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.
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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.
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.
When you create a practice or therapeutic style that honors your needs, the work can feel more sustainable. When you feel supported, you can more easily support your clients. Making changes may make your services unavailable to some folks and that’s okay! You can’t help everyone, especially if your needs are ignored, but you can help some people in deeply profound ways.
During the screening process, are you trusting your intuition to refer clients out? Initial contact with clients can seem so insignificant compared to the therapy itself, but this process is a critical part of maintaining a sustainable practice. You and the client must match on availability, fee, presenting issue, and other factors. Maintaining your boundaries is the compassionate choice and in the best interest of the client.
As a highly empathetic and deeply feeling therapist, setting boundaries feels uncomfortable, difficult, or impossible. You worry about being too business-like and not a caring human, but predictability creates safety for clients. With stronger boundaries comes fewer decisions and less emotional fatigue for you, the therapist.
As a Sensitive Therapist, it’s important to think outside the box when setting up your practice. Don’t worry about what you should do or what everyone else is doing, but what would feel supportive and sustainable to you. This could include more phone sessions, fewer phone calls, scheduling boundaries, and dedicated self-care days.
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?
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.
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.
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.
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.
