The theme for this month’s newsletter is self-care. Self-care, of course, is a year-long priority for professional and pastoral counselors, but at Redeemer Counseling, we have dedicated one month every year to really focus on it as a team. Together, we engage in self-evaluation for overall well-being and for burnout or compassion fatigue, and we engage in practical activities to help us get replenished.

In this newsletter, we focus particularly on what we believe is the hub of the self-care wheel: our soul care. As the apostle Paul states, God is “the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God.” (2 Cor. 1:3-4). In other words, as Christian counselors, our fountain is the grace, joy and freedom found in Christ. Our souls need to be replenished in him before we can offer this living water to others.

To encourage one another in both our self-care and our soul care, we offer this toolkit below. We recommend counselors go through it with peers, mentors, or friends, to assess their levels of wellbeing and address any special areas of concern. In addition, we offer an interview with Andi Brindley, a spiritual mentor to counselors and caregivers, who shares with us about how counselors can remain spiritually healthy.