What can counselors do when they are feeling fatigued? Is there a way for counselors to find a balance between helping their patients and helping themselves? How do you know when to turn off the faucet?

MEET JACLYN FORTIER

Jaclyn has clinical experience working with anxiety, family conflict, and domestic violence recovery. She specializes in working with women, adolescents, and families.

She works with techniques that are evidence-based and proven to alleviate issues such as relationship conflict, depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress.

Jaclyn has extensive experience working in a clinical recovery setting with trauma, addictions, and domestic violence prevention.

Jaclyn is the practice owner of Carolina Counseling Wellness Associates, PLLC. Which offers outpatient mental health care and private practice office support for licensed counselors practicing at our Center. Jaclyn offers business consultation services to mental health counselors with coaching for private practice services.

Jaclyn also offers clinical supervision for North Carolina associate counselors working towards full licensure and is a qualified supervisor through the NC-BLCMHC.

Visit her website.

IN THIS PODCAST:

• Finding balance between healing others while evading burnout
• What can you do to break up your day a little more?
• When do you turn the faucet off?

FINDING BALANCE BETWEEN HEALING OTHERS WHILE EVADING BURNOUT

I think that’s where it starts: looking at your day and structuring it … when I created my private practice many years ago, I created it around my self-care, so I don’t work Monday nights because that’s my yoga time, and I don’t work Wednesday and Friday because that is my other workout time. (Chris McDonald)

By working 12-hour days without a break, non-stop, you will run right into fatigue. That is why structuring your day is important, even if it is a delicate suggestion of when you will take a break and pencil in a cup of tea by yourself in the midst of the deadlines.

Through creating a structure, you can begin to place boundaries around your time. The work is to try to stick to them as much as possible because your rest is as important as your work.

WHAT CAN YOU DO TO BREAK UP YOUR DAY A LITTLE MORE?

Ask yourself how you can add breaks into your day. These could range from:

• Eating your lunch away from your desk, or
• Taking a walk around the block for 10-minutes, or
• Having coffee with a friend in between clients.
• Make time in between clients so that you have time to release energy and emotions from the first client before heading right into the next session with another.

What can you do in between your sessions, besides going to the bathroom? … do whatever you connect with to take those minutes [for yourself]. (Chris McDonald)

Think about your movement throughout the day. If you are sitting a lot or for most of the day, try taking moments to do some light physical activity such as walking around, doing quick yoga, or stretching at your desk.

If you work through telehealth, take eye breaks away from the screen as well to give your eyes a chance to refocus and rest because your eyes are also muscles.

WHEN DO YOU TURN THE FAUCET OFF?

People all have different signals that their body sends them for when they need to slow down and take some time to rest and recuperate.

For most people, this comes in the form of fatigue, both mental and physical.

• Do you feel mental fog?
• Do you feel the tension in the back, neck, or shoulders?
• Are you feeling overly emotional or irritable?

You [have to] turn that awareness in to ask “what is my sign? How do I know?” because sometimes if you are not focused on that, you are not really going to pay attention and you are going to push yourself too far. (Chris McDonald)

It is important to have the awareness first, of your bodily sensations, because when you are aware of your fluctuations then you can act accordingly at the right time.

Books mentioned in this episode:

Chris McDonald – Self-Care for the Counselor: A Holistic Guide for Helping Professionals

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Resources Mentioned And Useful Links:

• Live Consultation with Sabrina Basquez
• Practice of the Practice Podcast Network