Social Work Students’ Definition and Practice of Self-Compassion as a Guide for Curriculum Enrichment

Abstract

ABSTRACT Many factors within the social work profession can lead to empathic distress, compassion fatigue, and burnout. These concerns also apply to college students preparing for a career in social work. Compassion has been noted to be of benefit in connecting workers to clients, families, and communities. Likewise, self-compassion involves the skills of non-judgment, empathy, care for oneself, and social action, and has been studied as a preventative for burnout and distress among social workers. Given these benefits for established social workers, defining and practicing self-compassion is critical to the well-being of social work students and is worth examining for addition to social work curricula. In this exploratory qualitative research, using systematic content analysis, students were asked to define self-compassion and share how they engaged in self-care. Participants’ definition of self-compassion using empathy and non-judgment toward oneself reflected the concept of Mindfulness and Self Kindness, components of Neff’s Self-Compassion Scale. However, the element Common Humanity was missing in the students’ definition. Implications for social work education and curriculum development are discussed.