Advice on How to Avoid Burnout

Ted Witzig

The counseling field is such that people don’t come to counseling with easy things, okay? People deal with their easy things on their own or in their networks. People come to counseling with their hard things. Not every situation turns around easily. Some don’t turn out the way that you want them to turn out. Some turn out wonderfully. And you have to have enough grounding to be able to keep a sense of wellness even when situations around you are not well.

And so, I think that’s where my faith in Christ and just even working in an agency like this, just the belief about God’s transforming work in people just has always been really important to me. But I think it’s really important to remember that part of this is we’re vessels working uh, along with God in these situations. As counselors, we’re not superhuman know-it-alls. We just don’t have that ability.

Craig Stickling

Over the years I’ve learned to recognize that there will be failures, there will be things that I don’t do well, that haven’t gone well, that I wish I could do over. Hindsight, oh, wow, or things that we learn later that we didn’t know at the time that are heartbreaking and discouraging, but also to be able to recognize that God loves this person way more than I will ever be able to and I’m grateful for that. I get to be a piece of God’s plan in their life for this season and for their time. There are still struggles involved. I want to do the best that I can. I’ve got to be okay to understand that.

Brian Sutter

One of the great joys of my work, or the opportunity to work here as well as one of the challenges is just being immersed in difficulty and problems. And so, in that, I really appreciate the opportunity to be invited into people’s pain. I mean, I count that a great privilege and so I’m honored in that and really grateful for that. But it is a challenge at times to be able to sit with that and then unhook. And so, I’m really grateful, I think the Lord has given me a heart for people in pain, but also an ability to step out of it.

And I would say too, that would be one of the things that is a skill that’s probably been gained over the years, that seeing the need to not only step into it, but then also to step out and release it, that I can’t carry that all day every day, because it’s just too big. In that, you know, to truly try to exercise that I believe that healing comes by God working and moving. And therefore, it’s essential, and even an act of faith, to release those difficulties and trust that the Lord is doing the work that I can’t do, even whether I’m present or not present.

And so, I would say that’s a big part of it, being able to give myself the freedom that says, yeah, this is heavy and I need to release that I would say early on in my counseling work to sit around and talk with a group of friends about what was going on with the Cubs or the Cardinals was really hard, was really tricky.

And I found myself just getting so frustrated and angry about what are we doing? Why don’t you know what is going on over here? Like, how can we care about these things? But I would say over time, I’ve realized it’s really important for me to find those things that are not important that I can enjoy. And it helped me connect with people that I love and the freedom to say, yeah, it doesn’t matter and is probably important for me.

Kathy Knochel

When I was in college, they talked with us a lot about this philosophy of compassion fatigue and making sure that you’re practicing good self-care because some days, the social work field can feel really difficult.

And I would say as a new graduate and as I started in this field, I definitely had that thought of like, well that’s not going to happen to me, like I can do this. And you quickly find out that compassion fatigue and just taking on the people that you care about that you’re working with, taking on some of their hurts, can actually be a really real thing.

And so, I have found it really important to just make sure that I have some kind of an outlet after a difficult day or even after a normal day just to have a way to relieve and let go of some of that stress that you had during the day. So I find it really important for me to do something active or something outdoors that can be really beneficial for me. I think also an important thing for anyone that is in this field is that they have a really good layer of support outside of work. And at work also being able to talk with supervisors, talk with coworkers, and then also just have friends and family that check in and ask how things are going.

Ron Messner

Do you know, I think probably everybody, regardless of whether you’re an engineer or a farmer or pharmacist, whatever you are, as you grow through life and get older, you realize more and more how complex life is and that there aren’t easy answers, they’re not as well defined answers, and you have to figure out how to sustain faith in people and in God in spite of the complexity and the brokenness of the world and the brokenness of people around you.

So, I think the older I get, the more I continue to realize that there is just a lot of brokenness that’s a result of living in a fallen world. Just that awareness that I can’t fix that, and that I don’t think it’s God’s intention to fix it, but to sustain us in it. How do you recognize whether you’re doing what you can do?

You know, Scripture, I don’t care if it’s with your own children, issues with your children, or relationships with your parents, or work, wherever it is, you can’t make your goal to make things well. Your goal has to be, like that’s out there as a goal, but your goal has to be to contribute whatever you are able to contribute to that.

And then know that you’ve done what you can, but you are not responsible for other people’s lives. So that’s a level of compartmentalizing that counselors who don’t do that well, they burn out quickly. Because they take on the burden of the client, and that’s what they have to make well. Whatever was presented to them, as opposed to their job being to present whatever skills or knowledge or insight could be helpful in the best way that they can understand it and make use of it.

But that’s the end of your job then. Um, if you own the outcome, you will burn out.