Date of Award

7-15-2015

Document Type

Undergraduate Capstone Project

Degree Name

Psy.D.

Organizational Unit

Graduate School of Professional Psychology

First Advisor

Nicole Taylor

Second Advisor

Steve Portenga

Third Advisor

Bradley McMillan

Abstract

Numerous studies over the past two decades have highlighted the prevalence of stress, mental health disorders and interpersonal problems among psychologists. These statistics parallel those for students currently enrolled in clinical psychology graduate programs where such problems have become even more severe. This results in a significant ethical issue in that clinician competency is negatively impacted by emotional problems. This paper seeks to provide an analysis of current self-care literature. The importance of addressing graduate student self-care is first explored and followed by a literature review on interventions that have been successful in maintaining trainee wellness and competence. Recommendations to improve psychology graduate student life satisfaction are then made for both programs and individuals. Individual recommendations include having trainees develop individual self-care plans in which specific wellness strategies related to social support, health, treatment groups and life balance, among others, are listed and implemented as part of graduate training. Program recommendations include better facilitating a culture of self-care, making this a requirement of students, and enhancing supervisor and academic advisor support of self-care.

Copyright Statement / License for Reuse

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Publication Statement

Copyright is held by the author. User is responsible for all copyright compliance.

Extent

73 pages

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Psychology Commons

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