Therapy for Therapists
As therapists, we are immersed in the lives of our clients. This immersion requires us to hold space for our client’s emotions, experiences, and complexities. It is a privilege to be trusted to share this space with others, yet it can be heavy and perplexing, largely due to our own unique human experiences.
One of the greatest pleasures in my practice is having the opportunity to work with other therapists.
I hold a high respect for every individual who grants me the privilege to connect with them on an intimate and personal level. It is very difficult to encapsulate the gratitude that I have for all that I have and will continue to learn from my clients. Yet, I see each opportunity for connection in my practice as a means to honor that gratitude.
I ground my practice in attachment, internal family systems, and mindfulness-based theoretical orientations. I foster a space that prioritizes the human experience in its raw form. This embodies a unique blend of connection, compassion, and promotion of authenticity. Together, we develop a therapeutic relationship that lays the groundwork for extending into various areas of your life that embody a deeper sense of what your honest, raw human experience looks like.
As a therapist, it is a common occurrence to experience:
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Compassion Fatigue
It is an empowering experience to be trusted to nurture a client’s vulnerability as they navigate complex emotions. It is also a significant undertaking that can come at a mental and physical cost when individualized boundaries are absent.
Maybe you have experienced some of the following:
• Feeling irritable, angry, or numb
• A sense of being detached or lack of purpose
• Ruminating on the experiences of clients or othersBy increasing awareness of your experience you are better able to begin to explore responsive changes to not only how you show up for others, but how you show up for yourself.
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Burnout
Burnout has become a significant buzzword among mental health providers. The nature of our work requires us to show up in significant emotionally and mentally demanding ways. I very deeply believe that the traditional 40 hour work week is not applicable to those in the field of mental health. Ironically, many of us have a foundation where not only was this the case but it was encouraged. In order to effectively address burnout it is essential to look at the foundations of our relationship with the field of mental health. Where did my expectations of my career come from? What does productivity look like to me? How can I restore balance between my career and who I am as a person?
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Imposter Syndrome
Regardless of what stage of your career you are in, imposter syndrome can present itself as a barrier to feeling confident in your work. With the ongoing developments in the field, it may feel like you are unable to keep up with new information, training, and skill development. Perfectionism, impaired self-esteem, and unrealistic caseloads intensify this experience. I hold space for the various emotions that make up a therapist’s experience with imposter syndrome and guide them toward a compassionate view of themselves.
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Maladaptive Coping
How we manage our stress directly influences the impact that this stress has. When we use unhealthy coping strategies, instead of relieving the stress we initially set to resolve, we in turn end up compounding our stress.
Do you find yourself engaging in some of these behaviors?
• Avoidance
• Substance misuse
• Ruminating on sessions
• Emotional NumbingI offer a tailored approach to assessing, exploring, and replacing your coping patterns.
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Interpersonal Dysfunction
When you spend the majority of your day engaging with others on an incredibly deep level, it is understandable that when you get home there can often be not much left to offer to your loved ones. Short tempers, social isolation, and feeling “checked out” of conversations are indications that our work is not leaving adequate space for us to engage meaningfully in our personal lives. I aim to work with you to look at your interpersonal relationships and work our way back to identify the root cause of dysfunction.
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Existential Dread
What makes many of us great therapists is our expansive minds that naturally think of the large concepts such as; What does this all mean? Why am I here? Where is this leading to? These mindsets lay an essential foundation to be able to connect to our clients and understand parts of their thought processes. With that, it is essential to balance the expansive unknown with our daily experiences.
THERAPY FOR THERAPISTS
Frequently Asked Questions
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My practice primarily focuses on working with therapists and other mental health professionals because that is what I feel deeply connected to. What often makes therapists incredible at what they do is their ability to relate to others. My personal experience with becoming and continuing to be a therapist has created a significant area of passion to care for those who care for others. By narrowing in the population that I serve I am able to provide a space that is not determined by but acknowledges the complexities of being a therapist and how it can influence how we view the world and how we function in our daily lives.
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The core of the work that I do comes from open communication. Through authentic compassion, I create a space where you feel that together we can navigate sessions as your experiences arise. I work based on what you bring into the space. If you ever feel that sessions need to go in a different direction, together we rely on mutual trust for you to voice your needs, and for me to guide you towards this.
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I started working with clients as an intern in 2018, and have worked in various settings including community mental health, hospitals, research, and in home-based programs before opening my practice.
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As people, we are relational beings that embody many roles. With that, I find it imperative to look at how we function from an attachment-based and interpersonal framework. Who we are not only is driven by how we relate to others, as well as our understanding as to what our capacity is within these roles.