Workplace Wellness & Self Care

The World Health Organization (1967) stated that wellness encompasses more than just the absence of disease; it includes a holistic perspective of physical, mental, and social well-being. Within the counseling field, the initial focus was on the client’s wellness; however, the concept also includes counselor wellness (Witmer & Young, 1996). Wellness is (a) multidimensional, (b) best represented on a continuum, and (c) more than just the absence of illness (Roscoe, 2009). Myers, Sweeney, and Witmer’s (2000) defined wellness as: a way of life oriented toward optimal health and well-being, in which body, mind, and spirit are integrated by the individual to live life more fully within the human and natural community. Ideally, it is the optimum state of health and well-being that each individual is capable of achieving. (p. 252)

A number of milestones have marked the rise of wellness as a tenet of the counseling profession:

• Witmer (1985) was the first to introduce the construct of wellness to the counseling field.
• Myers (1992) suggested that wellness is a major paradigm within the counseling field.The American Counseling Association developed a task force to promote wellness and prevent counselor burnout (Lawson & Verant, 2006).

Wellness Assessment
The Five Factor Wellness Inventory (5F-Wel; Myers & Sweeney, 2008), developed from the Indivisible Self Wellness Model (IS Wel Model), assesses an individual’s overall wellness, and five factors of wellness: essential self, social self, physical self, creative self, and coping self. The 5F-Wel is the most common assessment of wellness used in the counseling field. Versions are available for adults and K-12 students, and it has been translated into other languages to meet the needs of diverse populations.

Additional Assessment Resources:

• Free assessments are provided at http://www.psy.miami.edu/faculty/ccarver/CCscales.html
• Website for the National Wellness Institute which provides resources for best practices, a wellness conference, training/education opportunities, free wellness assessments, and current issues regarding wellness: http://www.nationalwellness.org/?

Evidenced Based Intervention Strategies:
Counselors and Wellness

• ACA (2005) and Myers and Sweeney (2008) advocate for the necessity of evidence-based practices that promote client and counselor wellness.
•  Counselors who incorporate wellness into their lives may experience lower levels of burnout (Young & Lambie, 2007).
• Website link to the ACA taskforce on Counselor Wellness and Impairment; provides information regarding well- ness strategies, educational programs, assessments, risk factors of impairment, and wellness resources: http:// www.counseling.org/wellness_taskforce/tf_history.htm
• Myers, J. E., & Sweeney, T. J. (Eds.). (2005). Counseling for wellness: Theory, research, and practice. Alexandria, VA: American Counseling Association.
•  Granello, P. F. (2012) Wellness Counseling. Upper Saddle Ridge, NJ: Merrill-Pearson

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Granello, P. F. (2012). Wellness Counseling. Upper Saddle Ridge, NJ: Merrill-Pearson

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Myers, J. E. (1992). Wellness, prevention, development: The cornerstone of the profession. Journal of Counseling & Development, 71, 136-139.

Myers, J. E., & Sweeney, T. J. (2008). Wellness counseling: The evidence base for practice. Journal of Counseling & Development, 86, 482-493.

Myers, J. E., Sweeney, T. J., & Witmer, J. M. (2000). The Wheel of Wellness counseling for wellness: A holistic model for treatment planning. Journal of Counseling & Development, 78, 251-266.

Roscoe, L. J. (2009). Wellness: A review of theory and measurement of counselors. Journal of Counseling & Development, 87, 216-226.

Weibel, D. T. (2007). A loving-kindness intervention: Boosting compassion for self and others. Retrieved from Dissertations and Theses database (AAT 3292869).

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Witmer, J. M., & Young, M. E. (1996). Preventing counselor impairment: A Wellness approach. Journal of Humanistic Education and Development, 34, 141-155.

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Young, M. E., & Lambie, G. (2007). Wellness in school and mental health systems: Organizational influences. Journal of Humanistic Counseling, Education & Development, 46, 98-113.