, it discusses specific care strategies to prevent burnout and provide advice to a colleague who experiences burnout. Individuals should find strategies to deal with burnouts to prevent it from affecting their health.

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From a personal perspective, the most difficult aspect of working with children steps in terms of disciplining because I am not their parent. In most occasions, children might be unruly and fail to adhere to rules of authority. Another challenging aspect is the use of repetition. When working with children, repeating myself more than once when I tell the child to do something is the most difficult. Most children are fond of disobeying authority when they are told to perform a particular task. Another difficult aspect is that some children do not listen. The only people they can obey is their parents. This becomes challenging because working with a child that does not listen is tiresome.

I cope with those challenges by building relationships with the children. When this happens, it becomes easy for the children to put their trust in me. In regards to discipline, being consistent about giving them consequences, after they have done wrong, would be a way of coping with those challenges. Here, the children will be aware that if they go against authority, they will receive punishments such as time out. To avoid the occurrences of these punishments, offering rewards to the children would be beneficial because children will be more likely to practice good behavior.

I would use specific care strategies to prevent burnout. For instance, I would practice mindfulness. Mayo Clinic Staff (2018) defined mindfulness as the act of focusing on the breath flow and being aware of the surroundings at the same time. The author added that this strategy incorporates being open-minded, practicing patience, and being non-judgmental. Another strategy would be to get some sleep because it would help to restore my wellness and promote good health. Another useful strategy would be to practice meditation, which would help me to manage any form of stress that I experience in the workplace.

I would give a piece of advice to a co-worker who is showing signs of compassion fatigue or burnout. First, I would advise the co-worker to seek support from either her supervisor or her colleagues. Mayo Clinic Staff (2018) indicated that support and collaboration would help the patient to cope with the burnout. Additionally, I would advise the co-worker to evaluate her options and set her priorities in regards to what needs to be done first and what would follow. Most importantly, I would advise the co-worker to be open-minded and try to view things in a positive way.

Conclusion

Overall, counseling children and adolescents are indeed challenging and it is more likely to cause burnouts. Counselors and other people in various fields have to be vigilant to spot any symptoms of burnouts such as the inability to concentrate, poor sleeping habits, and lack of satisfaction. Creating a work-life balance is significant because it is a way of dealing with burnouts.

Reference

Mayo Clinic Staff. (2018). Know the signs of job burnout. Retrieved from

https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/adult-health/in-depth/burnout/art-20046642