Wellness Intervention Plan If you recognize signs of secondary stress, vicarious trauma, compassion fatigue, or burnout, immediate action is warranted. However, it may feel overwhelming to make changes, particularly if you have progressed to the stage of burnout. Reference your professional ethical codes and reflect on whether your well-intended “help” is helping or harming you or your clients. Start by evaluating your current state of wellness with bold honesty and assess if your wellness needs match your current level of care. Consider utilizing a formal assessment if you struggle to identify which areas need attention (e.g., Five Factor Wellness Inventory, FFWEL, Myers & Sweeney, 2014; Professional Quality of Life Scale, ProQOL, Hudnall Stamm, 2009).
intervention plan (WIP) that includes short- and long-term goals for the how Some Registered Play Therapists reported using at least one playful, creative self-care activity to do so, such as building a sandtray, coloring or creating art, and using movement or dance (Meany-Walen et al., 2018). Each of these are discussed in turn to give readers more vivid ideas about how these activities could play an active role in promoting play therapist self-care.
Creating Expressive Art and Journaling Creative and expressive self-care strategies can be particularly helpful for trauma counselors to contain overwhelming feelings and countertransference associated with their cases (Bradley, Whisenhunt, Adamson, & Kress, 2013). Current literature in neurobiology supports the use of creative, sensory-based interventions to process trauma (Malchiodi, 2015). Given the somatic manifestation of traumatization and burnout,
it
Because vicarious trauma is held in the body (van der Kolk, 2015), consider creating embodied sandtrays, which invite builders to access their body’s natural wisdom for release and regulation. Begin by “clearing space,” using mindful breathing and grounding to facilitate an embodied press), invite the whole body to create the story which needs to be told. For embodied directive sandtrays, consider the following prompts: need to remain regulated.
• Create a tray representing the pain you took on today. • Create a divided tray with one side representing what you have control over and the other side representing what you do not have control over.
• Create a world of healing and light. • Place in the tray what you need to let go of (not take home). • Create a tray with met and unmet self-care needs. • Create a tray representing your strengths as a play therapist/ supervisor.
• Create a tray identifying meaning you make of being a trauma play therapist.
vicarious is reasonable to assume the same
methods used to heal client trauma also may heal play therapists’ vicarious trauma. According to Malchiodi’s (2015) guidelines for processing trauma with clients, expressive self-care interventions should a) externalize content, b) provide sensory processing, c) include right-hemisphere brain processing, d) address arousal levels and affect regulation, and e) explore relational aspects of session content (p. 15). Examples of self-care interventions which address these include keeping art journals, creating mandalas, and performing body mapping.
Focused expressive writing is another creative self-care practice that supports emotional regulation and physical and mental health (Warren, Morgan, Morris, & Morris, 2010). Warren et al. (2010) posited that creative writing comes from an unconscious place. Therefore, for some people, it may be best done informally and without a focus on output or evaluation. For others, structured writing provides necessary containment. Containment also may occur within the physical boundaries provided by sandtrays.
Building an Embodied Sandtray Sandtray therapy facilitates client healing,
insight, meaning, and
promoting and maintaining play therapists’ self-care (Garrett, 2015).
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Promoting Embodied Wellness Counselors routinely suggest physical exercise as a method of self-care to clients. However, leading trauma experts suggest trauma is stored in the physical body (van der Kolk, 2015); therefore, embodied self-care may be warranted. Embodied self-care refers to intentional whole-body activities that integrate emotions, physical sensations, and experiences (Piran & Teall, 2012). Although exercise is commonly associated with stress release, embodied self-care combines activities that provide emotional/stress release and emotional and spiritual . For example, release activities may include doing cardiovascular exercise or training with weights. Spiritual renewal activities may include practicing yoga, performing expressive dance or movement, breathing mindfully, and/or meditating/praying.
Practicing what we preach
and giving ourselves what we need will allow us to experience playful wonder and joy…
Seeking Supervision and Ongoing Evaluation renewing play therapists self-care needs, particularly when they carry caseloads with high levels of trauma and crisis. Moreover, like any practice, self-care is more effective when it is practiced daily. Consider establishing a daily self-care ritual or routine that includes self-reflection on practice and sharing needs and burdens with supervisors or trusted colleagues.
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