The Behaviorist Diaries

December 16, 2021

Current Mood: Excited

Listening to: India Arie

Dear Diary,

These past couple of weeks have been filled with excitement as we launched the website and our first blog post! As we were conceptualizing The Behaviorist Diaries, there were many decisions that needed to be made – from the blog name, to our signature colors (what’s a Pantone?), to our content. Some decisions definitely took longer than others to make. We did, however, find it surprisingly easy to identify our values – what was most important to us in developing this new learning community. 

Our fourth value, compassionate community, is one that we have been happy to see the behavior analytic community embrace in recent years. I first became introduced to the concept from a behavior analytic standpoint when I heard Bridget Taylor present at the Women in Behavior Analysis (WIBA) Conference. The talk was inspiring and like nothing I had heard before at such a conference. Embedding compassionate care into my clinical practice was something that I had always valued, so viewing this through a behavior analytic lens was refreshing and so needed. Taylor, LeBlanc, and Nosik’s (2019) paper is one of those papers that I have read and re-read (and re-read), as I’ve continued to educate myself on the topic. One particularly compelling point made in the article is that possible obstacles to engaging in compassionate care practices may be things like pressures at work, personal stressors outside the workplace, and just overall fatigue or burnout. The article suggests that in order to show compassion for others, you need to engage in self-compassion. 

While I am in total agreement about the importance of engaging in compassionate care practices with our clients and developing a curriculum to teach the skills needed for this, the identified obstacles for being able to do this, initially, gave me pause. Can the work that I enjoy really be a significant source of stress? What do you mean that my stressors outside of work matter? Does it really matter for my work if I practice self-compassion? These were just some of my initial thoughts on the subject.

I found myself further challenged when reading Fiebig, Gould, Ming, and Watson’s 2020 article. They also talk about this concept of self-compassion. And while it may be such a truly difficult thing to develop, how important it is. For me, there was so much in the article that challenged ways that I have conceptualized a number of different things. And at times while reading it, I would engage in some covert verbal behavior reflecting my doubts or questioning, and the authors would often echo a similar idea, acknowledging the uncertainty or discomfort that people may have around these concepts. A good example of philosophic doubt. These ideas that may be new and different around topics that have not often been addressed through a behavior analytic lens, can make us question whether or not we agree. As scientists, this is exactly the kind of questioning that we can and should be prepared to do on an everyday basis (see Value #2 – dedication to science). And I now realize that if you view these questions through a behavior analytic lens (and we know the impact environment has on behavior), the importance of these maybe once-ignored aspects of life (i.e., variables), becomes apparent. Environment matters. History matters. Contextual control is everywhere. Of course we should apply the principles of our powerful science to our personal, as well as our work, lives. Not doing so is leaving out so much of our lives that matter. It matters in that it’s important and it also matters in that it has an impact on our behavior in other contexts as well, despite our best efforts to keep separation between the personal and the professional.

To be honest, I still haven’t resolved all of my questions around this topic. As soon as one question is answered, another seems to arise. It’s a little uncomfortable and unsettling at times, but, I think, very necessary for myself as a behavior analyst and our field as a whole to be able to advance and address some of these topics. One thing, however, that I think is clear – we need to engage in more behaviors that demonstrate compassion for ourselves and for each other as fellow behavior analysts. As an online learning community, we are dedicated to putting the actions behind developing this culture of compassion so that we can all enjoy learning (and a little philosophic doubt) together! 

As I typically find when learning about a novel or less familiar topic, the more I learn, the more I find that I have to learn. So where should we go from here to further engage with this topic? If you’re like me, you might want to read up on the subject a bit. The articles referenced here are a great start. Once you’ve done that, I think it can be helpful to identify what compassionate care behaviors may consist of and the purpose of engaging in these. (Apparently they consist of more than eating, sleeping, and taking the occasional bubble bath…) In all seriousness, though, this is an exercise that I am still working through. In doing so, I have expanded the number of behaviors that fall into this category, as I’ve refined my operational definition of self-compassion. Once we’ve identified target self-care behaviors, and I think these will vary from person-to-person, we can then start to develop strategies to increase engagement in these behaviors and ways to measure their effects. So if you’re interested in this topic and think it’s important, put aside some time to ask yourself – what is self-compassion? What is the desired outcome of engaging in self-care behaviors? What are these behaviors for me? As you do this, feel free to share your ideas because, let’s be honest, we can all use some support when it comes to this topic!

Your Compassionate Colleague (in training),

Colleen

References

Fiebig, J. H., Gould, E. R., Ming, S., & Watson, R. A. (2020). An invitation to act on the value of self-care: Being a whole person in all that you do. Behavior Analysis in Practice, 13, 559-567. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40617-020-00442-x

Taylor, B. A., LeBlanc, L A., & Nosik, M. R. (2019). Compassionate care in behavior analytic treatment: Can outcomes be enhanced by attending to relationships with caregivers? Behavior Analysis in Practice, 12, 654-666. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40617-018-00289-3