A Study of Professional Helpers’ Experience in Self-Care Though Mindfulness Yoga

Abstract

Over the years, the cultivation of professional helpers has focused on theory instruction and practical training. Few counseling programs directly address the importance of self-care in reducing stress and burnout in their curricula�]Newsome, Christopher, Dahlen, & Christopher, 2006 �^. In the process of helping people, however, the helper��s personal factors and well-being are interwoven with perplexity and condition of the persons involved, thus making professional help a highly complex and challenging task. Therefore, attention to professional helpers�� self-care cannot be overemphasized. The purpose of the study was to explore the professional helpers�� experience in self-care through mindful yoga. Three professional helpers were interviewed to understand their personal experience. Qualitative analysis was applied to collected data. The results of the analysis are as follow: 1. Mindful yoga helped professional helpers experience deep mediation, enhance self-awareness as well as nourishment through postures, breathing practices, deep relaxation, and concentration techniques.. 2. Thinking through the body may help the individual stay grounded in the present moment, and help the individual have insight into their inner lives and their own personal response to internal and external stressors. 3. Yoga practice increase the ability to relax, handle stress or tolerate emotion. 4.Mindful yoga helped professional helpers insight the meaning of and pleasure in serving people, other than the burnout, thus lengthening the task of professional help.



Author Information
Yu-Fang Hsu, National Kaohsiung Normal University, Taiwan

Paper Information
Conference: ACP2015
Stream: Qualitative/Quantitative Research in any other area of Psychology

This paper is part of the ACP2015 Conference Proceedings (View)
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Posted by James Alexander Gordon