Date post: | 24-Dec-2014 |
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Caring for Yourself Fighting the Dragons of Stress
By Sarah Crawford-Browne
You’re a hero --
saving lives and caring for others…
but how are you doing???
Are you tired, irritable, depressed and feeling
demoralized?
The dragons of stress, burnout and
vicarious trauma may be attacking…
Take Dragon Fighting Lessons!!
… or get fried.
Stress management lessons
Lesson 1: Identify your dragons – what type of stress or trauma
Lesson 2: Understand how they attack – the
environment
Lesson 3: Know the dents in your armor -
your issues
Lesson 4: Plan strategies
If you don’t take care…
they will get you!!
LESSON 1
Identifying your dragons ??
– what type of stress, burnout, compassion
fatigue or trauma is attacking
Identify your dragon – stressed green???, cowardly yellow??? Or
RED HOT??
Three dragons circle around us…
The Green Dragon of Stress
The jealous green dragon of stress
appears when the demands are
greater than our resources
Stress
• When our personal, emotional, physical, social,
financial or temporal resources are stretched
• We may first experience Eustress
• And then Distress
• Psychological interpretation of our challenges
The Yellow Dragon of Burnout / Carer fatigue
The yellow dragon flies in
when you’ve given too
much of yourself….
He’s fat and satisfied…
Burnout • A state of physical, emotional and mental
exhaustion caused by long term involvement in emotionally demanding situation
• the total psychic energy of a person is used in
trying to maintain existence – energy crisis • Tiredness, emotional depletion, too much
caring and too little self caring
• Reduces our capacity or interest in the suffering of others.
The Red Dragon of Trauma
When the work gets too hot to handle - the
vicarious trauma dragon moves in…
Vicarious trauma • Become traumatised by clients’ stories • You feel changed, world view challenged,
intrusive imagery, avoidance, hyperarousal • Confusion, tearfulness, isolation, anger,
irritability, sense of powerlessness, hopelessness, intellectualise, resistance to change, burdened, rigidity, believe client’s problem are insurmountable or insignificant
• Psychosomatic symptoms, personal
vulnerability and survivor guilt
Client’s feelings that particularly draw us in
• Trust
• Client anger
• Avoidance
• Identification
Draw your dragons!!
Take 5 minutes to draw your current
challenges.
LESSON 2
Understand how they attack – the
environment – what makes
YOUR dragon strong
The environment
• Workload
• Control issues
• Lack of reward
• Absence of support or community
• Lack of fairness
• Discordant values
• The stories James2008
Your work
• Make realistic demands on yourself & others
• Match your expectations with your resources
• Vary your job and activities
• Define your job, your role & your goals
clearly
Balance the wheels of life
1. I invite you to take an A4 paper
2. Draw a dot in the centre, representing the centre of your energy
3. Now think of the key things that you invest energy in…your significant relationship, work, children, studies, faith, friends, hobby, sport…etc
4. Draw a line from the dot with the length of the line representing the energy that you invest in each of these areas
5. Connect the ends of the line – does your wheel roll?
LESSON 3
Know the dents in your armor
- YOUR OWN issues
• Non-anxious presence – Calm enough
• Self-validated care giving – Good enough
• Connection with others – Supported enough
• Self-care & self management – Loved enough
• Skills acquisition – Skilled enough
• Resolution of primary trauma – Sorted enough
• Gentle self-supervision – Gentle enough
• Internal locus of control – Wise enough – Problems are seen as challenges
• Positive mental attitude – Strong enough
• Non-reactivity to emotions or other people’s reactivity – Chilled enough
Are you???
What are your issues?
• What needs are you meeting through counseling?
• What are the emotions and feelings that hold you?
– Shame
– Guilt
– Anger
– Self-esteem
• Your own trauma stories?
Write your own mission statement
• Purpose of your work
• Your objectives
• Your ideal process
LESSON 4
Develop strategies – that work for you
– SUPERVISION and Peer support
– Keep learning
– Keep your files up to date
– Monitor your feelings
– Relaxation
– Exercise, sleep & nutrition – reduce caffeine
– Social support
– Take a break – lunch, holidays
– Distancing techniques
– JOURNAL – know yourself
Your strategies for the next month?
• For support
• For managing work load
• For self awareness
• For unwinding
• For relaxation
• For growth
• For self-care
Sleep Hygiene
• Relax for ½ hour between leaving work and going to sleep - eg. watch tv, walk, chat, do laundry -- wind down
• Make sure your room is dark and comfortable
• Avoid caffeine products an hour before bedtime -- eg. tea, coffee, chocolate, colas -- as well as cigarettes
• Go to bed at the same time every night if possible, and create a routine around it
• Avoid sleeping tablets because 1) with time it becomes harder to sleep without them, and 2) your dream cycle will be interrupted and right now you need your dreams to make sense of your experiences
• If you can’t sleep after 30 minutes, get up, do something routine eg. making herbal tea or having a short walk around the house, then go back to bed
• If you have a bad dream, add an ending that you want
• If there’s a lot on your mind, schedule time to write it down, then take time to wind down
• Don’t nap during the day
• Know that this is a stressful time, and gradually things will come back to normal
There are rewards….
“The reward of engagement life is a sense of an
enriched life. Therapists who work with survivors
report appreciating life more fully, taking life more
seriously, having a greater scope of understanding of
others and themselves, forming new friendships and
deeper intimate relationships and feeling inspired by
the daily examples of their patients’ courage,
determination and hope” - Judith Herman
Trauma and Recovery 2001 pg 153.