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Feeling Low? (Soap Box Warning)
You’ve heard the saying about the cobbler’s children haven’t you?
So many therapists tell me they enjoy what they do. They speak warmly of the growth they see in clients, the tiny surge of excitement when something changes, and the joy of seeing someone move on to better things.
However, sometimes after that first rush of enthusiasm I hear, “but…” Sometimes they go on to talk about the challenge of earning enough, or of getting clients, or of balancing their work and home lives, or the challenge of working with one or more clients. Or maybe some or all of the above.
If you enjoy your work, great. Good for you. If not, do something about it. The impact of doing work we don’t enjoy is highly stressful and leads to burn out and compassion fatigue.
Often a small change in the short term can have a big result. Take some time off, change the balance of your client portfolio, do a workshop or take up a new hobby. Take more exercise, eat less sugar and fat, drink less alcohol, have more sex and laugh more.
If these don’t work, or you’ve been feeling like this for a while, you may need to get help. And before you tell me you’re a therapist and know about these things, it might interest you to know that I wouldn’t be the first to suggest that mental health professionals are at least as likely as their clients (if not more so) to suffer the issues they work with. (Don’t believe me? Check out some of the articles below.) And like many other professionals, we also suffer from being unable to take our own advice.
You are your practice’s most precious asset. Self-care is probably the most important discipline you can practice. In my view, it should be a core part of CPD. And while supervision might give you some support around client issues, it is not a substitute for getting appropriate medical or psychological support if the situation calls for it.
There’s a reason why they tell you on airplanes to put on your own air mask before attending to children or other passengers. The reason is that if you can’t breathe yourself, you’re not going to be much help to anyone else.
If you’re wondering why I’m being so dogmatic about this, I’ve learned this lesson the hard way. In fact I’ve learnt it several times over, until I got it drummed in to my head, and will probably need to learn it again. Last time it happened, struggling with the impact of working with a certain client, I found myself overwhelmed emotionally and did nothing about it. However, my body stepped in and took charge of the situation. I put my back out, and it took weeks to recover. I’m glad it did, because bloody minded as I am, I would probably have gone on ignoring the obvious.
So, if you’re feeling low, don’t keep it to yourself. Do yourself, your family and friends, and your clients a favour, and tell someone. Just Ask!
ARTICLES
A small sample of articles suggesting that as a profession we’re not immune from mental health issues:
http://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/200909/why-shrinks-have-problems