I Am Inevitable and Overcoming Clinician Burnout
Updated: May 14
For nearly 14 years, I've helped individuals navigate the complex landscape of addiction in order to achieve recovery. Nicknamed "The Casual Counselor", my approach is unconventional but undeniably effective.
In my profession, compassion, empathy, goodwill, and love are the currency I offer my clientele. That said, for any & all therapists, that non-stop emotional output can & will lead to a state of epic exhaustion known as burnout.
I’m not talking about a "rough week" or “man, I’m tired” burnout is a literal occupational hazard that affects the well-being of the treater, not to mention the quality of care they are providing. It’s critical that we keep eyes on the red flags & warning signs that precede burnout.
The short version is essentially a trio of internal offenders:
Emotional exhaustion: Feeling "drained" or overextended. The vessel is dry. We haven’t much to give, if any. “Running on empty”, with my compliments to Jackson Browne.
Compassion fatigue: Despite caring deeply, we find ourselves feeling detached, callous, or even cynical toward our clients & their difficulties. It’s when what we love to live for begins to feel burdensome.
Feeling inadequate: A growing sense of impostor syndrome & the fear that we’re not truly helping our clients. We may even feel that our work doesn’t even really make a difference.
Listen, when you do heavy emotional work with 20-something people every week, at some point, you’re going to reach a breaking point. You’re gonna hit the proverbial wall. When you find yourself hitting that wall, the last thing you want to do is try to “power through” it. The wall always wins.
Here are five actionable ways to mitigate the impact of burnout:
Rituals: Yes, rituals. Doing them with consistency, whether your vessel is overflowing or down to just a few drops. See, we bring the emotional weight of our clients’ lives into our personal lives. Creation of physical or symbolic rituals, listening to music, breathing exercises, prayer or meditation, spending some time outdoors, hell, even changing our outfit when the workday is done or a curated 10-minute ceremony of our choosing to signal to ourselves that we’ve put today to rest can pay serious dividends in helping us to reset, recalibrate & recharge.
Supervision: Isolation + burnout = really, really not good. Engaging with other professional colleagues helps us to contextualize & externalize-out the seriously "heavy" cases on our caseload. Guess who understands clinical burnout better than anyone: those who have lived it. Lean on them.
Professional boundaries: Many clinicians prioritize making themselves available during off-hours, should a client encounter a really difficult situation. What we need to remind ourselves is that 9 times out of 10, these situations don’t rate as true emergencies, difficult as they may seem. Responding to non-emergency texts/calls/emails after hours or overextending our schedule doesn’t do us any favors for the long term. The establishment of appropriate boundaries both in & out of the office, on the front end of beginning work with new clients, is paramount to a helper’s well-being.
Practicing micro-rest activities: A twenty-minute doze when the schedule allows. 3-5 minute windows between sessions for grounding exercises, stretching, deep breathing, spending time outside in sunlight & fresh air. Small breaks prevent the "stacking" of stress hormones that will be a part of the work we do for our clients and for ourselves.
Therapy: Want to be a therapist? Be a therapist who sees a therapist on a weekly or bi-weekly basis, and make sure your therapist has a therapist, too!
Treating burnout isn't a sign of weakness. It’s a story of human capacity in a venue that is biological, psychological, environmental, emotional, and relational. We want to strive for a greater capacity to hold safe space to do this vital work, both for our clients and ourselves, in a way that will promote safety & healing. Though we may never achieve perfect balance with regard to our capacity to be checked in or out, we should always be striving to stay somewhere close to the middle. When taking care of others, we need to ensure that we add our own name to the list.
Read more from Joshua Bennett-Johnson
Joshua Bennett-Johnson, Licensed Counselor & Owner of JBJ Counseling
After working for 7 years in an amazing clinic, I launched into private practice in 2018. I love my job. I can say that without reservation. Watching people rebuild their lives is something that is worth more than any dollar amount.
