You started out full of energy, hope, and belief that you could heal and help nearly everyone you met using your skills and gifts at massage, acupuncture, aruveyda, psychotherapy, yoga, Reiki, dance or art therapy, nursing, surgery, accounting, teaching, cooking. Perhaps you volunteer with abused children, at a homeless shelter, at a park. Perhaps you are a 911 dispatcher, a tow truck driver, a construction contractor. There are so many ways we can help and heal others. It's beautiful.
However, over time, the sparkle can start to fade. You're finding it harder to get out of bed in the morning to go to work, or you're staying up late the night before to delay the arrival of the next day. You're losing focus during sessions. Your friends don't see you much, the gym membership is getting dusty, the couch is getting comfier. You're eating more--or not much at all. You want to sleep all the time, or you lie in bed for hours as anxious thoughts spin around. Your body aches, your stomach isn't happy. Maybe one drink is turning into a few. Perhaps you have images in your head you just can't shake from something you saw during your work or something a client shared with you. Maybe there's that one client you keep accidentally forgetting to contact and you feel a little ill when you think about doing so. You know all the things you should be doing to feel better, but you just can't seem to do them somehow.
Burnout.
Vicarious traumatization.
Compassion fatigue.
They're real. I know. I've been there. The first decade of my work and training as a clinical psychologist was spent in the depths of treating trauma and PTSD with combat veterans, veterans who had experienced military sexual trauma, domestic violence survivors, survivors of horrific childhood abuse, and survivors of natural disasters. I went through years of burning out and slowly recovering, of being deeply impacted by the terrible stories I was hearing. I earned myself some chronic illnesses from the stress of that work coupled by intense administrative demands and no self-care. I've learned the hard way what NOT to do.
And I learned a lot about what TO do.
I'd like to share it with you.
Let's get your sparkle back.
I put the best of what I know in my book You Can’t Fix Them—Because They’re Not Broken: A Sustainability Guide for Tired Helpers and Healers. If you’d like personalized coaching, click the button below and we’ll chat about options for that. Whatever you decide to do, please be gentle with your sweet self!