LibGuides: Foundations Resources: Self-Care for Teachers

Introduction to Self-Care

Self-care involves taking deliberate steps to support your well-being and manage stress. It's essential for teachers, who often dedicate immense energy to caring for others. Explore the resources on this page to find ideas and get inspiration.

Videos on Self-Care

The Missing Ingredient in Self Care by Portia Jackson-Preston
Portia Jackson-Preston shares her personal journey with self-care and advocates for a holistic approach that considers how cultural, social, and discriminatory experiences can influence an individual's needs and willingness to engage in self-care practices.
How can we support the emotional well-being of teachers? by Sydney Jensen
In this video educator Sydney Jensen explores how teachers are at risk of "secondary trauma" -- the idea that they absorb the emotional weight of their students' experiences -- and shows how schools can get creative in supporting everyone's mental health and wellness.
Self Care to Communities of Care by Travis Heath
Travis Heath advocates for using narrative therapy to address societal pressures and injustices that impact mental health, promoting a "cultural democracy" that empowers individuals through community care.
8 Ways Educators Can Build Emotional Resilience and Prevent Burnout by Elena Aguilar
Elena Aguilar, an instructional coach, author, and Education Week Teacher blogger, shares eight tips to prevent teacher burnout and build emotional resilience.
Teacher Self-Awareness
How does self-care begin with self-awareness? And how does self-care help my students? Watch this 2 minute Relay video to find out!

eBooks on Self-Care

Onward: Cultivating Emotional Resilience in Educators by Elena Aguilar
ISBN: 9781119364894
Publication Date: 2018-05-08
A practical framework to avoid burnout and keep great teachers teaching. Onward tackles the problem of educator stress, and provides a practical framework for taking the burnout out of teaching.
The Onward Workbook by Elena Aguilar
ISBN: 9781119367383
Publication Date: 2018-05-08
An empowering journey that keeps great teachers in the classroom The Onward Workbook is a collection of tools and strategies that help teachers banish the burnout and cultivate true resilience. Keyed to the framework presented in Onward, this companion piece augments the text with practical exercises, coaching, and step-by-step walkthroughs of beneficial practices.
Unstressed by Alane K. Daugherty; Habib Sadeghi
ISBN: 9781684032839
Publication Date: 2019-10-01
This book offers proven ways to help you counter the negative effects that stress has on the body and mind. You'll also discover practical skills and clinically proven strategies grounded in mindfulness, neurobiology, and positive psychology to help you cultivate deep sense of emotional resilience.

Online Resources on Self-Care

Superficial Self-Care? Stressed-Out Teachers Say No Thanks
Opinion piece on the current discourse of emotional resiliency in teachers and how they practice.
9 Self-Care Tips for Teachers
Tips and materials on how teachers can practice and implement self-care habits.
Insight Timer
The largest free library of guided meditations on earth.
Calm for IOS
Meditation and mindfulness app. Also available for Android OS.
7 Self-Care Strategies For Teachers
This is a sampling of ideas for self-care taken from the Edutopia community.

Articles on Self-Care

The being of a teacher: teacher pedagogical well-being and teacher self-care (Murphy, 2020)
This article adopts a phenomenological-oriented approach to explore the perceptions of a small cohort of teachers about teacher pedagogical well-being (TPWB), the experience of which is intimately connected with a teacher’s sense of self-care.
A Complementary Intervention to Promote Wellbeing and Stress Management for Early Career Teachers (Hepburn, 2021)
The present study addressed the issue of stress management techniques for early career teachers (n = 24) and aimed to contribute to the research surrounding complementary interventions (CIs) for educators.
Don’t Forget About Yourself: Words of Wisdom on Special Education Teacher Self-Care (Lesh, 2020)
Stress management and self-care tips tailored for Special Education teachers.
Preservice Teacher Burnout: Secondary Trauma and Self-Care Issues in Teacher Education (Miller, 2019)
This study examines preservice teacher coursework and interview data related to encountering student trauma, secondary trauma, and the role of self-care during clinical placement experiences.

Identity Focused Resources on Self-Care

These resources focus on the unique experiences and needs of individuals who identify as BIPOC, LGBTQA+, or people with disabilities or chronic illness. They are not educator specific but seek to offer holistic guidance.

BIPOC

Prioritize Black Mental Health and Self-care
Learning for Justice offers a few resources on mental health and self-care for Black educators and students.
Self-Care for Black Educators with Marcus “Sankofa” Nicks
This podcast episode from Leading Equity discusses self-care for Black educators with Marcus “Sankofa” Nicks. Marcus talks about practicing healing, healing within the Black community, expectations as an educator, and building affinity spaces for Black educators.
44 Mental Health Resources for Black People Trying to Survive in This Country
"Black mental health matters, and it’s suffering under the weight of life in this country. Here are Black mental health support resources if you need them."
Working With My Hands Is My Self-care
This article from Teach For America discusses the importance of self-care and offers some tips from veteran teacher Kenneth Robinson (D.C. Region, '93).
Loveland Foundation
Loveland Foundation is committed to showing up for communities of color in unique and powerful ways, with a particular focus on Black women and girls.
Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Self-Care and Healing
This webinar recording from MHTTC focuses on the importance of self-care and family care.
National Asian American Pacific Islander Mental Health Association (NAAPIMHA)
NAAPIMHA is a nonprofit organization committed to promoting the mental health and well-being of Asian American and Pacific Islander communities through resources and trainings.
Asian American and Pacific Islander Mental Health Resources
This comprehensive collection of resources from the National Alliance on Mental Health discusses barriers to mental health care, seeking culturally competent care, and lists many resources for seeking care.
Decolonizing Self Care Practices for the Hispanic/Latinx Community
This webinar from South Southwest MHTTC discusses implementing decolonizing self-care strategies while rethinking the Hispanic and Latinx Community Culture on Wellness. It discusses wellness and mental health practices by sharing experiences on minority stress.
Latinx Education Collaborative: Acción Teacher Self-Advocacy Toolkit
The Latinx Education Collaborative is a nonprofit organization that works tirelessly to retain and increase the representation of Latinx education professionals in K-12. Their vision is to build a world where Latinx Educators are abundant and thriving. This link goes to their collection of tools for self-advocacy.

LGBTQA+

Trevor Support Center
A place where LGBTQ youth and their allies can find answers to frequently asked questions, and explore resources related to sexual orientation, gender identity and more.
Wear Your Voice: Non-Binary People Share Their Self-Care Tips
"For trans and non-binary people, self-care starts with finding your environment, your home."
National Queer and Trans Therapists of Color Network
A healing justice organization committed to transforming mental health for queer and trans people of color.

Disability/ Chronic Illness

6 Ways to Love Your Body on Bad Days with a Chronic Illness
"Here are some of the practices I’ve found that help me cultivate self-compassion, even on the hardest and most painful days."
Self-care looks different when you're chronically ill
"To people with wrestling with chronic illnesses, self-care is more than a wellness trend. It's an essential part of life."
Rooted in Rights
Rooted in Rights tells authentic, accessible stories to challenge stigma and redefine narratives around disability, mental health, and chronic illness.

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