Caring for Ourselves

Self-care. Ellen Baker wants us to think about the practice of taking care of ourselves, and has given us a volume designed to give this need more than the cursory 10 minute (or less) breaks we might take between our patients, or the 2 weeks vacation (well, I’ve heard of people taking 2 weeks!) each summer. She reminds us “As therapists, we use our training and skills to help our patients become more self-aware and more self-tending. Many of us, however, are reluctant for a gamut of reasons to offer ourselves that same kind of understanding and care” (pg. vii).

Baker sagely reminds us that self-care is a process that encompasses our whole being and is to be incorporated into our daily life. To aid with our own efforts, she has compiled an exhaustive overview of the multiple areas where our own self-care is an integral part of our practice. And for those of us who like our books referenced to past literature, Baker has done as thorough a job of referencing writings on professional self-care as would seem possible, so for those interested in further reading, they will need look no further than Baker’s index where she has offered hundreds of other works on the subject.

Most useful of all her ideas is Baker’s inclusion of her “Journal Entry” tools. Throughout the entire book, Baker stops the reader and asks them to answer a series of questions about their personal experience of the current issue she is addressing. Like other great self-help tomes, Baker encourages the serious reader to take the time to truly consider the meaning and current lack/successes in the reader’s life in regard to self-care. This makes this volume a useful companion to our own (hopefully) lifelong therapeutic journey, and one we can return to at those times when we find ourselves verging toward that hated word “burnout”.

Perhaps Baker could have subtitled her book “Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Self-Care But Were Afraid to Ask”. However, she likely wisely understood this had already been appropriated by another area of concern, and so avoided this choice. But this book truly does meet that claim. Useful for grad students alike (where better to begin our training at self-care, though I don’t recall it ever being discussed in grad school) and seasoned professionals, “Caring For Ourselves” is a kind volume, where one can feel Baker’s warmth and concern for all of us, and her empathy for the tremendous challenge the practice of psychotherapy provides. Thanks Ellen.

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