This document summarizes an article about the importance of self-care for academic advisors doing social justice work. It discusses how applying social justice approaches to advising can be emotionally draining and lead to burnout. Academic advisors advocating for diverse students may experience fatigue from challenging individual student meetings, leading diversity initiatives, and trying to create institutional change. The document recommends that advisors practice self-care, like setting boundaries, connecting with nature, and seeking external support, in order to sustain themselves and continue this important work. Self-care is a radical and political act that allows advisors to best support students.

1. Running head: Actualizing Social Justice in Academic Advising: The Importance of Self-Care
Actualizing Social Justice in Academic Advising: The Importance of Self-Care
University of St. Thomas
Freesia Towle
Freesia Towle
Graduate Student
University of St. Thomas
(Freesia can be reached at: freesia.towle@gmail.com or freesia.towle@stthomas.edu )
This article has not been submitted for consideration from another publication and has not been
previously published.
Freesia Towle currently studies at the University of St. Thomas in the Leadership in Student
Affairs masters graduate program. Freesia is a Graduate Assistant in both the Student Diversity
& Inclusion Services office and in the Dean of Students Office. With interests in academic
advising and driven by social justice values, Freesia hopes to foster student-centered services
that develop students as strong, compassionate, socially conscious and civically responsible
leaders as they prepare to navigate our highly globalized world. In efforts to integrate social
justice in student affairs, Freesia acknowledges the deeply important practice of self-care.

2. Actualizing Social Justice in Academic Advising: The Importance of Self-Care 2
Abstract
This article focuses primarily on the necessity of critical self-care for staff dedicated to
social justice while advising diverse student populations. Applying social justice approaches to
academic advising is considered a best practice in the field of student affairs; however, making
this a reality can feel challenging and emotionally draining. As academic advisers commit to
actualizing social justice in advising practices, feelings of burnout and fatigue may increase. This
article will pull from currently recommended advising approaches while cross-referencing self-
care in social justice work to supplement academic advising as a best practice. This article
focuses on benefits, barriers and action steps to nurture self-care while advising diverse students.
Keywords: social justice, social justice fatigue, self-care, academic advising

3. Actualizing Social Justice in Academic Advising: The Importance of Self-Care 3
Actualizing Social Justice in Academic Advising: The Importance of Self-Care
Introduction
Social justice activist Audre Lorde, defines self-care as a radical act of justice to preserve
the soul, spirit and well-being of an individual in order to self-empower others and contribute to
transformative societal change. Academic advisers play a specific, dynamic and critical role in
societal transformation. More particularly, they strongly influence a student’s ability to reach
self-empowerment as they pursue academic, career, and personal aspirations. Lorde (1998)
stated, “caring for myself is not self-indulgence, it is self-preservation, and that is an act of
political warfare,” (p. 131). Academic advising provides a profound opportunity to expound and
integrate social justice advocacy (Lantta, 2008). In order to achieve optimal standards in efforts
to support all involved in academic advising services, self-care is a necessary act of
sustainability. This article encourages self-care for academic advisers who experience an urgency
for social justice advocacy in higher education.
Through commitment to self-care, academic advisers will intentionally build their own
capacity to address diverse needs. Furthermore, advisers providing accommodations for varied
needs and identities are secondary recipients of the emotional strain in students’ lives. With such
overwhelming expectations to accommodate varied needs of diverse student bodies, the need for
self-care is critical. Intentional self-care allows advisers to maximize effective critical self-
reflection; their work with students and staff; their efforts to foster an inclusive campus culture;
their ability to influence personal, departmental, structural and systemic changes for social
justice; and most importantly, their ability to develop their skills as agents for social change in
the role of academic adviser in our society.
Critical Need for Social Justice in Academic Advising Practice

4. Actualizing Social Justice in Academic Advising: The Importance of Self-Care 4
As the “gatekeepers for students transitioning into the campus community,” (Lantta,
2008), academic advisers play a pivotal role in a student’s first impression of the campus
climate. In speaking to academic advisers roles and responsibilities, I refer to Adams, Bell and
Griffins (1997) definition of social justice: “full and equal participation of all groups in a society
that is mutually shaped to meet their needs. Social justice includes a vision of society that is
equitable and all members are physically and psychologically safe and secure.” (p. 3) Given this
understanding of social justice, each academic adviser has the choice to act as individual agents
of potential social change.
Reflecting the vast diversity in the U.S., academic advisers are called to embrace social
justice action in their positionality on campus. Increased numbers of students often
underrepresented on campus include, but are not limited to: students of color, international
students; women; lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, asexual, ally (LGBTQIA)
students; students demonstrating significant financial need; veterans; first-generation students;
students with disabilities; students with mental illness; Muslim students; undocumented
immigrants; and non-traditional aged students (Renn & Reason, 2013). This challenging
dynamic, managed with thoughtful intention, can offer a rewarding collective impact for the
college campus as whole. As a result of such diverse identities and needs, professional
competencies in the field of higher education underscore the importance of bringing social
justice advocacy to academic advising. Organizations like the Council for the Advancement of
Standards in Higher Education (CAS), National Academic Advising Association (NACADA),
American College Personnel Association (ACPA) and National Association of Student Personnel
Administrators’ (NASPA) set professional competency standards that hold academic advisers
accountable for actualizing social justice in their work.

5. Actualizing Social Justice in Academic Advising: The Importance of Self-Care 5
The Role of Academic Advisers as Social Change Agents
Efforts to actualize social justice in academic advising demands strong emotional
intelligence and capacity. Academic advisers who advocate for staff and students’ diverse needs
are often leaders in their workspaces. Academic advisers may work hard to develop themselves
as aspiring social justice allies while also leading diversity initiatives in multicultural
competence, equity, and inclusion for their academic advising team (or for the institution).
Advisers might refer to tools like Aspiring Social Justice Ally Identity Development (Edwards,
2006) and the Social Justice Development Model (Rouse, 2011) to further develop themselves
through self-reflection, while supporting their social justice leadership on campus. This ability to
reflect deeply and effectively on an individual level while also challenging a departmental,
committee or staff unit can be draining.
Academic advisers might encounter fatigue through the bulk of their work in
individualized appointments with students. Through a variety of researched advising approaches,
this list demonstrates how advisers’ actualizing social justice in appointments utilize immense
creative, thoughtful and vital energy:
 Through the developmental model (Hardee, 1970; Crookston, 1972/1994/2009;
O’Banion, 1972/1994/2009), academic advisers might take a holistic approach to support
students by getting to know who they are, their social identities, their restrictions, and
effective methods for their self-advocacy. For example, enabling discussion about racial
identity development with a student of color as it relates to their course work and feelings
of belonging in the classroom.
 With the appreciative advising model (Bloom, 2002; Bloom et al., 2008), academic
advisers may support student development with effective communication and solid

6. Actualizing Social Justice in Academic Advising: The Importance of Self-Care 6
relationships. For example, advisers offering a space for a transgender student to unpack
their feelings of marginalization while simultaneously supporting them in achieving their
academic and career oriented dreams.
 In the adviser as coach model (Kampa-Kokesch & Anderson, 2001), advisers may enable
students to make self-empowering long-term goals; for example, working with a student
to set goals for achieving passing grades during academic probation.
 In strengths-based advising (Schreiner & Anderson, 2005) advisers might identify
student strengths that can help cut through barriers in academic or career plans; for
example, advisers that support first-generation students to see themselves as strong—and
to articulate their skills and traits as strengths despite feelings of weakness and
inadequacy on campus.
 In proactive advising (Glennen, 1975), frequent check-in, critical outreach and
encouragement; for example, advisers might make an effort to reach out to a student who
recently expressed strong feelings of anxiety and loss of motivation towards college
work.
 Prescriptive advising (Crookston, 1971/1994/2009) might, for example, support a veteran
student who may respond best to strict direction or a premade list of possible classes that
match academic interests.
One could also make the argument that the adviser as teacher pedagogy (Hardee, 1970;
Hunter, 1982; Hunter and Rosenshine & Stevens, 1986) further support social justice actions as
well as learning-centered approaches (Chickering & Gamison, 1987) to academic advising. Each
of these approaches underline how advisers may work actualize social justice using specific
researched advising approaches. Advisers may often integrate these approaches, catering to

7. Actualizing Social Justice in Academic Advising: The Importance of Self-Care 7
specific needs of each student’s intersecting identities. This work takes time and emotional
energy.
Advisers may also experience exhaustion as unit-level or departmental leaders, and
influencers of transformative change at an institutional level. Beyond advising in one-on-one
meetings with students, academic advisers might utilize emotional capacity to influence campus
culture in other capacities. At a unit or system level, academic advisers may continue to advocate
for social justice for students and staff through: pushing for diversity and equity trainings;
bringing attention to current events in the media that highlight national inequities; question
resources present on campus and resources missing from campus; assess policies that may do
harm rather than help; establish personal contacts in women’s centers, disability resources,
LGBTQIA services, equity and inclusion offices, multicultural education offices, international
student services, and additional offices that provide specific services; build relationships with
faculty committed to formal education that teaches students about privilege, oppression,
diversity, inclusion, marginalization, culture, and other social identities that include, but are not
limited to, gender, race, sexual orientation, levels of ability and class status; and additionally,
staying current in models and approaches that support diverse identities will increase an
adviser’s impact. Taking this informal leadership role to facilitate change comes with no
rewards, in fact it can cause tension and rejection. This process can be emotionally painful, and
again, takes time, energy and dedication.
In efforts to lead transformative change with students, with staff teams and even at an
institutional level, academic advisers actualizing social justice can expect to encounter
heightened levels of fatigue.
Activism Fatigue Showing Up for Academic Advisers

8. Actualizing Social Justice in Academic Advising: The Importance of Self-Care 8
Causes of social justice (activist) fatigue, as researched by Chen & Gorski (2015), stems
from heightened sensitivity to social ills embedded in institutional climates, cultures and policies.
Like most activists, academic advisers who take on the role of social justice advocates are likely
to “develop a deep understanding of overwhelming social conditions related to suffering and
oppression—conditions that society as a whole often is ‘unable or willing to face’” (Chen &
Gorski, 2015, p. 3). For advisers, social justice fatigue might occur from previous illustrations of
impacting change with through their individual actions, at a unit/departmental level and/or at an
institutional level. Additionally, the following recurrences may leave advisers feeling
emotionally exhausted: wanting to see the diverse needs of each student met immediately, yet
not always knowing how or not always being able to meet those needs; engaging in discussions
about a system of oppression that is not actively changing; witnessing students experience
barriers that also affect them directly (personal connection can re-traumatize the adviser);
constantly attempting to respond to toxicity in constructive ways; feeling invalidated, despite
expectations to serve all students; internalizing stigma and shame associated with self-care; not
fully understanding how to practice self-care. These circumstances are often realities that
advisers face in working towards social change on campus. The emotional labor as a result of
this challenging work underlines the necessity of self-care.
Practicing Self-Care
Integrating social justice in academic advising demands a strong emotional range and
capacity, including the development of the capacity to practice self-care. Achieving a sense of
self-care is, in part, an outcome of access to social capital—a privilege in of itself. Nonetheless,
working toward any form of self-care can be enough to prevent burnout, and in some cases, save
an academic adviser’s life. Goldberg (2013) first emphasizes the need for basic self-care, which

9. Actualizing Social Justice in Academic Advising: The Importance of Self-Care 9
includes the basic foundations of physical, spiritual, intellectual, psychological/emotional, social,
familial, occupational, and financial wellbeing. These areas are identified in Goldberg’s (2013)
research as basic human elements of well-being. Advisers are encouraged to study said
dimensions, and identify practices of self-care (in the office and outside of the office) that fosters
basic dimensions of wellbeing.
Based on integrated research provided by the Center for the Education of Women at the
University of Michigan, Claudia Horwitz’s Stone Circles, and Don Miguel Ruiz’s Four
Agreements, below are basic recommendations that encourage self-care (in addition to
Goldberg’s (2013) dimensions of well-being):
 Be compassionate to yourself. Cherish small victories and cultivate hopefulness. After an
emotionally challenging day, recognize you are doing the best you can and remind
yourself of why you are dedicated to this work;
 Design your own “board of directors”. Build and foster a group of people who recognize
your brilliance and understand the complexity of your work;
 Know your level of exhaustion. Look for signs that you are “at your limit” for that day,
and that its time to care for you. Perhaps your heightened fatigue has lead to a bad
migraine, or fogs your ability to treat students and staff with compassion;
 Connect with nature. For example, make it a ritual to step outside to reset after a tense
meeting or keep plants in your office space. Remind yourself of what matters, and the
importance of your dedicated work in our world.
 Set and keep boundaries. This might come in the form of asserting your needs in one-on-
one meetings with your supervisor, or holding student-adviser expectations accountable
by keeping an academic-advising syllabus.

10. Actualizing Social Justice in Academic Advising: The Importance of Self-Care 10
 Develop a plan to care for yourself given available time and resources. For example,
make of list or draw a picture of what feels soothing for your mind, body and spirit. Aim
to make at least one of those items happen each week. Maybe it is giving yourself a well-
structured break for lunch. It could mean taking 15 minutes at the end of each work day
to center yourself by listening to your favorite music. For you, it could be jotting down
what you are grateful for in a personal journal.
 Seek external support. Pursue professional therapy, if you have access to it. You are
worth it. If not with a professional, spend time with people outside of the work space that
give you energy and allow you the space to process your fatigue.
The work of Horwitz, Goldberg and Ruiz are highly encouraged for academic advisers in
need of self-care. These rituals, practices and self-care action plans are at the heart of social
justice work and self-sustainability.
Final Remarks
Academic advisers who strive for social justice action may take on more emotional stress
in the workplace (Chen and Gorki, 2015). Meeting standards and professional competencies in
social justice (and equity, diversity and inclusion) takes ongoing time, energy and thought. This
process can feel painful and overwhelming. When academic advisers engage in this highly
emotional process, self-preservation is threatened. Without self-sustainability, advisers are not
well-equipped to participate in transformative social justice work. Lack of self-care undermines
one’s work performance, ability to advance services for college students and to shift hostile
campus cultures for underrepresented students and staff towards constructive progress.
Though it might seem counter-intuitive, it is only through tending to their own needs that
advisers can aspire to be mindful, thoughtful, engaging, transformative and effective agents of

11. Actualizing Social Justice in Academic Advising: The Importance of Self-Care 11
social change on college campuses. To reiterate the urgency of Lorde’s quote cited in the
introduction of this article, academic advisers must practice self-care in any small way that they
can with their available resources and social network. Only by nurturing intentional self-care
will advisers increase their capacity to embrace their work with rejuvenated passion—and
approach their work energized, excited, self-empowered and confident in their unique role to
support the diverse identities and needs of college students. The result will be intentional,
patient progress towards the deeply-needed social justice advocacy work our students deserve.

12. Actualizing Social Justice in Academic Advising: The Importance of Self-Care 12
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