I caught a new radio drama on Radio 4 yesterday - How Does That Make You Feel? (Ordinary Is Not Enough) - it's on the iplayer at the moment, the first two episode anyway, find it here

I've only heard the first episode, but I rather liked it. So far it seems to be about a therapist who's kind of failing on the job satisfaction front! She's working with clients who she finds annoying and frustrating. Well, we all work with people who are annoying and frustrating sometimes but for a therapist all of those feelings end up being grist for mill.

But it did get me thinking about how and why therapist "self-care" is so important. It's a job where you are daily at the coal face of emotional turmoil, that's a lot to leave at the office when you close the door at the end of the day.

For me though, good therapist self care should be an important priority not only so you can stay fresh for yourself and your clients but also to be able to show and model good self care to clients. It's something that some clients do need help with and having some ideas up your sleeve that you can explore with clients can be helpful.

I've also had some excellent tips from clients. One client discovered a terrific series of meditation podcasts that worked really well, I got the recommendation, downloaded them myself and have gone on to recommend them to lots of friends, family and other clients! I'm reminded of a really cheeky dedication in one of Winnicott's books - he dedicated the book to "all my clients, who paid to teach me".