In the Social Work Professional’s world, emotionally charged situations, overwhelming stress, and emotional fatigue are going to occur. We can’t sidestep it. Our job is to engage with clients when they’re at their most vulnerable, and it will take its toll. If we want to maintain resilience and ensure we’re delivering our best to our clients, we need to make sure we’re taking advantage of all possible tools available. One of those tools, a big one, is a robust mindfulness practice. Techniques rooted in staying present and crafting non-judgmental awareness give us a way to manage the stress that inevitably comes with our profession.
Mindfulness is the difference between reacting, and responding. It involves giving full attention to the present moment without judgment. Simple, not easy. Maintaining our presentness can be a challenge, but it serves us by regulating our emotions, reducing stress, and creating space for emotional resilience
Research supports the benefits of mindfulness in high stress professions. Studies show that mindfulness lowers anxiety, increases emotional regulation, and improves decision making. We, as social workers, are particularly served by mindfulness because it allows us to stay centered and grounded when emotions are running high. It allows us to maintain the empathy necessary to do our job when others may become overwhelmed.
A real life fictional example, Mia. She is a social worker at a local hospital who deals regularly with patients and families in crisis. Every day she comes to work she’s tasked with providing emotional support to grieving families or helping patients navigate difficult medical decisions. Day after day of giving her life force away, Mia is sure to get worn down and emotionally drained. The constant exposure to trauma affects her ability to engage with clients as effectively as she would like.
In order to address this issue, Mia began looking into mindfulness techniques, focused breathing and body scanning techniques specifically. Before and after particularly intense interactions, Mia spends a few moments practicing box breathing – 4 second inhale, 4 second hold, 4 second exhale, 4 second hold, repeat for X number of cycles. During difficult conversations Mia uses body scanning techniques to become aware of tension areas allowing her to release physical stress and remain present for the client.
Over time, these mindfulness practices significantly improved Mia’s well being and keep her job performance at the level she expects from herself. She is able to offer empathetic support to ALL of her clients now instead of feeling guilty about being worn down to the nub at the end of the day and believing she gave her later clients the short end of the stick. She keeps her composure and handles difficult conversations with grace. Her client outcomes improve and her work becomes more sustainable.
Another real life fictional example, Marcellus. Marcellus is a community social worker in a local agency managing a caseload too large for one person, but such is life. The show must go on. His clients come from low-income neighborhoods and his role is helping them navigate complex situations involving scarce resources and endless bureaucratic hurdles. The combination of long hours, high emotional demand, and seemingly pointless wrenches thrown into his system lead him down a path towards burnout.
To combat everything working against him, Marcellus starts using mindfulness to his advantage. He schedules time to take short mindfulness walks and/or sit for brief meditation sessions. This practice creates needed space and allows him to recover after difficult exchanges. Marcellus adopts a mindful mantra reminding himself that he’s not stressed, he’s experiencing stress. Not identifying with his emotions makes it easier to come at them from a non-judgmental bent and refocus his attention where it is most useful, his clients.
After a few weeks of this Marcellus, noticed a significant improvement in his ability to manage his stress. The mindfulness practices allowed him mentally leave work at work reducing the sense of constant emotional burden he’d been taking with him everywhere. His job satisfaction increased, his resilience spiked, and he was able to show up every day with a renewed energy ready to help.
Some simple strategies we can consider.
Box Breathing: Focused breathing will calm the mind and restore focus. It’s short and can be done between client meetings or even during particularly intense interactions. Exhale for 4 seconds, then hold for 4 seconds. Inhale for 4 second, then hold again for 4 seconds. Start with just a couple of cycles and then begin to increase the number as you get better.
Grounding Exercises: Techniques like body scanning (noticing, then tensing & relaxing specific areas of the body) or mindful listening (hyper focusing on a client’s words without letting the mind the wander) will enhance presence in difficult situations. Lean into them with full focus.
Short meditative breaks: Short bouts of meditation, even 5 minutes, during a busy day will offer significant benefits, helping to reset our emotional state and improve our focus. Put them on your daily schedule.
Mindfulness offers us and our colleagues a valuable set of tools to manage the emotional and psychological demands of our chosen profession. Mia and Marcellus illustrate the profound impact mindfulness will have on both our well being and job performance. When we adopt mindfulness practices, we cultivate emotional resiliency, maintain healthy life-work balance, and serve our clients to the best of our abilities letting our training and talent shine through with empathy and dedication. And we can do it in the long term.
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