TPC-Journal-V2-Issue1

The Professional Counselor \Volume 2, Issue 1 97 There is an encouragement for self-care. It is double-binded, you have to get your stuff done, but you know it is like it is Friday, let’s go home. They encourage each other to work less and have fun. Other places (agencies) had more pressure to get it done. There is a consciousness of balance. Peter also discussed positive feelings when his supervisor supported his self-care efforts, “There was one day there was an accumulation of things, a combination of feeling sick, but also in the middle of a stressful time…he said go home, have a great day. So he was in support of wellness.” Peter continued, “he understood the job is not always easy and can bring on a lot of stress and he was willing to let us take care of ourselves if we needed to.” Overall, when the agency promoted the respect and value of professional counselors and encouraged counselors to have a voice and affect change, it promoted the counselors’ own sense of wellness. Furthermore, sensing an investment in work relationships and promoting a work-life balance influenced the wellness of these counselors. Individual Differences The final theme that emerged involved the different perspectives of the participants and how that influenced their feelings of wellness. Two participants from the same agency held very different feelings about how their agencies influenced their sense of wellness. Jill felt very positive about her agency and spoke of the many financial incentives and freedoms allotted and that the agency’s independent scheduling fit her. Anne also mentioned the same financial incentives, but believed that she received negative mixed messages and that her wellness was being negatively affected by the same agency. Conversely, Jill, who felt positive towards her agency, noted, “No one had to tell me to take care of myself.” David also expressed that wellness is often left up to the individual; when speaking about one of his agencies he stated, “it wasn’t really like it was a place of wellness. Wellness is something that happened, or self-care happened long after you left.” Romie responded about her intentionality with wellness: Personally, what I do is many things. I exercise; I make sure I get plenty of sleep. I take time for myself when I need to. I will do yoga and meditate and do a lot of reading and I am highly spiritual. I have a wonderful home- life, a very supportive love-mate in my life. I am really in a good place. Throughout the interviews, the participants discussed very different values in terms of their wellness. Some of the participants mentioned spiritual practice and journaling as being important in maintaining wellness. Others expressed time with family as being most important, whereas others discussed setting clear boundaries or finding meaning in their work. Other participants discussed how wellness initiatives within their agencies often seemed inconvenient to them. When talking about a discounted gym membership that was offered, Brian viewed the offer as superficial, saying “in my experience, most of what they offer in terms of wellness is, in my experience, is somewhat superficial.” He further stated, “Very few people are able to utilize the gym membership because of the hours they work and where it’s located and the cost is still too high for the employees.” Peter discussed the positives and negatives of a wellness initiative: The book was a 40 week-by-week event where you learned about wellness…physical, mental, spiritual; all these different components. The problem was they had these events that took place scattered all over the district and so for anyone to attend them, they would have to drive half an hour to 45 minutes to attend them and which if you’re trying to have a good basis for wellness, then having people drive 45 minutes after a long day of work is not a good place to start for that. However, Peter acknowledged that this may be only his view, stating: The planning of the events I felt could have been better. And of course, not to say other people didn’t go to them and find them successful, but it was just my experience of do I go home or drive 45 minutes then attend a 2-hour meeting on nutrition. I felt like going home was more beneficial for me at that time. These statements reveal that professional counselors may value different things related to wellness. Other counselors in Brian or Peter’s agency may have appreciated the wellness initiatives.