Balancing life and work is one of the most common concerns for therapists. Although a passion for the mental health field is necessary for your success in your career, you shouldn’t feel like your work consumes your entire life. Letting your professional responsibilities take over your personal life can lead to extreme stress and eventual burnout.
You may work with your clients on developing appropriate boundaries, finding a self-care routine, and maintaining a work-life balance. These are all worthwhile goals for yourself, too. By establishing the right balance of professional and personal commitments, you can feel fulfilled in your career while also finding peace and meaning when you’re off the clock.
Here Are Five Tips for Balancing Life and Work as a Therapist:
1. Set Boundaries
Setting boundaries is easier said than done, but it’s the most important step in balancing life and work. As a therapist, you may have a hard time saying “no.” You care about your clients and want to support them, so you may feel inclined to go out of your way to be available for them.
Having boundaries is critical for your own self-care. If you allow your professional work to invade your personal life, you may feel like your work-related stress is inescapable. By having a clear distinction between your career and your personal life, you can avoid burnout.
Everyone has different work and personal commitments, so you should find and keep the boundaries that work best for you. Some therapists set a rule for themselves to never bring work home. Others set time-related boundaries, such as not answering emails after a certain time in the evening.
Some degree of flexibility is needed as a therapist as valid scheduling concerns do arise. In certain situations, rescheduling a session is ideal for yourself and the client. You can be flexible while maintaining boundaries by building flexible time into your schedule. You could leave one afternoon per week open for make-up sessions, or you could leave one open time slot on each work day. Not only does this help you accommodate for professional commitments, but it also benefits you if something unexpected happens in your personal life.
2. Optimize Your Schedule
Balancing life and work isn’t just about how many hours you work. It also involves figuring out which hours of the day should be dedicated to your job and which should be dedicated to your personal life.
Unfortunately, not all therapist jobs offer flexible scheduling. However, if you do have the ability to choose your working hours, consider which hours are best for your work and family life.
Some therapists find that a typical 9 to 5 schedule works well for their lifestyle. Others may choose to adjust their hours based on other commitments. If you find that you’re regularly missing your children’s sporting events, family gatherings, or other important moments, consider changing your hours to accommodate for those obligations.
Consider your self-care commitments, too. Maybe your favorite fitness class happens at 9 am on a particular day, so you don’t schedule clients until later in the morning. Maybe you have your own recurring therapy session that you can schedule clients around.
Additionally, think about which times during the day you feel the most productive. If you’re a morning person, you may want to schedule your clients early in the day. If you find that you work best in the afternoons or evenings, you could adjust your schedule accordingly.
3. Take Time Off
Unused vacation time isn’t just a therapist problem. It’s especially common for therapists not to take days off, though, because they don’t want to let their clients down. You may worry that the inconsistency will make your clients feel unstable or that an emergency could happen while you’re away.
You care deeply about your clients, and you want to be the best therapist possible. In order to accomplish this, you have to take care of yourself. If you never take time off, you put yourself at risk of burnout from being overworked. Try to use up your vacation days each year so that you give yourself time to rest and detach from the stress of your work.
You don’t have to travel away on a vacation to make the most of your time off. You could practice great self-care by staying home for a few days, catching up on sleep, enjoying time with family, and engaging in your hobbies.
4. Outsource Tasks
If you own a private practice, keeping up with all of the administrative tasks in addition to your sessions can be difficult. You may find yourself staying late to clean up or bringing your work laptop home to catch up on billing. When these tasks start to interfere with the time you should be dedicating to your personal life, outsourcing may be necessary.
Consider hiring a housekeeping service to clean your practice once a week. You could also hire a web design company to handle your website maintenance. An administrative assistant can help with scheduling, and a bookkeeper can help with billing. Even outsourcing just one task could free up enough time to help with balancing life and work.
5. Know Your Identity Outside of Work
You’re probably passionate about your work as a therapist. It’s a difficult yet rewarding career, so it may feel like a major part of who you are. You should feel proud of your career, and it’s natural for your work to be a facet of your identity. It shouldn’t be your entire identity, though.
Try to describe yourself as if you’re introducing yourself to someone new. If you have a hard time characterizing yourself outside of your identity as a therapist, it may be a sign that you’re struggling with balancing life and work.
Think about what other roles you serve in your life. This could involve family roles, friendships, or roles you serve in your community. You could also develop your sense of self through meaningful hobbies. What’s most important is that you have an enriching, fulfilling life outside of your identity as a therapist.
Balancing life and work as a therapist is not easy. It takes active effort to maintain your personal life in such a demanding career, but doing so is important for your success and your mental well-being. No matter how much you have on your plate at work, remember that your personal life is just as worthy of your attention as your professional life.
Blue Moon Senior Counseling offers therapy services for older adults. To learn more or to connect with a licensed counselor in your area, contact us today.