Counselor Self-Care and Personal Development

Infusing Self-Care and Wellness into CACREP Curricula: Pedagogical Recommendations for Counselor Educators and Counselors during COVID-19

“…Counselor educators are expected to have the baseline knowledge required to navigate leadership positions and demonstrate evidence-based protocols and strategies for responding to crisis and trauma while maintaining their own self-care and wellness (ACES 2011 ; CACREP 2015 ). It is therefore implied that counselor educators holding faculty positions in CACREP-accredited programs demonstrate competence in teaching counseling graduate students to work effectively with clients during a crisis (Levers 2020 ), while promoting and reinforcing self-care and wellness practices through the supervisory relationship (Hyatt-Burkhart 2019 ). The demanding nature of counseling in a post-pandemic era necessitates special consideration for counselor educators and supervisors to highlight the value of self-care in counselors and CITs.…”

“…Establishing self-care and wellness strategies is therefore of paramount importance and must be infused across the CACREP curriculum to mitigate the deleterious effects of stress and decrease counselor burnout, especially following the emergence of COVID-19. Although there has been a push for counselors to focus on the positive effects of their work as helpers (Hyatt-Burkhart 2019 ), the CACREP curriculum lacks guidance for counseling programs to integrate self-care and wellness practices across the curriculum. The importance of instilling self-care and wellness practices in CITs early in their professional development is of utmost importance given the challenges, burdens, and mental health implications following COVID-19 (Litam 2020 ; Litam and Hipolito-Delgado 2021 ; Fiorillo and Gorwood 2020 ; Thakur and Jain 2020 ).…”