Art Therapy PNW

Caregivers

what is caregiver burnout?

• Are you a caregiver for a loved one?

• Do you work in a field where you provide care, such as medicine or education?

• Do you feel overwhelmed by the mountain of responsibilities in your life?

• Do you feel like you never have a second to yourself?

• Have you been feeling irritable or impatient and lashing out unexpectedly?

• Do you feel constantly exhausted?

• Does thinking about the future make you anxious?

• Have you stopped engaging in activities you used to love?

If you answered yes to any of the above, you may be experiencing what is called “caregiver burnout” – a common state experienced by people who provide care to others for extended or intense periods of time.

Experiencing caregiver burnout does not mean you are a bad caregiver! It simply means that you are so invested in helping the person or people you care for, that you have been unable to meet your own physical, emotional, mental, or financial needs.

how i can help

Therapy is a great place for you to begin to focus on your needs and how to balance your responsibilities. By taking the time in therapy to identify what parts of your routines are causing stress and exhaustion, we can work together to create strategies that will make your daily life more manageable.

I have spent nearly my entire adult life experimenting with the balance of giving my time and energy to other people to help them and making sure I give enough time to myself so I can remain effective in my work. This experimentation has been a combination of trial and error, periods of debilitating burn out, experimenting with different self care methods and educating myself on the science behind rest. Through this process, I have discovered that one of my greatest strengths is helping people identify what restores them. I use this approach with my clients in order to help them achieve balance in their daily lives.

self care & caregivers

 “Self care” is an increasingly popular term in society today. As a society, we are collectively really bad at understanding and prioritizing our own needs. It’s not our fault – we are constantly receiving the message that we have to do more.

We’re told we have to be the stellar working parent who puts in 40 hours a week at the office, hand makes lunches for the kids, attends every soccer game, volunteers for the school bake sale, DIYs the Pinterest perfect birthday party, and then gets in bed and cracks open that novel everyone is saying is “an absolute must-read!”

We’re told we are supposed to graduate college, finish grad-school, get that coveted job in a prestigious hospital, pay our dues so we can move up in the industry, work out 5 times a week, meal-prep, meet friends for happy hour after work, go hiking on our days off, write a blog, and take pride in the response, “Oh my gosh, life is just so crazy right now!” when people ask us how it’s going.

It is no wonder we are all hitting these metaphorical walls and experiencing burnout! Access to resources that teach us how to slow down and take care of ourselves get buried under all of the messaging that tells us how we should be doing more.

what does therapy look like?

Coming to therapy when you’re feeling burnt out is a giant step in the direction of being able to better manage your life. You will learn what aspects of your life are draining your energy and which aspects fulfill you. Together, we will create a plan for how to better balance these aspects to allow you to be the best caregiver you can be while caring for yourself as well. We will work to highlight your existing strengths and use those to help restore balance to your life.

As someone who has spent their career in the helping professions, I am no stranger to the pressures and complexity of caring for others while trying to care for oneself. When you come to therapy with me in order to work through caregiver burnout, you will be working with someone who knows what you are going through. I have been there, I have experienced the overwhelming pressures, and I have learned how to navigate through it.

 YOUR BRAIN CAN ALWAYS CREATE REASONS “WHY NOT”

When I encourage people to practice self-care, the response I get 90% of the time is, “I wish I could! But I just don’t have the time!” When you are living a busy, responsibility heavy life, it can feel like there is not a single moment in the day for yourself. This is a fallacy many clients fall into when contemplating beginning therapy. Clients fear that adding one hour per week to their schedules will be the tipping point that causes them to lose control. I completely understand that scheduling an hour per week to focus on yourself can seem overwhelming when your days are already so full.

To help my clients get past this fear, I like to use the metaphor of oxygen masks on a plane. During the safety briefing, airlines make it clear you are supposed to properly secure your own oxygen mask before assisting others in case of emergency. Being a caregiver requires the same approach – you need to make sure you can breathe and keep breathing in order to effectively help others and not run out of oxygen in the process. By coming to therapy with me, I will teach you how to properly secure your self-care “oxygen mask” so you can keep being a great caregiver.

By investing one hour per week in yourself to develop these self-care skills, you will exponentially increase the effectiveness with which you provide care. You will feel more fulfilled and those you care for will be grateful for your improved focus and mood.

the next step

Are you are ready to start taking care of your needs while caring for others?

Are you ready to transform burn out into fulfillment?

Take the first step and schedule a phone consultation today.