Caring for Self (A Workbook for Early Childhood Educator Wellbeing)

Caring for Self: A Workbook for Early Childhood Educator Wellbeing supports early childhood educators in addressing the intricacies of their health—emotional, physical, cognitive, and social—in the increasingly complex and changing landscape of early childhood education. Go beyond the shallow aspects of “self care” like manicures and vacations and focus on the more fundamental, emotional parts of well-being. Increase your professional and personal wellbeing by strengthening your foundation of professional skills, reflective practice, and emotional support.

Every day, early childhood caregivers leave the field after experiencing workplace stress and burnout. Without adequate support and training, caregivers lack the ability to engage in the emotional work of caring for young children and their families. This workbook offers a three-pronged approach to mitigating compassion fatigue: building healthy relationships, establishing boundaries, and having a sense of agency. It teaches skills to help midgait burnout and compassion fatigue by building self-care and resiliency practices and helps caregivers identify their emotions around challenges, recognize barriers and bridges to meeting their professional goals, and implement tools for self-care and mentoring to increase their effectiveness while decreasing workplace stress.

Through abundant reflective questions and activities, this workbook helps the profession reflect on the meaning of well-being, identify emotions in the work, and engage in professional skills of self-stewardship to foster well-being. It walks through steps of reflection, identifying and accessing emotional support, and professional skill development in pursuit of well-being. It culminates in a six-step problem-solving pathway for identifying and resolving problems that arise in professional practice and the emotions that accompany them.