Clinician
Self-Care
Self-Care
A quick, 4-step grounding practice involving inhaling, holding, exhaling, and holding for four seconds each.
What is box breathing?
This complete, powerful sentence requires no further justification, explanation, or apology when saying it to an extra project request.
What is "No"?
In Disney’s Inside Out, this blue, glasses-wearing character surprisingly saves the day by helping Riley process her core memories.
Who is Sadness?
This term describes a client unconsciously redirecting feelings and expectations from a childhood figure onto their therapist.
What is transference?
The physical movement of looking directly at your watch while slowly leaning forward and taking a deep, subtle breath.
What is the universal sign for "our time is up"?
The specific type of secondary traumatic stress that mimics PTSD symptoms in helping professionals.
What is vicarious traumatization?
The best practice habit of adding a specific text line to your email signature stating you do not read or reply to emails after 5:00 PM.
What is an out-of-office message / email boundary disclaimer?
This famous, mustache-sporting Apple TV football coach is known for using radical empathy, curiosity, and homemade shortbread biscuits to heal his team's culture.
Who is Ted Lasso?
This 4-letter acronym represents the core DBT skill used to radically accept reality exactly as it is in the present moment.
What is STOP (or Radical Acceptance)?
The magical, mythical event where a client cancels their appointment 24 hours in advance, leaving you with a free hour of unexpected documentation time.
What is a unicorn session (accept: a clinician's dream)?
The physical act of deliberately leaving your work computer, paperwork, and work phone in your office when you leave for the day.
What is containment (or physical boundary setting)?
The phrase used when a colleague vents about a client without asking for your emotional or mental availability first.
What is trauma dumping?
This classic 1991 comedy film features Bill Murray as an overly dependent psychiatric patient who follows his therapist, Dr. Leo Marvin, on vacation.
What is What About Bob?
The defense mechanism where a person attributes their own unacceptable thoughts or feelings onto another person.
What is projection?
The primary survival fluid consumed by mental health staff between the hours of 8:00 AM and 11:00 AM.
What is coffee (or caffeine)?
A cognitive technique where clinicians consciously choose to put a stressful client case "on a shelf" mentally until work hours resume.
What is compartmentalization?
A physical or digital reminder (like an alarm) used to prompt a clinician that they have exactly 5 minutes left in a session.
What is a hard stop?
This legendary pop star famously popularized the therapeutic concept of setting boundaries and prioritizing self-care in her hit song "Flowers."
Who is Miley Cyrus?
The specific type of empathy where a clinician deeply understands a client's pain but maintains a clear psychological separation from it.
What is differentiated empathy (or clinical empathy)?
The phrase used to describe the internal panic a clinician feels when a client says, "Oh, by the way..." with only 60 seconds left in the session.
What is the "Doorknob Disclosure"?
Coined by positive psychologists, this 4-letter acronym describes the intense state of focus and optimal experience where you lose track of time while doing something you enjoy outside of work.
What is Flow?
The psychological phenomenon where a helper takes on extra tasks due to an unconscious, over-responsible need to "save" the clinic or their clients from distress.
What is a Savior Complex (or White Knight Syndrome)?
In the hit show The Sopranos, this is the name of the psychiatrist who treats mob boss Tony Soprano.
Who is Dr. Jennifer Melfi?
Coined by Carl Rogers, this 3-word phrase means showing a client total, non-judgmental acceptance, regardless of what they say or do.
What is Unconditional Positive Regard?
The official diagnostic term for the specific urge to clean your entire office kitchen or rearrange your bookshelves just to avoid writing progress notes.
What is productive procrastination?