Hop off the treadmill of stress, fatigue, & burnout.
Step onto a path of enduring self-care and well-being.
Dear Fellow Practitioner,
When I ask my colleagues about what styles of therapy they were originally trained in, they answer quite readily.
But when I ask them what kind of training they received on practitioner self-care and occupational hazard prevention, most colleagues pause.
And the pause turns into a commiserating chat about how most of us have been left to our own devices when it comes to taking care of ourselves amid the constant care of others.
I ask this question of a lot of practitioners I talk to: what truly inspired you toward a career as a mental health professional?
Was it your desire to help relieve suffering and to improve the lives of those who need it the most?
Perhaps you had a natural gift to help and to heal.
Not surprisingly, these are often the main reasons expressed by your fellow therapists. When I think back, that pretty much sums it up for me too.
For years we train to become competent practitioners. And we then we train some more, never satisfied with how we're serving our clients. We put our heart and soul into being the best practitioners we can be inside the therapy room.
But there's usually one vital thing missing from our deep dedication to our craft.
And it's not keeping up with the latest approach, evidence, or masterful methods.
It's actually our own self-care.
Not the self-care that we throw at ourselves and hope that it sticks, like 5 minutes of boiled spaghetti thrown at the wall.
But sustainable, values-based self-caring that we can really get behind and feel good about.
Paradoxically, this kind of self-caring is what binds us all together - regardless of method, approach, and training.
Ah, self-care. The word is everywhere. Isn't it obvious to the mental health practitioner that we should be taking care of ourselves, especially given that we're taking care of others day in and day out?
Well, yes...and no.
Actually caring for ourselves might feel selfish, unnecessary, or even impossible at times.
Or, like a colleague once said, "My trainees were constantly told to take care of themselves but weren't ever given the tools for how or adequately informed as to why it's so important."
Even though we're often vaguely aware of our professional stress and our occupational hazards, we keep on forging ahead often doing "more with less."
The promising news, however, is that there's a growing movement of practitioners who desire to nourish themselves - to replenish the energy that gets far too easily drained day after day, week after week.
These practitioners often feel that there's something missing from their repertoire of competence-building activities - the workshops, online programs, books, peer supervision, etc.
They have an inkling that things could perhaps be easier and less burdensome for themselves but may not know where to start.
Isn't it time to shift this inertia and break through the silent suffering that far too many of us experience?
As Rabbi Hillel the Elder has famously stated, "If I am not for myself, who will be for me? But if I am only for myself, who am I? If not now, when?"
The Costs of Constant Caring
So what are the costs of constantly caring for our clients?
What are the occupational hazards and stresses that we're all at risk of experiencing?
Compassion or Empathy Fatigue
"I feel unsettled from carrying others' suffering day in and day out..."

Blurry Boundaries & Spillover
"I can't just 'leave it at the office'. I often think about my work and my clients, even if I'm with my family or supposed to be living my personal life."

Life is Unbalanced
"How do I work effectively work and have a personal/family life too?"

Professional Self-Doubt
"I get so stressed from seeing my clients, and I'm not even sure that I'm helping them. I'm probably not cut out to be a therapist."

Exhaustion
"I'm just tapped and exhausted by the end of the day. This is such tiring work. It's hard to give at home what I've already given at the office."

Losing Sight of Ourselves
You're probably all too aware of the toll that our occupational hazards take.
But you may be missing some of the more subtle signs of the daily wear and tear on your emotional, mental, and physical integrity. And you might even unknowingly blame yourself for "not doing enough" or "not being good enough."
But, if we're to be the healthiest, most effective practitioners we desire to be, we need to look at ourselves with utmost compassion, hope, and brightness. Much like we aspire to do with our clients.
When we turn toward ourselves in this way, amazing possibilities and opportunities open up for how we feel, think and act. Then, being our most mindful and compassionate selves becomes seamlessly integrated into the fabric of our everyday lives.
Unfortunately, this can be hard to come by. We're simply so busy. And we're often so used to giving and caring for others that we lose sight of our own needs and values and how to listen mindfully to them.
"What is to give light must endure the burning" - Viktor Frankl
Why Self-Caring is Often So Hard
Self-care is a misunderstood concept.
I've discovered for myself and for others that it's either too narrowly or too broadly conceptualized.
It also gets easily confused with self-pity, self-indulgence, or even an overly dramatized self-love.
But self-care is simply care for the self, as we would care unconditionally for someone we love.
Self-care is care for the self as we would care unconditionally for someone we love.
Yes, you read that same sentiment twice. It's pretty important : )
Unconditional care for ourselves doesn't mean we don't make mistakes. And it doesn't mean we don't accidentally over-do or under-do how we treat ourselves.
But it means that we have a deep and implicit commitment to ourselves to be our own best allies on whatever journey we're experiencing.
In a nutshell, self-care is the value you place on compassionately tending to yourself with the most honest and earnest nourishment possible at any given time.
Barriers to Self-Care
The problem is...many of us don't consider ourselves worthy of this kind of unconditional self-caring. Or we received messages or modeling when we were growing up that contradict this basic notion.
We may have also received (implicitly or explicitly) messages that from our training institutions that had the effect of pushing us harder and harder toward "excellence" and "mastery" at the expense of our own health.
And, of course, there's simply the culture in which we live. This culture expects more and more from us as it provides fewer and fewer desperately needed resources.
How We Usually "Do" Self-Care
There are many ways we usually engage in self-care.
You could commit to one or two activities and try hard to keep these active and alive each week. This isn't a bad option if you also bring a flexible and self-compassionate mindset to your commitment.
You could plan for (and actually go on) fun and relaxing vacations throughout the year. This can be extremely helpful to your "sense of deservingness" to relax and simply take a much needed break from your constant dedication to your clinical work.
You could limit the number of (highly challenging) clients you see each week so that you're not on a "path to burnout." For many of us, this is essential for staving off exhaustion and the classic signs of burnout and compassion fatigue.
These are all very useful and pragmatic ways to be your own self-care self-advocate.
At the same time, we could approach professional self-care from a slightly different angle. This conceptual shift could make a world of difference for us.
A Different Angle on Professional Self-Care
toward deep, sustainable well-being
This different angle from which to view professional self-care can lead to more sustainable well-being and wellness.
It's a multi-faceted mindset that synthesizes your values, deservingness, and integrated self-caring actions.
This mindset is designed to take the stress out of the self-care endeavor, so that we don't end up becoming more overwhelmed as we're trying to reduce our overwhelm.
I wanted to capture this integrative mindset and synthesize these vital elements in one place.
Instead of a piecemeal approach to learning more about mindfulness, values-based self-care, nutrition, ethics, deservingness, mind-body holistic healing, self-compassion, and gratitude - to name just a few, I thought it was imperative to bring all these vital topics under one roof.
This is how my online program, Self-care for the Stressed Health Care Practitioner: Preventing Burnout and Promoting Wellness, was born.
Introducing...
Self-care for the Stressed Health Care Practitioner:
Preventing Burnout and Promoting Wellness
You can think of this program as "wellness wisdom" from professional self-care gurus who have taken on the challenge of making self-care a #1 priority for themselves and for you. (See below for themes covered in each interview).
Our User-Friendly, Online Audio Program
is Designed to Help Empower You to:
But how does this program do all this, you might ask?
What You Get in This Program
Six (6) audio interviews to download or stream anywhere/anytime. For lifetime use!

PDF workbook to help you immediately apply the program insights into your everyday life (downloadable/printable)

(Optional) Continuing Ed opportunity (7.0 credits) for most mental health professional groups

Professional
Holistic Digital Program on Practitioner Self-Care Cultivation & Burnout Prevention
Regular Price: $139
Launch Price:
$
97
- 6 Audio Expert Interviews
- PDF Workbook ("Self-Care in Action")
Attention Students! Click Here if you're an active student who would like to purchase this program at discounted price.
Professional + CE
Holistic Digital Program on Practitioner Self-Care Cultivation & Burnout Prevention
Regular Price: $169
Launch Price:
$
127
- 6 Audio Expert Interviews
- PDF Workbook ("Self-Care in Action")
- 7.0 Continuing Education credits! (Please click HERE for eligibility)
Your Self-Care Program Host
I'm a psychotherapist, mindfulness meditation teacher, blogger, co-founder of VitalMind, and founder of The Thriving Therapist.
And I'll be the first to admit that self-care wasn't always and still isn't natural and automatic. Nor is it as consistently infused into my daily life as I would like.
With that said, let me describe a bit about myself and my professional self-care mission.
I'm a sensitive soul, husband, dad of 2 young kids, and a cancer survivor.
Throughout my work at various training institutions and private practice settings, I've fully realized that risk of burnout and professional fatigue is quite real. And it's everywhere.
I don't know any mental health professional who's immune to these occupational realities.
But when we avoid the subject, we unwittingly bring more suffering to our lives. And accidentally reinforce the notion that we should simply "be fine" and to "keep moving forward" even when we're silently suffering.
The factors that contribute to our stress, unease, and overwhelm often run in the background like a smart phone slowly draining of its battery.
Don't you deserve to tune in to truly know when and how your battery is depleting itself?
And don't you deserve to know how to tap into the vital processes that keep you feeling awake, purposeful, present, and self-compassionate?
I strongly believe that you deserve these things without question and with full recognition that you yourself can be a non-negotiable priority (without feeling self-indulgent or selfish)!
Your Self-Care Program Tour Guides
And Summaries of Themes from the Program's 6 Interviews
Practitioner Burnout & Related Occupational Hazards:
Mindfulness, Meditation, & Self-Compassion as Enduring Antidotes

Chris Berlin, mDiv
- Why true compassion doesn't lead to "compassion fatigue"
- Distinguishing among Burnout, Compassion Fatigue, Vicarious Traumatization, and Secondary Traumatic Stress
- How meaning-making and growth mindset can bring us the greatest joy and resilience
- How to handle "the blessing and the curse" of being a 'highly sensitive' helper
- How we care for ourselves serves as a vital model of self-care for our patients
- The crucial balancing act between compassion and equanimity for boosting "professional stamina"
- How Polarity Breathing can strengthen our resilience and reduce unnecessary spillover of professional stress and suffering
Values, Acceptance, & Awareness in Individualized Professional Self-Care

Cory Chen, PhD
- Actionable frameworks & metaphors for self-care and managing the costs of constant caring
- The vital importance of values in crafting a meaningful and resilient personal and professional life
- How self-awareness is the cornerstone of all enduring acts of self-care
- Vital lessons for practitioners from the work of caregivers of family members with dementia
- Principles, tips, & strategies to thrive in your clinical work
The Ethics of Professional Self-Care, Wellness, & Burnout Prevention

Erica Wise, PhD
- How professional ethics shape our understanding and implementation of self-care
- Effective conceptualizations of self-care for practitioners
- The importance of role diversity, consultation, and non-professional relationships
- A new Communitarian approach to professional self-care
- Four foundational principles that can promote an upward spiral of flourishing
Self-Compassion, Self-Awareness, & Self-Forgiveness: The Art of Deep Healing from Within
- The centrality of feeling responsible for patient outcomes as contributing to overwhelm, compassion fatigue, and burnout
- The challenges of recognizing signs of burnout and how to address its chronic and acute phases
- How the universal principle of impermanence is key to self-compassion and reduction of suffering
- Forgiving ourselves for our imperfections as vital to greater presence, purpose, and productivity
- How the non-dualism of separation and wholeness can release us from our burdens and promote more lasting emotional and mental freedom
- How mind-body practices like "living from your butt" can have a profound impact on our well-being

Thomas Richardson, LiAC, M.A.
Mindful Nourishment of the Body as Foundational to the Art of Self-Care

Marci Evans, MS, CEDRD, cPT
- The Importance of using our physical bodies to promote daily wellness & stress prevention
- How mindful & intuitive eating both reflects and sparks more self-compassion, wisdom, and worthiness
- Essential lessons on professional self-care when we truly listen to our clients' struggles with self-care
- The importance of integrating external and internal feedback for a more grounded and resilient self
- The unending benefits of gratitude for being a facilitator of our clients' change
One Breath at a Time: Harnessing the Power of Gratitude & Mindful Connection in Therapist Fatigue & Self-Care
- How broadening the definition of self-care would facilitate better health and wellness among practitioners
- How personal suffering can ignite value in and dedication to self-care
- The power of gratitude to conquer professional hopelessness, stress, & fatigue
- How mindful connection to patients' suffering can ironically promote practitioner wellness

Ariel Botta, PhD, MSW, LiCSW
Self-care for the Stressed Health Care Practitioner:
Preventing Burnout and Promoting Wellness
You can think of this program as "wellness wisdom" from professional self-care gurus who have taken on the challenge of making self-care a #1 priority for themselves and for you. (See below for themes covered in each interview).
Professional
Holistic Digital Program on Practitioner Self-Care Cultivation & Burnout Prevention
Regular Price: $139
Launch Price:
$
97
- 6 Audio Expert Interviews
- PDF Workbook ("Self-Care in Action")
Attention Students! Click Here if you're an active student who would like to purchase this program at discounted price.
Professional + CE
Holistic Digital Program on Practitioner Self-Care Cultivation & Burnout Prevention
Regular Price: $169
Launch Price:
$
127
- 6 Audio Expert Interviews
- PDF Workbook ("Self-Care in Action")
- 7.0 Continuing Education credits! (Please click HERE for eligibility)

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You are fully protected by our 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. If you aren't completely satisfied with this digital program, just let us know (at thethrivingtherapist@gmail.com) and we'll send you a prompt refund within 30 days of purchase.
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