SELF-CARE STRATEGIES FOR COUNSELORS DURING COVID-19 It is critical for mental health therapists, counselor educators, clinical social workers, and helping professionals to maintain wellness and take care of themselves, just as they teach their patients, clients, and students. Helping professionals often experience compassion fatigue if they abandon their self-care. Self-care is a core component taught and preached within the helping profession. In pressing times or significant life events, the concept becomes even more germane and requires implementation. Helping professionals are navigating a new reality since Covid-19. Conceptually, we know that with life comes challenges, and the only constant is change. However, we are in unchartered waters. For over a year, counselors, specialists, patients, teachers, and understudies have experienced a challenge with our quality of life due to Covid-19 and its numerous deplorable and annihilating impacts. Therapists are experiencing stress, anxiety, and fear of the unknown, just like the clients they help. It is challenging to embrace and understand the new normal as we attempt to acclimate to the perpetual and constant safety measures as the Covid-19 research unfolds. We have learned that no one is immune to the wrath of Covid19, as witnessed on the news reporting the social and economic impact relatable to unemployment, working from home, education, homeschooling, and the spread of the virus. Consequently, the damages of Covid19 are disproportionately affecting African Americans and other racial, ethnic, and cultural communities, such as American Indian groups, at a higher rate. Contributing to the higher prevalence surrounds underlying mental health issues as a guide to assessing the impacts.
Mental health, wellness, and mindfulness have been a mantra of the helping profession and echoed from diverse disciplines and voices, especially in the wake of Covid-19. As an example, as reported by the CDC, beyond the physical spread of Covid-19, it can indirectly affect your mental health. Granted, for this moment in life, counselors can feel a little overwhelmed, and sometimes we have to be reminded of what we know to achieve the very thing we want for others, for ourselves. Hence, here is a little push to remind you. According to Section C.2.g. of the American Counseling Association’s Code of Ethics, “Counselors monitor themselves for signs of impairment from their physical, mental, or emotional problems and refrain from offering or providing professional services when impaired…” In this light, it is imperative to consider proactive approaches to maintain wellness. Further, about life and to remind you, for counselor educators and mental health counselors, consider the whole situation of the stress of virtually (online) working from home on multiple days on end, up to 12 hours per day or more. Zoom or other video conferencing platforms, the new normal, have replaced faceto-face sessions and are now used to provide telehealth, teletherapy, and teaching online. Zoom Fatigue is another form of burnout observed after incessant hours engaging in virtual sessions, meetings, consultations, and classrooms. Paying attention to the stress on how we, as counselors, process information over a video, there is a secondary effect on the body. Often, we are sitting at the same spot for an extended time. The stress still occurs when the camera is off and muted. Much is discussed about proper self-care for helping professionals during “normal” times. Counselor educators and counselors often experience compassion fatigue, burnout, and secondary or vicarious trauma. In the era of Covid-19, these symptoms are exacerbated due to increased caseloads, long hours, telehealth, collective anxiety about the pandemic, social justice and unrest in the country, and the political climate in the United States. America is experiencing 54 INSESSION APRIL 2021
