90: Therapist Burnout: Five Ways I Practice Burnout Prevention
Therapist Burnout
Burnout is physical or emotional exhaustion that impacts your identity and makes it feel like you can't accomplish tasks or prevents you from acknowledging accomplishment. Therapists and other healers may be at higher risk for burnout due to chronic exposure to other people's pain, heartache, and trauma.
In today's podcast and accompanying post, I'm talking about burnout. I'll share how I reduce the chances that my nervous system hits burnout as a private practice therapist. You'll hear:
7 Ways to complete the stress cycle
5 anecdotal ways I practice burnout prevention
7 questions to ask yourself to assess if you are practicing burnout prevention as a small business owner
Societal Burnout
Before I get into burnout prevention on an individual level, I'd be remiss not to address systemic problems. As therapists and allied health professionals, a lot of the things we do in our practices are to try and help individuals heal themselves in a broken system. Societal burnout is a unique type of burnout where we become overwhelmed, burdened, and overloaded by societal problems. It can feel futile to say, "do this to feel less bad," but in a shitty system, sometimes that's all we've got.
Stress vs. Stressor
Today, I'm talking about individual approaches to burnout prevention, not because systemic change isn't needed, but because that's an entirely separate topic. Before we get into it, let me quickly differentiate between "stress" and a "stressor." A stressor is anything that triggers the stress cycle in our body. This could be a difficult client, crabby boss, or your bus running late. It could also be harder to pinpoint: negative self-talk, being subjected to sexism, or ruminating on something painful that already happened. On the other hand, stress is the combined mental and emotional strain that shows up physically in your body. The short version: a stressor causes stress.
As humans, there are some stressors we can eliminate or avoid, but many stressors are a part of our daily lives. This means that we are exposed to many stressors, and our body is responding with its natural stress response.
Complete Stress Cycle
When we are stuck in a heightened state of stress, we are at higher risk of burnout. Why? Because our bodies are flooded with the biological markers telling you you're in danger. When we face anything threatening, stress is the body's natural response. Like all biological processes, it has a beginning (something bad is happening), a middle (this is freaky, I better run, fight, or freeze), and an end (phew! That bad thing is gone, I'm safe). Ending a stress cycle, telling your brain and body you are no longer threatened or in danger, is the key to completing a stress cycle. Completing a stress cycle allows our brains and body to move on.
According to the Nagoski sisters, who wrote the literal book on burnout (Burnout: The Secure to Unlocking the Stress Cycle, 2019), there are many ways to complete a stress cycle that can help with burnout. The seven ways to complete the stress cycle are:
Physical movement. Get at least 20 minutes of movement to help tell your body you are safe. This activity can be walking, dancing, biking, swimming, running, anything where you are moving your body.
Breathing. Deep, slow, barrel breaths are key for regulating your nervous system and telling your brain you are safe. I like to put my hands on my sides near the body of my rib cage to feel my belly and ribs expand front to back and side to side. Sometimes I close my eyes, and other times, I try to look out the window and focus on something in the distance while I breathe.
Affection. Deep connection with a person or pet you care about. Giving and receiving affection with a human can be physical touches like a hug, kiss, or snuggle, but it can also be a meaningful conversation or quality time together. When it comes to a pet, simply petting a horse, dog, cat, or other furry friend completes the stress cycle and signals to your brain that you are safe.
Laughter. The more grotesque and inappropriate the laughter, the better. Not a polite "tee hee," but a deep "I might pee on myself" laughter. Struggling to catch the sillies? Think of a time that had you uproariously laughing and see if you can bring that memory to the surface.
Creative expression. Literary, visual, and performance arts permit us to have big feelings. Creativity can complete the stress cycle, whether you are creating art or consuming it.
Positive social interaction. Being kind to an acquaintance, texting a friend a photo of something that reminds you of them, and even offering a stranger a compliment are ways to practice positive social interaction. Giving and receiving kindness can reassure your nervous system that there is still goodness in the world.
Crying. Alligator tears and tissues aren't all bad. Crying is a physical release and our body's natural way of relieving stress.
Therapist Burnout Prevention
There are five things I consistently do to practice burnout prevention as a therapist. [Sidebar, my friends at Resourced Therapist have since taught me about reframing this to "buffering burnout" instead since fully preventing it isn't possible]. When I say "consistent," I don't mean that I do these things perfectly every single day. Instead, I incorporate some of them into my daily routines as an act of micro self-care and other things I build into my private practice macro self-care. Anecdotally, I've found that five things are consistently in my life that help prevents burnout.
Boundaries. A limit I set to create a sense of safety. In my practice, this means I set firm boundaries around when I do and don't work, how many clients I see, how I can be contacted out of session, and how long it takes me to respond to messages or emails outside of work hours. I also consider my niche to be upholding boundaries. I see clients interested in digging deeper into the psychological and emotional side of money and am clear about my niche. Physically, I close my laptop or power it down at the end of the workday and put up my out-of-office message on the weekends. Financially, I am clear about how much I charge, when I charge, how much of a balance a client can have before services are compromised, and not offering a sliding scale. Read more here about things to consider before you offer a sliding scale.
Hobbies. Doing things just for fun outside of work that I don't plan on or want to monetize. I especially encourage you to do things for fun that you aren't "great" or even shitty at.
Human Connection. Human connection is when I spend time with friends and loved ones to have fun, laugh, and bond. This can be in person or over the internet. I've loved connecting with others over Instagram when I'm in the right headspace for it. Human connection aligns with the Nagoski sister's stress cycle completions of laughter and positive social interaction.
Self-care. Building in small and large ways to take care of myself physically, spiritually, mentally, and emotionally. While I love a good Epsom salt bath, I include daily walks with my dog, practicing good sleep hygiene, and my morning beverage routine in my self-care routine.
Financial self-care. Ensuring I have enough money coming in to take care of my short, mid-term, and long-term money goals. This means I have a firm handle on my financial literacy and spending and saving aligned with my values.
AND I don't always nail it. My energetic capacity ebbs and flows, so sometimes, I'm hyper-productive to the detriment of my mental and physical health. Other times, I find a harmony that allows me to feel balanced.
Burnout Assessment For Therapists
This burnout assessment for therapists is highly unofficial and definitely not peer-reviewed. If you are wondering if you are practicing burnout prevention in private practice, I invite you to ask yourself the questions below and reflect on them.
Are you . . .
Paying yourself?
When I say "paying yourself," I mean getting a consistent, reliable paycheck. I don't mean "paying yourself" when your business has enough money to do so, or paying yourself a lot one month and not much the following month. Paying yourself consistently is a way to decrease a financial stressor.
Taking paid time off?
Can you take off time for a vacation where you know you'll still be paid?
Can you afford to pay yourself for sick days and mental health days?
Working a schedule aligned with your energy?
Can you uphold your energetic boundaries by working when you have good energy, aren't feeling rushed, and are not resentful of the days you work.
Taking breaks during the day and clocking out at the end of your workday?
Micro self-care
Eating regularly
Clocking out
Outsourcing tasks that aren't in your wheelhouse?
This means allowing other people or systems to do things that are not in your zone of genius. Take a listen/read to this episode for more information on outsourcing.
Seeing clients who light you up and excite you?
Niching increased income prevents burnout. Sidebar: I misspoke on the podcast. Monica will be speaking to Grow a Profitable Practice From the Inside Out on how niching can increase income and prevent burnout. She wrote a blog post on the benefits of investing in a good therapy website.
Nurturing parts of yourself outside of being a clinician?
Fun!
Hobbies!
Playfulness!
The goal is to reduce the likelihood of burnout happening as a therapist. But suppose you've already hit therapist burnout. You are struggling to have compassion for your clients, having difficulty completing necessary tasks, or overall emotional exhaustion. In the case of therapist burnout, I strongly recommend taking a good old-fashioned break. On a day or half-day of your break, revisit the 7-question burnout assessment for therapists and see what changes you can make to your private practice to start building in burnout prevention when you return to work.
Therapist Burnout Recovery
If you are a private practice therapist or care provider struggling with buffering or preventing burnout, I can help! I provide 1-time Power Sessions where we can dive right into troubleshooting a way to strengthen your boundaries so you can sustain yourself and your work. I also lead and facilitate a comprehensive small group coaching program called Grow a Profitable Practice From the Inside Out. The program encompasses money mindset, fee-setting, adhering to boundaries, niching, writing your website for SEO, and how to practice self-care. Learn more about each of these services below.
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In my first big girl Social Work job, I was making less money than I was as a waitress, who was tracking my spending, dialing back on anything I could think of, and trying to think of creative ways to have fun and practice self care. On the one year anniversary of my job, I mustered up the courage to ask for a raise. I'd been doing, doing my job well taking on additional responsibilities, and I never called in sick or was late, you know, all the things us good workers are supposed to do. The response: "In this economy, you should be thankful you have a job." Needless to say, I didn't get the raise. I was crushed, completely fried from burnout and literally sick. I had developed chronic insomnia from the stress of my work and I was getting colds and flus left and right because for anybody who has suffered from insomnia knows, your immune system just tanks when you are not regularly sleeping. And my story is not uncommon, especially for people in helping fields like therapists, nurses, teachers, energy healers, we're told we should be grateful we're getting compensation for our work at all. But financial self care is self care. And subscribing to burnout by working ourselves into the ground to be good, is not a way to live. That's why I'm so passionate about helping other care providers grow sustainable and profitable businesses because I believe you can be compensated beautifully for your work and be a damn good care provider. In today's podcast, I'm talking about burnout. I'll cover how I personally reduce the chances that my nervous system hits burnout, you'll hear ways to complete the stress cycle, the anecdotal ways I practice burnout prevention, seven questions to ask yourself if you--to see whether or not you're actively practicing burnout prevention as a small business owner, and then I'll share a little bit more about Grow a Profitable Practice from the Inside Out. Because if you are listening to this in real time, today's the last day to make sure you apply for this cohort that kicks off on January, I'm sorry, on February 14.
On today's podcast, I'm talking therapist burnout prevention. And to be honest, a lot of the shit we deal with is systemic. You know, it's it's so frustrating when people are like, Oh, it's just burnout, you have to like take a bath and practice self care, and then everything will be better one sometimes it's like the system of, you know, democracy, but it's not really democratic. It feels irritating if you are being subjected to racism and patriarchal behaviors that are built into our system. So I'm not here to say, just take a bath and everything will be better. Like it can feel really, really awful to say do this thing to do to feel less bad, but in a shitty system. Sometimes it's all we've got. And it's not that the bath will be better than, you know, changing some of the systems. But sometimes all we have the time for this space for the capacity for is the bath. And before I go any further, I just want to point out that right now, I may or may not be sitting in my literal closet with a blanket over my head because I recently redid my office, which looks great. But I removed a couch and an ottoman and some things that soaked up sound and I felt like the last few episodes have felt really tinny and echoey. So I'm sitting in my closet this time around in the hopes that the sound quality is better, but just wanted to paint a little picture for you that I am sitting on the floor, and I have a big comforter kind of draped over where the clothes would go on that clothing rod. So one part of the comforters behind my head and then the others in front of me facing the wall to hopefully absorb some of the sound. This is the shit we do as podcasters on a shoestring and maybe I should listen to my episode last week on outsourcing, maybe I need to just like buy a little acoustic box. I digress anyway.
Let's talk about the systemic thing here that I find to be really, really difficult. Again, I'm in the United States, which tends to separate mental health from health. Whereas in other parts of the world, particularly the European Union, they define and talk about mental health as a benefit to their society. After the 2008 crash, economic crash, they did a big kind of macro study on what things were protective factors for folks mental health and what things were risk factors for their citizens mental health. And they came out with this PDF that I will link in the show notes that walks through what was beneficial, what was not. And I was kind of laughing as I went through this particular I think they call it a brochure or a handout, because they really say literally in like the first page they have, "Mental health creates mental capital, there is no health without mental health. Mental health is an indivisible part of public health and significantly affects countries and their human, social and economic capital. Mental health is not merely the absence of mental disorders or symptoms, but also a resource supporting overall well being." That is very different than I feel how we talk about mental health in the United States, we talk about it as something outside of our overall health. And we divorce it from our being, right, we say we have physical health, we have mental health, we have emotional health, and the WHO is kind of like No, all those things are integrated. So already you can see our systems are so different, but what they found to be protective, were four things social capital and welfare protection, aka financial safety nets, which the US just like doesn't really have/demeans people who use them to healthy prenatal and childhood environments, three, healthy workplace and living environments, and four healthy lifestyles. So I again, just point all of this out that burnout, this idea that you are unable to perform at a certain level, because you are subjected to chronic stress is not just because you aren't drinking enough tea and going on enough walks, there are literal societal factors that shape it. And I know that I just really want to emphasize that I know that we cannot separate the two. But in today's podcast, I'm trying to point out some things we can do, because we really, really, really do have to do some things. And we also have to advocate for change. So given again, that I'm recording this from a country that is not inside of the European Union, we deal with a set of different stressors that our systems won't help us with, which means we might be more prone to burnout, which means we might have to take extra care of ourselves because our country and our communities won't. Okay, it's shitty. It's just the reality of our world.
So I want to talk first, about this idea of a stress cycle and things that can help with the stress cycle. So the Nagoski sisters wrote a book called BURNOUT literally. And it was really popular towards the end of like the middle towards the end of 2021. And it really was about what are the things that are making it so hard for us, to resource ourselves to refresh ourselves to come into not just our work, but into other areas with a sense of, of groundedness and restoration, and they found that we are subjected to chronic stress. And because we're subjected to so much chronic stress, or stressors, rather, all of these things that are coming at us that are stressing us out, our body really never has the opportunity to complete a stress cycle, which looks like stressor dangerous thing that our brain and body perceives is dangerous, then we respond to it with fight, flight, or freeze and the corresponding hormonal and chemical shifts in our bodies. And then we find out that we are safe. However, when we are subjected to chronic stressors, we don't necessarily get the physical signal that we are safe. We go from a meeting where we are told to do 100 more things into a phone call from a school that says, You know what, you got to pick up your kid we've had a COVID exposure to, you know, another thing that is just like piling on piling on piling on. So our body doesn't get the chance to say, Hey, I'm safe. I'm okay that stressor is no longer here are no longer a viable threat. And what they say can help kind of tell your brain and your body that that stressor that has come at you is no longer a threat is to finish a stress cycle. They talk about this idea of physical movement. That can be as simple as you know, shaking your body like literally shaking your legs, shaking your hands like think of that song, the Hokey Pokey, put your hand in, put your hand out shake it all about like literally shaking your hands, your legs, your body, jumping up and down and doing some jumping jacks to an actual like exercise that we tend to think of like going for a bike ride or a run or doing a Pilates class. That is a way to tell your body Hey, that stress has moved through you and you're good. The other ways they talk about our breathing, not just like (shallow breathing), but like a conscious deep inhalation and exhalation to help your body know that you can actually breathe and breathe deeper, I like to think about barrel breathing. So breathing into your diaphragm and making sure that your belly and your ribs are expanding forward, backward, side to side and diagonally. So as though an entire barrel is being kind of filled in your torso. And then that barrel is kind of contracting on that exhale. so deeply breathing, not just breathing into your chest, but breathing into your belly, your diaphragm, your back, and your side body. The other way that they talk about finishing the stress cycle is affection. It can be touch, right, a hug, a kiss. Those are ways of showing affection. But other ways of showing affection are for my animal lovers, petting your dog, giving yourself a hug, noting a smile on somebody else's face, having a reciprocal act of affection, can help to complete that stress cycle. So can laughter and crying, laughing and crying are also very physical actions that tell your brain that something has started and finished. Creative expression, they talk about literally painting and writing and journaling and singing as creative expression. But also the consuming of creativity can be helpful, and also positive social interaction. So having a kind interaction with let's say, your Shipt driver, maybe they go grocery shopping for you and drop it off on the front porch. And you guys exchanged some kind words, or you exchanged some kind of text as they are doing some shopping for you like it doesn't even have to be with a friend per se. But just having this, this idea of like something positive happening can tell your brain that a positive things are happening, good things are happening here, you must be safe from that specific stressor. So the seven ways to finish that stress cycle that can help with burnout prevention and reduction is physical movement, breathing, affection, laughter, crying, creative expression, and positive social interaction. You can read their book, I found it to be a fairly quick read. But it was it was also like nice and straightforward. If you're interested in that. It's literally called burnout.
And for me, five ways I practice burnout prevention are through boundaries, hobbies, human connection, self care, and financial self care. And to be very, very clear, I do not always nail this. In fact, my energetic capacity ebbs and flows. And sometimes I'm like, hyper productive mode. And that means that my mental, physical and emotional health suffers. And all of a sudden, even though he's being very productive, I'm hitting that edge of burnout. And other times, I find that I'm really pretty good at maintaining that that harmony that allows me to feel a sense of balance and excitement that allows me to not hit burnout. And I've talked before about the times where I have gotten close to burnout. Oftentimes, I have burnt out and what I've done in the past, but let me talk a little bit about boundaries, specifically as a private practice owner, and how that looks for me. Boundaries for me means being really clear about when I respond to messages, I let my clients know that if they email me, I'll get back to them within you know, 24 to 48 business hours, I don't check my email on the weekends. Same thing goes with voicemails, I'm really clear with them about how to go about getting crisis help or emergency help, since that's not what I do as an outpatient mental health care provider. That's not within my wheelhouse. Especially as we are practicing online care, go back a couple of episodes and listen to the episode on teletherapy. If I have a client who lives eight hours away, calling me for crisis services also might not be the best choice for them. Because I might not be able to do anything even if I was available. So boundaries is one around my availability. And that bleeds into and intersects with my actual schedule. When am I seeing clients? Am I adhering to the start and end times of my client sessions? I know a lot of therapists have shared with me that they struggle to end their sessions on time and they find their sessions kind of bleeding over. I'm really firm about starting and ending on time. I'm human. So of course there are times where I run late or I look at the clock and I'm a couple of minutes over but in general I'm really good about upholding those boundaries. around starting and ending, other kind of boundaries that I practice that I'm not super great at, but that are important for me is powering down my laptop at the end of the day, sometimes that means putting my laptop away. So from my office desk into the closet that I'm currently in, so it's out of sight out of mind that can be helpful, or actually turning it off and powering it down can be really helpful. As you know, I have an out of office responder up over the weekends, which can be really great. And then a boundary that intersects with some of these other things is financial self care, I'm really conscientious about how I charge for my services, how I talk to my clients if they need additional support around payment, about coming up with a creative way to make a payment plan that works for the two of us, about how much money they're allowed to kind of have in balance with me, or unpaid before I'm unable to continue seeing them. Right now, I don't charge. I don't send people to collections that's out of alignment with my values. But what I will say is, if you had x dollars of unpaid balance, I'm won't be able to see you until you pay it down. And that's a way that feels good for me. When it comes to other boundaries around charging fees, I would recommend you check out my latest blog post on setting and adhering to a sliding scale. I personally don't use one. But that does not mean I haven't spent a lot of time coaching and consulting with other therapists around how to create a sliding scale that is ethical in alignment with their values and alignment with social justice and creative ways to think about that sliding scale. So if you're sitting here listening to me talk about fees and you're like yeah, but I have a sliding scale. That's cool boundaries adhere when it comes to a sliding scale as well. We want to have autonomy go both ways for our client and for us. So you can check out that blog post on how to set sliding scale fees.
Okay, two hobbies, things that helped me prevent burnout. I like hobbies that I'm not maybe necessarily trying to get better at, maybe I kind of shitty at. And hobbies that I'm not planning on monetizing. There's so much noise about monetizing your side hustle and it's like shit, we are allowed to just enjoy things for the sake of enjoyment. Not everything has to be wrung out to earn a dollar. So I enjoy hobbies, like baking sourdough bread, I would call sitting on my couch on Thursday evenings catching up on I call them my stories, but it's Bravo--It's catching up on Housewives and Below Deck and things like that. That's a hobby to me. I have a ritual around it. It's very important for me. Other hobbies I like to do depending on the time of year and the season, energetically that I've got going on: I like going for walks, I like doing puzzles, I love playing board games. Those are all hobbies that are really fun for me. And they're things that like you don't have to nail like you're allowed to do hobbies just because they are fun for you. And not necessarily because like you're good at them. I think about somebody in my orbit who loves karaoke, but like admittedly, they're like, "I know I don't have a good voice but it is so fun for me it just feels so good. Like get up there and perform and sing along. And I don't care how terrible I sound, it feels so fun for me," and that is like the example of a hobby that's just like, Yes go do it, go enjoy it, have joy, have fun, have laughter. Going back to that like laughter kind of completing that stress cycle, creative expression, completing that stress cycle, positive social interaction create, completing that stress, like all of those things could be tied up in hobbies. And anecdotally, I found that having hobbies and continuing them is super, super helpful.
Which leads into the third thing that I find to be helpful in burnout prevention for me is human connection. Now, as a therapist, I have a lot of human connection in my work. And I'm in work mode I am not in friend mode in sister mode and Auntie mode. I am very much in clinical therapist or consultant coach mode, which is very different than human connection in in a like neighbor way or in a sister way or in a friend way. So really making sure I'm nurturing those different types of human connections can be really important. Sometimes that means going for a walk with my friends kind of tying in hobbies to a human connection that can be really fun. Other ways to kind of building human connection sounds a little strange, but maybe not. Online. I have found on Instagram even though I have like a love, not love relationship with it when I view it from the place of connecting with people who I think are genuinely cool, fun people I have found that to be a fantastic platform to have human connection, you know, where we can share memes with one another, we can tag each other. And like silly stories, there is something really powerful about connecting with someone based on interests and values, instead of proximity that I think the internet does give us that we don't necessarily like, talk about, but it can be really, really helpful and really powerful. So having human connection is another way that helps me to prevent burnout. And I make sure to do it again, outside of my work.
Four is self care. I talked a little bit last week about self care and about how Resource Therapists Sharon and Carryn of Resource Therapist have been such good role models on building in micro and macro self care on, building in daily small acts of self care and also carving out bigger times in our lives where we can really invest in an hour a half day, a weekend in taking care of ourselves. This is more than just bubble baths. This could be journaling as a way to soothe your soul. This could be movement and practicing yoga or something, I guess that ties into hobbies, right? These things aren't. These things are all intersected and can be intersected. But practicing that act of love and kindness and compassion toward yourself and toward myself helps me with burnout prevention and for me a huge thing of self care is sleep. After having gone through insomnia, I do not take my sleep for granted. I'm very very I would say like religious about it. I go to bed around the same time I have my sleep mask, I have--it's wintertime right now that I'm recording this I have a heated blanket that I have a right bed that helps to kind of provide the extra coziness. I, if I need it. I am not opposed to taking melatonin as needed to help me to sleep. And I take naps. I'm a big big Napper I am a good nap or I can nap anywhere from 20 to 40 minutes. I don't like to nap for more than like 45 minutes. That's where you wake up and you don't know what day or time or dimension you're in. So confusing. But I love like a little power nap. That's a huge way that I practice self care. Other ways that I practice self care is that like, I have a lot of drinks in the morning that is like kind of ritualistic. If I think about it, I first have my coffee then on my water. Then I have my kombucha and then I'm back on my water. It's just been a routine for me since pretty much I started working from home two years ago. That that was the pattern before it just used to be coffee, water, coffee, water, coffee, water, but now I threw in kombucha and it feels like the right level of hydration. And there's also something about the actual act of grinding the coffee beans, brewing the coffee, holding the coffee mug, smelling the coffee and then shifting from that into like the bubbly, effervescent, somewhat acidic kombucha that is really special to me, am I getting too weird talking about my morning beverages? I don't care, it's how I practice self care, I'm going to take it.
And then moving into finally financial self care, which is of course intertwine in boundaries, hobbies, human connection and self care. Because to practice financial self care, it doesn't mean just paying the bills, though that is an important component of it. It also means making sure that I'm using my money in a way that feels really good for me. And that means making sure that I have money to purchase sourdough ingredients to spend money on weekends away if and when that is able to make sure that I'm setting aside money for things like an emergency fund for things like investing in my future, and making sure that when I as a business owner charging for my services, whether that is coaching, whether that's therapy, whether that's a workshop, or whether that's a speaking engagement, making sure that it works for me, I recently had a speaking engagement opportunity not work out. Just because we couldn't get the numbers to work. It was a group that I was really in alignment with in terms of values and their ideology and their mission. But we just couldn't find common ground financially for me to not feel like if I said yes to taking a significantly reduced fee that I would feel a little bit resentful and I don't ever want to come to a place feeling resentful talking about the work that I do. So financial self care also is intersected into boundaries into being able to say, that doesn't work for me. I love your mission. I love your work. I hope we can find another way to collaborate. But this specific thing is not for me. And that ties back into scarcity mindset, which is something I spoke about a few weeks ago here on the podcast and this idea that there won't be another opportunity, but really there will be. Right, if I had believed that that particular opportunity was it and I would never have another opportunity to speak to an aligned audience again, then I might have said yes. And then I might have said yes, from a place of feeling like it was my only option. But I don't ever want to say yes to something that comes from that place of fear, of fear that I don't know enough or have enough experience, or have enough people kind of in my orbit where I can connect with others in a way that financially aligns for me.
So, to recap, the five things that I find as a way to prevent burnout as a therapist, is boundaries, hobbies, human connection, self care, and financial self care, Oh, and one asterisk on boundaries. This is also about who I do and don't work with. This means not working with clients who are outside of my wheelhouse. Before I was a financial therapist, I was really cautious about working with people who had eating disorders, because as a person who's in recovery from an eating disorder, sometimes that was really triggering for me, and I wasn't able to do it. So just knowing what are the clients I'm able to work with not able to work with, it's not about there being a judgment there. It's just about knowing that it might not be good for my mental health.
So moving into the final thing about practicing burnout prevention, as a therapist, as a small business owner, I want you to think about these seven questions. Are you paying yourself? Are you paying yourself a consistent, reliable paycheck, I find that paying yourself reliably, as I mentioned earlier, helps you to check all of those boxes that can help you to prevent burnout, which leads into question two to kind of ask yourself to know whether or not you are practicing burnout prevention, are you taking paid time off? In 2021, I took off two chunks of time for more than 10 days. And I plan to repeat that again in 2022. So beneficial for my mental health, to have that time away from work. But also to know that I was getting paid, right, I knew that I was still going to get my paycheck, I pay myself twice a month. And knowing that my personal budget wasn't going to suffer because I took time off. And when it comes to taking time off, paid time off, making sure that you're building in for sick days, including physical, mental and emotional health days, making sure that if you take a day off of work, and you have to cancel your clients, that you have enough of a financial cushion in your private practice so that you continue, can continue to give yourself the paycheck that you are used to getting. Number three, are you working a schedule aligned with your energy, this goes back to boundaries. And it also goes back to scarcity, a little bit of this idea of like, this is how I should work. For me, that means making sure that you are working and seeing clients, when you have your best energy, you're not feeling rushed, you're not feeling like oh my gosh, as soon as I finish up seeing this client, I have to hop in my car, drive across town, pick up my kiddo. And then for the last 15 minutes of your clients session, you're just thinking about traffic getting across town, and you're not resentful of the days or times that you work, not saying yes to working evenings, if you're exhausted by evenings, not saying yes to working early mornings, if you're like me, and you're not a morning person, not saying yes to working weekends just because somebody says, Oh, the only time I can see you is on weekends, getting really comfortable and trust that if you say to potential clients, I would love to work with you. And the only opening I have right now is Tuesdays at 10am that if they are ready to work with you, they will figure out a way to make that work for them. And you can get creative, right? You can say look, let's do Tuesdays at 10am. And as soon as a noon time appointment opens up, as soon as a 5pm appointment time opens up, it's yours. But we should start working together now. Right? That's a great way to work a schedule aligned with your energy, where you're not saying yes to clients when you don't want to be working. Question number four, are you taking breaks during the day and clocking out at the end of your workday? When I'm talking about taking breaks, I'm also talking about making sure you're eating regularly. Many many people in private practice are you know smashing a granola bar in between sessions and calling it good or forgetting to eat breakfast or lunch and aren't eating until they get home or they're eating but like it's like while they're at their desk doing emails. And I'm not saying that I don't eat at my desk. I definitely do. I just mean making sure that the basic human functions of like going to the bathroom and eating are included in the way in which you've structured your day and you want it to be so jam packed that you can't eat a meal, making sure that you're practicing micro self care, making sure that you can kind of get up and stretch during the day or walk around the block if you need and making sure again to clock out either before or after your day making sure that you have some really solid boundaries around when you do and don't work to help with that burnout prevention. Question number five to ask yourself, are you outsourcing tasks that are not in your wheelhouse? If you don't know what I'm talking about, go back and listen to last week's episode all about outsourcing. For therapists and private practice, I dug into this a lot. So I won't rehash an episode. But what I will say is, are you doing tasks that somebody else could do, that you are able to afford paying them to do? If so, it may be a great time to say, Please take this off my plate to help prevent burnout on yourself. Number six, are you seeing clients who light you up and excited excite you? For me niching. That means specifically working with a very specific group of people or a very specific problem, or a type of thing you like to work with. So maybe your niche is not, you know, Gen X-er with two kids who has anxiety and perfectionism. Maybe your niche is like me more of a type of service that you provide financial therapy or something like that. But when you see clients who are within your niche, I believe that it can not only decrease the likelihood of burnout, because you're not like sitting through sessions watching the clock hoping that the session will be over soon, secretly hoping that they quit or that they fire you. Those are not good things to show up into your practice with and as therapists and allied health care professionals, we're often taught that we have to see anybody and everybody to be good therapists. But we know actually that that's not true. That's why like, there are people who specialize in the medical field in podiatry versus dermatology, because maybe somebody who's really interested in a person's gait and feet isn't really interested in talking about skincare. No, so niching down for that person helps them to be excited when they show up to work, right? Like for me, I could talk about money mindset all day and like being giddy as I'll get but if you want me to talk about Yeah, I don't know some like psychodynamic dream analysis theory, I'm probably just gonna fall asleep. So I don't want to see clients were like, will you analyze my dreams? No, I will not. That is not within my niche. That doesn't feel fun for me, that doesn't feel exciting for me. So I'm not going to do it. And you shouldn't either. You should work with the clients who light you up. And if you don't know who lights you up, I definitely recommend doing an exercise around niching I think I've a podcast episode or a blog all about niching that I will link here and I'll also link Monica Kovatch, she wrote a guest post for me on how niching can increase your income and prevent burnout, which is very apropos to today's podcast episode. So anyway, making sure you're seeing clients who let you up and make you feel expansive and energized and not seeing clients who drain you and you want them to know show. And finally, the last question you can kind of ask yourself to see whether or not you are practicing care and preventing therapist burnout is are you nurturing parts of yourself outside of being a clinician? are you signing up for a pottery class and not just another continuing ed class on trauma? Are you going out for hikes just because and not so you can like try and implement a new mindfulness intervention with your clients? Fun and joy and playfulness and laughter is so important and I think as clinicians, we can get very heady, we can get very clinical, we can get very stuck on like the academia side of things and forget that, like, you have a life outside of being a clinician, yes, being a therapist, being a psychiatrist, being a social worker is a part of you, but it's not all of you. And we already know that having a diverse identity. You know, not just being a therapist, but being a therapist and a runner and a baker and an auntie having a more diverse way that you kind of define yourself as better overall for who you are as a human. So making sure to nurture parts outside of yourself as a way to help prevent burnout.
So let me run through those questions again. Are you paying yourself? Taking paid time off including sick days? Working a schedule aligned with your energy? Taking breaks throughout the day, including clocking out at the end of the day? Outsourcing tasks that aren't in your wheelhouse? Seeing clients who light you up and excite you? And finally nurturing parts of yourself outside of being a clinician?
So those are the five things I do to practice burnout prevention, the seven questions to ask yourself to notice whether or not you could do a little bit of work to dial down the risk of burnout.
And if you are struggling with this stuff, if you're like, I don't know how to charge a fee so that I can practice financial self-care so that I can take time off. I don't know how to ethically niche down. I don't know how to take care of myself without everything coming back to work. I invite you to join me in Grow a Profitable Practice from the Inside Out. Today is the last day to apply to get into this cohort. It's a cohort that kicks off on February 14, 2022. And it is where we will spend five months together, talking about our relationship with money, digging into how to set your fees, learning what areas you need to be focusing on your bit in your business and you can create a sustainable and profitable practice. I will have four guests experts coming in Monica Kovatch of Hold Space Creative is going to talk to us about niching and as a bonus, every single person who joins our cohort will get one of her beautiful pre-designed website templates. They are 479. That's $479 If you buy them on their own, they are beautiful, they're amazing. And then the next guest is Kristie Platinga of ThearpieSEO, she's going to help us learn how to take that website from Monica and write the words, the copy, when your ideal clients type into Google or Bing, your website pops up. And then we will have our final guest experts. It's a duo from Resourced Therapists Sharon Gold-Steinberg and Carryn Lund, they are going to come in with a special refresh class specifically for folks who are you know, they come in at the tail end of the program, to make sure that we are implementing micro self-care and making sure that we are practicing taking steps to practice burnout prevention so that you're not just focused on Yes, being a clinician is amazing. But being a well-rounded human is so important. So if you want to join that cohort, go to MindMoneyBalanced.com/ProfitablePractice. You can pay all at once and get a bonus one-on-one 20-minute coaching session with me or you can pay over five markup free installments. Again, applications are due today, February 7, we start February 14. And you'll also get access to a spreadsheet to help you figure out what you need to be charging in order to practice burnout prevention, you will get access to templated language to let your clients know you're leaving insurance panels or you're raising your fees so you don't have to figure out what to say. You will also get access to an online community to connect with one another in between sessions. And you'll also have four 90-minute group coaching sessions with me where we'll dig into the different things that you're implementing areas you're getting stuck or other mindset areas you need a little finessing on. So MindMoneyBalanced.com/ProfitablePractice to get your name on the application. I hope to see your name there and if you have any questions at all, don't hesitate to reach out to me on Instagram or via email. My Instagram is at @MindMoneyBalance and you can reach me via email at my name: Lindsay@MindMoneyBalance.com. I'm sending you lots of deep exhalations and may you practice burnout prevention.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai