Mental health of therapeutic students: relationships with attitudes, self-criticism, self-compassion, and caregiver identity

ABSTRACT

As mental health awareness increases, more students enrol to therapeutic subjects, aspiring to help others’ mental wellbeing. While mental health of other caring students has been explored, therapeutic students’ mental health has not been investigated thoroughly. This study aimed to explore relationships between mental health, mental health attitudes, self-criticism/self-reassurance, self-compassion, and caregiver identity of counselling and occupational therapy students. One hundred forty-five students, recruited through opportunity sampling, completed measures about those constructs. Correlation and regression analyses revealed that their mental health was associated with attitudes, self-criticism/self-reassurance and self-compassion. Self-criticism and internal shame were independent predictors of mental health. Findings will inform the mental health status of therapeutic students and help identify better solutions for their challenging mental health.

KEYWORDS:

• Counselling students
• occupational therapy students
• mental health
• mental health attitudes
• self-criticism
• self-compassion

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Yasuhiro Kotera

Yasuhiro Kotera is Academic Lead in Counselling, Psychotherapy & Psychology, and Chair of Research Ethics Committee at the University of Derby Online Learning. As an accredited psychotherapist and certified Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) trainer, he has worked with diverse clients and trained practitioners internationally. His research focuses on NLP, mental health, motivation and cross-culture.

Pauline Green

Dr Pauline Green is a Senior Fellow of Advance Higher Education, and Academic Lead for Social Work and Social Care at University of Derby Online Learning. As a registered social worker, she has been engaged in social work practice for more than 35 years. Her research areas include emotional resilience and social work education.

David Sheffield

Dr David Sheffield is a Registered Health Psychologist and Professor in Psychology at the University of Derby, UK. His research areas include nature connectedness, brief interventions, mental health, and performance.