Development and piloting of a self-care psychoeducation program for mental health professionals

Trauma counselors are exposed to sustained emotional demands and indirect trauma, which may increase the risk of burnout, secondary traumatic stress, and compassion fatigue. Although self-care is recognized as an important component of ethical professional practice and has increasingly been examined as a potential protective approach, structured self-care interventions for in-service trauma counselors remain limited. This qualitative study aimed to develop a multidimensional self-care psychoeducation program for trauma counselors and to explore participants' experiences and perceptions during the piloting of the program.

The study was conducted in two interrelated phases within a qualitative research framework. In Study 1, a needs analysis was carried out with 11 trauma counselors to inform the development of a seven-session self-care psychoeducation program. In Study 2, the program was piloted with 17 trauma counselors over seven weeks. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews and session journal entries and analyzed using content analysis.

The needs analysis revealed prominent experiences of secondary traumatic stress and emotional exhaustion, as well as limited knowledge of self-care approaches despite the use of individual coping strategies. Participants described increased self-awareness of multidimensional self-care and reflected on cognitive-emotional, physical, spiritual, relational, and professional aspects of self-care throughout the pilot program. Participants also reflected on their perceptions of professional resilience and self-care habits.

This study provides preliminary insights into trauma counselors' experiences of participating in a multidimensional self-care psychoeducation program. Participants perceived group-based experiential learning, reflective practices, and peer support as valuable components of the program and described these experiences as contributing to their understanding of self-care strategies. These findings suggest that multidimensional self-care psychoeducation represents a promising area for further research. Future studies employing more rigorous designs are needed to examine the effectiveness and longer-term impact of such programs.