Therapist Burnout: Fear, Fatigue & Finding Balance When Helping Suicide People (#ElevateTheConvo Twitter Chat)

Overview When it comes to helping suicidal people, who helps the helpers? Mental health providers are often drawn into the work of counseling because they have great skills in compassion. Yet those same talents can leave some therapists more susceptible to compassion fatigue and vicarious trauma themselves -- especially when their caseload is filled with people fighting to live. As originally defined by Freudenberger (1975), burnout has three dimensions: 1. Emotional exhaustion 2. Depersonalization (loss of ones empathy, caring, and compassion), and 3. A decreased sense of accomplishment. If you are a therapist, ask yourself how often you have felt the following: *I zone out often when clients are sharing. *I feel a sense of relief when clients cancel their sessions. *I no longer am able to connect empathically. *Seeing my calendar full of appointments fills me with dread. There are many things that can lead to burnout when helping suicidal people -- being on-call, fearing clients might die, fearing lawsuits, uncertainty about ethics related to client autonomy, increased administrative burden, and many more. In this #ElevateTheConvo, we heard from top mental health providers who regularly support people living with suicidal intensity. They share their lessons learned and ideas on how to manage therapist burnout and compassion fatigue. Together we make the argument that the ongoing practice of self-care is an ethical imperative. Questions: Q1: What are some of the core fears therapists have when working with clients experiencing suicidal intensity? Where do those fears come from? How do they serve or get in the way of effective therapeutic outcomes? Q2: How do you define therapist burnout and compassion fatigue when helping people living with suicidal thoughts and behavior? Why is this a problem? Have you experienced this? What contributes to burnout? Q3: What should therapists do if they experience fear and burnout when helping people experiencing suicidal intensity? How have you coped? Q4: Are there ways therapists can inoculate themselves against burnout and compassion fatigue? What advice do you have for a new therapist to avoid burnout?