Really needing to take care of yourself
The psychotherapy training days offered a reminder to the clinical psychologists of
their need to take care of themselves as the personal agent of their therapeutic work,as Emer described, ‘What struck me today is that you really need to take care of
yourself in order to be able to bring yourself into therapy’. Anne described how her
work was only one of multiple emotional and relational demands in her life, ‘My
challenge is to give sufficient time/energy to my self-care . . . in the middle of busy
schedule and all roles as psychologist, wife, business partner, mother, friend, sister,
daughter, neighbour’.
Anne’s words suggest that she is caught in a paradox in relation to her self-care
she asserts that it is a challenge to find the time and energy to care for herself but if
she is not already caring for herself how then can she access the energy to start doing
so? While the theme of self-care was present in all the clinical psychologists’ journals,
it was reflected on with less frequency than any of the other themes, suggesting that
self-care needs may get less attention. The professionals’ language was also
significant, as they all reflected on how they ‘needed’ to do something in relation
to their self-care (e.g. Emer above, and Dawn: I need to develop self-care practices).
While the psychologists may have touched into a felt need for self-care during the
training days, they showed no sense of direction in their reflections towards meeting
that need.