Self-Care Practices Among Psychology Trainees

Psychology trainees routinely face high academic demands, intensive clinical placements and exposure to clients’ distress, all of which can undermine their emotional health. Self-care has emerged as a vital component of training frameworks, encompassing a spectrum of individual, interpersonal and organisational strategies designed to maintain well-being and prevent burnout. Common practices include mindfulness exercises, structured peer consultation, regular supervision and deliberate scheduling of restorative activities such as physical exercise, creative pursuits or periods of digital disconnection. Evidence reveals that consistent engagement in self-care not only bolsters psychological resilience but also enhances clinical competence, ethical decision-making and professional satisfaction. Despite growing recognition, implementation remains uneven across programmes and regions, with trainees citing barriers such as time constraints, stigma and lack of formal guidance. Internationally, cultural norms shape the selection and acceptance of self-care modalities, prompting calls for context-sensitive curricula that integrate self-care skills into core competencies. Moving forward, the field is honing in on multi-level interventions—combining individual skill-building with systemic changes in supervisor training, workload management and the use of digital platforms—to ensure that self-care is embedded as a fundamental, rather than optional, aspect of psychology education.

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Self-Care Practices Among Psychology Trainees publication trend

The graph below shows the total number of articles in self-care practices among psychology trainees across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).

Technical terms

Self-care: Deliberate practices and routines that individuals adopt to maintain or improve their physical, emotional and mental health.

Psychological resilience: The capacity to adapt effectively in the face of stress, adversity or trauma, often fostered by self-care strategies.

Social belonging: A sense of acceptance, inclusion and support within a community or professional group, essential for emotional stability.

Life balance: The equilibrium between work, study and personal life activities that promotes sustained well-being and prevents burnout.

References

1. Characterizing changes in mental health‐related outcomes for health service psychology graduate students during the first year of the COVID‐19 pandemic. Journal of Clinical Psychology (2022).
2. Psychology Doctoral Program Experiences and Student Well-Being, Mental Health, and Optimism During the COVID-19 Pandemic. Frontiers in Psychology (2021).
3. Self-Care of Canadian School Psychology Graduate Students. Canadian Journal of School Psychology (2023).