How Do You Maintain Your Own Mental Health and Prevent Burnout?
In the demanding field of mental health, professionals from psychotherapists to medical directors face the challenge of maintaining their own well-being. From engaging in therapy and self-care to establishing clear work-life transitions, we've compiled eleven personal strategies these experts use to stave off burnout and stay balanced. Discover how our contributing therapists and a medical director keep themselves mentally healthy while helping others.
- Therapy and Self-Care for Professionals
- Deep-Breathing for Immediate Calm
- Schedule Self-Time to Avoid Burnout
- Weekly Therapy and Mindful Practices
- Create Space and Set Boundaries
- Prioritize Personal Care and Set Fees
- Establish Clear Work-Life Transitions
- Balance Helping Others with Personal Joy
- Set Boundaries and Manage Expectations
- Consult Colleagues and Practice Mindfulness
- Exercise, Therapy, and Creative Outlets
Therapy and Self-Care for Professionals
As a mental health professional, I maintain my own mental health by going to therapy, too. I truly believe that if you are a mental health professional who doesn't go to therapy yourself, then you don't value the profession. In order to help others, we have to put our own proverbial oxygen masks on first. But going to therapy is only one piece of the self-care pie chart. Self-care is getting enough sleep; it's eating foods that make your body feel good; it's exercising; it's seeing friends and family members; it's taking vacations. And when we do all of those things collectively, that's when we can help others without the risk of burning ourselves out.
Deep-Breathing for Immediate Calm
One simple but highly effective stress-reduction technique I often recommend to my clients is deep-breathing exercises. It's something that can be done anywhere, anytime, and it has an immediate calming effect. By taking slow, deep breaths, you can activate your body's relaxation response, which helps lower stress levels quickly. I usually suggest clients start with the 4-7-8 breathing technique: inhale for 4 seconds, hold the breath for 7 seconds, and then exhale slowly for 8 seconds. This practice not only reduces stress in the moment but also helps build resilience over time.
Schedule Self-Time to Avoid Burnout
Preserving our own mental health is just as important as assisting others with theirs. Burnout is a reminder to us that we are doing our best but need to protect our reserves to continue at a specific pace. An example of this with me is when I schedule time for myself throughout the day and do not necessarily fill that space with another appointment. The choice of resting and keeping a boundary from stress should not be a reward. Burnout prevention is crucial to sustaining survival.
Weekly Therapy and Mindful Practices
Maintaining my own mental health is very important to me as a Licensed Clinical Social Worker and group private practice owner of Thorpe Therapy LCSW, PLLC. I am passionate about providers taking good care of their own mental health so that they can be the best support to their clients.
I maintain my own mental health by seeing a therapist weekly and practicing mindfulness and gratitude daily. These three things have really helped me take the best care of my mental health, care for my clients, and support my employees. Preventing burnout is also important. My strategy for this is to take time off from work doing things I love. This includes traveling to Disney World, Vermont, and Long Beach Island, to name a few. I take a few trips each year to reset and reground. I also have the most supportive community of mental health professionals who help me navigate challenging situations as they come up. This is a huge relief and prevents burnout.
I am so grateful for the work I get to do! Taking care of my own mental health and preventing burnout is essential to my long career that I hope to have!
Create Space and Set Boundaries
It wasn't until after my mom passed suddenly that I realized how burned out I had become. At the time, I wasn't even seeing a full load of clients—my maximum availability was 24. Burnout, I believe, varies from person to person. The emotional weight of clients can take a toll, and for those with chronic illnesses, the nervous system is already in overdrive. Balancing your own emotional load with what clients bring to the room can be especially challenging.
That's why it's so important to create space for yourself. I make sure to have built-in breaks throughout my day. I take an hour for lunch, 30 minutes for yoga, and I schedule 30-minute breaks between client sessions. This structure allows me to prioritize my own well-being. I need to be well in order to give, and this routine ensures that I'm giving from my 'overflow.' And if I'm really tired? I've got a comfy couch in my office that's perfect for a quick nap!
Vacations are also non-negotiable for me. I live in the Midwest, and February can be especially dreary, so I make it a point to go somewhere warm with a beach for a few days. I also take long weekends, spend time with family and friends, and this year I've made it a goal to travel somewhere once a quarter. It's been a great way to reset.
I only see clients four days a week, with one full day reserved for admin work. I time-block my schedule to group similar tasks together, conserving energy throughout the day.
Another crucial aspect is practicing what I preach. My clients know about my medical journey, and this transparency helps when I need to adjust session times or space out appointments due to my health. If I'm not feeling well, I'm not fully present, and it doesn't serve either of us to have a session. It's about respecting their time and money. As therapists, we set the tone for the expectations in the room, and I want my clients to manage burnout in the same intentional way I do.
The most important step in managing mental health and preventing burnout is committing to your own personal growth. Journaling is one of the simplest ways to unload and understand your emotions. I encourage anyone to grab a pen and write down what's bothering them about their work, what they wish their days looked like, and what they'd love to do more of—then figure out how to make it happen!
Prioritize Personal Care and Set Fees
I set a schedule that prioritizes my nervous system first and foremost. It might sound silly, but having a dog is a great boundary for taking care of myself throughout the workday and prioritizing my mental health through movement. I have breaks in my workday that require me to leave my therapy seat, move my body, and care for something I deeply love. Plus, I'm outdoors!
I also set a fee that allows me to be able to afford to take care of myself outside of therapy sessions. I view a large part of my job as having a regulated, present nervous system, and to do that, I cannot see more than 18 clients a week. This feels like a non-negotiable to me: if I want to provide quality care and afford the quality of life required to do deep trauma work, I have to set a fee that reflects that. Clients know they are getting a present and well-resourced therapist rather than burnt out and overworked. This fee allows me to attend yoga classes, breathwork, my own personal therapy, vacation away from work, etc. I try to practice all of the things that I preach to clients.
Establish Clear Work-Life Transitions
I find clear transitions (i.e., from work to home) to be an important part of how I maintain good mental health and prevent burnout. I find that it is important for both my clients and myself to have some sort of routine or ritual for transition. For example, listening to a podcast on the drive home, talking to a certain person on the phone during your commute. If you work from home, like I do, that includes closing my computer and not opening it again for the evening, checking in with my spouse about our days, and then making dinner. I also personally find exercise, the outdoors, and the arts to be particularly helpful.
Balance Helping Others with Personal Joy
I think it's really important to strike a balance between being someone in a helping profession and filling your own cup with things you love. For me, that means scheduling in at least one thing I love a day (other than seeing my clients, of course). When I say 'scheduling in,' I mean that literally; I block out at least 1 hour in my daily calendar to either go for a long walk with my dog, take a Pilates class, read a book outside, grab lunch with a friend, or attend my own therapy sessions.
I've also spent some time getting to know myself as a therapist. I've figured out what times of day I have the most energy, and what my capacity for a daily caseload is. It's important to me to show up with my full attention to my clients, so I'd rather see fewer people in a day and give them my all, than squeeze in two or three extra sessions, but feel groggy and burnt out by the last session.
I also make time every morning, before I see any clients, to have a cup of coffee and check in with myself. I write a gratitude list and ask myself what personal things I'm carrying with me that day, and how I want to show up for myself. At the end of the day, I'm a human first and a therapist second.
Set Boundaries and Manage Expectations
Two things help me to maintain my own mental health. The first is with regard to boundaries. Working with clients is not a 9-to-5 job, but I still make sure I find time to re-energize and ground myself by implementing my own boundaries with regard to my personal time. Second, my job is not to "fix" every client. Remembering that I am here to help and guide, not solve and fix everyone, I'm able to experiment with different approaches to see what works best for each unique client. Taking that pressure off of the sessions makes for a better experience for everyone.
Consult Colleagues and Practice Mindfulness
As a mental health professional, maintaining my own mental health and preventing burn-out is essential. I regularly consult with colleagues to gain support and perspective, which helps me feel connected and understood. Engaging in mindfulness practices like guided meditation, Kundalini chants, and Pilates keeps me centered and calm.
I make it a point to take days off to indulge in hobbies such as snowboarding, paddleboarding, and hiking. This time away from work allows me to recharge and return to my practice with renewed energy and focus, ensuring I can fully support my clients throughout the week.
Exercise, Therapy, and Creative Outlets
As a therapist, I take a holistic approach to client care and wellness, explaining that the 'mind bone' is connected to the 'body bone!' Working 40-50 hours a week absorbing others' pain, distress, and conflict can really impact how we relate to the job, to our families, and to ourselves unless we have the proper outlets. I exercise seven days a week, whether it be at the gym, on my stationary bike at home, or playing golf... oh, how I love me some golf. Exercise is the daily reset and is non-negotiable. I also have my own weekly therapy that, at times, seems redundant after seeing 10 clients that day, but I stay with it after all these years. Why? ... Because it's part of the solution.
However, the biggest remedy to ward off burnout is finding something we love doing... for me, that is songwriting and guitar. It is here that I can fully escape and tap into something that is exclusively mine. In this headspace, I can be fully present with myself.
I feel that part of the integrity of being a therapist is tied into the concept of practicing what we preach. If I suggest to a client to touch his or her toes 10 times and read some Rilke, bet the farm I'll do that myself the next day! This also strengthens the dyad between the therapist and the client in terms of presenting as authentic. 'Do as I say, not as I do' is a mantra of the old guard and has no place in my office... thus, attention to my own wellness is of the highest priority, which I model often for anyone interested!