Masters Thesis

A Handbook for School Psychology Graduate Students: Building a System of Self-Care

School psychologists, like many others in clinical or service providing professions, experience significant stressors in their day to day professional functioning. The literature demonstrates correlations between chronic occupational stressors and burnout and indicates consistent self-care practices can help mitigate symptoms of burnout (De Vibe, Solhaug, Rosenvinge, Tyssen, Hanley Garland, 2018). Literature is lacking, however, in regard to graduate student stress for students enrolled in school psychology programs. Research conducted on psychology and medical graduate students indicate high degrees of stress and low levels of successful coping strategies; it is likely that similar trends would be found among school psychology graduate students given the similarities in program and training demands (Colman, Echon, Lemay, McDonald, Smith, Spencer Swift, 2016; Goncher, Sherman, Barnett Haskins, 2012; Shannon, Simmelink-McCleary, Becher Crook-Lyon, 2014). The National Association of School Psychologists' ethical standards do not directly address self-care, though the ethical demand for such practices can be derived from the standard directing school psychologists to "take steps to protect all students from reasonably foreseeable risk of harm" (NASP, p.2). Emphasis of self-care during graduate training can provide the basis for a successful self-care system as students enter the profession of school psychology. This paper specifically addresses the emotional, cognitive and social aspects of self-care as they pertain to graduate students enrolled in school psychology programs. The information discussed in this paper supplies part of a handbook created for use by school psychology graduate students to assist in informing the creation of a personal self-care system. Information regarding the physical aspects of self-care, such as care of the body through exercise, sleep and nutrition, is supplied through the work completed by Burlinda Seals, a fellow CSUN graduate student enrolled in the school psychology program. The handbook is a cumulation of our collective review of the literature in the areas of burnout, stressors within graduate school as well as the profession of school psychology, and effective self-care practices.

Items in ScholarWorks are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.