While employers have a duty of care towards their employees, support and adjustments should be balanced with personal responsibility for individual wellbeing. Self-care is a critical, yet often neglected, component of any helping profession. Engaging in self-care, whatever that looks like for you, should be regarded as essential and integral to service success – not an optional add on. For Neurodivergent practitioners, the need to engage in self-care may be even more important. Working with people can be an intense experience, engaging in busy meetings or even the commute to and from work can be fraught with sensory issues and conflict and challenge. Below are some options for self-care that may be useful to you:
- Make time to engage in activities and hobbies that you are passionate about.
- Practice mindfulness or meditation.
- If you stim then give yourself permission to stim – where possible aim to redirect stimming behaviours that cause harm towards safer alternatives. For example, replacing skin picking with twanging an elastic band.
- Create a working environment that brings you comfort.
- Engage in supportive supervision practices – if these are not available, consider asking for this or engaging in peer group support.
- Set professional and personal boundaries that enable you to prioritise self-care.
- Connect with the natural world.
- Do something creative – for instance you might like to draw, paint, journal or take photographs.
- Move your body – find an exercise routine that brings you joy and fulfilment.
- Prioritise your body comfort to support your nervous system regulation (for example hydrate when you are thirsty, engage in regular movement, use the toilet when you need to, take screen breaks, eat when you’re hungry).
To learn more about how you can create a neuroinclusive workplace environment and support a neurodiverse workforce you can read about and access resources, such as the CIPD (2024) guidance on neuroinclusion at work.46
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CIPD, 2024. Neuroinclusion at work.
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