Self-care is not about selfishness or being insensitive to others. It is about making healthy lifestyle choices. Taking care of your self also involves self-compassion, having clear boundaries, being attuned to your emotional needs and honoring your deepest truth. When you neglect self-care it takes a toll on your health, relationships, effectiveness and you are more susceptible to burnout and compassion fatigue.
It is not enough to recognize the importance of taking better care of your self at work and away from work. You also need to address the psychological obstacles that limit attention to self-care and perpetuate stress. Self-care practices like yoga and mindfulness are important AND you may have excessive expectations, perfectionism, difficulty tolerating discord and an exaggerated sense of responsibility.
Improving self-care and preventing compassion fatigue or burnout requires both external and internal solutions. External solutions include changing organizational policies and making healthier lifestyle choices. An example of an internal solution is challenging outdated survival strategies such as people pleasing and caretaking. In addition to changing stressful circumstances it is important to address self-imposed stress that comes from attitudes.
Whether you are a helping professional, a caregiver to a loved one, a manager or interested in managing stress and preventing burnout, you can benefit from my services.
Other trainings and presentations offered:
Preventing Compassion Fatigue and Burnout
How to effectively manage stress
Healthy Caregiving
How HR and management can respond to employees during a traumatic event
Critical Incident Stress Debriefings
For over fifteen years Dennis has been giving presentations on how to manage the stress of being in a helping role and how helpers can take better care of themselves while helping others.