Helping the Helpers to Overcome Compassion Fatigue and Burnout

Compassion fatigue and burnout are real challenges in the helping professions, which include psychotherapists, counselors, pastoral counselors, doctors, nurses, physicians assistants, social workers, hospice workers, and other professionals that are part of the healthcare and helping professions (see my articles: Managing Your Stress: What Are the Telltale Signs of Workplace Burnout? and The Consequences of Workplace Burnout).

Helping the Helpers to Overcome Compassion Fatigue and Burnout

Many people in these professions are so devoted to their patients and clients that they put themselves last in terms of getting the emotional support that they need.  They often don't engage in the kinds of self care activities that would help to calm, soothe and help them to feel replenished (see my article:  Self Care: Is Self Care Selfish?).

Even before the current crisis, historically, helping professionals often neglected themselves to serve others.  While this might appear to be noble, these professionals often need more emotional support than most other professionals because they're often containing the anxiety and emotional needs of the people they're helping, and their burnout rate is high.

What is Compassion Fatigue?
Compassion fatigue is emotional and physical exhaustion for those in the helping professions who deal with their patients' problems.  When an individual experiences compassion fatigue, they often withdraw emotionally from their patients because they're too exhausted to continue.

What Are the Symptoms of Compassion Fatigue?
Helping professionals often don't recognize the signs of their own compassion fatigue or burnout because they're so busy taking care of their patients.

The following is a list of symptoms for compassion fatigue:

• Emotional exhaustion
• Physical exhaustion
• Insomnia 
• Irritability
• Anxiety
• Depression
• Apathy
• Depersonalization: A state in which one's thoughts and emotions feel unreal
• Feelings of shame and self contempt
• Feelings that they're being treated unfairly
• Poor job satisfaction
• Chronic aches and pains, including headache, backache and muscle tension

Fictional Clincial Vignette: Helping the Helpers With Compassion Fatigue and Burnout
The following fictional vignette illustrates some of the typical problems experienced by helping professionals with compassion fatigue and burn.  It also addresses how psychotherapy, including online therapy, can help:

Nan
From the time Nan woke up in the morning until the time she went to bed, she was on the go.

When she woke up in the morning, she had about 10 minutes to herself before she got her children off to school, made her husband, Tom, breakfast, and sat down to a quick cup of black coffee before she headed off to the hospital where she was a nurse.

By lunchtime, she was starving, but there was so much to do that she often didn't take a lunch.  During the time that would have been her lunch hour, Nan spent time doing what she loved best--talking to the patients and their families. This was the part of her job that she derived the most satisfaction from, and she knew that the only way she could engage with patients and their families was to talk to them on her lunch hour because there was no time during the rest of the day.

Later on in the afternoon, she would grab an energy bar or a muffin rather than sitting down to lunch.  Some of her colleagues who had been there longer warned her that she was going to burnout if she tried to keep up this fast pace without taking a break, but she ignored them.  She thought of herself as being much more devoted to her profession than these other nurses who took lunch and their 15 minute breaks.

She often got home late.  Her husband would help the children with their homework because he got home first.  He also cooked their dinner and often sat down alone to eat his dinner because Nan often worked overtime.

By the time she got home, Nan was often too exhausted to eat.  She would take a few bites of her food, and then she was off to bed to wake up early in the morning and start the same routine over again.

On the weekends, Nan and her husband were too busy tending to the children and doing chores to pay much attention to each other.  Her husband often complained that their sex life was practically nonexistent, but Nan was usually too tired to think about sex.  She brushed off her husband's concerns and told him that she had no choice but to continue working the way she had been doing.

Nan had always wanted to be a nurse.  Both her mother and grandmother were nurses.  Nan was proud of them and she wanted to be like them.

Before she started her training, she imagined that she would sit with patients and talk with them as well as administering to their medical needs.  However, once she was in the profession, she quickly realized that her job was so fast paced and demanding that she had no time to chat with patients.  She was under so much stress that, even though she was a diligent nurse, she often feared that she would give the wrong medication to a patient because she was often frantically busy on the hospital floor.

When Nan was in her fifth year of nursing, her health began to break down.  She was having backaches, not only from lifting patients but from holding onto stress and not practicing any stress management techniques.

She was also getting debilitating headaches, and her husband urged her to take a day off to rest and recuperate from her busy schedule. But Nan knew her hospital was understaffed with nurses, and she didn't want to let down her patients or colleagues.

By her sixth year, Nan was showing physical and emotional signs of compassion fatigue and burnout.  Although she used to love her job, now she was often irritable and snappy with her patients and colleagues.  One day, she even snapped at her supervisor, who brought Nan into her office and recommended that Nan take time off because she feared that Nan was burning out.

Although Nan knew that she was physically and emotionally exhausted, she didn't want to take time off.  She felt there was just too much to do, so she apologized to her supervisor and went back to work.  But when she snapped at a patient's mother, the mother complained to the administration and Nan was given a verbal warning by her supervisor that if this or anything else like it occurred again, Nan would be written up, and if it continued to occur, she would be brought up on disciplinary charges.

Nan was upset with herself.  She knew better than to get into a verbal altercation with a patient's family member, but she was so tired that she didn't have the patience to speak calmly to this demanding relative.

When she got home that night, she was confronted by Tom, who told her that he wanted to talk to her after the children went to bed.  She told him that she was too exhausted to talk or to even eat, she had a very stressful day, and she was going to bed.  But Tom was adamant that they had to talk, so she took a nap for an hour and then got up after the children were in bed.

Since Nan had chronic insomnia by now, her hourlong nap did little to alleviate her exhaustion.  She felt resentful that her husband was insisting that they had to talk.  She wished he would just allow her to sleep and they could find time to talk in the morning.  But Nan also knew that there would be nothing different about the morning--she wouldn't have time to talk because she would be rushing around the house and, at the same time, trying to get ready to go to work.

So, wearily, she sat next to her husband on the couch and waited for him to begin talking. As she looked at him, she noticed his face looked strained.  Then, he looked like he was about to cry and  she got anxious, "Oh God.  What's wrong? Are you alright?"

"Nan," he began talking slowly, "I don't think I can take much more of this. We haven't been intimate in months.  We barely have time to talk. I don't want to leave you and the kids, but I'm so unhappy. Something needs to change."

Nan was shocked.  She felt her stomach lurch and the pain in her back intensified.  For a few seconds, she didn't know what to say, so Tom continued, "I want you to take time off.  You have so much sick and vacation time.  Let's plan a vacation just for the two of us.  We haven't gone away in years.  We'll leave the kids with my mother.  What do you say?"

Nan's first inclination was to say she didn't have time, but she knew now that Tom was seriously unhappy, and she didn't want him to leave.  After a few more seconds, she put her head back and closed her eyes.  Then, she could feel the tears coming and she couldn't hold back any more.

A few minutes later, Nan agreed that she couldn't keep up the pace and she knew she needed to take a break.  She knew her supervisor would be thrilled if she took time off from work, so she told Tom that he should pick out a destination and she would go.

Two weeks later, Nan and Tom were in Puerto Rico.  Although, initially, Nan felt uncomfortable and restless, by the third day, she was feeling more relaxed than she had felt in years and enoying her time off with Tom.  They rekindled their love life and enjoyed each other's company for the first time in a long time.  They also made a commitment to each other to go on vacation at least once a year.

By the time Nan got back, the first cases of COVID-19 began to pop up in New York City. Within a short period of time, she and her colleagues were inundated with Coronavirus cases, and Nan felt like she had never gone on vacation.

She felt herself becoming irritable and snappy again, and her supervisor saw the warning signs.  She recommended that Nan seek help through online therapy to deal with her emotional and physical exhaustion.  She also insisted, despite the shortages of nurses, that Nan stop working so many extra hours of overtime.

At first, Nan resisted the idea of online therapy because neither she nor anyone in her family had ever been to therapy before, and she resented being told to go.  But she also knew that both her marriage and her job were on the line, so she made an appointment for once a week online therapy, and after a couple of weeks, she was glad that she did.

Not only did she feel less physical and emotional strain, but she felt she was coping much better than most of her colleagues. She could feel that her therapist understood her and cared about her.  Her online therapist scheduled an appointment that was convenient for her and she could talk to the therapist from the privacy of her bedroom while Tom kept the children entertained.

Nan noticed that she was no longer having backaches and headaches.  She also learned to switch her attention to her husband and children once she got home rather than ruminating about work like she usually did.

Her therapist helped Nan to develop a self care routine, which Nan never had before.  She also taught Nan meditation and breathing techniques that she could use on her own (see my articles: Breathwork to Cope With Stress: The Square Breathing Technique and Learning to Relax: Going on an Internal Retreat).

Even though Nan was going through a stressful time at the hospital, she no longer felt burnt out.  In the evenings and weekends, she took time for herself first before she spent time with her husband and children, and this made her time with her husband and children more enjoyable.

Throughout the crisis, Nan continued to attend her online therapy sessions, and both she and her therapist agreed that once the crisis was over, she would make time to come into her therapist's office to do in-person therapy.  Her only regret was that she hadn't started online therapy earlier.

Conclusion
Compassion fatigue and burnout are real problems among helping professionals.

Often other people, like a supervisor or spouse, notice the problems first because the helping professional is usually dedicated and immersed in work.

Online therapy sessions are an alternative for helping professionals who are working long shifts and doing stressful work.  They are both convenient and an effective way to provide mental health services to busy professionals.

Getting Help in Therapy
Anyone can experience stress, burnout or compassion fatigue, including caregivers to children and elderly relatives (see my article: Self Care For Caregivers).

If you feel emotionally overwhelmed, contact a licensed psychotherapist who is providing telementalhealth services, rather than getting physically and emotionally exhausted.

About Me
I am a licensed NYC psychotherapist, hypnotherapist, EMDR, AEDP and Somatic Experiencing therapist (see my article: The Therapeutic Benefits of Integrative Psychotherapy).

I work with individual adults and couples and provide online therapy sessions during the COVID-19 crisis.

I provide Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT) for couples.

To find out more about me, visit my website: Josephine Ferraro, LCSW - NYC Psychotherapist.

To set up a consultation, call me at (917) 742-2624 during business hours or email me.

Should Psychotherapists Be Required to Attend Their Own Personal Therapy?

Many people are surprised to discover that psychotherapists aren't required to attend their own personal therapy (as of this writing).  It would seem to be a "no brainer" that psychotherapists, who provide psychotherapy services to clients, would benefit on many levels from having the experience of being in therapy, especially at the beginning of their mental health career when professional inexperience and a lack of insight about how their own issues could affect their work and lead to clinical and ethical mistakes with clients (see my article:  The Benefits of Therapy).

Should Psychotherapists Be Required to Attend Their Own Personal Therapy?

While psychotherapists are required to have a certain amount of clinical supervision to get their license, as of this writing, unless a clinician with a graduate degree goes on for additional postgraduate psychoanalytic training, they're not required to be in their own therapy.

In my opinion, this is not only unfortunate for their clients, it's also a mistake for clinicians, who also might be getting poor clinical supervision, especially if they're practicing in a social service setting.

When I completed my graduate school training and became certified, I knew that the clinical training that I received in graduate school was inadequate to begin seeing therapy clients, so I trained for four additional years at a psychoanalytic institute starting in 1996 where I was required to be in my own three-time a week therapy.

The list of approved therapists that I was given had a minimum of 15 years of postgraduate clinical experience, so they were seasoned professionals who had experience as psychotherapists to therapists in training.

While I enjoyed the rigor of my classes, my individual and group supervision, and seeing clients at the center, the experience of being in my own therapy was, by far, the best part of my training.

Not only did my own analysis help me to work through personal issues, it also helped me to distinguish my own personal issues from the clients' issues.

While, at first glance, it might seem like it should be obvious for a therapist to distinguish his or her personal issues from the client's, therapists, like anyone else, have unconscious emotional blind spots.  So, it's very easy to inadvertently allow countertransference issues to get in the way of clinical work.

With fewer clinicians going on for postgraduate training these days, I'm very concerned about what this means for the field and for prospective therapy clients, especially for new clinicians who are getting inadequate or poor quality clinical supervision.

Even in cases where clinicians might be getting good clinical supervision, supervision isn't the same as being in your own personal therapy.

Should Psychotherapists Be Required to Attend Their Own Personal Therapy?

Clinical supervisors are usually careful about maintaining a boundary where they don't discuss in detail a clinician's personal history with regard to how it might relate to the clinical work.  So, many relevant issues that could be affecting the work wouldn't be explored.

To illustrate some of the possible pitfalls of therapists not attending their own personal therapy, I've included a fictionalized vignette below:

Ann
After Ann completed her graduate school training, she began working at a social service agency for low income clients.  This was the same social service agency where she did her second internship where she received supervision for her individual and group work with clients.

As a full time employee, she was supervised by a different clinical supervisor, who also supervised 20 other clinicians.

Whereas Ann had a small caseload as an intern, she was given a much larger caseload as a full time clinician.  She was also expected to work more independently as compared to when she was an intern.  In addition, she was expected to keep up with a lot of required paperwork.

Within a short period of time, Ann realized that she was in over her head.  But, whereas when she was an intern, she had easy access to her clinical supervisor for questions and problems, her current supervisor was often tied up trying to handle whatever clinical crises arose on a daily basis.

Should Psychotherapists Be Required to Attend Their Own Personal Therapy?

Ann's coworkers were also overwhelmed with their own caseloads, so they also had limited time to help her with problems that came up with Ann's clients.

When Ann had an opportunity to meet with her supervisor, she discovered that the emphasis was on getting paperwork done and not on clinical issues.

The agency was audited by a number of entities and would be sanctioned heavily if the cases weren't properly documented.  So, Ann's supervisor informed her that they had already been sanctioned hundreds of thousands of dollars in the past for missing paperwork.  She warned Ann to do whatever she needed to do to get the paperwork done before the auditors arrived the following week.  If this meant that Ann had to stay on her own time to complete the paperwork, so be it.

When Ann attempted to talk more in-depth about clinical issues, she felt that her supervisor only provided her with minimal assistance and she was often left on her own to handle problems.

Working long unpaid hours and plagued by doubts and insecurities, Ann went home exhausted but she was often too anxious to fall asleep.  So by the time she came to work the next morning, she was feeling irritable as well as anxious.

Ann and her colleagues talked sometimes on those days when they actually took a lunch break, but these times were few and far between.  So she was often felt alone with her anxiety.

Within a few months, Ann felt like she was burning out.  She was determined to stay at the social service agency long enough to meet the requirements to get her license, and then she hoped to open her own private practice.

As soon as she became licensed, she set up a private practice office and gave notice to her employer.  With brand new business cards and a well furnished office in a central Manhattan location, she went to her office and waited for clients to come.  But no one did.

After a few months of paying a high rent but not seeing any clients, Ann wasn't sure what she was doing wrong, so she decided to participate in peer supervision where she learned the basics of setting up a private practice and how to try to get clients.

Colleagues from the group referred a few clients to Ann.  One of the clients was involved in an emotionally abusive relationship, and Ann felt herself becoming annoyed, judgmental and impatient with this client.

Should Psychotherapists Be Required to Attend Their Own Personal Therapy?

As she talked about this client in peer supervision, one of the more experienced therapists told Ann that she thought Ann's countertransference towards this client was getting in the way of her clinical work.

She suggested that Ann hire an individual clinical supervisor.  In addition, since she knew that Ann had never been in her own therapy, she also suggested that Ann get into her own personal therapy because it seemed like the client's issues were triggering personal issues in Ann.

At first, Ann was surprised and a little offended that this senior therapist would suggest that she get into her own therapy.  She agreed that she could benefit from individual supervision, especially since the quality of supervision she received from her former employer was so poor.  But she didn't think that anything was getting triggered in her personally.

At that point, her biggest concern was that her small income from her private practice wasn't even covering the rent.  How could she afford to hire an individual supervisor as well as be in her own therapy?

Ann chose Mary, a supervisor who was recommended by several senior clinicians in her peer supervision group, and met with her an hour every week for clinical assistance.

Within a short time, Mary could see that there was something about Ann's client, who was in an emotionally abusive relationship, that was affecting Ann on a personal level.

Distinguishing individual supervision from personal therapy, Mary told Ann that it was obvious to her that Ann was getting emotionally triggered by this client and this was why Ann was so impatient, judgmental and irritable around this client.

She spoke to Ann about this in terms of countertransference, and recommended that if Ann was going to continue to do this work, she needed to be in her own therapy so she could distinguish her own issues from the client's.

Ann respected Mary's clinical expertise so, reluctantly, she followed her advice, and she was able to find a therapist who provided sliding scale therapy.

Within a short time, Ann realized in her own therapy that her client reminded her of her mother, who was emotionally abused by Ann's father.  She also realized that her reaction to this client was based on her own unconscious unresolved feelings towards her mother.

Rather than do this client any more harm, Ann decided to refer the client to a more experienced therapist who had worked with many similar cases.

Ann also realized that while, on paper, she was qualified to be a licensed therapist, she had a lot of personal clinical work to do, so she decided to disband her private practice and take a job doing administrative work until she did her own clinical work in her personal therapy.

Should Psychotherapists Be Required to Attend Their  Own Personal Therapy?

After a couple of years in her personal therapy where she worked through many of her own unresolved issues, both she and her therapist agreed that she was in a much better position to consider starting a private practice again.

Conclusion:  Psychotherapists Should Have the Experience of Being in Their Own Therapy
Licensing requirements for therapists vary from state to state.  Most states require a certain amount of clinical experience and clinical supervision.  Although it might seem like basic commonsense for therapists to have their own personal therapy, most states don't require this for licensure.

The fictionalized vignette above demonstrates some of the pitfalls when a therapist hasn't been in his or her own therapy.

Here are some reasons why personal therapy is beneficial for therapists and, in my opinion, should be required for licensure:

Therapists who have been in their own therapy:

• tend to have a more empathic understanding of what it's like for their clients to be in therapy
• tend to be more attuned to the client's needs
• usually work through their own personal issues so that they don't impose these issues on their clients
• usually have a better understanding of their clients' transference and their own countertransference issues 
• are less likely to have an attitude that therapy is for "other people," but they don't need it
• have a place where they can deal with the unique stressors of being a therapist
• often gain a better understanding of their clients in therapy than in individual supervision
• usually learn to be a better therapist from their own therapist 

Even though personal therapy isn't a requirement for therapists to become licensed, this isn't to say that many therapists don't seek out their own therapy.  Many therapists do opt to go to personal therapy because they know that they and their clients will benefit from it.

Getting Help in Therapy
As a consumer, who might be considering attending therapy, it's important for you to be informed.

Many therapists have the same degrees (LCSWs, Ph.Ds, MDs, etc), but you can't tell from their degree alone whether they went on for additional postgraduate training or if they've ever been in their own therapy.

When you're choosing a psychotherapist, it's important to ask the right questions (see my article:  How to Choose a Psychotherapist).

You can't assume that just because a therapist has a shingle outside his or her door that s/he has worked out his or her own personal history.

During the consultation, you can ask the therapist about the type of training that s/he did as well as if s/he had the experience of personal therapy.

While it wouldn't be appropriate to ask detailed questions about the nature his or her own personal therapy or what issues s/he worked on, if the therapist isn't comfortable answering basic questions about this, I would look elsewhere.

I would be very wary of seeing a therapist who has never been in personal therapy.

When choosing a therapist, you owe it to yourself to make the best possible choice.

The therapist's professional training, licensure, experience and personal therapy do make a difference in the quality of care that you'll receive, so be an informed consumer and make good choices.

About Me
I am a licensed NYC psychotherapist, hypnotherapist, EMDR and Somatic Experiencing therapist who works with individual adults and couples.

To find out more about me, visit my website:  Josephine Ferraro, LCSW - NYC Psychotherapist.

To set up a consultation, call me at (917) 742-2624 during business hours or email me.

What Can Employers Do to Prevent Workplace Burnout?

In my prior articles, including Managing Your Stress: The Consequences of Workplace Burnout, What Are the Telltale Signs of Workplace Burnout? and What to Do If You're Experiencing Workplace Burnout, I focused on what employees can do to avoid burnout.  In this article, my focus is on what employers can do to help prevent burnout at work.

What Can Employers Can Do to Prevent Workplace Burnout?

What Employers Can Do to Prevent Workplace Burnout:

• Set the Tone for the Workplace Environment:  Managers who are able to stay calm during stressful times at work become models for employees on how to handle stress and prevent burnout.  Employees will feel more confident in their managers during stressful times and they are more likely to follow the manager's lead if s/he demonstrates good stress management skills.  So, managers need to learn good stress management skills and be aware of how they are coming across.  This is in everyone's best interest in terms of developing a healthy work environment, meeting company goals, retaining good employees, and satisfying shareholders and other stakeholders.

• Improve Communication With Your Employees:  It is especially important during stressful times, when there might be uncertainty at workplace, to share information in a clear and effective manner.  One of the worst things that can happen during uncertain times is for the rumor mill to escalate with false information due to a lack of information and clear communication.  Be clear about employees' jobs and their roles, and avoid being mean spirited and petty.  It's best to maintain an open-door policy, which is more than just words, in a collegial atmosphere so that employees feel comfortable coming to you and will know that their manager will listen with an open mind.  Be generous with praise and provide constructive criticism in a balanced way within the context of overall work performance, not just related to negative isolated incidents.  Harassment should never be tolerated.

Improve Communication With Your Employees

• Provide Opportunities For Employees to Share in the Decision-making Process:  Wherever possible, especially in instances where decisions will affect employees' jobs, allow employees to participate in the decision-making process.  A collaborative process might take longer than if a manager just dictates what s/he wants but, in the long run, it will make it more likely that employees will buy into changes and also increase the likelihood of a smoother transition during stressful times of change.  It will also help to demonstrate that employees are valued.

• Make Sure that the Workload is Realistic:  Due to years of downsizing, many employees are doing the work of two or more people.  This often leads to burnout.  Managers need to ensure that the workload is realistic and that each employee is given tasks that are in keeping with his or her skills, abilities and experience.  

• Provide Opportunities for Career Development:  Good employees are more likely to stay if there are opportunities to learn and grow as well as being compensated fairly for their work.  Having to replace employees, who feel like they're stagnating, usually costs more than finding opportunities for career development.

Provide Opportunities for Career Development 

• Encourage Employees to Balance Their Work and Personal Lives:  To avoid burnout, it's important for employees to take vacation time to relax and recharge and to spend time with their families.  When managers model this behavior for employees, they will be more likely to strive for this balance (see my article: Balancing Your Career and Personal Life).

• Work Through Your Own Personal Problems That Are Affecting You at Work:  Managers who aren't dealing with their own personal issues and who allow these issues to negatively impact their ability to manage at work should get help.  Without even realizing it, managers, whose personal problems are spilling over into the workplace, can displace their unhappiness and anger on the employees that they manage.  Not only does this create a negative work environment and increase the likelihood of burnout for employees, it also reflects poorly on these managers.  In two prior articles,  Careers: Are You a Bully at Work? and Dealing With a Difficult Boss, I discuss workplace bullies, who often displace their own feelings about problems  in their personal life on their employees.  This is just one of many ways that managers who aren't working on their personal problems can contribute to workplace burnout.

Getting Help in Therapy
Being a manager can be very challenging, especially if your manager is difficult to deal with or you feel caught between wanting to treat your employees fairly and a disregard for employees from top management.

Often managers, who might be open to their employees, have nowhere to go with their own stressors and concerns at the workplace.

Getting Help in Therapy

Also, as mentioned earlier, if you're aware that problems in your personal life are having a negative impact on your employees and your overall work performance, you owe it to yourself, your loved ones and your employees to get help to work through those issues with a licensed mental health practitioner who has expertise in this area.

By getting help in therapy, not only will it help you to be a better manager, it will also help you personally to lead a more fulfilling life.

About Me
I am a licensed NYC psychotherapist, hypnotherapist, EMDR and Somatic Experiencing therapist who works with individual adults and couples.

Prior to becoming a licensed therapist, I was a human resources manager, so one of my specialties is helping clients with workplace issues.

To find out more about me, visit my website:  Josephine Ferraro, LCSW - NYC Psychotherapist.

To set up a consultation, call me at (917) 742-2624 during business hours or email me.

Managing Your Stress: What to Do If You Are Experiencing Workplace Burnout?

In my two prior articles,  Managing Your Stress: The Consequences of Workplace Burnout and What Are the Telltale Signs of Workplace Burnout?, I began addressing workplace burnout in terms of the consequences to both employees and employers as well as some telltale signs to watch out for to recognize burnout in yourself.  In this article, I'll begin to address what you can do if you're experiencing workplace burnout.

Managing Your Stress:  What to Do If You Are Experiencing Workplace Burnout

Of course, everyone and every situation is different, so no list of suggestions will work for everyone.

Generally, in my opinion, as a psychotherapist who has worked with many clients who have experienced burnout, the following suggestions are usually helpful (in no particular order):

• Develop an Increased Awareness About Yourself:  The ancient Greek aphorism, "Know thyself" is an important concept when it comes to avoiding burnout as well as in other aspects of life.   Many people develop full-fledged burnout because they have little to no awareness of themselves on a physical and emotional level, so burnout, which takes a while to develop, can seem to sneak up on them.   So, it's important to recognize the signs of workplace burnout in yourself.  Also, even for many people, who actually do recognize the signs of burnout, they're so accustomed to plowing ahead that they override their own good judgment about when to stop working and take a break.

• Take Breaks at Work:  For many people, it might seem counter-intuitive, but the old saying "less is more" is fitting when it comes to workplace burnout.  Rather than pushing yourself to work through lunch and forgo taking breaks during the day, you can actually be more productive as well as avoid burnout if you take breaks during the day at work.  Taking a much-needed break during the day, going for a walk at lunch or even taking a few minutes to stretch and breathe can help you to relax and regroup.

Avoiding Workplace Burnout:  Take Breaks at Work

• Take Time Off From Work to Go on Vacation:  Many people choose to give up vacation days to remain at work.  As a nation, Americans actually give up millions of vacation days a year, which is a big mistake, especially if you're hoping to avoid burnout.  If you treat yourself like you're a machine, you're going to break down.  And even machines break down without proper care.  Not only will going on vacation help you to relax and regroup, it often gives you an new perspective about work and life in general, which can make you more creative and productive.

Avoiding Workplace Burnout: Take Vacations

• Develop Stress Management Strategies:  Whether you choose to go to the gym, yoga class, meditation class or whatever activities you enjoy, it's important to develop effective stress management strategies, especially if you have a stressful job and you hope to avoid burnout.  When clients come to see me in my psychotherapy private practice in NYC, I often work with them to help them develop healthy coping and stress management strategies, including learning to meditate and engage in stress-reducing breathing techniques.

• Cultivate and Maintain Close Personal Relationships:  As human beings, we are born to bond and attach with significant others.  Initially, we bond with our primary caregivers, which in most cases is our mother, and later on, we learn to develop significant friendships and relationships outside the family.  When people spend too much time on work-related activities, one of the first things to go is the time they spend with significant others, including spouses, children and friends.  Aside from the enjoyable aspects of close relationships, we need the love and support from those relationships and they need us, so it's important to develop and maintain these relationships in order to maintain a sense of well-being.

• Develop and Engage in Self Care Strategies  Self care is made up of many different aspects, including:  getting enough rest, eating properly, getting exercise, and other things that are particularly meaningful and nurturing for you (see my article:  Self Care: Feeling Entitled to Take Care of Yourself).

• Develop Realistic Expectations of What You Can and Can't Accomplish at Work:  Having unrealistic expectations about what you can and can't accomplish at work is a sure sign that you might be heading for workplace burnout if you're not already there.  This is a particular problem for ambitious high achievers experienced in the workplace as well as college graduates who are beginning their first job.  College grads, who were accustomed to being in an intellectually and emotionally stimulating environment in college, are often surprised to discover that even the most interesting job can have certain required mind-numbing aspects to it.  This often leads to disappointment and, at times, to burnout.

Avoiding Workplace Burnout: Be Realistic About What You Can and Cannot Do

• Be Assertive:  Depending upon your work environment, you might need to learn to tactfully say "no" every so often when you know that accepting an assignment or participating in an extra project will lead to burnout.  Of course, this assumes that you have enough of an awareness of yourself and you place a high level of importance on self care.  If it's not possible to say "no" because doing so would lead to losing your job, then you might want to consider the next category below, re-evaluating your career.

• Re-Evaluate Your Career:  Before you begin a particular career, you might assume that you know what's involved, but it's usually only when you might start to realize that what you expected and what it turned out to be are two very different things.  I had a friend who became a nurse years ago because she wanted to "help people."  She had a wonderful experience in nursing school.  But when she became a hospital nurse, she discovered that what she wanted and what it turned out to be were completely different.  After trying different work environments, she realized that it wasn't any particular environment--the problem was that nursing, while being a wonderful profession, just wasn't for her.  So, she left nursing and became a licensed massage therapist, and she discovered that she loved it and she was better suited for this profession.  So many people think that they have to stick it out in a profession where they've unhappy.  They feel ashamed, as if it's their fault.  But life is short and if you have the option of doing what you would like, it's better to re-evaluate your career and take steps to do what makes you happy.

Avoiding Workplace Burnout: Re-Evaluate Your Career

• Recognize Your Profession Might Have Changed and It's Not What You Want Anymore:  Another reason why people often re-evaluate their careers is that their field might have changed over time.  Many medical doctors, under the strain of significant changes in the health care field, have re-evaluated their career choices and choose a different career or, depending upon their particular situation, have opted to retire.

Future Articles Related to Workplace Burnout
Workplace burnout is a huge topic and a significant problem for many employees.  Since many of the issues I've raised in this article are broad, I'll be addressing some of them in future articles.

Getting Help in Therapy
We all need help sometimes when going it alone is too difficult.

Getting Help in Therapy

If you're concerned that you might be burning out at work or you've already developed full-fledged burnout, you could benefit from getting help from a licensed mental health professional who has experience in helping clients to overcome this problem.

Working with a licensed therapist with expertise in this area, you can learn to take care of yourself and lead a happier life.

About Me
I am a licensed NYC psychotherapist, hypnotherapist, EMDR and Somatic Experiencing therapist who works with individual adults and couples.

I have helped many clients in my psychotherapy practice to avoid or overcome both personal and professional burnout.

To find out more about me, visit my website:  Josephine Ferraro, LCSW - NYC Psychotherapist.

To set up a consultation, call me at (917) 742-2624 during business hours or email me.

Managing Your Stress: What Are the Telltale Signs of Workplace Burnout?

In a prior article, Managing Your Stress: The Consequences of Workplace Burnout, I discussed the consequences for workplace burnout for both employees and employers.  In this article, I'm focusing on how you, as an employee, can recognize the telltale signs of workplace burnout.

Managing Your Stress:  What Are the Telltale Signs of Workplace Burnout?

Telltale Signs of Burnout
As I mentioned in my prior article, burnout doesn't occur overnight.  It usually occurs over a span of time, often without a person even realizing it, so it's important to recognize the telltale signs of burnout (outlined below) to avoid experiencing full-fledged burnout:

• Exhaustion:  Feeling emotionally and physically tired all or most of the time.  You feel like you have little or no energy even after you've rested or slept

• Problems Paying Attention or Concentrating:  Prolonged stress that leads to burnout can create cognitive problems related to paying attention or concentration.  When relentless stress that causes burnout takes hold and you don't realize what's happening, it can be frightening, especially if you didn't have these cognitive problems before.

• Lack of Motivation :  Burnout can lead to your feeling that nothing you do will make a difference.  If burnout is severe, you might feel helpless and hopeless to effect change in your work or in yourself.

• Frustration and Cynicism:  Over time, burnout can cause you to feel frustrated and cynical about your work and life in general, which also affects your motivation.

• Not Taking Care of Yourself:  Burnout can lead to your not getting enough rest, poor sleep, poor eating habits, poor health, and overall poor self care.  Rather than maintaining a healthy and nurturing social life with people who are important to you in your personal life, you might be so focused on work that you forget to maintain a healthy work-life balance.

• Obsession With Work:  When you're not maintaining a healthy balance between work and personal life and not taking care of yourself, chances are good that you're obsessed about work even when you're not at work so that you don't get a break from work stressors, which is so important to recharging.

• Problems With Work Performance:  When you're obsessed with work and you're not getting enough downtime, your work performance can suffer.  There have been many studies that show that employees' work performance is better when they take breaks.

• Health Problems:  When you don't take care of yourself and you're experiencing burnout, you can develop stress-related health problems, including high blood pressure, heart problems, digestive problems and other related health problems.

Managing Your Stress:  Telltale Signs of Workplace Burnout: Health Problems

• Mental Health Problems:  Anxiety and depression are common problems as you become overwhelmed by burnout.  Anxiety and depression (or both) can make coping with workplace burnout all the more difficult, especially if these mental health problems remain untreated in therapy.

• Interpersonal Problems at Work: It's easy to see that if you're having problems with the issues listed above, you might become impatient and irritable with your boss or with coworkers, especially if you're suffering with the symptoms of burnout. 

• Interpersonal Problems at Home:  Likewise, when you're burnt out, it's very hard to leave work stressors at work, so when you get home, you could be snappy with your spouse or your children.  You might feel too exhausted to interact with them, which can create problems in your family relationships (see my article:  Workplace Stressors:  Are Your Workplace Stressors Affecting Your Family?)

In a future article about workplace burnout, I'll discuss some things you can do if you recognize that you have some or all of telltale signs listed above.

Getting Help in Therapy
As I discussed in my prior article, people often wait until they're experiencing full-fledged burnout (all or most of the symptoms listed above) before they seek help.

Getting Help in Therapy

Getting help from a licensed psychotherapist who specializes in helping clients with career or work-related issues can make all the difference between avoiding or overcoming workplace burnout.

If you identify with many of the telltale signs of burnout, you owe it to yourself and your loved ones to get help so you can lead a more fulfilling life.

About Me
I am a licensed NYC psychotherapist, hypnotherapist, EMDR and Somatic Experiencing therapist who works with individual adults and couples.

One of my specialities is helping clients with career issues, and I have helped many clients to learn how to manage stress and develop healthy stress management strategies to avoid or overcome workplace burnout.

To find out more about me, visit my website:  Josephine Ferraro, LCSW - NYC Psychotherapist.

To set up a consultation, call me at (917) 742-2624 during business hours or email me.

Managing Your Stress: The Consequences of Workplace Burnout

People often come to see me in my psychotherapy private practice in NYC about career and work-related issues.  One of the biggest issues that many people are struggling with today is how to cope with the ever increasing demands at the workplace without burning out.

Managing Your Stress: The Consequences of Workplace Burnout

What is Burnout?
Burnout is a chronic state of stress that can lead to physical and emotional exhaustion.

Burnout isn't something that happens overnight.  It usually occurs over time.

Unfortunately, especially among high achievers who are ambitious and driven, people often don't realize that they're suffering from the effects of burnout until they experience serious negative consequences.

When someone is experiencing full-fledged burnout, he or she has difficulty functioning personally as well as professionally.  In the most severe cases, they might not be able to function at all.

Whether you work in finance, healthcare, social services, education or any other field, burnout has become a serious problem which has negative consequences for employees as well as employers.

Negative Consequences for Employers:

• increased absenteeism
• increased staff turnover
• increased inefficiency
• increased costs (in the billions)
• increased Workers Compensation claims
• decreased productivity
• decreased morale
• decreased quality of service
• decreased customer satisfaction and increased complaints
• decreased creativity and innovation

Negative Consequences for Employees:

• increased stress
• increased health problems, including sleep problems
• increased mental health problems, including anxiety and/or depression
• increased sense of autonomy and a sense of helplessness
• increased alcohol and substance abuse problems as well as other addictive behavior
• increased marital problems as work stressors spill over into home life
• decreased work satisfaction
• decreased camaraderie among staff

Employers Have a Responsibility to Help Employees Avoid or Overcome Workplace Burnout
Since the consequences of burnout has such a significant impact for employees and employers, it's important for organizations to create a healthy work environment to avoid burnout or, if burnout is already an issue, to find creative ways to address it (more about this in future articles).

Managing Your Stress: The Consequences of Workplace Burnout

Employees Can Develop Stress Management Strategies to Deal With Workplace Burnout
Since it's important for employees to learn ways to manage their stress to avoid burnout, I often address this issue in therapy sessions with clients, who are either suffering from the consequences of burnout or are on the verge of burning out, by teaching them tools for managing their stress including, among other things, learning to balance their work and home life and learning breathing and meditation techniques.

In future articles, I'll address what employers and employees can do to deal with workplace burnout.

Getting Help in Therapy
People often wait until they're mentally, physically and emotionally exhausted before they get help for burnout.

Getting Help in Therapy

At that point, they might already be feeling the effects of poor health and mental health due to prolonged stress and exhaustion.

Often, by the time people begin therapy, their relationships with family members are suffering due to bringing their work stressors home (see my article:  Workplace: Are Your Work Stressors Affecting Your Family?)

Rather than wait, it's better to get help early on to learn how to manage your stress as well as addressing any work issues that could be triggering personal issues or vice versa.

Getting help early can help you to avoid burnout and thrive both personally and professionally.

About Me
I am a licensed NYC psychotherapist, hypnotherapist, EMDR and Somatic Experiencing therapist.

I work with individual adults and couples.

One of my specialties is helping clients with career issues.

I have worked with many clients to help them avoid or overcome workplace burnout.

To find out more about me, visit my website:  Josephine Ferraro, LCSW - NYC Psychotherapist.

To set up a consultation, call me at (917) 742-2624 or email me.

Also see my article:  Managing Your Stress: What Are the Signs of Workplace Burnout?

Balancing Your Personal Life and Your Career

It seems to me that, for a variety of reasons, it's getting harder to balance a successful career with a fulfilling personal life.  

As a psychotherapist in New York City, I often hear therapy clients lament the fact that their career has taken over so much of their time that they have less and less time for their personal lives (see my article: Living a Balance Life as a Path to Happiness).

Balancing Your Personal Life and Career

Being Too Available After Work Hours
With all our technological advances, many people are finding themselves overloaded with information and the demands of being available nearly 24/7.  

Even for people who want to have more of a balance between their work and personal life, they feel compelled to be available after work hours because of the competitive nature of their careers.  

They often tell me that they fear that if they don't make themselves available when they're home, their colleagues, who are more available, will surpass them at work.

The dilemma is that when you're unable to set boundaries so that your work isn't encroaching upon your personal time, you're often less productive.  And, in the long run, you're much more likely to suffer burnout.  

After all, you're human--you're not a machine--and even machines break down after a while if they're not maintained.

So how can balance your career and your personal life so that you can take care of yourself?

Here are some tips:

Quality of Life: Weigh Your Career Options and Consider Your Priorities
Before you accept a new job, consider how demanding the job will be and how it will affect your personal life.

If you know that you'd be unhappy with a job where you would be expected to spend a lot of extra time, which would take away from your personal life, think about how this will affect the quality of your life.

Some people, who are new to their careers, are willing to spend a lot of extra time at the start of their careers as opposed to people who are in the late stage of their careers.  Only you can decide what's right for you.

If you have a spouse or significant other, you would be wise to consult with him or her about how this might affect your relationship.  Relationships need to be nurtured and there's no substitute for time together.

I'm aware that this isn't as simple as it sounds.  

Many people take demanding jobs because they are lucrative and the money could pay for a home, their children's education, nice vacations and other things that are desirable.  

But once they're in the job, they discover that the job is so demanding that they don't even have time to take the vacations that they fantasized about because they're too busy at work.

The Importance of Self Care

Take Breaks During the Workday
Cumulative stress and burnout are more common today than they were 15 or 20 years ago. Economic uncertainty and workplace insecurities often keep employees going like a gerbil on a wheel.

But even if you have a very stressful job, there are often times when you can take breaks, even if it's for 20-30 minutes to regroup.  Usually, people find that taking even a short break helps them to feel refreshed and reinvigorated for whatever tasks they're engaged in.

Take Vacations
Aside from taking daily breaks, it's very important to take a vacation away from work and away from your daily routine.

Many people are afraid to take a vacation because they feel their work will suffer if they're not around to do it.  Usually, it's just the opposite--getting away for a week or two actually allows you to come back refreshed.

Maintain Non-Work-Related Interests
When all you do is focus on your work and you have no interests or hobbies outside of work, you don't give yourself a chance to leave your work behind.

Just like taking breaks at work is important, having other interests that are non-work related will often make you a more well rounded and creative person.  You'll come back to your work projects refreshed.

Allow Time For Your Spouse/Significant Other, Family and Friends
Scheduling pleasurable activities with your spouse, partner, family and friends are essential to nurturing your close relationships.

It's so easy to allow yourself to become so inundated by work that you neglect your relationship with your spouse or significant other.  

In a prior blog article, Creating Special Times Together, I discuss the importance of taking the time to create special times for your relationship.

Getting Help in Therapy
Many people have difficulty balancing their career and personal life and they need help.  

If you're having problems, you could benefit from seeing a licensed mental health practitioner who has experiencing helping people to create balance in their lives.

I am a licensed New York City psychotherapist, hypnotherapist, EMDR and Somatic Experiencing therapist who works with individual adults and couples.

I have helped many clients to live more balanced and fulfilling lives.

To find out more about me, visit my web site:  Josephine Ferraro, LCSW - NYC Psychotherapist.

To set up a consultation, call me at (917) 742-2624 during business hours or email me.