Counselor Wellness and Impairment
Counselor Wellness and Impairment
Christopher Backer
Liberty University
COUN 500-D04
Abstract
A integrated discussion of the counselors wellness and impairment. The areas of wellness and impairment are investigated, describing wellness as a formation of optimum well-being. A practitioner’s ability to be aware of their requirements as an individual and the development of healthy boundaries helps in facilitating a consistent movement into wellness.
Counselor Wellness and Impairment
The helping professional is met with increasing stress as they encounter clients; deal with workplace stresses as they balance their personal life. A counselor who is working to assess and treat a client will find a significant degree of stress. One who is invested in the wellbeing of another will develop a personal stake in their recovery, regardless of any professional distance they may work to establish. Ones own physical and psychological resources will be pushed to brink as the attempt to maneuver through the stresses associated with helping others while being balanced within their own personal life.
Burnout is a manifestation of several physical, emotional conditions that will manifest within the individual cognitively (Lee, Ho Cho, Kissinger, Ogle, 2010). A counselor who is experiencing burnout will depersonalize the work they are doing as they engage significantly prolonged stress (p.131). An individual who entered into burnout will not be in a position to help their clients providing the excellent care that will enable the client to move forward with treatment. It is in this time that the practitioner becomes must seek help to return towards optimal well-being. To attempt to move forward exhausted from increasing stress will only create a greater impairment.
For the helping professional to maintain wellness, a significant effort must be made in developing targeted coping skills and balancing the riggers of life with the increase in stress. An individual’s
Christopher Backer
Liberty University
COUN 500-D04
Abstract
A integrated discussion of the counselors wellness and impairment. The areas of wellness and impairment are investigated, describing wellness as a formation of optimum well-being. A practitioner’s ability to be aware of their requirements as an individual and the development of healthy boundaries helps in facilitating a consistent movement into wellness.
Counselor Wellness and Impairment
The helping professional is met with increasing stress as they encounter clients; deal with workplace stresses as they balance their personal life. A counselor who is working to assess and treat a client will find a significant degree of stress. One who is invested in the wellbeing of another will develop a personal stake in their recovery, regardless of any professional distance they may work to establish. Ones own physical and psychological resources will be pushed to brink as the attempt to maneuver through the stresses associated with helping others while being balanced within their own personal life.
Burnout is a manifestation of several physical, emotional conditions that will manifest within the individual cognitively (Lee, Ho Cho, Kissinger, Ogle, 2010). A counselor who is experiencing burnout will depersonalize the work they are doing as they engage significantly prolonged stress (p.131). An individual who entered into burnout will not be in a position to help their clients providing the excellent care that will enable the client to move forward with treatment. It is in this time that the practitioner becomes must seek help to return towards optimal well-being. To attempt to move forward exhausted from increasing stress will only create a greater impairment.
For the helping professional to maintain wellness, a significant effort must be made in developing targeted coping skills and balancing the riggers of life with the increase in stress. An individual’s
References: Chandler, C. Bodenhamer-Davis, E. Holden, J.M. Evenson, T. Bratton, S. (2001). Enhancing Personal Wellness in Counselor Trainees Using Biofeedback: An Exploratory Study. Applied Psychophysiology and Biofeedback. 26(1). p.1-7. Henderson, D. A. & Thompson, C. L. (2011). Counseling children. Belmont, CA: Brooks/Cole, Cengage Learning. Lee, S.M. Ho Cho, S. Kissinger, D. Ogle, N.T. (2010). A Typology of Burnout in Professional Counselors. Journal of Counseling & Development. 88. p.131-138. Neswald-Potter, R.E. Blackburn, S.A. Noel, J.J. (2013). Revealing the Power of the Practitioner Relationships: An Action-Driven Inquiry of Counselor Wellness. Journal of Humanistic Counseling. 52. p.177-190.