The Opportunity Within Burnout

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The demands placed on the service delivery of occupational therapy, physical therapy, and speech-language pathology only increase with time.   

 

Engaging with critically ill patients, navigating challenging situations, or spending hours advocating for a patient’s health insurance can become taxing day after day, especially when there is little time allocated to completing these tasks outside of direct patient care. Providing quality therapy is often synonymous with endless empathy in what can be highly intense emotional situations as patients and their families navigate incredibly vulnerable times in their lives. While many of these interactions come with a high emotional and intrinsic reward, they can also bring emotional exhaustion and burnout.   

 

How does a therapist know when they are experiencing burnout? And what exactly are the signs?  
 

What does burnout look like in the therapy world?   

Each person may have their own definition of burnout. Our allostatic load refers to the buildup and accumulation of daily and chronic stressors. Therapists, far too often, are simultaneously attempting to carry their own load and that of their client’s.  

 

Eleanor Gold, Ph.D., mentions burnout often shows up to therapists in the following three ways:   

  • An increase in work-related emotional exhaustion   
  • An increase in depersonalization in one’s work as well as an increase in cynicism  
  • Feelings of incompetency/lack of efficacy in work-related tasks   

 

The above should not be confused with depression or other mental health diagnoses which can impact all areas of life, Gold’s definitions are around isolated feelings surrounding cumulative occupational stress. A therapist does not necessarily need all three to feel burned out; one of these alone is enough to cause significant professional disinterest.  

 

Common Causes of Therapist Burnout   

Demands: Depending on the setting, therapists are often not just providing deep emotional presence to their clients as they navigate changes to their minds and body; they are also expending intense use of their own physicality as they seek to help rebuild others.  

 

Productivity: Increasing productivity standards and pushing to see more patients during the same time allotment can cause a mental shift from a client-centered approach to a feeling of haste and a frantic mental state. These standards may be sustainable for a day or two (due to a call out), but these demands are not usually sustainable for therapists in the long term.  

 

Lack of Community and Growth: Therapists covering multiple settings who are the only therapist in these buildings are at an increased risk for burnout. A lack of community or other therapists to ask for clinical guidance can leave therapists feeling isolated and without professional direction. The pandemic created a disconnect from community, which can continue to be felt by therapists who remain dedicated to their patients after a grueling two years. Therapists, especially those with a few years under their belt, want to know there is upward mobility and room for growth yet often these opportunities are not easy to find.  

 

Ambiki and Burnout Prevention  

There is currently an abundance of self-help articles and books. Most therapists have heard many times ‘to practice self-compassion and grace’ and yet this can feel like an oversimplified blanket statement to complex challenges. The tactics most helpful to a therapist that will yield the most meaningful outcomes is a hybrid of learning how you, as an individual recalibrate, as well as practical solutions that can be applied to your professional practice.  

 

The following are ways therapists can maintain a connection to the field while combating burnout. We at Ambiki are trying to help solve this crisis.   

 

All in One Platform: Ambiki has created a platform that seeks to include everything a therapist needs in one convenient location. The goal behind this is that therapists can feel liberated that they have all they need to provide competent care in one place. Many therapists' roles require immense physicality which can be taxing on the physical body.  Ambiki has a goal of making teletherapy a place where this mode of service delivery is not only as effective in treating many diagnoses but also allows therapists the freedom to minimize physical demands where they can. 

 

Productivity: We are currently in the process of building an electronic medical record and billing system. We hope our software can instill confidence in solo therapists looking to start their own private practices (teletherapy, in person, or both) to build their own productivity standards and increase work/life balance.  

 

Community: Our professional network of demonstrated expertise is growing, and we invite you to join us. Whether you work in a setting surrounded by other clinicians or are hoping to network with others in the field, Ambiki seeks to be a place where therapists can connect professionally so that there is always a feeling of community.  

 

Ambiki is a platform created by therapists. We have all, in our own way, experienced burnout. While our goal is to improve the lives of others, we also know that we cannot do this if we do not first improve the lives of therapists.

 

We invite you to share your experiences with us, particularly as they relate to encounters with technology and software. You can do this by emailing me directly at bayer@mysidekicktherapy.com or by completing this 3 Question Survey. Our mission is to improve lives by making service delivery as integrated and simple as possible. We do this best when you join us.