Therapist Heal Thyself: Strategies for preventing burnout in 2020 by Elizabeth Scarlett, RP Many mental health professionals are finding themselves increasingly exhausted, cynical, or ineffective in their work during this COVID-19 pandemic. Burnout can hide in plain sight. The good news is that there are practical internal strategies to help address it. These may require some deep reflection and adjustment, but offer a significant return on that investment. In 2019, the World Health Organization classified burnout as an “occupational phenomenon...resulting from chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed.” Adding to the usual stressors we experience, providers of mental health services have felt the significant demand of responding timely and appropriately to COVID-19 while also supporting anti-racism initiatives following the deaths of both George Floyd and Regis Korchinski-Paquet, among so many others, at the hands of the police. Our world is changing, public safety is on the forefront of everyone’s minds, particularly for vulnerable, marginalized, or racialized clients. These issues combine to make mental health support more essential than ever. And all the while, in the background, helping professionals face the threat of job burnout. How can we address this? Let’s take a step back and explore the origins and components of burnout. Burnout is not a new term for most mental health professionals. It was first coined in the 1970s by American psychologist Herbert Freudenberger. Since then many professionals, most notably Christina Maslach, have extensivelyV researched the syndrome. The Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) is a commonly used tool for measuring burnout by looking at three components: emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and personal accomplishment. 20
Yet, there are very few practical interventions to prevent and cope with burnout. I myself took a 14-week mental health leave from work in 2018, during which I invested some time researching burnout and self-care. Online checklists fell short. While suggestions to get a massage, join a yoga class, and walk in nature are helpful to a degree, they didn’t improve my symptoms. In retrospect, I disregarded the signs of burnout for years. I felt exhaustion, cynicism, and sense of inefficacy building within me, but attributed them to one or another external cause. Efforts I attempted to combat these symptoms often backfired. For instance, I jumped into new projects, and. by doing so, increased my sense of overwhelm. I never lost my love for what I do, yet I found myself dreading going to work. At the end of the day, I would stare blankly at my computer screen as my case notes piled up.
