MUSD's Nicole Steward authors ‘Radical Self-Care for helpers, healers and change-makers'

MUSD School Linked Services Coordinator Nicole Steward draws from her own experiences and training in handling trauma to share coping and decompression mechanisms in her new book, “Radical Self-Care for Helpers, Healers and Changemakers”.

“Radical Self Care are practices that help us carry the weight of the work that we do,” said Steward, who has experienced burnout herself over her 20-plus year career but has learned how to compartmentalize work trauma from her personal life. “We can care without carrying. We can care for the people we serve, but we don’t have to carry the weight of their trauma.”

Steward explains who the helpers, healers and change-makers are ranging from social workers, counselors and therapists to first responders and those serving in the military. “Educators, they pull into that too, because when you’re working with people, especially kids, there’s gonna be some level of trauma,” Steward added.

Anyone dealing with “one-way, people-focused trauma-adjacent kind of work,” as she puts it, will benefit from her radical self-care methods and rituals. “That has an impact on our bodies and our nervous system, and those of us who do this work regularly need something a little bit deeper than maybe commercial self-care.”

Steward has morning and afternoon daily routines that ease her into and out of her work day as well as allow her to perform effectively in helping others through their trauma. Meditation, breath work and yoga are all part of the radical self-care, along with finding ways to regulate and rebalance by getting out into nature, connecting with other people, walking, and “ways to buffer the vicarious trauma and the stress of the work that we do as helpers, healers and change-makers.”

With more than two decades of social work experience, Steward spent the last three years putting her radical-care practice on paper to share and help others help themselves and continue the good work. 

“We have to be more regulated than those we serve because we do what is called ‘co-regulation,’” added Steward, who tells her readers to pay attention to work-life balance and have solid boundaries to avoid burnout.

Before she heads into her office at Milpitas High School, Steward practices what she preaches by taking a deep breath and thinking about three things that she wants to get done that day. “If I get these three things done, I’ll be happy,” she noted. After her workday ends, Steward goes home and waters her plants to unwind before transitioning into the weekend.

“If you’re a caring human being, it’s going to impact your heart,” Steward said. “Radical self-care is meant to help the helpers.”

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