Self-care is something that hopefully will be part of your practice at all times. As you reflect on yourself and what you are encountering in practicum, you will ideally be attending to your self-care, but also bringing in self-care before and after these encounters. Here’s a way to think of self-care throughout the continuum of your work as a health practitioner:

Self-care planning: Plan self-care activities, such as exercise, mindfulness meditation, socialisation, downtime, and hobbies into your busy routine. It may seem like you don’t have time for these activities, but as a health practitioner it is essential to plan this into your schedule because as if you find yourself not engaging in these activities, you will find yourself coming out-of-balance and not able to cope as well with the stress of your client encounters.

In-the-moment self-care: Utilise self-care strategies in the moment of a difficult encounter with your client(s). This includes strategies of bracketing, boundary setting and immediate follow-up with your supervisor.

Follow-up self-care: this is the classic type of reactive self-care that we utilise to help feel better and recuperate from a stressful encounter or the daily difficulties of our lives.

Let’s look a little deeper at these steps of self-care that will help in our being the best at what we do.