I would love to tell you that as a mental health therapist I have always practiced great self-care and never felt overly stressed or burned out. However, that is not the case. I have experienced seasons of stress and burnout and have had to walk through them and find support just like I am encouraging you to do in this month’s blog.
Yolanda Brailey
Stress, busyness and commitments of all sorts (those involving work or play) have become badges of honor in our society. Rarely are people praised for carving out time for rest or putting boundaries around what they will and will not commit to.
As a therapist, what is more concerning to me than burnout itself is that it has been normalized. Along with realizing that a lot of the people I talk with think that burnout is “normal,” neurodivergent clients experience burnout at a more intense and frequent rate than others. My 20-something neurodivergent friend recently told me that he expects burnout in life. While burnout does not have to be a normal part of life, after researching statistics of burnout in the neurodivergent population I have a better understanding of why he expects burnout is going to happen at some point.
If “burnout” was not something you heard about prior to the pandemic, 2020 sealed the deal in ensuring we all knew what burnout looked and felt like. I can still remember images of nurses and doctors with deep indents on their faces from wearing masks for endless hours while trying to save those battling COVID. I also specifically remember a picture of a mom crouching in her kitchen with her head in her hands. The caption noted that she had not bathed or changed clothes in a few days because she was trying to care for all of the “littles” (babies and toddlers) in her home without adequate support during the pandemic.
Last month we began exploring the treatment modality of Internal Family Systems (IFS). As stated last month, IFS is an approach to therapy that aims to help the individual become aware of their inner voices to begin the path to healing and wholeness. IFS recognizes that each person has a true Self, but that the parts within a person’s psyche or emotions are often in conflict with each other and this in turn suppresses the person’s real, whole Self from ruling and reigning in peace.
Internal Family Systems (IFS) was created by psychologist Richard Schwartz. Schwartz worked as a family therapist and noticed that people described their thoughts and feelings as different parts. Furthermore, he discovered that people’s parts often did not get along or were in conflict with one another. As a result, Schwartz began to develop a system of practice that sought to help a person’s parts work in harmony to promote well-being and balance.
