- by Lori Elliott
This is the second in a series - the first can be found here
For anyone in a caregiving capacity, especially during this pandemic, it is many times more important for them to consistently apply coping skills to reduce their risk of experiencing burnout. So, what are some of these coping skills/individual interventions that may be applied?
First, there is a helpful perspective shift which may be applied by those in helping professions. It involves changing unconscious empathy to conscious empathy.
Unconscious empathy is when you're empathizing with someone without the awareness that you're actively empathizing. Most caring people automatically empathize as part of their nature. They care about other humans, and can relate to them, without thinking about it. This can result in unconscious empathy. The danger of unconscious empathy is that the caregiver doesn't have as much control over the emotions that they experience; their emotions are at the whim of the people who they are caring for. This can result in a rollercoaster ride of emotions each day, taxation of the nervous system, a decrease in wellness, and experience of burnout.
Conscious empathy allows the person to more safely experience empathy and compassionate care for others. Conscious awareness of one's empathy for another will help protect the individual from poorly regulated emotions and burnout. Conscious empathy means being mindful and present while empathizing with others. When a person is aware of their empathizing, they can maintain more regulation through intentional awareness of their thoughts, responses, and emotions that are attached to the interaction.
Conscious empathy can help prevent the caregiver from absorbing difficult emotions others may be experiencing, without awareness. A quote I like reflects this point: "the better we take care of ourselves and maintain a professional separation from others, the more we will be in a position to be truly empathetic, compassionate and useful to them" (Rothchild, 2006). Applying conscious empathy helps the caregiver regulate their emotions and allows them to receive the benefits of experiencing empathy for others without being absorbed into the other person's emotional state. Regular application of conscious empathy has been found to provide a longer-term, sustainably caring nature.
Another route to reducing caregiver burnout involves carrying out self-care actions. It means taking the time to do the things that the caregiver finds enjoyable or that help a person experience more desirable emotions or a higher mood. These actions help a person to improve their physical and mental health through building their mental health resiliency level. Taking part in self-care actions improves health outcomes as well as how the person feels about themselves -actions can be internalized, and the mind can follow the body. It can be difficult, at times, to find the motivation to carry out self-care actions and so it's important for these actions to match the unique interests of the individual.
Motivation to carry out self-care actions may be increased through structuring your day to include time for these actions. Self-care actions can look like giving oneself the chance to experience and process emotions as needed. They can look like enhancing one's sense of humour. They can reflect developing an after-work routine to unwind, de-stress and mentally leave work at work, for example, changing clothes or showering upon arrival at home. It will be important to keep in mind that the number one influence upon one's mental health level is not the status of relationships or amount of exercise, both of which have been shown to be positive influences -it's actually the quality of one's sleep.
Applying self-compassion is another proven strategy to increase one's sense of self-worth and reduce burnout. Dr. Kristin Neff, an Ottawa-based social worker, is an expert on self-compassion and defines self-compassion as "the tendency to respond to one's own suffering by adopting an attitude of caring and kindness rather than judgement and by viewing personal pain as common within humanity rather than isolating." Similar to self-care actions, when one applies self-compassion, they can more easily internalize that they have self-worth; it becomes a self-fulfilling prophesy. Self-compassion is about being loving and supportive to oneself as opposed to being critical. It's about being understanding and kind towards oneself, especially when the person recognizes that they are going through a hard time.
The benefits of applying self-compassion include reductions in anxiety and depression, shame, and fear of failure. Its applications increase one's overall, psychological well-being. The use of self-compassion has been shown to develop one's mental health resiliency as well as self-esteem. Using self-compassion can make it easier to bounce back from setbacks and allow people to learn from their mistakes. It can lead to a decreased experience of stress, through a reduction in self-critical and perfectionist thinking. Its use can generally increase one's enjoyment of life by leading to more optimism, gratitude, happiness, overall life satisfaction and it contributes to better interactions and relationships with others.
Aside from these three strategies, there are also various cognitive, relationship, personal, and workplace strategies that one can apply to reduce the potential for burnout. Cognitive strategies include challenging one's world view by looking for evidence of the good in people, reflecting on the strengths of those who are being helped, and accepting that some moments are painful, and allowing oneself to experience them as moments with pain, as opposed to immediately moving on from them or reacting to them.
Relational strategies include maintaining a circle of support of people who can make up a buffer zone for the individual's experience of stress. Those participating in the circle of support should be informed that they may be asked to support the individual following difficult caregiving situations. Later, it may be appropriate to share with members of the circle the emotional weight the caregiver has been carrying and why.
Personal strategies include receiving sufficient, quality sleep, receiving regular healthy connections with others and regular relaxation time. Ensuring a proper diet and enough exercise, working to heal past losses or difficult life experiences, and taking time for oneself and away from stressors, as needed, are also examples of personal strategies to reduce burnout.
Workplace strategies include offering useful professional development education through the workplace, ensuring appropriate mentoring/supervision channels are made regularly available, and taking part in professional opportunities that enhance one's experience of compassion satisfaction.
For those who are looking to follow up with applicable resources:
Apps:
Mindshift, Calm, 10% Happier and Headspace
Books:
Full Catastrophe Living : Second Edition by Jon Kabat-Zinn
Trauma Stewardship: An Everyday Guide to Caring for Self While Caring for Others by Connie Burk and Laura van Dernoot Lipsky
TedTalk:
Dr. Kelly McGonigal, an American psychologist, speaks about the relationship between compassion, oxytocin and the literal healing of the heart-
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RcGyVTAoXEU
Professional Support:
Local counselors are available and may be viewed through- www.psychologytoday.com
CMHA Provincial Resource (Take 15 minutes Just For You):
https://ontario.cmha.ca/take-15-minutes-just-for-you/
Free Professional Self-Assessment Tool:
The Professional Quality of Life Scale (PROQOL)- https://proqol.org
Lori Elliott, M.S.W., R.S.W., has worked as a publicly funded mental health professional in the Grey-Bruce area since 2009and is currently a full-time psychotherapist in Grey-Bruce.
