Nurturing Creativity and Resilience in Mental Health Professionals: A Reflective Year-End Exploration
As the year-end draws close, we encourage everyone to reflect on the challenges, triumphs, and experiences that defined their past year and impacted their life. This blog is for everyone, especially mental health care providers. In a field where navigating the intricate landscapes of the human mind and experience is a daily task, cultivating healthy habits and enhancing resilience in our clients and ourselves is paramount. This blog delves into resilience in mental health and offers insights and strategies for everyone, especially healthcare professionals, to explore this topic as they approach the end of the year.
Understanding Resilience in Mental Health
Navigating Uncertainty:
Mental health professionals guide the people they care about and work with through life's uncertain and painful parts. A hallmark of resilience is the ability to remain steady amid ambiguity. Therapists encourage you to reflect on your experiences of uncertainty and explore how you navigated those difficult times and situations in your life. When therapists collaborate, they often share insights with colleagues, thus collectively supporting each other and building resilience. There is strength in numbers!
Building Emotional Agility:
Resilience involves more than just 'bouncing back'; it's about navigating emotions with agility. We can enhance our resilience by fine-tuning our emotional intelligence skills; this process helps our clients build and strengthen their emotional regulation skills, fostering a more adaptive and resilient mindset. As mental health professionals, emotional intelligence is the foundation of our work. Therapists need to remember that we must take the time to look at our foundations to see what cracks are developing. No matter how high the need is for our services, we must all learn to take the time to repair ourselves. Therapists need rest, too.
Cultivating Self-Compassion:
The nature of mental health work is emotionally demanding and, at times, exhausting. Burnout is real. Prioritize your self-care, have compassion for yourself, and let the concept of resilience guide your journey. Reflecting on personal achievements, acknowledging limitations, and practicing self-care are essential to cultivating a resilient and sustainable professional and personal mindset.
It is common for therapists to discuss different ways to decrease stress and incorporate healthy lifestyle choices into their lives with their clients. However, with the need for mental health care increasing at an alarming rate, many therapists and healthcare providers are overwhelmed by the needs of their communities and are not taking care of themselves. Many of our colleagues are teetering on the edge of burnout and collapse. Are you?
If this resonates with you, tune into how you care for yourself. We all know the benefits of healthy food, exercise, and sleep quality, but there is more you can do for yourself. If necessary, seek help, release control, and streamline parts of your life and business; these are just a few ways to make more space for self-care. Remember the message heard every time you get on an airplane. "in case of emergency, before helping anyone else, put the oxygen mask on your face first!" This concept is not selfish. We are of little help to others if we can not breathe ourselves.
Weaving in Creativity as a Therapeutic Modality AND a Form of Self-Care
Incorporating elements of Creativity in your personal and professional life can help mental health professionals and their clients find healthy outlets for emotional expression. Many people think they are not creative and judge themselves for a 'lack of artistic talent.' When art supplies are made available to children, they almost always explore the art supplies and scribble and create. Little children draw and create things because it is 'fun' and they do not compare themselves to others. Children learn about themselves and the world by feeling the art supplies with their hands and bodies. The art of making a mess is a favorite pastime of every child I have ever met. As people grow up, they look around, see what others are doing, and then compare their abilities. This process stops many people from continuing to explore the creative process and blocks their Creative expression. Comparison is the thief of joy. Grown-ups forget that art is for art's sake.
Artistic Outlets for Expression:
Exploring creative outlets, such as writing, art, or music, as a means of self-expression can offer a therapeutic release, enabling you and your clients to process emotions and experiences in healthy and constructive manners. Just as we encourage our clients to take care of themselves and have hobbies or creative outlets, as therapists, we, too, need to make time in our schedule to express ourselves. What creative outlets do you want to incorporate into your schedule this upcoming year? What have you always wanted to make or do with your hands? Start now!
Innovative Therapeutic Approaches:
Mental health professionals tailor their clinical approaches to the unique needs of their clients. This flexibility allows therapists the space to weave creative expression into the therapeutic process. This flexibility allows for collaborative brainstorming, illustrative and symbolic techniques, and other innovative strategies to enhance the therapeutic process with our clients and patients.
Even therapists who 'think they are not creative' can learn to enjoy and incorporate the creative process in their 'clinical' work. This type of work and these techniques are not for everyone. However, many clients appreciate and often thrive when encouraged to explore their Creativity, especially when incorporated into their therapeutic journey. The language of art surpasses words. Many grown-ups need encouragement and permission to explore their creative side.
Interdisciplinary Collaboration:
The American Institute of Medical Education (AIMED) and the Creativity and Madness team promote collaboration between ALL mental health professionals and other complementary and creative disciplines, such as art therapy, music therapy, and drama therapy. Our conferences provide a unique experience for clinicians to gain insight into themselves while learning new skills and techniques to enrich the therapeutic process. We strive to deliver educational experiences to our attendees that will contribute to their overall life experience and benefit all healthcare professionals and their clients. Our conferences are open to all interested participants.
Year-End Reflection and Professional Growth
As the end of the year approaches, take some time to reflect on your personal and professional growth.
Learning from Challenges:
Reflect on the challenges you faced throughout the year and identify the lessons you learned. Personal growth from adversity contributes to developing a resilient and adaptive mindset. What areas in your life do you want to improve? Having a growth mindset is a powerful force for Creativity.
Continued Education and Training:
AIMED and the Creativity and Madness conferences advocate for ongoing professional growth and development. We strive to create conferences, workshops, and training programs providing top-notch continuing education for mental and healthcare professionals, exposing them to new perspectives, therapeutic modalities, and evidence-based practices. We aim to contribute to healthcare professionals' clinical effectiveness and personal resilience.
As we reflect on the year gone by, let the focus be on the bedrock of your life and practice: YOU! Recognizing, understanding, and enhancing resilience will help you fortify yourself against the inevitable challenges in life and your work. Take care of yourself so you can continue to provide effective and compassionate care to those who rely on you. You are essential, and the world needs you! As we look forward to the coming year, may the lessons we have learned in our lives guide us toward a future of continued professional growth and well-being.
Written by Dr. Amy Vail and Alli Fischenich