Faith and Therapy

As a therapist with multiple chronic illnesses, I struggle to take care of myself and advocate for myself fully at times. Chronic illness can be debilitating and overwhelming, which is a struggle especially when it starts to impede on our mental health. How do we take care of ourselves when we are invested in the self-care of our clients? How do we take time for ourselves when other people rely on us?

ADVOCATE

This is something that we tell out clients to do, but we don’t always do this ourselves. Advocate for yourself when you are sick. If you don’t feel well and need time to recover, take that time. If you need a day in bed and can’t do your tele-health appointments, you need rest. You are human too, just like your clients.

SELF-CARE

What are some ways that you care for yourself? I am not talking about doom scrolling or brain rot, even though distractions can be very helpful at times especially when we don’t feel well. I am talking about being intentional with our self-care, especially if we have chronic illnesses. How are we managing our health as we struggle with it? Are we taking intentional breaks within our day to just get up and walk? I find that having a cup of tea with me at times to self-regulate and ground myself is beneficial. Figuring out what might be helpful for your illnesses is important, whether that be getting in some exercise, drinking lots of water, taking your supplements, whatever is helpful for you. Take care of yourself.

SELF-COMPASSION

Give yourself grace. Like I said, you are human too. Ask yourself, am I being a friend or a bully to myself? How am I talking to myself right now? What would I say to a friend who is going through the same thing? I find it so much easier to give others grace while hating on ourselves. Self-compassion is the practice of being kind and having empathy for ourselves. Just like we are kind and have empathy for our clients, we should do so for ourselves.

Journaling Prompts to Follow:

1. What are some ways you can incorporate self-care into your routine this week?
2. How can you advocate for yourself at work when it comes for needing time off for your health?
3. How can you revamp your self-care to be more intentional?
4. In what ways can you give yourself compassion/grace?
5. How am I talking to myself today?