Interventions for mitigating stress and anxiety of social work and counseling practicum trainees : a systematic review

Abstract

The psychological well-being of social work and counseling trainees is imperative for professional development and delivery of quality service. Despite the existence of interventions targeting the stress and anxiety that the trainees face, the outcomes have not been systematically synthesized. The current study aims to depict, categorize, and evaluate the effectiveness of existing interventions aimed at alleviating practicum stress and anxiety among social work and counseling trainees. Systematic searches of eight psychology, social work and healthcare databases, along with manual citation searches, were conducted to identify experimental trials with pretest and posttest. Ten studies met the inclusion criteria and exclusion criteria. Data synthesis was conducted based on the Synthesis Without Meta-analysis reporting guidelines. Included studies were categorized into four distinct groups: 1) Mindfulness-based interventions, 2) Professional skills training (microskills training and professional development course), 3) Stress management workshops and 4) Innovative interventions, including Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT), Virtual Reality (VR) client simulation and peer group supervision. Of these, half of the mindfulness-based interventions, professional skills training, EFT, and VR client simulation demonstrated significant efficacy. This review indicates the lack of stress and anxiety management interventions for practicum trainees. Further research is needed utilizing models with large sample sizes and rigorous study designs.