Teaching Self-Care for Counselors through Mindfulness Practices - Essay Example

Running Head Teaching Self- Care for Counselors through -Mindfulness Practices Teaching Self- Care for Counselors through -Mindfulness Practices Abstract Self-care management plays a crucial role in counseling work affected by stressful situations and burnout. Work as productive accomplishment, has long been considered a critical component of an individual's positive mental health. Just as the therapist's own work constitutes an important, identity-defining aspect of self, so too does work constitute an important part of the client's personal identity. Mindfulness practices involving yoga, meditations, conscious relaxation exercises, allow counselors to reduce amount of stress and relax. The importance of the search is to create a framework which helps counselors to reduce stress and apply effective self-care practices in their everyday life. The aim of the research is to analyze and evaluate most popular mindfulness practices and their application in teaching self-care. The practical significance is that counseling work calls for a primary focus on reality external to oneself, and mindfulness practices allow individuals to relief stress and emotional burden. The theoretical significant is a deep analysis of the current methods and practices used in teaching self-care for counselors. The study consists of three parts. The main questions addressed in the study are: What is the importance of mindfulness practices for counselors" what methods can be used in self-care practices What are the benefits of mindfulness practices approach The study is based on analytical assessment tools. Work is a natural part of living, and the issues it raises are important parts of a character. Work emphasizes the here-and-now and those aspects of oneself that have real-world utility. One is employed by a work organization because of one's ability or presumed ability to accomplish some productive goals. Work therefore emphasizes the rational aspects of people and problem solving, even though the affective side may arise from time to time (more so in some occupations than in others) in the attempt to meet those goals. Anxiety, stress, burnout and depression are the main disorders typical for counselors. Counselors who, through poor selection or unanticipated work dysfunctions, become marginal to the major or primary purposes of the organization, are removed, assisted to change, or kept on, although unproductive, in recognition of past accomplishments and contributions or in fulfillment of an actual or psychological contract that promises continuous employment. Critics (Lewis et al 2003) underline that teaching self-care for counselors should be based on mindfulness practices which help to overcome anxiety, stress and prevent emotional and psychological disorders. Anxiety, according to Snyder and Lopez 2002), has been experienced persistently throughout history, reflecting "an inevitable part of the human condition" (p. 134). As with its occurrence in other contexts, anxiety concerning one's work can be transient and situational (e.g., the type encountered in a job interview), or it can be almost incapacitating, preventing one from getting to the workplace or completing a workday without major disruptions (Brown, 1996). The dread may be so great that the client avoids work altogether. In between are multiple variations. A commonly shared theme, however, is the experience of dysphoric affect and the general tendency to avoid situations engendering the anxious feelings. he "stressful events" approach to anxiety, although productive, has increasingly been questioned for its failure to identify differential responses to the same stressor. Concerning its effect on performance situations, however, anxiety, whether of a state or trait nature, generally serves to lessen the quality of the performance (Brown, 1996). Perceived psychological stress appears to lower satisfaction with work. Apparently, men and women do not differ per se in the experience of occupational stress, although the conditions that are more likely to cause stress may differ. Stress is typically situation specific and can be directly relevant to work. It can affect a variety of performance areas or be limited to certain aspects of work. Among counselors, anxiety, performance or otherwise, does not appear to be a unidimensional phenomenon that can be described accurately and universally by one model, nor is the relation between anxiety and performance clearcut or unambiguously established. A number of situational factors are involved in the experience of anxiety (Brown, 1996). Performance anxiety can also be part of a more generalized concern with career stress, including the tendency to exaggerate the importance to one's career of any single performance (Conyne and Cook 2004). Although there are many organizational changes that are unlikely to be harmful (such as decreasing role conflict or creating better communication avenues within the organization), there is no assurance that they will help alleviate organizational dysfunction, particularly if no systematic diagnosis has been made of the stressful conditions in the particular setting (Conyne and Cook 2004). Given that depression is considered by many to be the "common cold" of psychological problems, it is not surprising that depressive features are frequently found as part of the presenting symptoms of work-related difficulties. High-level workers are not immune, and indeed may be especially vulnerable, to the experience of work-related depression (Conyne and Cook 2004; Walsh et al 2000). Although they found more stress overall in work roles (including housework) than in family roles, when stress in the family role was experienced, it was more likely to result in depression. Relations among various sources of strain appeared complicated, with work stress decreasing the impact of marital stress but stress in the parental role increasing the impact of occupational stress (Eisenberg 1992; Romano and Hage 2000). Personality disorders are believed to include a persistent, transituational style of ineffective interactions with others that is often rather impervious to substantive change. Personality-disordered individuals typically have little understanding of or sensitivity to their impact on others and behave characteristically in a way that others may find interpersonally offensive or otherwise objectionable (Gelso and Fretz 2001). Although the behavior of people with personality dysfunctions is often self-defeating, it tends to be symbolic of characteristic conflicts or concerns. The ability of people with personality disorders to regulate their own behavior is limited given that they typically act in a way directed at getting their own perceived needs met, often at the expense or oblivious to the needs of others. Although somewhat dependent on the specific disorder, the deficiencies often have a structural component in which there may be weaknesses in the ego's ability to interact effectively with the outside world. In the workplace, people with personality problems can cause considerable difficulty for both the organization and ultimately themselves. In meditation we gradually learn to accept all that happens (Gelso and Fretz 2001). Mindfulness practices (yoga, meditations, conscious relaxation exercises) help to reduce work-related stress and negative feelings without medical interventions or psychological treatment. Self- Care for Counselors should be based on optical approaches which help to meet diverse needs and problems faced by this group. Mindfulness practice involves the development of compassionate attention (Walsh et al 2000; Kabat-Zinn 1990). In modern world, attention is often pulled in a multitude of directions through technology and the media. When employees attend to the world in philosophical manner, they begin to see and relate to their environment in a different way. In fragmented consciousness they are pushed and pulled by the outside world; from contemplative awareness people see things as they are in the here and now. Contemplation is characterized by a radical openness in which the individual does not try to control what is happening (Snyder and Lopez 2002; LeBon 2001; Kabat-Zinn 1990). For counselors, meditation should be seen as the main form of self-care. Meditation is a form of contemplation that involves concentrated practice. Meditation refers to many types of practice, such as vipassana, or insight meditation, visualization, and mantra. Contemplation includes meditation as well as spontaneous and unstructured moments when we experience a connection with the unity of things (Murphy 1992). There is a substantial amount of research that indicates the positive benefits of meditation (Snyder and Lopez 2002). For example, meditation helps in reducing the heart rate, lowering blood pressure, relaxing the muscles, heightening perception, improving motor skills, and improving empathy. Contemplation can help counselors experience the flow state more often and as a result participate more fully in our work. From the contemplative state our work becomes sacred in that it becomes fulfilling in itself. Traditionally, work has been treated as a means to an end; from a contemplative perspective it is an end in itself (Lewis et al 2003; Murphy 1992). Contemplation and mediation allow the individual to gradually overcome his or her sense of separateness. Modern society reinforces the personal ego, which spends most of the day planning, striving, and competing. Modern ego arises from the various social roles we engage in, such as parent, worker, and spouse (Schill 2000; Walsh et al 2000). The extent to which we identify with these roles is also the extent of our suffering. For example, if counselors invest their whole identity in their work (e.g., the workaholic), they find it extremely difficult to adjust when they retire. The father who is too attached to his role as father may have a difficult time letting go of his son or daughter when he or she leaves home (Murphy 1992; Schill 2000). Yoga and medication allow counselors to experience true joy. Because it allows them to see their life and work in a new and fresh manner, they take delight in the little things. Blue sky, cloud formations, flowers, children at play provide endless sources of surprise and delight (Merton 1972). The openness that comes through meditation also increases our sensitivity to pain and suffering, but at the same time this openness can allow our hearts to sing. Through contemplation they come to know that all pain is temporary and that underlying the transient nature of life is something so grand and vast that it makes people smile (Merton 1972). Reflection-in-action is another important practice which helps counselors to overcome stress and anxiety. It can focus on a variety of elements. The practitioner, for example, may deal with the tacit norms underlying a particular decision or on the appropriate strategy that is implicit in his or her behavior. Alternatively, the practitioner may reflect on the right feeling that can develop in approaching a problem, on the way he or she has framed a problem, or on the appropriate role to play in solving the problem (Merton 1972). In short, reflection in action weaves together practice and theory at an intuitive level. The reflective practitioner may reframe the problem several times, as the setting of the problem is probably more important than the problem-solving procedures themselves. This practice is another level of experience that is beyond sense experience and even reflection. This third level adds to the holistic view of experience by connecting to Being (Merton 1972). At this level, then, we also connect with a larger reality (e.g., the Tao, the Over-Soul, the Ground of Being) that is much different than the empiricist's notion of an objective reality or the conception of personal knowledge based on individual construction of meaning requiring commitment and reflection. This level, the level of the practitioner, is realized through various forms of contemplation such as meditation and myth. Being is experienced as unmediated awareness. This awareness is characterized by openness, a sense of relatedness, and by awe and wonder. When we experience Being, duality drops away and as teachers we see part of ourselves in our students. At the deepest level we may experience brief moments of communion with our students. Release, or letting go, is also fundamental to meditation practice. Minds tend to cling to pleasure and to push away unpleasant thoughts. This clinging and pushing away is so fundamental to our thinking that we are hardly even aware of it. Yet, if we watch this grasping and pushing away, we realize how fatiguing it actually is. Why not simply release the attempts to cling to what we feel is pleasant At a deeper level we can become aware that everything is changing and impermanent and our attempts to grasp and hold on are futile. If we approach meditation with an attitude of simply releasing what we can never really hold, then life and our meditation practice become much lighter. The heaviness comes from our grasping. We grasp for so much--material goods, pleasure--and we also attempt to control other people. To see meditation as a process of release is a major step on the meditative path. These practices are crucial for counselors self-care because they allow to overcome stress in a short period of time. Work-related anxiety and depression are complex and multidetermined phenomena. Performance anxiety and generalized anxiety can both be related to work concerns. The former has been more thoroughly examined in the literature and may lend itself more readily to treatment. The frequency with which depression occurs in connection with work-related issues suggests that psychotherapists need to become familiar with differentiating depression that is caused by work problems from work problems that are caused by depression. When work is the source of depression, correcting the difficulties in the work situation may cause the depression to spontaneously lift. In cases in which work problems are caused by the depression, successful treatment of depression may ameliorate the work concerns, or the work concerns may effectively be dealt with as a circumscribed problem after the depression has been successfully treated. Most of us are disconnected; we are disconnected from our hearts and our bodies, from the mind and its ways, from one another, from the earth and from the universal laws and truths. Through meditation we can reconnect with all of these factors. Through meditation we can rediscover love, oneness and freedom. Many people meditate for other reasons-for example, to deal with pain and to understand suffering. However, if one practices with an open heart and mind, meditation eventually leads to a oneness, a deep connectedness (p. 130). For counselors, each meditation is a new experience. If they approach each sitting as a fresh experience without preconceived expectations, they have already made significant progress in our meditation practice. If they come to each sitting with an open mind, then, they are already on the meditative path. However, if they come with a specific set of expectations for each sitting, they have already set up a model of what should happen. Often, as a result of the depressed client's perceived inability to cope with the work situation, he or she will have generated few options concerning alternative ways to handle the presenting difficulties. Using sound judgment and a presumably clearer head than the client's, the therapist can suggest in a tentative, questioning manner a variety of alternatives that may not have occurred to the client. Examples include the following: Have you thought about trying to switch to a department that has another supervisor How about going back to school on a part-time basis so you can get out of this mess I wonder why it is that you stay in such an unpleasant job The therapist need not be an expert in the client's particular line of work to address process issues and to assist in generating alternatives. Although a wide variety of approaches might be attempted in counseling clients suffering from work-related depression or anxiety, they generally reduce to changing the person, changing the job, or some combination of the two. As with stress reduction programs, therapy of work-related depression that aims to change the person while ignoring characteristics of the work that may be causing the psychological dysfunction is problematic (Gelso and Fretz 2001). Although such therapy may reduce individual strain and at least temporarily decrease depression or anxiety, also changing the work itself (i.e., modulating work aspects of depression) may have a greater, longer lasting impact. Moreover, people already experiencing job difficulties may be in greater need and may experience more positive results from intervention efforts (Klemke 2000). Most counselors are task oriented in their lives and jobs. In many cases, they feel that they must fill their lives with other activities so that they have "accomplished" something. Meditation requires a different stance. It is not a task to be performed. Instead, we practice doing nothing. This is so hard for most of us. Gradually, however, most of students end up looking forward to the meditation time, as they find it very nourishing and restoring. One of the reasons it is so nourishing is that we are not performing (Senge 1990; Romano and Hage) 2000). Many thoughts, images, and feelings arise during meditation, and our first instinct is to push some of them away. However, she wrote to me in her journal that after a while she realized the meditation was allowing her to accept the experience at a deeper level. If we are repressing something that has happened to us, sometimes meditation will allow us to work with it and integrate the experience (Klemke 2000). Personal mastery involves a balance between defining our highest aspirations and seeing things clearly. Personal mastery is a process, a lifelong discipline. Senge characterizes people with high levels of personal mastery as having a sense of connectedness and compassion. They see the larger picture in a deeply integrative way (Snyder and Lopez 2002). Meditation and visualization should be seen as a means to personal mastery. Meditation, in the form of contemplative prayer or simply quieting the mind, is a way to access our subconscious mind. which can be a source of creativity. Personal mastery allows the integration of reason and intuition (Senge 1990). Mindfulness practices encourage counselors to have private victories, which can involve personal mastery. Their outward success reflects inward successes and their ability to witness and accept themselves as well as to develop dominion over self. Personal mastery, achieved through mindfulness practices, is one of the essential components to a successful organizational life (Senge 1990). This light comes simply from our focused awareness. For a counselor working with troubled people, the qualities of calmness and compassion are very important. Counseling techniques are also essential to his practice, but meditation allows him to access his intuition so he knows what technique is appropriate at a given moment. This perspective is also helpful in working with other health care workers, because it helps prevent egos from taking over (Senge 1990). Mindfulness practices allow counselors to see and appreciate the balance between silence and sound, between space and figure. They learn how each is essential to the other rather than having sound and material objects dominate their lives. In sum, the most important reason for bringing mindfulness practices into the teaching self-care is that it allows the individual to gradually overcome his or her sense of separateness. Modern society reinforces the personal ego, which spends most of the day planning, striving, and competing. Ego arises from the various social roles employees engage in. 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