S.M.A.R.T.E.R. Self-care for Counselors

Practicing self-care activities is essential to helping professions stave off and combat burnout and vicarious trauma. Mental health counselors and counselor educators and supervisors (CESs) need specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and timely (S.M.A.R.T.) self-care activities to best meet the demands of this highly relational field. This article will assist CESs in supporting the personal development of S.M.A.R.T. self-care goals for their students and supervisees' evolving professional identity with the addition to evaluate (E) and review (R) identified self-care efforts. CESs are supported with gatekeeping relevance and examining student and supervisee self-care plans as a parallel process to support clinical competence, professional identity development, and longevity in the counseling field.