Click here for a written transcript of this episode.
CW: Mentions of suicide, childhood sexual assault, and rape
While self-care has gotten a bit of a bad rep, after two decades in the social work field, Nicole Steward is convinced that radical self-care is a must for anyone who works in human services. In this episode, Nicole defines radical self-care, shares her pillars for practicing it, and explains why helpers, healers, and change makers in particular need it in order to sustain themselves.
We discussed:
- Who Nicole is and what lights her up these days.
- How Nicole defines radical self-care.
- Selflessness as a garbage concept.
- Nicole's pillars of radical self-care.
- The importance of understanding what we are and are not responsible for.
- How it's okay to pivot the work you're doing or quit completely for your own well-being.
- Systems as being made up of individuals.
Mentioned in This Episode
Featured in This Episode
Nicole Steward (she/her) is a social worker (MSW), homeless/foster youth liaison, and certified yoga instructor with a focus on community engagement, public education, and trauma-informed yoga. With more than two decades of social work practice in non-profits and accountability work in K-12 education, Nicole has noticed the need for a trauma-informed lens in the worlds of social services and education to better help us understand the needs of those we serve. Nicole also believes self-care is a radical tendency we must adopt if we are to discharge the toxic stress we absorb through our work and sustain ourselves as service providers, educators, and human beings. You can keep up with Nicole on her website and Instagram and through her podcast, The Steward Project Podcast.
Did you benefit from this episode? You can show your appreciation by supporting Nicole's work. If you learned something from this episode, consider sending Nicole a tip through Venmo. Her username is Nicole-Steward.
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