Self‐compassion, coping strategies and gender differences in psychology, counselling and psychotherapy practitioners during COVID‐19: Lessons learnt

Abstract

The Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has brought dramatic changes in everyday life and demanded extreme amounts of resilience globally (Chen & Bonanno, 2020). The current investigation highlights the vital role of psychology, counselling and psychotherapy practitioners (PCPPs) who played, and still play, an essential part in providing care for people whose mental health has been adversely affected by the pandemic. Despite the erroneous belief that PCPPs should know how to cope with stress (Pope & Tabachnick, 1994), evidence from the members of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP) suggests that they are not immune to occupational stress (Ryan et al., 2019); the inherent stress of dealing with their patients' trauma renders them more vulnerable to work stress and burnout (Lamb & Cogan, 2016). Unsurprisingly, COVID-19 deteriorated the public's mental health (Kar et al., 2021;Sheek-Hussein et al., 2021) and has been classified as requiring disaster management (Sheek-Hussein et al., 2021). Lambert and

Developing a Causal Model of Self-Care Behaviors Based on Self-Compassion with Psychological Distress Mediation in Women and Men with Type 2 Diabetes

“…Another finding of the current study is that the overall effect of self-compassion mediated by psychological distress on self-care behaviors was greater in men than in women. To explain this finding, it should be noted that the impact of self-compassion in men is due to several factors; one significant factor is men's lesser self-judgment, allowing them to focus more on their positive skills and abilities and enhance their self-efficacy and self-confidence (37). On the other hand, the characteristic of self-judgment and self-blame is considerably higher in women, who often are self-critical and struggle to forgive their mistakes.…”

The relationship between self-compassion, coping style, sleep quality, and depression among college students

“…Self-compassion was considered a positive psychological variable that promotes a positive coping style ( Ewert et al, 2021 ). Individuals who have a high level of self-compassion are more likely to use a positive coping style ( Keyes et al, 2023 ). Positive coping style was associated with a lower prevalence of sleep problems ( Ren et al, 2021 ).…”

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“…Selfcompassion was considered a positive psychological variable that promotes a positive coping style (Ewert et al, 2021). Individuals who have a high level of self-compassion are more likely to use a positive coping style (Keyes et al, 2023). Positive coping style was associated with a lower prevalence of sleep problems (Ren et al, 2021).…”