In a previous post titled “Epiphany” I briefly discussed setting limits on the amount of time I spent working from home in order to find a balance between my home and work life. In today’s day and age, there is no such thing as “leaving work at work”. Most people work from home after their scheduled work hours in order to meet their work demands. Some catch up on replying to emails, others catch up on notes. However, if the working from home component does not incorporate emails and notes, rather, the emotional work that is entailed from a difficult day, how does one separate the two? In order to maintain self-care and avoid accelerated burnout, limits HAVE to be put in place. We teach our clients how to create and maintain limits, so why not for ourselves? I think it’s because we’re putting limits ON ourselves rather than on the behaviour of others. It’s directed towards ourselves. With that being said, what’s one of the first things we suggest to clients when setting boundaries? We tell them to “begin small”, thus, we too need to begin small. For me, beginning small means setting a specific amount of time allotted to venting about my day, maintaining confidentiality, of course. This way, once that timer has gone off, I have to change topics and move on. I find that if I don’t give myself enough time though, that it remains with me. A good rule of thumb would be to set aside a reasonable amount of time that works for you- perhaps 15 minutes? Again, this is subjective. You don’t want to spend an hour ruminating about your day or a difficult client as it will just perpetuate resentment and/or other negative feelings. Similarly, five minutes may not be enough time either. It should be just enough to get whatever is weighing you down out of your system and then move forward with your day. Another suggestion to beginning small is by writing in a journal. Because of the sensitivity of our work and confidentiality concerns, it is important to note that anything that is written in the journal should not include any identifiable information. I recommend just writing down short sentences or one to two words that describe how you felt that day. I also feel that a good idea is to refrain from writing the specific date down. I say withhold the date because there is no real purpose to this. Why look back at the journal only to remember a difficult day if the date is present? It would not be constructive. Remember, the purpose is to set limits for ourselves in order to maintain self-care. I hope these tips work for you. If you have any others that you would like to share, please do comment.

How are our personal lives connected with our professional lives? And how can the two combined create an equation that expedites burnout to the square and lead to bad decisions? When my personal life seems to be shaken up, I noticed that it takes a toll on me while in my counselling office. I did not have the energy to work through a long day and had difficulty remaining in the present. Feelings and thoughts began impeding my sessions. When I became cognizant of my thoughts, I immediately felt guilty. This of course lead to thought errors. As I became mindful of my thoughts and feelings, I put my personal issues aside and completed all scheduled appointments. By the end of the day work day, I was not only mentally and emotionally exhausted, but felt physically drained too; however, my day wasn’t over just yet. I still had to work through the issues that were causing distress in my personal life. I immediately craved McDonald’s. That’s my go-to comfort food for when I’m feeling overwhelmed. I’m vegetarian, so in order to fulfill my craving, I order the BigMac without the meat patty. I request fresh fries and sometimes ask for tartar sauce on the side to dunk my fries in. Yes, I am admitting to my very unhealthy coping mechanism. However, having had a mindful moment earlier in the day, I had another mindful moment while making my way to the closest McDonald’s; the veggie BigMac will not help me feel better. So, instead, I made my way to the gym, got on the elliptical and spent the next half hour going through the motions. It was amazing! That night, when I got into bed, I reflected. I thought about how difficult maintaining personal and professional boundaries can be, how having a bad personal day coupled with challenging clients can take a toll on mental well-being, and then spent another 15 to 20 minutes re-experiencing the emotional rollercoaster I was on earlier. And then I thought about how stress squared can very quickly lead to unhealthy coping skills. Yet, as I laid in bed, I couldn’t help but smile. I was proud of myself for actually getting to the gym rather than eating food that would have made my stomach upset! But, I was also concerned about how the combination of my personal and professional lives created double the amount of stress for me. I felt overwhelmed. I started realizing how quickly my mental health can deteriorate if I don’t have a toolkit filled with strategies to deal with all kinds of stress. I was glad that I had a moment of clarity and went to the gym. I just hope that the next time I feel this overwhelmed, that I am able to pull out other strategies so that the thought of going to McDonald’s is not even an option.

Today, it dawned on me…I was putting more effort in a treatment program than were my patients. For example, I prepared for a session that was a continuation of an individualized version of a group. The patient did so well for the first couple of weeks; motivated to change, did all the homework, utilized the skills; and even though she failed sometimes, she kept up with her positivism and momentum. I thought, “Oh wow, she’s really going to do this! I’m so excited for her!” That was the naïveté in me. Don’t get me wrong, I am always excited for patients when they progress and really begin to feel enthusiastic, I will always be their biggest cheer leader. But, the problem began when this patient began missing her appointments. At first, she was calling and informing the clinic about not being able to make it to her appointment, and then she stopped calling as well. Meanwhile, I was at home the night before working on the next day’s material in anticipation of her arrival. When I finally noticed that I was working harder at treatment than my patient was, that was when I recognized the potential for early burnout. How so? Because, I need to check in with myself and identify a few things: 1. I am not meeting the patient where the patient is at, and am working through treatment on my own agenda rather than hers. 2. How is this affecting my attitudes towards the patient and 3. How is this helping me with my self-care? These are but just a few among many other concerns. Of course, with personal counselling, I will be able to work through the first two issues, but the one I want to focus on is the self-care component. By spending time working on a treatment plan for hours, endless readings, and neglecting my friends, family or sleep, I have crossed over to the other side. In other words, I have neglected myself and am one step closer to burning out. I personally feel that a way to ensure that I am not repeating the same mistake is by adopting the rule “Follow the patient’s lead” and never having an agenda; instead, embrace a loose guideline. Sometimes, the patient may not be ready to move forward. Another preventative measure I have begun and really like is putting limits on the amount of time and energy I spend on working from home. This tactic is thus far aiding in finding a balance between work and play. By putting such limits, I can shut off the work component of my brain and get into relax and rest mode afterwards.

By: Bhavna Verma

From their paper, “Burnout Syndrome in Licensed Mental Health Counselors and Registered Mental Health Counselor Interns: A Pilot Study” the authors point out that during the first three years of work experience for professionals, they are at higher risk for burnout and job turnover (p1. 2011). I am currently in my first year of professional work experience. Although, each class in my Master’s program had devoted a component of the importance of self-care as well as provided students with various strategies; I found that they did not mean anything until I was practicing. For me, self-care was another subject like theories; understand the concept for the time-being and figure out what it really means later. Thinking about the burnout statistic, I am alarmed. I recognize the importance of self-care, however am still struggling to learn how to do it. The first step to recognize that burnout may be occurring is to understand the symptoms. There are many symptoms to burnout; depersonalization, emotional exhaustion, lack of interest, etc. Just as there are many symptoms to burnout, there are also that many countermeasures a counsellor can take too; exercise, personal counselling, conscious effort to leave work at work, etc. I could go on. But, at the end of the day, what I really found helped was finding my own way at ensuring I was taking care of my mental health. I do not think there is one formula, but rather a combination of strategies. This has been a bit of a learning process. I have been fortunate to be working in a supportive environment that fosters self-care. But in order to ensure that I do not become a part of the statistic, I am learning which self-care strategies work for me so that by the time I have been three years into the field I would have already had many tools in my toolbox that could be pulled out automatically.

Baldwin, K.D., Barmore, C., Suprina, J. S., Weaver, A. (2011). Burnout Syndrome in Licensed  Mental Health Counselors and Registered Mental Health Counselor Interns: A Pilot Study.