Whitney White 

It's inevitable. I'm on social media or out and about and I see memes, fun graphics, handbags, and even t-shirts with odes to the sacrifices and hard work that nurses, teachers, police, and social workers put in. The thanks and self-congratulations for these professions are everywhere.

It’s true that “Know thyself,” is a wise bit of advice. For counselors, we must also know our clients. To best serve teenage and young adult clients, we need to know the lingo. Some of us have kids and we just sort of know things. Others of us do the homework and learn so we can work with this amazing population that faces so many unique challenges.

During the last several years I’ve had the amazing opportunity to work in multiple settings alongside new, student, and very experienced counselors. I didn’t set out with the intention of becoming the “counselor whisperer”, but circumstance and perhaps my approachability placed me in the unique position of mentor and advocate, particularly with new and student counselors.

This week’s blog is inspired by the news in my area of Texas. In my social media stream this morning I saw a video from the Dallas NBC affiliate covering a woman, who is a librarian; working with what the video states is “over 400 children” each day, going to a business to “blow off steam.”

Something I got told a lot in graduate school was that self-care was paramount. We talked about all our self-care efforts during practicum and internship. We had to journal some of those efforts. While taking care of myself is important to my success in helping care for others (whether they’re my clients or my kids), I’ve also realized that I won’t self-care or “professional distance” my way into total prevention of compassion fatigue.