The Christmas holidays are approaching for many, time to take the foot of the gas pedal from the demands of our professional roles. The Christmas period can be a time when we become overwhelmed by the “to-do-list”. Especially when we are currently faced with immense challenges such as cost of living, healthcare, unemployment and societal political issues.
I have spent some time working three jobs, fortunately I love what I do, unfortunately I find myself “hanging in there” having suffered a couple health related setbacks. Working in the healthcare profession, I often find those that work with you are naturally gifted in giving care to others and yet struggle with self-care.
I have lived with a long-term illness since the age of 8, which compromises my immune system during the autumn and winter seasons. On the 16th of November 2022, I had caught Norovirus whilst visiting my grandma at a care home, followed by influenza and a chest infection which impacted my kidney function resulting in stage 1 kidney failure. I had been taken into hospital by the ambulance service and spent 14 hours in A&E and then was admitted into a short stay ward for four days.
At the time I was solely concerned for my own well-being. I had already caught two viruses, dropped 8kg in body weight and was having to communicate with nurses about their inconsistencies leading to incompetence in risk management and safeguarding. I was at my most vulnerable state, and beside me, were used syringes and a cannula. Of course, now I recognise that my narrative above is infused in ‘conscious bias’ Satre (1943) in Webber (2019).
Problems occur when the professional takes a care taking state, therefore finding it difficult to sit with patients/clients. Kupferman (2010) suggests that there are crucial differences between caretaking and caregiving, and you will notice: the healthier and happier your relationship, the more you are caregiving rather than caretaking. The pressure is on, nurses, labourers and alike are under immense pressure, and what I recognised was an overwhelming sense of compassion fatigue.
Compassion fatigue doesn’t just make it difficult to feel empathy for your patients, says Schwanz, 2022). One component of the condition is burnout, which is associated with too much work and not enough resources to do that work well. Burnout can result in depression and anxiety, physical and emotional exhaustion, less enjoyment of work, and more arguing. Another component of compassion fatigue is secondary traumatic stress, or indirect exposure to trauma via helping others. “I sometimes refer to this component as ‘empathy overload,’” says Schwanz (2022), adding that symptoms include anxiety, intrusive thoughts, hypervigilance, numbness or feelings of having nothing left to give.
Event intentionality and frequency of exposure to adversity where sickness and death are common especially within services which aim to support people such as the National Health Services. Alongside the type of adversity, the frequency of exposure is thought to determine subsequent psychological adjustment. Specifically, the experience of multiple adversity is thought to intensify PTS reactions compared to isolated events (Green et al., 2000; Brooks and Robinson., 2016).
Below is a table highlighting sickness rate from 2018-2021 taking in to account the devastating impact Covid19 had on health care and labouring professionals:
Now I reflect back and hope to be more compassionate with those that work in such adverse environments, hence why I would propose that when working in such environments ask yourself what your self-care consists off. Do those self-care activities align with your own value system? Below are a few examples of how to become self-compassionate:
1. Daily journal writing, here is where the focus would be on self-inventory, working on reducing our list of resentments.
2. Guided meditation, though, Headspace, calm app or even YouTube: Vipassana meditation.
3. Going for walks, 20/30-minute walks, by yourself or with family/friends. Or even exercise 3 times a week.
4. Listening to podcasts and/or reading on subjects that support imagination.
5. What we eat, making sure our intake includes protein, unsaturated fats and complex carbohydrates and fibre.
The importance of self-compassion derived from Rogers (1977) core conditions Empathy, Congruence and Unconditional Positive regard or as ‘core ingredients’ for relational growth Carkhuff (1969), Murphy (2010) and Joseph (2022). The above tasks that have been proposed are based on one’s own values be that through the instrumental process which aligns with a caretaking approach or as Grant (1990) and Joseph (2022) suggests a principled/ caregiving approach to harness self-compassion.
All 5 techniques are in essence allow the person to experience/express self-compassion. Such techniques are utilised or marketed more so through mindfulness. I would only suggest that when engaging in such activities it’s not so much about achieving predetermined outcomes but more so about becoming organic in valuing one’s own process as documented by Murphy and Joseph (2011) and Rogers (1959,1964).
References
Brooks, M., Lowe, M., Graham-Kevan, N., Robinson, S. (2016). Posttraumatic growth in students, crime survivors and trauma workers exposed to adversity. Personality and individual differences 98 (2016) pp. (199-207).
Carkhuff, R. (1969). Helping and human relations, Volume 1: Selection and training. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.
Expressive counselling for women (2010). Codependency: Caretaking vs. Caregiving. Available at https://www.expressivecounseling.com/articles/codependency-caretaking [accessed on 20 December 2022].
Grant, B. (1990). Principled and Instrumental Nondirectiveness in Person-Centered and Client-Centered Therapy. In: David, J. Cain. (2002) Classics in the Person-Centered Approach. Ross-on-wye: PCCS Books.
Green, B.L., Goodman, L.A., Krupnick, J.L., Corcoran, C.B., Petty, R.M., Stockton, P., &
Stern, N.M. (2000). Outcomes of single versus multiple trauma exposure in a
screening sample. Journal of Traumatic Stress, Vol. 13, No. 2, pp. (271-286).
Joseph, S. (2011). What doesn’t kill us: The new psychology of posttraumatic growth. Piatkus.
Joseph, S., D. Murphy, S. Regel (2012) An affective–cognitive processing model of post-traumatic growth Clinical Psychology & Psychotherapy, 19 (2012), pp. 316-325, 10.1002/cpp.1798
Joseph, S. (2022). Think like a therapist Six Life-Changing Insights for Leading a Good Life. Piatkus.
Murphy, D. (2010). Psychotherapy as a mutual encounter: A study of therapeutic conditions. (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). Loughborough University , England. Retrieved May 1, 2012 from: https//:dspace.lboro.ac.uk/dspace-jspui/handle/2134/
Murphy, D., Cramer, D. and Joseph, S. (2012). Mutuality in person-centered therapy. A new agenda for research and practice. In: Person-centered and Experiential Psychotherapies. Vol.11 Issue 2. Routledge.
Rogers, C. R. (1959). A theory of therapy, personality, and interpersonal relationships, as developed in the client-centered framework. In: S. Koch (Ed.), Psychology: A study of a science. Vol. 3: Formulations of the person and the social context (pp. 184-256). New York: Mcgraw-Hill.
Rogers, C. R. (1964). Toward a modern approach to values: The valuing process in the mature person. The Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 68(2), pp[160–167].
Rogers, C. R. (1977). Carl Rogers on personal power. Delacorte.
Schwanz, Kerry A. and Paiva-Salisbury, Melissa (2022) “Before They Crash and Burn (Out):A compassion Fatigue Resilience Model,” Journal of Wellness: Vol. 3: Iss. 3, Article 7.
Webber, J. (2018). Being and Nothingness: An Essay in Phenomenological Ontology
by Jean-Paul Sartre, translated by Sarah Richmond. Abingdon: Routledge, 2018.
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