Using self-compassion to increase self-care practices among clinical psychology trainees: Recommendations for students, graduate programs, and supervisors

Research demonstrates that graduate clinical psychology trainees are vulnerable to and experience elevated levels of stress and impairment. However, there is little to no research on how to implement changes in doctoral training programs with the goals of reducing stress in students, improving their self-care routines, and helping students become more competent and healthier clinicians during their graduate training and beyond. This dissertation's purpose is to review the literature on stress in clinical psychology graduate students; discuss the negative impact of stress on the physical health, emotional and psychological well-being, empathy, and work with clients; review the literature on self-compassion and how it can help improve self-care practices among clinical psychology graduate students; and make suggestions on multiple levels in order to improve graduate clinical psychology programs. The Appendices contain multiple exercises from different self-compassion researchers in order to improve self-compassion, reduce stress, and move towards a healthier body and mind, and increase the ability to be empathic and present with clients.