Transcript DOVE: 4 Factors Influencing Resilience & Vulnerability

DOVE: 4 Factors Influencing
Resilience & Vulnerability
1.
2.
3.
4.
Desire to help
Powerful Opportunity (counseling)
Values (professional/personal)
Education (emotional competence)
Desire to Help
• “There’s no one thing that has gotten more
psychologists {probably includes all mental
health professionals} in [ethical] trouble
than the desire to be helpful” (Behenke,
2008, cited in this article), p.70).
• E.g., dual relationships/boundaries
Powerful Opportunity
• Mental health professionals “have the
power to foster change in their clients” and
therefore, in however small the measure,
“make the world a better place” (Pope &
Vasquez, 2007, cited in this article, p. 71).
• E.g., abuse of power/good judgment
obscured by emotions, not thought.
Values
• Mental health professionals share core values;
e.g., advancement of knowledge, working for
social justice, etc. But values can also represent
vulnerabilities.
• E.g., wedding, bar mitzvah – (rites of passage as
central client value) – therapist understood that
part but did not “underscore her empathy for the
situation and find alternate ways to strengthen
her therapeutic alliance with the clients” (p. 71).
Clients hurt & ended therapy.
• Private & public school preferences.
Education
• Mental health professionals value
education & lots of it, mostly of an
intellectual nature. Thus we may not give
enough attention to “emotional
competence”; i.e., “self-knowledge, selfacceptance, and self-monitoring” (Pope &
Vasquez, cited in this article, p. 72).
Education (con’t)
• Need to recognize emotional assets and
weaknesses in doing clinical work.
• Self-care essential & refers to more than just
avoiding impairment; e.g., avoiding mediocrity
and seeking excellence.
• Need to continue learning; too many of us do not
read journals, books, go to “new kinds” of
conferences, use consultation groups and ask
for supervision once our careers are
established.
Education (con’t)
• “Too many professionals complete their
training without the emotional education
and awareness needed to avoid selfdeception and to act in the prudent,
considered manner that society expects
and that represents professional ethical
excellence” (p. 72). Notice the emphasis
on emotional self-awareness and its affect
on ethical behavior.
Recommendations about DOVE
• Ongoing Awareness of the DOVE elements. Seek
conversation with peers about these elements.
• We (mental health professionals) are people, too, and
first. Our emotions are the same as those held by
others.
• The Quest for Excellence – schedule time for ethical
reflection & seek routine consultation & even
supervision.
• Balance & Self-Care – physical exercise, self-reflection,
friendships, leisure time, control in work place, enhance
emotional competence.
• Monitor on Psychology, April (2012), pp. 68-74.