Self-Care for Trauma Therapists

And now, I’d like to talk a little bit about therapists’ well-being and self-care, which is really, really important.

I mean, it’s important for all therapists, but especially when you’re working with a caseload of trauma survivors, because the therapist’s own well-being outside of the therapy room can also affect his ability to fully engage the process of committed action and all of the other ACT processes with clients.

Moran, D. J., Bach, P. A., & Batten, S. V. (2018). Committed action in practice: A clinician’s guide to assessing, planning, and supporting change in your client. New Harbinger Publications.,Pearlman, L. A., & Saakvitne, K. W. (1995). Trauma and the therapist: Countertransference and vicarious traumatization in psychotherapy with incest survivors. W. W. Norton & Company.

For example, if a therapist is struggling in areas of life in which he isn’t acting in alignment with his own values, he may be inclined to avoid in-session conversations about committed action and fail to fully explore his clients’ lack of follow-through on committed action. So if the client has been trying to commit to himself to exercise more or drink less and has been making commitments and then not following through on them, well, then going into a session where he’s asking his clients how they’ve been doing on following through on similar or different things but things that are challenging for the client, that they’ve been committing to, the therapist may end up feeling a little bit hypocritical and so may avoid working with the client and asking those questions and pushing forward.

Moran, D. J., Bach, P. A., & Batten, S. V. (2018). Committed action in practice: A clinician’s guide to assessing, planning, and supporting change in your client. New Harbinger Publications.,Pearlman, L. A., & Saakvitne, K. W. (1995). Trauma and the therapist: Countertransference and vicarious traumatization in psychotherapy with incest survivors. W. W. Norton & Company.