“It Makes You a Healthier Professional”: The Impact of Reflective Practice on Emerging Clinicians’ Self-Care

Abstract

ABSTRACT Reflective practice helps clinicians manage the complexity and uncertainty inherent in day-to-day practice. This is important given the high rates of burnout, turnover, and trauma-related stress among social workers and other clinicians. Using focus groups with 55 social work and child development graduate students and alumni, this study explored how engaging in a reflective practice framework, including individual reflective supervision and reflective practice seminars, impacted emerging clinicians’ self-care in positive and meaningful ways. Participants reported being better able to care for themselves both personally and professionally; having improved emotional health; having better satisfaction, sustainability, and longevity on the job; and developing a new standard (model) for their future practice. This study has important implications for how higher education institutions prepare social work and other social service professionals, suggesting that the institutionalization of reflective practice during graduate school, may help future practitioners care better for not only their clients, but also themselves.