Strategies for Integrating Wellness into Practicum Supervision

The high-stress work of the counseling profession has been linked to burnout and counselor impairment. This poses major ethical concerns for counseling practice. It has been suggested in the counseling literature that well-counselors are more helpful to their clients compared to those experiencing impairment and distress. Effective counselors are individuals continuously working toward enhancing their personal and professional wellness. Promoting student health and wellness begins with integrating this belief within counselor training programs. Wellness strategies may provide supervisors with tools to increase student wellness, prevent burnout, and assist in protecting clients from impaired counselors. This is essential because beginning counselors in training may not have knowledge about the importance of wellness as it relates to professional practice. This manuscript identifies the need to infuse wellness initiatives into the supervision experiences of master’s level counselors in training (CITs). Wellness models and concepts are discussed, a model for integrating wellness into CITs’ practicum supervisory experiences is proposed, and implications and future research directions are shared.