The Professional Counselor | Volume 13, Issue 2 122 As a counselor and advocate for these techniques, I want to bring them into the K–12 education system at an early age. I hope to introduce these practices wherever I go and to our students, as I believe everyone can benefit from them. Discussion The five themes embody the significance and definition of self-care grounded in mindfulness and SEL for graduate students in counseling who took a summer self-care course. Participants reported a new experience in self-discovery through the practice. Despite the difficulties brought by the COVID-19 pandemic and the shift to online education, learning about self-care helped them cope with daily stress. By participating in a group, they discovered their personal and professional understanding of self-care. They learned how to connect with their emotions, physical sensations, thoughts, and others in their relationships. Particularly, they emphasized the importance of embracing difficult emotions. The selfcare grounded in mindfulness and SEL taught in the course enabled them to face emotions such as anger, disappointment, anxiety, uncertainty, and shame with nonjudgment and acceptance. The students connected their understanding of self-care with their daily practices both in and outside of the class. The consistent and dedicated practice demonstrated a true embodiment of self-care among the participants. Along with displaying great confidence in themselves and their self-care practices, the participants strongly expressed their desire to help others in their communities. Their professional identity as school counselors was enhanced, and the participants developed agency to empower underserved students and communities by introducing self-care strategies and mindfulness practices. After completing the course, the participants expressed their intention to continue the practice and viewed self-care and mindfulness as a lifelong journey. These findings align with previous qualitative studies (Baker, 2016; Bohecker & Horn, 2016; Campbell & Christopher, 2012; Christopher et al., 2011, 2016; Christopher & Maris, 2010) on the experiences of master’s-level students in mindfulness self-care courses. Across these studies, a common theme is that students reported substantial changes in both their personal and professional lives. This included increased confidence in their professional and interpersonal relationships, a greater appreciation for their physical well-being, healthier lifestyle choices, and the ability to handle challenging situations more effectively. Furthermore, the significance of the current study is to confirm that self-care is imperative for counselor training. As the participants expressed their sense of empowerment and desire to engage in creating and providing workshops for their families, schools, and communities, they demonstrated self-care as part of social and cultural advocacy. There was a clear shift from a deficit- to a strengthsbased self-identity regarding linguistic ability, emotional availability, and a healing-focused process. This is consistent with the role of school counselors, as system change agents need to critically examine dominant culture and its impact on their own racial identity development, power, privilege, and oppression in educational settings (Mitchell & Binkley, 2021). Before disrupting and dismantling the oppression and power in the system, school counselors will need to embrace themselves wholly and consider using themselves as a tool in advocating for those in need. When serving diverse students and communities, self-care goes beyond relaxation and self-awareness of one’s own thoughts and emotions. It also involves reclaiming power within oneself—physically, emotionally, spiritually, and culturally.
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