Self-Care for Professionals: Preventing Burnout and Creating a Healthier Life

In this course, Dr. Shannon Hodges, Professor Emeritus at Niagara University, Associate Professor of Counselling at the University of the Sunshine Coast, frames working in the mental health professions as a bad news/good news deal: the bad news of high vulnerability to vicarious trauma, compassion fatigue, and burnout when working with high-needs clients, and the good news that we can avoid going into those conditions with appropriate self-care. Dr. Hodges divides self-care into five dimensions and discusses first how compassion fatigue and burnout may manifest in each. He then proposes strategies for prevention from each, with many strategies functioning holistically. Dr. Hodges uses both personal and professional vignettes and reflection-engendering quotes to create an engaging lecture. Two scales/assessments - the 5-DOSC and the PROQOL - are offered to rate yourself on your current level of self-care.