In my first year of grad school we covered the concept of Compassion Fatigue in one of our courses. We were required to read from the book: Trauma Stewardship (Laura van Dernoot Lipsky & Connie Burk, 2007). The following discussion that took place in class covered many aspects of self-care which most people recognize as a requirement for getting through grad school. What was different in this class is that we touched on the idea of whenwe should self-care, not just howto self-care. What at first seemed obvious led to an exercise in self-exploration to determine when we could tell we were hitting our limits.
Stressors build day by day in grad school and the (little) life we live outside of it. Externships. Clients. Doc paper. Self-care. Internships. Interviews. Laundry. The list goes on and seems never-ending. It’s easy to let self-care slip for a bit, but that’s hardly ever sustainable. Finals comes around, or a particular heavy session with a client hits us a little harder than we thought. It’s easy for things to start to feel like they’re falling apart around us. Maybe we’re a little more curt with our friends and loved ones. We stop taking time to enjoy our coffee or tea. Whatever it is, it’s here when we start to recognize we should’ve have been self-caring a few weeks ago.
If you still don’t know what your tipping point is go ahead and take some time to explore that with yourself. Flipping through Trauma Stewardship could be a good place to start. It outlines 16 different ways you may react to taking in the heavy stuff we talk about with clients. This point is different for everyone and hopefully you can start to get a handle on when you should get a handle on things.
What goes on from here is equally unique for all of us. Meditate. Read that book. Lift those weights. Go on that run. Eat some good food. Do whatever it is that you do. Or find a book that gives you some ideas on how to do so. Either way, take care of yourself so you can take care of others.
COPAGS 