Self‐care in prevention of burnout amongst counselling professionals: A systematic literature review

Abstract Aim This paper sought to examine current application of self‐care to reduction and prevention of burnout amongst counselling professionals. Materials and Methods A systematic approach to the literature across CINAHL, EBSCO, PsycInfo, PsycArticles, PubMed, Scopus and Google Scholar was conducted, adhering to PRISMA 2020 guidelines. Population, Intervention, Comparison, Outcome (PICO) and Sample, Phenomenon of Interest, Design, Evaluation and Research type (SPIDER) were applied as strategic tools to paper inclusion. After the completion of selection process, Critical Appraisal Skills Programme (CASP) was used to examine the included papers and to narrow the study down to a total of 16 journal articles. Furthermore, thematic analysis revealed two superordinate themes: Factors contributing to burnout with total of five subthemes and actions contributing to self‐care with total of six subthemes. Results The factors contributing to burnout had both personal and organisational origin, primarily based on lack of knowledge of burnout symptoms and reduced resources for applied self‐care. Furthermore, access to clinical supervision was not readily available, and self‐care concepts were not adequately implemented within the organisational context. Conclusion Despite the extensive research regarding the serious occupational repercussions of burnout amongst counselling professionals, the role of timely and appropriately applied self‐care has not been clearly established. Many counselling professionals were not aware of burnout signs and symptoms while self‐care was seen as optional exercise, applied either minimally or not at all. Holistic education on the effects of cognitive, emotional, physical and spiritual self‐care needs amongst the counselling professionals is necessary in prevention and reduction of burnout and should be further examined.