The practice of self-compassion in counseling: A narrative inquiry.

Abstract

As counselors we often offer compassion to our clients and support them in cultivating it for themselves; however, this aspect of counselor development may be absent in our own self-care practices. How do counselors cultivate self-compassion given the myriad of challenges that arise in their practice? Although there is a wealth of research on counselor self-care, very little of this research addresses the construct of self-compassion as a means of enhancing counselors' well-being and mitigating the effects of job-related stress. A narrative research design was used to investigate how 15 experienced counselors practice self-compassion in counseling. Themes that emerged in this study, based on the experiences of the participants, provide important information for training and educating practitioners in the areas of self-care and burnout prevention, and enhance our understanding of the role of self-compassion in the practice of counseling and psychotherapy.

(Re)considering novice supervisor development through a social justice lens: An experiential account.

“…Following a cross-thematic analysis (Patsiopoulos & Buchanan, 2011), significant themes emerged from their narratives for each dimension. Table 1 provides a list of these questions and themes.…”

Intersectional Stigma and the Acceptance Process of Women with Mental Illness

“…(2) Crosschecking of the written case narratives and the interview transcripts was conducted by the research team to ensure consistency-a standard procedure in narrative methodology (Patsiopoulos & Buchanan, 2011;Polkinghorne, 2007). (3) Investigator triangulation was utilized through the use of 3 research team members to provide complementary perspectives on the development of the research case narratives (Guion, Diehl, & McDonald, 2011).…”

“…This research methodology entails attending to and constructing participant narratives based on research interviews, as well as identifying key themes from interview data (Adler, Kissel, & McAdams, 2006;Mishler, 1991). Case narrative research emphasizes meaning and content in the accounts of participants and is a valuable means of informing clinical practice (Edwards, Dattilio, & Bromley, 2004;Patsiopoulos & Buchanan, 2011).…”

A bodhisattva-spirit-oriented counselling framework: inspired by Vimalakīrti wisdom

“…Also, a counsellor learns self-kindness and self-compassion (Germer 2009 andDing 2009), through which s/he retains a positive attitude towards her/himself with the least amount of self-criticism and self-blame (Neff 2003, Neff, Kirkpatrick, andRude 2007). This healthy and balanced psychological state enables the counsellor to maintain selfawareness, self-esteem, self-worth, self-acceptance, and self-motivation (Neff 2004, Williams, Stark, and Foster 2008, Neff, Kirkpatrick, and Rude 2007, Neff and Vonk 2009, which is especially important for counselling practitioners to prevent burnout or compassion fatigue (Patsiopoulos and Buchanan 2011), and avoid over-involvement in others' miseries (Cheng 2013). In order words, a counsellor retains passion to help clients lxxvi but neither attaches themselves to their situation nor over-invests compassion lxxvii , because the bodhi nature is inherent in sentient beings, and is able to adjust her/his mental contentment accordingly.…”