Healthcare professions, mental health especially, can be meaningful and rewarding on a deep level. However, so few of the training programs for mental health jobs prepare their graduates for dealing with burnout, vicarious trauma, and “compassion fatigue” that often becomes part of our jobs. The extent to which this much-needed area was addressed in my graduate school program was telling their already cash-strapped students to seek their own, often expensive psychotherapy or offering general advice such as “practice self-care” or to “consult on tough cases.” While such advice is sound and helpful, after practicing psychotherapy for years I believe there is a need for much more to help the helpers.
The frustration with this insufficiency is what inspired me to write this article. The topic is not at all unique, cliche even, but I would like to share the lessons I wish someone had shared with me when I was starting out in my career. I hope my lessons will be helpful to you.
When I was going through my training in clinical psychology, therapist burnout and vicarious trauma was talked about only in passing. We were expected to do it all and to do it perfectly while going into substantial financial debt, working long and grueling hours, and without enough time to connect to the things that offered us real nurturance. Is it any wonder why some of us in the health fields end up burning out?
What complicates the picture too is that as healthcare providers, we may be naturally empathic and sensitive to the needs and emotions of others. We often enter our professions because we want to help and serve, as the healthcare field offers a sense of greater purpose. Empathy and attunement to others help us do our jobs well, but unfortunately they are the very traits that put us in danger of burning out.
In this article, I would like to offer a few strategies I compiled over the years for helping to reduce vicarious trauma and stress. Everyone deserves to be happy in their jobs and lives, and that includes you.
A visualization for shielding
Two tools I use on a regular basis and find invaluable are shielding and grounding. I recommend one of them, or both if you have time, at the start of your day to set yourself up for your day in the best way possible. If you are time-strapped, try them before your longest and most challenging day before going into work.
Sit with your legs and arms uncrossed. Take 5 deep breaths in any way that makes you comfortable. Don’t make the breaths too deep, just deep enough for you. Gradually deepen breaths, but do not force. Find a rhythm that feels right to you. Close your eyes and visualize a shield of light about an arm’s lengths out from where your physical body ends. It is just like you are in a protective bubble that extends above your head and below your feet. Give this bubble any color that appeals to you, I like blue or gold or silver or white. Trust your impressions with the color. This is your protective bubble and you can set an intention for it to only let in what is good for you and to keep out all that is harmful or hurtful. Do this for 3-5 minutes while continuing to breathe deeply.
A very brief grounding meditation
Sit with your legs and arms uncrossed comfortably. Close your eyes and take 3-5 deep comfortable breaths. Find the right rhythm for you. Turn attention to your feet and where your body touches the surface you are sitting on. Feel, with your body, not with emotions, the sensations of your feet. Imagine three long grounding cords (it can look like whatever you like) going down from your seat and your feet deeply into the center of the earth and plugging into the earth. Feel what it’s like in your body to have the earth support you. Examples of cords can be a tree trunk with roots or a long green or clear tubes, or any visual that comes to you. Do this for 3-5 minutes with your eyes closed or softly open, whichever is more comfortable.
I hope the information is helpful to you in your journey as a healthcare provider.