CLINICAL EDITOR’S COMMENTS:
Play therapist wellness begins with applying practical, playful, and committed self-care strategies.
W
e are a stewards of our playrooms. Session after session, we reset the playroom, ensuring everything is in place for the next child to play and heal. We
lovingly clean and care for our toys, painstakingly repair and replace broken miniatures. We understand the need for a playroom that ourselves with the same degree of love and regard? Isn’t our wellness as important as our toys and playroom?
The Cost of Empathy Play therapists frequently encounter children and families with trauma histories. Figley and Ludick (2017) stated trauma counselors are at greater risk for experiencing secondary stress or vicarious trauma. These phenomena manifest similarly to symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) for clients, and occur from “taking on” client trauma (van der Kolk, 2015). Absorbing client trauma may lead to higher incidents of compassion fatigue, the mental exhaustion produced from helping clients through the trauma, and burnout. Freudenberger (1974) excessive demands on energy, strength, or resources” (p. 159). While awareness of burnout and compassion fatigue has grown, it remains a threat to play therapists’ vitatlity. Symptoms of burnout are far-reaching and can include physical exhaustion, irritability, hopelessness, reduced empathy (Stebnicki, 2007), and decreased creativity and productivity, to name a few.
For play therapists, this could translate to an inability to remain present, a reduction of
tracking and facilitative responses, an inability to
identify play themes, the inadequate maintenance of the playroom, or a general lack of playfulness and wonder (cf. Keller, 2019). In addition, counselors may create emotional distance and become emotionally numb in response to long-term exposure to trauma clients (Figley, 2002). This is particularly problematic for play therapists who place an emphasis on the therapeutic relationship as the cornerstone of change, regardless of their theoretical orientation. Burnout also impacts counselors systemically, which could result in conflicts with co-workers,
supervisors, or clients, and in generally low morale that could also impact work with clients (Ohrt, Clarke, & Conley, 2019). Fortunately, researchers less compassion fatigue, vicarious trauma, and secondary trauma (Foreman, 2018).
Counselor Wellness and Self-Care Counselor wellness occurs through self-care, which can be thought of of counselor wellness is far-reaching and highly personal, but is broadly how one orients his or her life toward optimal health and wellbeing, integrating body, mind, and spirit to more fully experience life (Myers, Sweeney, & Witmer, 2000). Although numerous models of counselor wellness exist, most are “whole-person” or holistic in nature and recommend integrating a combination of mind, body, spirit, emotion, and connection to others within their foci (Ohrt et al., 2019).
…it is reasonable to assume the same methods used to heal
client trauma also may heal play therapists’ vicarious trauma
Researchers surveyed 219 Registered Play Therapist/Supervisors (RPT/S), who suggested holistic wellness and self-care are equally important to them (Meany-Walen et al., 2018). Self-care is so important that professional couseling association ethical codes and accrediting bodies require some form of self-care in an effort to reduce counselor impairment and client harm (American Counseling Association, 2014, Sect. A.4.a, Sect. C.2.g; Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs, 2015, Sect. F.1.l). Nonetheless, play therapists report being inadequately trained in self-care and counselor wellness (Meany-Walen et al., 2018). In light of this research, it is useful to discuss how to create an intentional self-care wellness intervention plan.
www.a4pt.org | June 2019 | PLAYTHERAPY | 33
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