Building a culture of self-compassion

For people whose work is emotionally demanding, self-compassion and self-care are essential. Health and social care practitioners gain considerable satisfaction from supporting others, but the emotional demands of the job can lead to compassion fatigue and burnout. Research by (Kinman & Grant, 2020) has found that maintaining compassion towards the self can protect against these negative effects.

Self-compassion can improve coping abilities and protect us from stress and burnout. It is also one of the most powerful sources of resilience, enabling us not only to survive adversity but to flourish. And because self-compassion can enhance empathy and improve interpersonal relationships, there are also likely to be benefits for people who access services.

Neff (2016) identifies three elements of self-compassion:

• Self-kindness: being warm, patient and understanding towards ourselves when we suffer, fail or feel inadequate, rather than being self-critical and hostile.

• Common humanity: recognising that personal suffering and feelings of inadequacy are part of the human condition, and not something that makes us different from others.

• Mindfulness: taking a balanced and accepting approach to our negative emotions, so feelings are neither avoided nor exaggerated.

It is particularly important to develop interventions to encourage compassionate feelings towards the self and healthy self-care strategies among health and social care practitioners early in their career, as this can be more challenging for people who have spent longer in the job.

Kinman and Grant’s (2020) research found that social care practitioners often see themselves as self-compassionate but are reluctant to prioritise their own wellbeing over other people’s needs; this can even be considered self-indulgent and irresponsible. Research with healthcare professionals has yielded similar findings, where prioritising self-care in both working and personal lives can be challenging and practitioners often feel they need ‘permission’ to do so (e.g. Andrews et al., 2019; Egan et al., 2019).

A review of 22 studies that evaluated self-care interventions among social care workers found that all focused on modifying individual behaviours, attitudes and knowledge (Kaapu et al., 2023). The need for multi-level interventions, with a particular emphasis on organisationally focused initiatives, has been highlighted (Collins, 2023). 

Leaders can build a culture that supports self-compassion by role-modelling self-kindness, common humanity and mindfulness, and encouraging practitioners to accept that, like everyone, they are imperfect. But in seeking to develop such a culture, leaders must pay attention to working conditions; a heavy workload, staff shortages, and lack of appropriate supervision will thwart any attempts to improve self-compassion and self-care.

At an individual level, compassion-focused expressive writing can help people overcome self-criticism and develop the self-reflection that underpins self-compassion. Other strategies included in this app can also help:

• Reflective supervision and having reflective conversations can foster self-compassion and encourage people to prioritise self-care.

• Peer coaching, and group approaches such as World Café and Appreciative Inquiry , will help identify and share best practice among co-workers to improve self-care.

• Mindfulness techniques can help us maintain personal boundaries and enhance awareness of the self and the need to care for it.

• Using strategies to challenge unproductive thinking can also help us relate to ourselves in a more compassionate, friendly and forgiving way.

More information about self-compassion and some useful resources can be found here.