According to Skovholt, to avoid burnout, a counselor must not only listen to their clients’ stories but also keep their personal lives separate from them. A counselor’s strength is that they will look after themselves daily to continue helping people, and this requires preventing stress, which can lead to dismissal from a job. The professional should believe that they are doing something important and find inspiration in it, remember to solve their problems, communicate with other counselors, seek help from one of them, and, of course, look for the good in life.
Skovholt developed a model of the counselor-client relationship in which the patient, student, and therapist come first. A therapist establishes a trusting relationship, becomes involved in their problems, works with them, and then breaks the connection and prepares to work with the following individuals.
This process is complicated because the psychotherapist must release the client’s attachment to them, which can be challenging. It is also difficult not to overstep the boundaries, both in attachment and in ending the relationship, because there may be numerous sessions (Kwon et al., 2022). No matter how hard one tries, they may not feel like they are doing enough to help. Sometimes the psychologist tries to assist the recipients where minimal assistance is required, which yields better results than active intervention.
The first stage of the cycle requires individuals to open up and trust the psychotherapist. The second part assists both the therapist and the recipients in identifying problems. Part Three is about letting go of the client’s recent problems and experiences, so they can feel energized to help the following individual in Part Four. If Parts Three and Four do not exist, others will believe the counselor is not providing adequate assistance.
This cycle is beneficial for burnout because it provides insight into fully letting go of the job and living a life beyond it. Burnout occurs when a person continues to think about counseling even on weekends, while on vacation with family, or on a trip with friends (Ko, Sang, 2021). This is why it is critical to understand how to separate oneself from both the patients and all clients. The third phase teaches a person to set aside all work-related problems, no matter how exciting, interesting, or important they appear.
References
Ko, H., Sang, M. L. (2021). Effects of Imbalance of Self- and Other-Care on Counselors’ Burnout. Journal of Counseling & Development 99, 252-262.
Kwon, W., Ha, J., Jang, H., Lee, D. (2022). The effects of perfectionism and dispositional self-focused attention of novice counselor on psychological burnout: Moderated mediating effects of cognitive emotion regulation strategies. Int J Adv Counselling 44, 283–297.