"Stories Worth Sharing:" Narrative, Reflective Practice, and Self-Compassion

This presentation will discuss findings and implications from a qualitative research study in which child life specialists were invited to share stories about their work. Data analysis revealed many stories followed a similar pattern, in which child life specialists described the value of their work in terms of the positive impact it was supposed to have. When child life specialists encountered a situation where they felt unable to do "good" child life work, they often described feelings of grief, frustration, uncertainty, and self-criticism. However, some participants narrated these past work experiences in ways that supported self-compassion, including redefining success and focusing on lessons learned. A variety of coping resources, including debriefing with mentors, clinical supervision, professional therapy, and job crafting, were also reported, to manage feelings of burnout and compassion fatigue.

This presentation will demonstrate how storytelling provides a medium for child life specialists to make sense of emotionally-demanding work and exposure to second-hand trauma. Findings from this research study highlight that child life specialists feel there are few contexts in which sharing their stories is acceptable, which limits their opportunities to engage in developing coherent and emotionally satisfying narratives. This presentation will emphasize the importance of creating space for this storytelling process to naturally occur between students and supervisors, among co-workers, and in the context of clinical supervision. Attendees will become familiar with some of the storytelling features found to occur in child life stories and how these contribute to building a sense of professional identity. Attendees will learn about relational research principles like reflexivity and an ethics of care and how these concepts can be applied in the context of supervision and mentorship to create an environment that supports narrative-building. The goal of this presentation is for attendees to gain skills and confidence in their ability to facilitate the construction of child life stories that support self-compassion and sustainable practice for aspiring and emerging professionals. 

Presenters:

Shannon Dier PhD, CCLS, Assistant Professor, Texas State University

Sydney Ehinger Beene, MS, CCLS, Certified Child Life Specialist, Duke Children's Hospital

Suggested Domain: Professional Responsibility
Credits: 1.0 PDU

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