Therapy for Healthcare Workers
Is The Critical Nature Of Your Work Taking A Toll On Your Mental Health?
If you are a healthcare provider of any kind—whether you’re a physician, nurse, dentist, or fellow psychotherapist—you have chosen a life that’s committed to the well-being of others. While noble and rewarding, this career path is extremely challenging and may expose providers to secondary trauma, stress, and burnout. In short, those of us who have committed ourselves to the helping professions are also in need of help. Sometimes, we do not recognize that is the case.
If you see yourself in the above, you may be experiencing symptoms such as anxiety, insomnia, and a loss of joy and motivation, and finding it challenging to balance your personal needs with the demands of your chosen profession.
Perhaps you have stopped loving the work you do, or maybe you are finding it hard to feel recharged and energized, even on your days off. If the stress of your work has crept into all aspects of your life, affecting everything from your sleep to your relationships to your sense of purpose, it may be time to seek support.
As a psychologist, I understand the threat of burnout, anxiety, and depression in the lives of healthcare providers and the need for prioritizing emotional and physical well-being in doing the work that you do. Therapy offers you the opportunity to develop actionable skills for combating burnout and mitigating the effects of stress that you experience as a healthcare worker.
The Healthcare Profession Has Always Been Stressful, But The Pandemic Stretched Many Of Us To Our Limits
A meta-analysis of 69 studies conducted between December 2019 and August 2020 reviewed the heavy psychological burden carried by medical professionals around the world. The results illustrate the nature of the crisis: 37% of subjects reported anxiety. 34% reported depression, and 39% complained of insomnia. [1] This was early in the pandemic. Look around at your peers. You are not alone.
You Have Been Conditioned To Live In Problem-Solving Mode
Physicians in training are taught to repress the emotional burden of the work they do and engage their survival skills. The constant pressure of patient care, the worry about missing something, the need to manage long stretches of time in the hospital—often with little sleep—and the resulting physical and psychological exhaustion are ignored in the interest of getting through. And constantly living in survival mode is only sustainable for so long.
This response to stress is not limited to those in medical training. Nursing school, graduate training for mental health providers, and other healthcare professions require much the same sort of compartmentalization to get through the shift, the week, and the challenge of learning a complex set of skills in an increasingly demanding environment.
For many, this style of interacting with themselves persists long after training is over—in short, walling off parts of the self becomes a primary tool for managing the daily stress of professional and personal life. The consequences for many include unaddressed burnout and compassion fatigue, and worsening anxiety, depression, and insomnia.
The healthcare workers I see in therapy are highly trained, resilient, and provide excellent care to their patients, yet often find themselves struggling to prioritize their health. They’ve become self-reliant to the point of not knowing how to ask for support and are conditioned to ignore their needs in the service of others. Fortunately, counseling can help, offering a calm, consistent setting where you can reflect on your life, address burnout, and learn new ways of coping.
I Specialize In Psychotherapy For Healthcare Providers
I spent eight years working in academic medicine early in my career, and as a clinical professor, I saw first-hand the challenge of medical training. Because of this, I developed a great respect for medical workers and a particular interest in the importance of therapy in their lives. I provide therapy to healthcare providers of all kinds, including fellow therapists. I will work with you to set clear treatment goals and develop tangible skills for reducing the effects of stress, trauma, and anxiety on your life.
My therapeutic approach is actionable and collaborative, individualized to your unique concerns. Using a broad base of effective psychotherapy methods—including interpersonal and insight-oriented skills, as well as Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) and insomnia-specific CBT—I am here to help you reflect, dig deep into your sense of purpose, and build a lasting toolkit for stress management.
Take Home Tangible Skills That Will Help Facilitate A Newfound Sense Of Balance In Your Life
Many of the healthcare providers I work with are goal-oriented and prefer their therapy to be as well. If this is you, each week will center on a specific objectives that you can actively work on and track throughout the counseling process. Some examples may include deep breathing for anxiety reduction, strategies for “turning off” at the end of the workday, and establishing rituals that will allow you to move from a professional mindset to a personal one more readily.
Others benefit from these skills but may also be interested in the deep listening of a less directive therapy. I find helping people weave the narrative of their lives often helps them unstick unrecognized conflict, and work through the ways that conflict plays itself out in their contemporary life.
Your career is meaningful, valuable, and purpose-driven, but it also requires a lot of your essential resources. Therapy can help you establish a new relationship to your profession as a healthcare worker, instilling a new sense of balance in your life.
Common Questions Asked By Healthcare Workers Considering Therapy
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As a rule, I like to see clients on a weekly basis. Generally speaking, we will establish a consistent time that works for both of us each week (with early morning times available). Appointments are 45 minutes long and can be done online.
If there is one silver lining of the pandemic, I’ve learned that busy healthcare providers benefit just as much from therapy via Zoom as they can from in-person therapy that requires a commute.
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This is a great question—research shows that the therapist-client fit is the most important factor for successful treatment. [2] The only way to figure this out is by having one to two sessions to get a feel for my approach.
If you don’t think the connection is quite right, I invite honesty! My only goal is to help you find someone who you feel comfortable with; if it’s not me, I have many trusted colleagues and I will do my best to make a referral that feels like a better fit.
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In the absence of significant vegetative symptoms or suicidal ideation, it’s often a good idea to have a few sessions of psychotherapy to see if your mood begins to lift. Having said this, NIMH research is clear: when medication is necessary, the gold standard is to treat with both medication and psychotherapy at the same time. [3]
When medications are necessary, I have a number of trusted psychiatry colleagues I refer to regularly. I’m happy to make a referral to one of them, or work with the provider of your choice.
Therapy Can Help Lift The Emotional And Mental Burdens Of Your Work
If you are a physician, nurse, fellow therapist, or other healthcare worker, therapy can help you reduce the effects of stress, anxiety, and burnout on your life. Contact me to schedule an appointment.
[1] Rezaei-Hachesu V, Naderyan Fe’li S, Maajani K, Hokmabadi R, Golbabaei F. The Global Prevalence of Anxiety, Depression, and Insomnia among Healthcare Workers during the Covid-19 Pandemic: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. J Occup Health Epidemiol 2022; 11(1):48-66.
[2] https://www.apa.org/monitor/2019/11/ce-corner-relationships
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