Ethics and Sustainable Self-Care for Mental Health Professionals

6 Ethics CEs!

Overview: 

For mental health professionals, there is a strong link between self-care and professional competence in our complex multicultural society. In this interactive workshop participants will complete a comprehensive self-assessment and discuss personal assets and challenges related to self-care. Participants will explore effective self-care and communitarian care strategies that focus on our intellectual, emotional, physical and spiritual selves in the context of positive psychology research findings. We will analyze practice vignettes that incorporate ethical, multicultural and self-care considerations. In addition, we will discuss the role of communitarian ethics and supportive colleague relationships in promoting professional resiliency. Participants will be encouraged to identify and commit to specific self-care and communitarian care activities and strategies.

Objectives:

At the conclusion of the workshop, the participant will be able to:

• Explain how maintaining personal well-being is an ethical responsibility that is directly related to competence in a complex multicultural society.
• Explain how care for one's colleagues is essential to promoting professional resilience. 
• Identify at least two vulnerabilities to occupational stress common to mental health professionals and two that are unique to you as an individual practitioner, based on a self-assessment exercise.
• Identify common warning signs of occupational stress for professional psychologists and practitioners in general, and describe two which are most relevant to your professional practice.
• Develop a plan for implementing at least one self-care strategy and one communitarian strategy. 

Who Should Attend: This intermediate level workshop is intended for mental health professionals who provide clinical services to the public. It is also intended for mental health professionals who train or supervise graduate students or other professionals.

This workshop qualifies for 6 ethics CEs!

Erica H. Wise, Ph.D.

Is Clinical Professor and Director of the Psychology Training Clinic for the Department of Psychology at UNC Chapel Hill. She teaches doctoral level courses that focus on clinical theory and practice, ethics and diversity, and clinical supervision. She is a former chair of the APA Ethics Committee and the North Carolina Psychology Board, a current member of the APA Board Educational Affairs (BEA), a past-president of NCPA and co-chair of the NCPA Ethics Committee. She was the recipient of the 2013 Annual APA Ethics Committee Award for Outstanding Contributions to Ethics Education and received a 2014 APA Presidential Citation for her work in social justice advocacy and self-care for psychologists. She is a Fellow of the Society of Clinical Psychology (Division 12) of APA. Her professional interests include professional education and training, continuing education for psychologists, and the integration of ethics, diversity, and self-care into academic and professional practice settings.

Conflicts of Interest: No conflicts reported.

Schedule:

8:00 - 8:30 am

Registration and light continental breakfast

8:30 - 10:00 

• Ethical Context
• Common Vulnerabilities
• Self-Assessment Exercise

10:00 - 10:10

Break

10:10 - 11:40

• Positive Psychology
• Reconceptualizing Competence
• Communitarian Ethics

11:40 - 12:50 pm

Lunch (on your own)

12:50 - 2:20

• Re-envisioning the Stress-Distress continuum
• Mindfulness
• ACT

2:20 - 2:30 

Break

2:30 - 4:00

• Analysis of Ethics Vignettes
• Self-Care Strategies Exercise and Discussion