As the end of the year approaches (all too quickly!) we can become very caught up in what needs to be done now, before moving on to the next ‘very important’ task. It is during these times, perhaps even more than others, we need to take pause and reflect on our professional practice.
Health professionals are known for attracting high burnout rates compared with the general population and this may be as much to do with how we treat ourselves as people (over scheduling, not pursuing our own meaningful lives outside of our work life) as how much ‘breathing room’ we provide ourselves to stop and consider the effectiveness of our interventions and the impact we are having on our clients. Psychological therapy occupies a sacred space, and we psychologists can be wearied by the weight of responsibility that comes with helping others create meaningful lives through mental health and functioning well.
Talking to a colleague, sharing insights and different perspectives as well as allowing ourselves to talk through the complexity of the issues with which we deal, is crucial to our having positive, long term contributions to the field. To this end, we have been hosting supervision groups for school psychologist at our practice twice per term and have found this to be a very worthwhile practice both for those who attend and for us as hosts. We all are a little richer in terms of our practice at the end of each session.
For more information, please email info@theyoungmindclinic.com. Sessions are free.
Sophie Smith, Clinic Director, October 2019