HHW Therapists 58 - Building a Practice That Funds the Life You Actually Want

Oh my God, I feel like, well, maybe it's not true anymore, but burnout has been top of mind and body for me for years, like since the very, very, very beginning, since my internship.

Like I felt, I'm pretty sure I felt burned out near the end of my grad school internship and I was aware of that and I was like, I'm going to, take a break after graduating and that was my plan and I did make concrete plans for that and then COVID happened so I had to cancel my plans because COVID wrecked them and so I went immediately into work but um the yeah I mean I think my I don't know.

I think like my emotional sensitivity as a person coupled with like my like my achieving kind of personality makes me prone to burnout.

And so and then I think that's just like worse as a therapist like I think I would I would probably struggle with this whatever I was doing because it's it's the way that I exist it's like what I do to myself it's my patterns um but the whole like therapy thing makes it I think a million times harder you know I look for a challenge I find it somehow um but yeah burnout has always been a thing I've always been attending to it I don't even know if I can define strictly this is burnout, this isn't burnout.

I feel like I just, like, am paying attention to the, like, where I am on my own spectrum.

And I think things have...

They've gotten better for me over time.

But it has been...

I mean, it has been a long, like, massive journey.

There's never a time working as a therapist where I'm, like, not... like, thinking about that or paying attention to that or, like, trying to, like, problem solve something, like, in a bigger way or, like, kind of in a smaller way in the sort of the daily habit kind of a realm.

And it's something I'm always taking care of.

I don't, like, sit back and relax on the couch and I'm like, oh, like, I'm not at risk of it or not.

I feel like if I don't pay attention, then that's when it's going to happen.

Mm-hmm.

Yes, especially for a highly ambitious person who you're like, great, there's white space and I've got all this stuff on my mind.

Like it's so easy to create work for yourself and to just do more.

That's one of my biggest problems.

A

million percent, same.

But on the other hand, then you get like these like amazing businesses where you're like totally kicking ass, right? Yes.

And so I don't know.

Like, I mean, if I'm going to have like the bad stuff, then I want to have the good stuff too.

Exactly.

Yes.

Yes.