As an Introvert and Highly Sensitive Person, I understand the struggles of balancing self-care while supporting others. I want to help you reduce overwhelm and honor your Strengths as a Sensitive Therapist so you can feel fulfilled in your work again.
All tagged Overwhelm
There’s a correlation between caseload capacity and career length for HSTs. The longer they’ve been a therapist, the fewer clients you can see each day. If you’re highly sensitive and/or an empath, the weight of doing therapy could take an emotional and nervous system toll from vicarious trauma and the mere stress of supporting others.
Don’t measure time off by what everyone else is doing, instead take the time you need to maintain a sustainable practice and work-life balance. You can build your therapy practice around your bandwidth.
Finding referrals can be exhausting and tug on your heartstrings. Whether your caseload is full or an inquiring client isn’t a good fit (presenting concerns, location, fee, insurance, etc.), you may feel the pressure to find the exact right referral for everyone. What can you do instead? This post shares 6 ways to release the burden of finding referrals for everyone who reaches out while also being responsive and helpful.
What if stepping away to recharge and reconnect with yourself was part of the framework of being a therapist? Here I share my own experience of taking a sabbatical and what I discovered along the way.
Common roadblocks for Sensitive Therapists are how to work less while maintaining your current income, earn more income when you’re maxed out on your capacity for 1:1 clients, or find other ways to be fulfilled in your work. These roadblocks often bring up thoughts about “passive income” projects to find a more energetically/emotionally sustainable or financially stable way to be a therapist, but is that the right solution for you?
Back-to-back sessions are a Highly Sensitive Therapist's worst nightmare. Your mind doesn’t have time to process all your session details and your nervous system never gets a chance to decompress from the stimulation. If you’re on the emotionally spongy or empathic side, you’ve also picked up some of your clients emotional “residue”. With too many sessions crammed into one day, you leave work drained, frazzled, irritated, or on the verge of burnout. This article dives into the specifics of why too many sessions and not enough downtime will leave you feeling depleted.
When you create an intentional and predictable schedule based on your own unique needs, you’ll feel more prepared for sessions, have energy to write notes, enjoy more self-care time, and have peace of mind knowing everything is done.
You may want to help every client who reaches out, but putting empathy first often leads to therapist burnout. It’s important to consider how many clients you can support long-term when you set adequate boundaries.
The struggle of accessibility vs. sustainability burdens Sensitive Therapists who are highly empathetic and care deeply for their clients. You alone cannot solve the problem of mental health accessibility, but you can make sure you maintain a sustainable practice so you can offer care for years to come while honoring your own needs.
How behind on notes are you right now? Maybe it’s too painful to think about or you’re not even sure anymore. Whatever the amount, you are probably feeling a lot of anxiety and overwhelm right now. In this article, discover 5 ways to transform your note aversion and get support in clearing the backlog.
Sensitive Therapists often embody one of two archetypes, each has strengths and challenges that make it difficult to move past the overwhelm in order to be able to accomplish daily or longer-term goals.
Now more than ever it’s important to focus on the essentials and prioritize preserving your energy. Being more empathetic and more aware of little details is a great asset as a Sensitive Therapist but can become overwhelming when life becomes stressful, scary, or we are supporting many clients through trauma. Our temperament makes us more prone to the effects of compassion fatigue or vicarious trauma, but thankfully we are also more susceptible to the beneficial effects of positive supports.
Taking time off is not optional, but essential to thrive in the work we do of supporting the emotional well-being of others. We have a greater need for downtime which means taking more time away to ensure our work is sustainable and doesn’t lead to burnout. This means planning ahead of time to ensure we have time away. Taking so much time off may bring up financial worries or feelings of guilt, but can be managed with budgeting and setting clear expectations with our clients.
In this guest post, Maegan Megginson, walks you through how to get clear on what your goals are and how to create your own flexible goal-setting system to honor your needs and capacity as a Sensitive Therapist.
Feel more calm and in control of your finances so you can take the time off you need to thrive as a Sensitive Therapist. Manage money with the overwhelm by using your Sensitive Strengths and these practical tips.
Supporting clients who are experiencing some of the same emotions and uncertainties as we are could lead to overwhelm, compassion fatigue, and burnout. It’s vital that we set strong boundaries, take time to ground ourselves, create space between sessions, get support from our therapist communities, and take time off if we need to.
Taking time off is not optional, but essential to thrive in the work we do of supporting the emotional well-being of others. We have a greater need for downtime which means taking more time away to ensure our work is sustainable and doesn’t lead to burnout. This means planning ahead of time to ensure we have time away not only for vacations and travel, but also for staycations to decompress, workations to catch up on administrative tasks and trainings to satisfy continuing education requirements. Taking so much time off may bring up financial worries or feelings of guilt, but can be managed with budgeting and setting clear expectations with our clients.
