How to reduce therapist burnout

Practice self-care, leave your work at work, and connect with colleagues for support in order to reduce therapist burnout. For a more detailed look at these strategies and others, reference this guide:

• Practice self-care. This encompasses both physical and emotional self-care. Physical and emotional self-care methods include drinking enough water every day, getting up and moving around in between sessions, taking time for a breath or meditating, making sure you make time to have fun in your daily life, and making sure you get enough sleep.

• Leave your work at work. To combat burnout, it is critical not to bring your work home with you. Your personal time should be a respite from your work life. Sometimes this is difficult to accomplish, but you should make it a goal to do so.

• Eat a healthy diet. Food can have a great impact on your moods during any given day. It is important to eat a blanched and healthy diet to keep you on an even keel emotionally. Try to sit down at a table and take your time eating. Also, as much as possible, try to avoid binge eating.

• Utilize hobbies and passions outside of your work. Hobbies and passions that don't relate directly to your job will help to take your mind off work. These can be creative, scientific, athletic, or any hobby or activity that brings you genuine joy.

  The more you can experience positive feelings outside of the work, the more likely you are to bring those positive feelings into your work as a therapist.

• Connect with colleagues for support. Some of the best people to talk to about your burnout are other therapists or those that work in similar roles. They will be the most understanding of your situation, and if they have dealt with it during their careers, they may be able to give you valuable advice.

  There are also professional organizations you can reach out to and peer support groups you can attend if you don't know many other therapists.

• Exercise. Exercise is a proven stress reducer. Sometimes it is hard to commit to exercise when you are experiencing burnout; however, if you can muster up the will power, it is almost a guarantee that it will significantly alter your mood in a positive way.

• Be sure you are spending enough time with family and friends. It is crucial for you to step away from work to spend time with the people who care for you the most and know you the best. Try to schedule weekly visits with friends or carve out specific times after you get off work to spend quality time with your family.

• Establish boundaries with your clients. You need to have policies in place, so clients know what to expect. These include how to contact you between sessions and when this is appropriate, cancellation policy/fees, times that you will respond to calls and messages, etc.

  It is critical to set these policies, communicate them to clients and most importantly, remain faithful to them.

• Try to set your ideal schedule. Crafting an ideal schedule, putting systems in place and sticking with them is a great way for you to protect your time and energy. It is helpful to block out time for lunch breaks, administrative time, and once a month, a day off to do activities that will lift your mood.

• Limit the number of clients you see.

  With the increased demand for mental health services recently, this one can be difficult. Try to remember that having a caseload higher than you can handle doesn't really help you or the client. You have to keep in mind that they are not able to help everyone all the time.

• Seek out training in new modalities. Learning a new modality like Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR), Internal Family Systems (IFS), or Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) can help you re-discover the joy of your work, and also, you will be gaining effective new tools to help treat your clients.