Read on Twitter
of all the fucked up norms in mental health worker-land, today the one that’s got a bee in my bonnet is the expectation of people being able to do a large number of back to back appointments.
sure i can give 100% of my attention to someone for almost an hour, and then have ten measly minutes (but more likely 3) to recenter myself, shake off the feels from the appt that just happened, top up my tea and water, pee, and eat a handful of almonds and then do it again. ONCE
any more than that, i have a backlog of emotional and material needs, and thay backlog is one of the exact things i work worth clients to reduce, so now i’m a hypocrite
and the larger that backlog gets, the worse i feel about my work. it interferes with my ability to attune to clients and to the relationship between us. the backlog makes me less responsible and accountable.
the most responsible and healthy way for me to do this work is to work *less*. more breaks, more support. but the system is not set up to make this possible. i don’t have sick days, or any paid time off.
i’m still a new therapist. and i believe i will get more skillful over time. but the expectation to work in this intense way just seems completely unsustainable to me. and i see it in my colleagues. avoiding burnout is one of the hardest parts of our jobs.
for now i feel super grateful to have some benefits through my sweetheart’s job, and to have another income stream to balance the ways i work (not that facilitating about suicide intervention isn’t also heavy emotional lifting...)
