Ole Taggaard Nielsen ACBS World Conference 2011

The ACT approach holds that

clinicians must be willing to
apply ACT in our own lives in
order to deliver the therapy
effectively
There seems to be a large disconnect between
the healthy and compassionate way we treat
our patients and the manner in which we treat
ourselves
Self-care: The feeling for many clinicians is
that if I take time out for my self this leisure
period is not ”time well spent”
Self-compassion: being compassionate are
gifts we give to others so being self-
compassionate are sometimes seen as selfish
or even signs of weakness
 Loss of vitality
 Fatigue and depletion
 Burnout
 Feeling overwhelmed
 Cynicism
 Workaholism
 Isolation
 Narrowed lifes
 Boredom
 Confrontation/conflict
 Arrogance
 Helplessness
 ”This period will pass. It will get better soon”
 ”I’m an experienced clinician who knows how to
keep stress in the private life out of my work”
 ”None of my clients have complained to me”

 Avoid certain problems and “difficult” patients

 Refer patients to someone or somewhere else
 When applying the therapy:
Avoid going into difficult material
Change subject, talk about easy topics
Make jokes
Worry
Do less experiential work and more “talk”
--a respectful place where they can share
their burdens, worries, anxiety, anger,
questions and wonder ?
--or do they feel our sense of exhaustion,
our need to be right or in control, our
need to be seen as wise and clever or to
achieve ?
We run a risk of depletion, loosing
perspective and burn out if we do not focus
om activities that truly renew us

”Any idiot can face a crisis- it’s this day-to-

day living that wears you out”
Anton Chekhov (Russian short-story writer)
Identifyavoidance and show up to the
ongoing challenges and stressors
Commit to selfcare moves
 Focus is on activities that increases flexibility
 No one model exits: there are many different
ways to practice self-care
 Differences may relate to personal history,
gender and stage of life etc.
 Quiet walks by yourself
 Little meditative periods (waiting for something, a
cancellation of a session, a brief illness) are
opportunities for a quiet, reflective, peaceful time
 Time and space for meditation
 Reading – spiritual, fiction, biographies
 Some light exercise
 Opportunities to laugh in the company of cheerful
friends
 A hobby
 Listening to music you enjoy
Are we able to sit with
ourselves
in the same way that we wish
to be with our clients who
turn to us for help ?
from Latin: "co-suffering"
“Compassion is that which makes the
heart of the good move at the pain of
others. It crushes and destroys the
pain of others; thus, it is called
compassion. It is called compassion
because it shelters and embraces the
distressed”. - The Buddha
 Having compassion for oneself is really no different than
having compassion for others
 To have compassion for others you must notice that they are
suffering
 Compassion involves feeling moved by others' suffering so
that your heart responds to their pain (to “suffer with”).
When this occurs you feel warmth, caring, and the desire to
help the suffering person in some way
 Having compassion also means that you offer understanding
and kindness to others when they fail or make mistakes,
rather than judging them
 Finally, when you feel compassion for another (and not as
seen in pity) it means that you realize that suffering, failure,
and imperfection is part of the shared human experience
 Self-compassion involves acting the same way towards
yourself when you are having a difficult time, fail, or notice
something you don’t like about yourself. Instead of just
ignoring your pain, you stop to tell yourself “this is really
difficult right now,” how can I care for myself in this
moment?
 Perhaps most importantly, having compassion for yourself
means that you honor and accept your humanness. The
more you open your heart to this reality instead of
constantly fighting against it, the more you will be able to
feel compassion for yourself and all your fellow humans
Contact info:
Ole Taggaard Nielsen
www.psykologotn.dk