A major cause of burnout is caring ineffectively. In this series of posts, I will discuss how to prevent burnout by learning when to let go of clients.
The May/June 2015 edition of Psychotherapy Networker had a great article on preventing burnout, called “Burnout Revisited.” This series of posts will be based on that article. And, by the way, I recommend the magazine as a practical source not only to improve clinical skill, but to gain insight. In addition, they have some great webinars. But, I digress. Back to caring.
I Care
We are all caring professionals. Obviously. If we didn’t care about people we wouldn’t be in this profession. We may even think caring is enough:
“Well, I care about you.”
“I wouldn’t ask this question unless I cared.”
“I care about my clients.”
etc., etc., etc.
But…is it possible that “caring” can be used as a smokescreen? Accidentally, of course. I don’t think clinicians actually say to themselves “I’m in over my head with this client, so I won’t worry so much about interventions, I’ll just act caring so they won’t notice.” But I think that might be what happens.
Can Caring Be Abused?
Like any strong feeling, our love for our clients can blind us. We care, so we must be helping. Or so we think. But are we really being effective? Is caring enough? Or can it be abused?
The answers depend on how we demonstrate our caring. If we are choosing appropriate interventions and always acting in the client’s best interest (which sometimes means telling them “no”) then we are caring effectively. However, if we rely on our feelings rather than evidence-based interventions, and as a result find ourselves spending an inordinate amount of time thinking about the client, or “following up”, or worrying about the client, or dreading the client, then we are caring ineffectively. In this way, caring can be abused. We cannot rely on caring as an effective intervention.
In fact, one recent finding by Scott Miller, Mark Hubble, and Francoise Mathieu (the authors of the “Burnout Revisited”) is that top-performing counselors rate a “deep connection” as significantly less important to their work.
Can Caring Ineffectively Cause Burnout?
Executives in companies who have power fare better with stress as compared to workers without power. Therefore, it isn’t workload, or amount of responsibility that causes stress, it’s lack of personal agency. For example, a massive study of government employees in the United Kingdom suggests that the more control workers have the less stress-related illnesses they have.
In our lingo, it’s internal locus of control. If we feel like we can influence the outcome, then we can reduce stress. So it isn’t the amount of borderlines we see that freaks us out, it’s our inability to help them. And when we are freaked out what do we do? We care inappropriately. But this can actually further inhibit us from helping by blinding us. So, what to do?
In my next post, I will discuss “saying no”.
Yours in the Joy of Knowledge,
Dr. Barbara LoFrisco
