Astremska I. Psychological principles of supervision in overcoming the syndrome of emotional burnout of specialists in the systems of special education and social work

The dissertation provides a theoretical generalization of the problem of supervision and a new solution to the urgent scientific problem of overcoming the emotional burnout of specialists in the systems of special education and social work. As a result of the theoretical analysis, it was proved that supervision is a unique and effective method of professional support for employees (managers and subordinates, highly professional and beginners) of helping professions, aimed at developing practical skills (knowledge and skills of a professional) through reflection on the subjective components of professional interaction and attitudes towards clients, colleagues and oneself, in which correction and regulation of emotional and volitional processes takes place. It is noted that specialists in the system of special education and social work belong to the helping professions, which are of the «higher type». Professions of this type involve constant interaction and communication with people, as professions of the socionomic type, they are based on behavior aimed at helping – prosocial activity (activity that benefits another) of the individual. The working conditions are associated with increased moral responsibility. The goals and results are set vaguely, closely related to the «author» and realized through him/her, and are almost impossible to evaluate objectively. The means of activity is the person himself. Thus, the special vulnerability of specialists in special education and social work, whom we refer to as helping professions, is expressed by the specifics of their professional activities, these are professions «created for burnout». It has been established that professional burnout is «one of the most common types of professional deformation» and one of the «manifestations of professional destruction of the personality», which are defined as the process of destruction of the structure of professional activity and personality of a specialist, which negatively affect the result of work and the state of the activity itself, professional destruction implies more significant changes and more significant consequences. The concept of supervision in overcoming the emotional burnout of specialists in the system of special education and social work is substantiated. The structural and functional model of supervision, which includes conceptual, content and technological, criterion and result blocks, is verified. The content and technological block is conditionally divided into content and technological components. The purpose of the developed model is to overcome emotional burnout, the task is to substantiate the stages, mechanisms and technologies of the studied process. The result of the implementation of the developed structural and functional model and the introduction of the corresponding program is a positive dynamics in terms of emotional burnout and its factors of specialists in the system of special education and social work, their ability to realize the functions of the phenomenon of emotional maturity. The peculiarities of the referents of emotional burnout (satisfaction with professional activity, ways of coping behavior; general self-efficacy; life satisfaction, mechanisms of psychological protection of the individual, style of self-regulation of behavior, basic beliefs, social self-control, resilience, subjective well-being, value orientations, claims, locus of control, reflexivity, individual personality traits) and their relationship with the phases of «Tension», «Resistance», «Exhaustion» are determined. It has been proved that the introduction of the supervision model as an integral part of the professional activity of specialists in the system of special education and social work leads to positive dynamics, which is expressed in a decrease in the symptoms of emotional burnout syndrome. Awareness of psycho-traumatic factors of professional activity, dissatisfaction with oneself decreases (in the «Tension» phase), which can be explained by the growth of self-awareness, self-understanding, self-worth regarding their place in life, their values and needs, which determines the search for oneself, oneʼs true goals and activities that will inspire and give joy). The feelings of anxiety, depression (which are the triggers for emotional burnout as a psychological defense mechanism), «cagedness» decrease and the feeling of hopelessness disappears, and the mental energy is enhanced due to the induction of the ideal: thinking is directed towards the construction of plans, goals, and meanings. Inadequate selective emotional responses, emotional and moral disorientation, emotional economy, and reduction of professional responsibilities, which consists in attempts to limit responsibilities associated with emotional costs in the Resilience phase, are reduced.