Developing a tailored meditation/mindfulness practice

The aim of this research is to develop, in collaboration with practitioners, experts, educational institutions and research organisations, a mindfulness and meditation practice tailored to the needs and expectations of social workers. This initiative focuses on preventing burnout and empathic stress and promoting compassion and emotion regulation. The practice is based on existing scientific evidence that shows that mindfulness and meditation contribute to increased emotional and physical self-awareness, empathy, (self) compassion, presence and emotion regulation. These (self-care) skills are essential for social workers to prevent burnout and empathic stress. By integrating these practices into the daily routines of care professionals, we aim to improve their well-being and increase the quality of the care they provide. The ultimate goal is to create a more robust and resilient professional group that is better able to tackle the complex challenges of their work while continuing to provide effective care.In addition, we hope that this study can form the basis for a longitudinal study, with the central research question: "What is the impact of implementing meditation and mindfulness practices among social workers in training and during their professional practice on their compassion, emotion regulation, resilience and well-being? And what long-term effects do these meditation and mindfulness practices have on the relationship between care provider and client, as well as on the outcomes for clients?"