Overview

Psychological work can be deeply meaningful. It can also be cognitively demanding, emotionally taxing, and shaped by service pressures that are not always visible from the outside.

In contemporary practice, psychologists are often working across complex systems, high demand, digital delivery, and shifting expectations around access, efficiency, and responsiveness.

This eLearning activity approaches self-care as more than general wellbeing advice. It treats self-care as part of the professional conditions that support ethical judgement, reflective practice, and sustainability over time. Across the activity, you will work through evidence-based perspectives on occupational strain, therapist self-care, contextual barriers, and realistic planning for practice.

Level of Learning

Foundational. This activity is targeted to those new to the topic.

Duration of access

Access to this activity is for 6 months from the date of confirmed registration.  Please note that access cannot be extended, and participants should plan to complete the activity within this period.

APS CPD-Approved

This eLearning activity has been assessed against the APS Standards for CPD activities and approved for its education quality. Learn more about the APS CPD Approval process.

CPD Frequently Asked Questions

Refer to the APS CPD Frequently Asked Questions for general and technical information when undertaking APS Professional development activities.

Learning Outcomes

Upon completion of this eLearning actvity, participants should be able to:

• analyse self-care as an ethical and professional responsibility within psychological practice, including its relationship to cumulative occupational risk and fitness to practise,
• differentiate between key forms of occupational strain in psychology, including burnout, secondary traumatic stress, compassion fatigue, and moral distress,
• critically examine evidence-based principles and approaches to self-care in psychology, including their assumptions, strengths, and limitations,
• apply contextual considerations such as career stage, role, and systemic constraints to the planning of self-care in professional practice, and
• develop and review a realistic self-care plan that supports ethical, sustainable psychological practice over time.