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LoveWithBoundaries

When Healers Burn Out: Causes and Prevention of Occupational Stress Among Health Care Professionals

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Burnout among health care professionals has become a common and critical problem affecting staff, the agencies for which they work, and the clients they serve. As a therapist working in the health care system for over 30 years, I have seen a great many of my colleagues suffer from the various types of stress that can adversely affect workers in this field. I have watched some of them “burn out,” using up their paid sick time, taking stress leaves, resorting to unhealthy coping behaviours, and sometimes leaving the profession altogether. I have also seen others deal with their stresses in healthier ways, choosing to practice such self-care strategies as seeking out personal counselling and taking refreshing holidays.

In the course of my career as a health care professional dealing with my own occupational stresses, I have come to believe that we do not have to burn out; although it is a relatively common occurrence, it is not a necessary requirement of the work. In my opinion, the key lies in the willingness to become self-aware and make the changes necessary to remaining holistically healthy. I believe it is incumbent upon us, as healers, to serve as guides and role models for our clients. As such, we must be doing our own personal work in order to most effectively assist our clients to do theirs. [Read more…]

Self-Care Leads to Self-Respect

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When we take better care of ourselves, we begin to feel much better holistically.  As we take our needs off the back burner – where they have never belonged in the first place – and take more ownership of what we actually can control (ourselves), we can stop rescuing others and thus help them develop their own resiliency. In this way, we can contribute to others feeling better about themselves as well.

 

The Difference between “Self-Care” and “Selfish”

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When people are selfish, they basically want what they want when they want it – and they will step on whoever they need to in order to get it. Self-care, on the other hand, focuses primarily on learning how to take the best care of ourselves that we can – as holistically as possible – so that we are there for ourselves and also have the desire and the energy to help those we care about. In my opinion, that is a very clear – and important – distinction.

addiction recovery

The Name of the Game: How to Revive Your Ailing Self-Respect

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Most of us are aware that we want to be treated with respect by other people. You probably find yourself becoming upset, angry or hurt when someone acts in a disrespectful way toward you, because it feels as if that person does not value you enough to treat you well.

Self-Respect: What Exactly Is It?

Self-respect works in the same way as being respected by others. When you value yourself enough to treat yourself well, you are acting in a self-respecting way. If you take good care of yourself in healthy ways such as having clear and assertive boundaries, saying “No” when you need to, taking good care of your physical, emotional and spiritual needs, and putting your own important needs ahead of the needs of others when necessary, then you are exercising your self-respect.

And you will find that others take their cues from you, in terms of how to relate to you. For example, when people hear you talking about yourself in a derogatory way and putting yourself down, they will likely think less of you. However, if they see you valuing yourself and living your life in that manner, they will likely value you more as well.

As Dr. Phil so aptly reminds us, “We teach other people how to treat us.”

Self-Respect Has Its Roots In Childhood

The way you treat yourself often has its roots in messages that you were given about yourself in childhood. The ways in which you were treated by your parents, caregivers, siblings, teachers, and even your friends have led you to believe that you either were or were not worthy, valuable or cherished. And you have most likely brought these same beliefs about yourself into your adult relationships, colouring the way you treat yourself in present time.

But you do not have to continue believing something about yourself that is not true!

Of course you are valuable and unique and special – you always were, and that is true of all of us. When you make the decision to empower yourself by choosing to believe the truth about who you are rather than what someone else may think of you, then you are on the road to self-respect. [Read more…]

We Teach Others How to Treat Us

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One of the constants of life is that we teach other people how to treat us. When we don’t speak our truth and stand up for ourselves, we make it easy for others to steamroll over us. If you’re finding this happening more often than you’d like in your life, it’s important to first look at what you’re allowing, before blaming anyone else.

 

addiction recovery