For a Child Life Specialist, the work can be exceedingly fulfilling. A child life specialist helps children and families which amounts to rewarding and meaningful careers. And while supporting others is admirable and utterly selfless, we all need to be reminded to practice self-care sometimes. By practicing self-care, we can remain healthy, happy, and able to help others to the best of our ability. Practicing self-care isn’t always on top of the priority list, but perhaps it should be.
For a Child Life Specialist, the work can be exceedingly fulfilling. A child life specialist helps children and families which amounts to rewarding and meaningful careers. And while supporting others is admirable and utterly selfless, we all need to be reminded to practice self-care sometimes. By practicing self-care, we can remain healthy, happy, and able to help others to the best of our ability. Practicing self-care isn’t always on top of the priority list, but perhaps it should be.
Kayla Boye is a student in the Child Life Specialist program at Concordia University Ann Arbor. Kayla, with SOE faculty, attended the 13th annual Great Lakes Association of Child Life Professionals conference at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital. Kayla wrote up a summary from her experience at the conference which focused on self-care. Let’s hear about her experience:
Although there were breakout sessions on a variety of topics throughout the day, the focus of the conference as a whole came down to an often overlooked aspect of Child Life: self-care. As a student finishing up my undergraduate degree, I have found that talking about self-care and practicing self-care are two different things. Though the importance of self-care is discussed in course content and conferences, it can be challenging to prioritize self-care in the midst of daily responsibilities.
However, Child Life Specialists are at great risk for experiencing compassion fatigue. Compassion fatigue is the secondary traumatic stress as a result of hearing the first-hand trauma experience of another person. Self-care is more important than ever for combatting compassion fatigue.
The presenters at the GLACLP Conference understood the difficulty of prioritizing time for self-care: in addition to several presentations on the importance of self-care for healthcare professionals, the day was filled with activities to meet the self-care needs of many. Meditation, aromatherapy, and a massage station were just a few of these activities. Although these may not be everyone’s chosen methods of releasing stress associated with working in the health care environment, there is one aspect of self-care that we all have access to: deep breathing.
Breathing is the body’s natural relaxation response. According to a 2012 study by the American Institute for Stress, breathing not only causes muscle relaxation, but decreases metabolism and blood pressure while increasing nitric acid levels and oxygen to the brain. Although my personal “stress reliever” of choice is zoning out in front of Netflix, this same study by the American Institute for Stress stated that “zoning out” doesn’t actually decrease our stress. Zoning out has the ability to distract us from stress, but it does not have the power to help us in processing it. As Child Life professionals and those studying to be a part of the profession, we understand the importance of distraction. Despite this, deep breathing is a skill that not only distracts, but also has the amazing power to reduce and relieve stressors.
As Child Life professionals and those studying to be a part of the profession, we understand the importance of distraction. Despite this, deep breathing is a skill that not only distracts, but also has the amazing power to reduce and relieve stressors.
The 13th annual GLACLP conference was a wonderful opportunity to network with other professionals and practice various components of self-care while gaining education on the latest developments affecting the field of Child Life. I am grateful for the opportunity to not only implement new self-care strategies into my daily routine, but also to attend the conference and continue networking with other professionals.
If you’d like to learn more about CUAA’s Child Life Specialist Program, click here.
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