by Jill | Sep 6, 2018 | Anxiety, Becoming a Licensed Professional Counselor, Burnout prevention, Child Counseling, Child Therapy, Coping with Burnout, Counseling Ethics, Counseling Supervision, mental health business, Play Therapist Self Care, Play Therapy Supervision, private practice, ptsd treatments, stress management, Therapist Self Care
Burnout prevention
Most of the time I thrive on challenging cases. Give me a traumatized child or a female fleeing a case of domestic abuse and I’m your therapist. I don’t know what it is, I do really well with long term, hard cases. The blessing here is that I’ve found a niche that I thrive in, but I have learned in my experience that I have to mix up they type of cases I work with, some worried well here, anxiety here, mixed in with supervising new counselors and play therapist.
Lately I’ve noticed I’ve had multiple challenging cases especially those that have to do with children and familieis who are in the middle of a crisis. I found myself today feeling emotional and irritated, and I was worried about a lot of things. When I start to feel this way I know these are signs that I have too many trauma cases, or complicated cases and it’s time to readjust somewhere.
Stress like this in the short term is to be expected, especially when you are in the counseling field, and can even be a motivator to get things done, but I’ve learned to be aware of it and take some steps to care for myself before it becomes a constant problem.
Stress is a normal part of every day life, and that if I take steps to manage it, and sometimes even make friends with it, I can lead a productive and fulfilling life. Stress is the “fight or flight” response in your brain that is there to help keep you safe in dangerous, or perceived danger. Our goal is not to complete be free of stress (that would be impossible) but to manage it and use it to our advantage.
Stress in small doses can be helpful, in fact according to healthguidance.org, some research appears to show that students can improve on their exams if they are experiencing stress in small doses.
It Can:
- Give energy and motivation to complete a task.
- Help to conquer a fear.
- Help have short term energy.
- Help avoid an immediate situation.
- It can help you avoid an unsafe situation.
- It can help you focus on something you have to get done.
The problem is not short term stress, stress is meant to deal with a perceived unsafe situation and then we go back to logical, rational thinking rather than survival mode. The problem is when stress occurs and builds over time.
When I was a new counselor in training I was working in the mental health field while simultaneously going through my counseling internship. I was probably working about 60 hours a week, half at my Day Treatment Job and the other half at the domestic violence shelter where I interned. During that time, and due to some circumstances at my agency that were outside my control and also trying to balance my personal struggles of dealing with overwork, I began feeling guilt about the the circumstances I was in. This turned into lack of sleep and difficulty getting a client situation out of my head.
At the time as a newer professional I didn’t know I was experiencing signs of the over stress or what to do about it. It wasn’t until a supervisor at the internship sat me down and said to me that she noticed that I was over stress, and that I should go to my own therapy during this process. I am super thankful for that. It was one of the best decisions I made to take care of myself. It helped me to overcome fear and self doubt, and to deal with the challenging circumstances I was facing at the time.
I can’t say that I’ve never had periods of feeling stressed or overworked, because I have, but the difference now is that I know what to do to take care of myself and I’m not ashamed to ask for help. I don’t know if I knew at the time what a gift it was to be told to ask for help.
I share this because overstress over time can have effects on the counselor and counseling relationship, but I believe there is hope if we know when to ask for help, or if we notice a colleague having some challenges with overstress we know how to support them.
Some of the effects on the counselor can include: depression, insomnia and withdrawal from others to start (this is not and exhaustive list) and on the counseling relationship: diminished empathy, respect or positive feelings for clients and becoming unresponsive to clients needs.
I believe she should be aware of these feelings in ourselves, but I don’t think it is something to feel ashamed or guilty about.
To quote the Compassion Fatigue Awareness Project:
“Accepting the presence of compassion fatigue in your life only serves to validate the fact that you are a deeply caring individual. Somewhere along your healing path, the truth will present itself: You don’t have to make a choice. It is possible to practice healthy, ongoing self-care while successfully continuing to care for others.”
Compassion Fatigue Awareness Project ©(2017)
www.compassionfatigue.org
So what do you do to combat overstress in our field?
- Self monitoring, and develop self-awareness
- Obtaining supervision and consultation
- Intervention and support of colleagues
- Training staff on effects of burnout/secondary trauma
- Have debriefings for coworkers/staff if dealing with particularly difficult cases
You are not alone. There is a profession full of caring and supportive people that are here for you.
If you are looking for supervision and/or consultation or even therapy for support during your own journey, reach out.
So what do you do when you’re overstressed?
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by Jill | Jul 22, 2018 | Becoming a Licensed Professional Counselor, Child Counseling, Counseling Supervision, Licensed Professional Counselor Application Process, mental health business, Play Therapy Ethics, Play Therapy Supervision, private practice
I live in Georgia and recently there have been some rules/requirements changed in our state for those applying for their Licensed Professional Counselor license. I remember as an early counselor in training, even starting as an undergraduate I was fortunate to have professors and supervisors who prepared me for many of the hurdles of what lies ahead. One thing I can say, is that it is an always changing discipline in some ways, evolving with the needs of the public, culture, and as we learn and grow as professionals.
Unfortunately I’ve seen too many new counselors in training in my career blindly following what they think they know from hearsay, not reading or staying up to date for themselves, or believing they don’t have time or money to put into the supervision and training requirements. This can lead to more time, money and paperwork than necessary when pursuing your Professional Counseling or other license type.
I do as much as I can to encourage my supervisees and other new mental health professionals starting out to do their own homework and keep up with current changes and trends in the field. That doesn’t mean I don’t do my best to guide and assist them on their journey, quite the contrary. But I do believe it is a collaborative effort and level of responsibility on both ends of the couch so to speak when it comes to completing the licensure process.
I do that because knowledge is power. Power to pursue your career. Your license is your ticket to the career you’re pursuing to independence in your livelihood.
At the end of the day it’s yours, you guard it with everything you can.
Are there hurdles? Yes.
Is it a challenge? Yes.
Is it easy? No way.
But at the end of the day lives will be helped, families will be restored and abused children will have one more caring adult they can trust in their life. It’s worth the challenge. Make it your own.
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by Jill | Jun 18, 2018 | Becoming a Licensed Professional Counselor, Burnout prevention, Coping with Burnout, Counseling Ethics, Counseling Supervision, mental health business, Play Therapy Ethics, self care, stress management, Therapist Self Care
I’ve been studying a lot lately about how self-care with counselors relates to ethics and what happens to therapists during the course of their careers. This is a personal topic for me, first, because I am a therapist, and second because I’ve both dealt with my own and witnessed others’ in the field deal with being overstressed, overworked and pushing the burnout phase.
After hearing about multiple therapist suicides in the Atlanta area over the last few years, it really got me wondering how we, as a profession are supporting each other’s journey in this career. What changes can we, together, make to better address our colleagues’ if/when we see them struggle? What did we miss with these folks who were silently struggling?
We, as therapists are constantly trying to balance the needs of our clients, supervisees, students, demands of our work setting, ethics codes, laws, and potential liabilities all while dealing with the demands of our own personal life, financial strains, and our own losses, crises and life challenges.
I’ve noticed by my own observation over the last few years or so that the terms, “self-care” “vicarious trauma,” and “burnout” or “compassion fatigue” appears to have be more common themes of discussion both in trainings, blogs, conversations and other areas of our profession. I think the fact that we, as a profession are talking about and it is fantastic and opens up well-needed conversations about our own mental health as caregivers.
In fact, looking back, I can only think of maybe one or two professors in my graduate studies even approaching the issue. And I definitely don’t remember anyone in my state job as an undergraduate talking about it or paying attention to it’s effect on us. It was one of my early on supervisors that noticed it. She probably did me one of the biggest favors of my life at the time by pointing out some blind spots that I wasn’t noticing about myself, like how much I was stressing or overworking myself at the time and that I needed to take some steps to take care of my own mental health while I pursue caring for others.
According on the APA report on stress from 2015 (there is a more recent report from 2017 that focuses more on our political climate and healthcare) most of us when we’re stressed out or overstressed know it, or know we need to make a change, but feel too stressed to do anything about it or make the changes necessary to address it. It makes me wonder how many of the therapists I’ve been reading about in some of my ethics research, or cases I’ve read about counselors who made poor ethical choices and had poor boundaries with clients were experiencing the deep hole of stress or burnout that mental health professionals sometimes find themselves in. It makes me wonder, what, if any could have been done to support them before they reached that slippery slope of boundary violations and crossings.
It’s and ethical mandate for counselors to be aware of our own impairment, according to multiple ethical codes, but if, when we’re overstressed how aware are we really? Are we setting ourselves up for a catch 22? Are we shooting our wounded so to speak by sending our newbie therapists into high stress, high caseloads and high expectations? Are we setting each other up to sink or swim in the sea of conflicting demands and ethical grey areas, or sometimes outright ethical breaches?
What happens between the time we leave graduate school where ethics are preached and studied and taught and our lives in the field? How do some of us end up in organizations (not all, there are many wonderful organizations!) that contribute to toxic work environments, expectations and overworking?
I know, I know, I’m venting.
Maybe these questions are just mine.
But I believe they are important to ponder and discuss so that we can find a way to support each other in this career. Stop the fighting over political decisions between professions, find a way to pay our new therapists fairly and support each other rather than tear each other down. Pay attention to each other and build each other up. There are many, many wonderful supportive folks out there, but I think creating a culture of support and healthy self-care becomes more difficult when there are so many systemic challenges that come into play.
I know I know, it’s a blog, I’m supposed to give you tips, but all I have right now are questions. What do we do? How best can we support the mental health needs of other counselors, our colleagues, both new and experienced? Leave your ideas in the comments below, and lets work together on this.
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by Jill | Feb 22, 2018 | Becoming a Licensed Professional Counselor, changes, Finding Peace, mental health business, self care, self help, Uncertainty
Shedding the old life and old things can be an uncomfortable place to be in. There are times where it is necessary. For a long time I felt like I found myself in a holding pattern, stuck and unable to move forward, and waiting around for the next thing to satisfy me. It causes a lot of mixed emotions for me. Sometimes hurt, sometimes anger and frustration, sometimes confusion, and sometimes it feels like pure focus and determination.
It changes day to day for me. But the other day I began writing down what I’m grateful for, and I realized that when I look back, I’m really not stuck. I looked around and saw many of the goals I set and many of the desires that I feel God has put in my heart are actually coming together and making sense.
It doesn’t always feel like it, but we really are moving forward, one day at a time, one small step towards the goals we have. Then, before you know it you look around, and there it is. You’ve reached your goal. You’re there in the career you prayed for, the new relationship, the blog you decided to start, or the book you dreamed of writing.
I think sometimes we want to look at the big picture, and forget the smaller steps that led us there. That one phone call, that one prayer, that one chapter you wrote that turned into another, and then another until the book is completed.
The change is in the smaller steps and decisions that lead to the larger dream.
What small decisions have you made that have helped your journey? Please share in the comments below.
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by Jill | Dec 30, 2017 | Becoming a Licensed Professional Counselor, Boundaries, Burnout prevention, children, Coping with Burnout, Finding Peace, Holiday Stress, Jill Osborne, mental health business, parenting, Play Therapist Self Care, self care, small business, stress management, Therapist Self Care
Overscheduled
I looked at my schedule and I asked, “what did I do to myself.” It was the week before Christmas and I looked at my calendar and realized I crammed as many client appointments as I could all week, supervision appointments, all after a full training day the week before and amidst all the holiday to dos that weren’t yet done.
Man did I feel overwhelmed. I forgot the white space. You know, the space between clients to get my documentation done, the time to wrap up loose ends from training day, pay taxes, all the fun stuff.
I worked so long last week (training week which always adds more to dos’) that my 4 year old daughter asked me, “mommy does your work close?”
Oops. I overscheduled myself again. I felt guilty about it most of the week because I miss my kids and this time of year you plan holiday activities (our holiday pancakes with Santa was kind of a bust because 4 year old cried the whole time because she had an ear infection).
I know what I was thinking when I scheduled it all. I was thinking that I needed the money and my clients needed me. Feelings like I wanted to please others and not disappoint anyone by making them wait until January for an appointment.
On the other end of it, I prayed for this. I prayed for full client load, a growing training and supervision business, and to expand myself. Growing pains.
I think this kind of thing ebbs and flows for me. I go from not busy enough and broke to overdoing it. But I kind of feel like our business, the counseling business is like that. Ebb and flow. Busy and not busy. The trick for me is, I think, is noticing when it gets too much and pulling back and making necessary adjustments, sticking to boundaries, assisting clients to move along that are ready for discharge, etc.… and stop being so hard on myself when it starts to take over and run into family life, but just to make the changes I need to make.
Sometimes that advice is easy to say, but takes a TON of courage to pull off. I have had to work very hard at setting boundaries in general and it doesn’t come easy to me. I am really blessed right now when I think about it. To have enough work that I need to pull back and set boundaries in my daily schedule, time to breathe, time to write, and time to create.
Gratitude for it helps. Gratitude and making small adjustments along the way to tweak the overworked schedule into something more balanced. I’m thankful.
How do you manage your schedule when it becomes insane? Leave a comment below with your tips. Thanks!
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by Jill | Jul 20, 2017 | afraid, Anxiety, Becoming a Licensed Professional Counselor, Child Counseling, Child Therapy, continuing education, Counseling Supervision, mental health business, Play Therapist Self Care, Play Therapy, Play Therapy Supervision, Uncategorized
I’ll never forget the first time I saw play therapy. When my late supervisor allowed me to observe my first play therapy session I fell in love at first sight. It felt right. It felt natural to me and I loved how it worked with where the child was in their development.
That session was a pivotal moment for me. It started a passion that motivated me to pursue my career and specialty as a play therapist and play therapist supervisor. I had so much to learn, but it didn’t stop me from moving towards my goals.
I had no idea what kind of challenges lay ahead, including difficult work environments, heavy caseloads, and the level of trauma and complex issues that my young clients face with courage.
I have non-therapist friends ask me “how do you work with …(place favorite issues here). What I tell people (and myself when I’m faced with challenges of my job) is that yes, but I get to see a child heal from a trauma, connect with their parent, make new friends, learn how to stop being afraid and live a full life. I get to watch people heal and increase their faith in their God and themselves. I get to spend my day alongside young ones who deal with so much they should be too young for.
At the end of the day it’s encouraging work. It’s worth it. Some cases are sad. True. I have to constantly balance my work life, and personal life, true. I have to keep my emotions in check sometimes and my support systems close. But at the end of the day, it’s worth it.
What’s your passion? What fuels you? Leave a Comment Below about how you found your passion.
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