Teaching Embodied Self-Care as Self-Preservation in Social Work Education

ABSTRACT

Self-care is receiving increased emphasis in the NASW Code of Ethics, and while social work programs may teach about self-care, it has yet to be embedded in the curriculum. This paper examines the idea of self-care being taught using an embodied framework and integrated throughout social work education programs. Research examining social work educators’ thoughts about self-care within the curriculum and how they educate students about self-care practices is explored and analyzed within the context of the framework, suggesting there is a foundation to build upon but work that still needs to be done to address some misconceptions before embodied self-care is fully recognized and embedded in social work education. To build upon that foundation, the authors introduce an embodied self-care framework and suggest ways for self-care to be infused throughout the curriculum.

KEYWORDS:

• Social work education
• self-care
• embodiment
• ethical practice

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.