ABSTRACT
This chapter considers some of the challenges faced by clinicians working with people who have experienced acquired brain injury, which by their nature can affect staff wellbeing. Clinicians spend their working lives in the presence of loss, trying to facilitate adjustment and growth where real physical limits exist. Stretched services, particularly given the pressures of COVID-19, present barriers to delivering the person-centred, empathic and responsive care which many clinicians and clients value. Acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) lends itself well to work around staff self-care, given its relevance as a model of universal human experience (rather than diagnosis or pathology). ACT can provide a framework for understanding natural and common struggles when working in this field, and for developing psychological flexibility, self-compassion and resourcefulness in managing inevitable stress and self-doubt. The rationale for this, supported by emerging evidence, will be considered, alongside some brief practical ideas relevant to ABI work.
