An aspiration of mine is to provide people in high stress jobs who may be showing signs of burnout with emotional and psychological resources. We live in an era of innovation, adaption, and relentless “progress”. Most workers, especially across California, are in demanding fields, and even more demanding positions. And, the intersection of wages, expenses, and ever-increasing costs of housing and health care take a major toll on people I work with ( myself included ).
I’m talking about chronic stress. I understand it, and have had to manage it myself. Sharing a bit of my career arc may lend some texture to how I arrived to when I am in this work.
During the past 9 years, I’ve worked with clients from my seat in integrative psychotherapy. The people who I’ve met have arrived from many giving vocations: healthcare, surgery, emergency medicine, first-responders, education, technology/innovation, law, social justice, mental health, entertainment, and parents of young people who were struggling. Two common threads among these unique people were the great meaning they derived from what they do, and times when stress had gotten almost unmanageable.
Being of service to them gave them fulfillment, yes, but also caused them identifiable suffering, sometimes leading to symptoms of real distress. Their good works were punctuated by bouts of chronic anxiety, sometimes spikes of panic, and forced exertion beyond when they had passed fatigue, leading to loss of sleep and often relationship strain. One’s personal autonomy and sometimes basic needs fell to took second tier below the demands of work and family. Sleep disturbances were often the first symptom, followed by irritability, lack of daily functionality, communication breakdowns, and perhaps mild-to-moderate substance use to mitigate stress at the end of long days, weeks, or months.
While each industry has it particular challenges— what makes it distinctive, as well as what makes its workers so specialized— there is a specific tone that a high-pressure environments assert on a person’s central nervous system. We’re all affected by these persistent tonal impacts on our core processing. And, we are also impacted by the intersection of this workplace stress with our individual core beliefs: what’s important to us (values, ethics, aspirations ), what’s expected by us and our employers (ideals, effort), what’s not acceptable (what could be mislabeled as “failure”). Then, place those stressors into the slow boil of everyday financial demands and many experience chronic stress, general or specific anxiety, feelings of panic, a sense of doubt or dread, and serious existential questions.
There are ways to treat and lessen the suffering of any workplace. During the Covid-19 pandemic, psychotherapy had to adapt to rapidly evolving mental health demands. One way we did so was to offer more tele-medicine than ever before. This continues to be an offering of my practice— to meet you where you are, when you’re able to talk.
My approach combines trauma-sensitive care with central nervous system resources, awareness practices, and emotional regulation skills. While this suite of offerings doesn’t work for everyone, I have had a number of folks start with weekly or twice-weekly therapy, and move toward a gradual relief of symptom severity, eventually leading us to every-other-week sessions after two or three years’ time. Each individual’s duration of treatment is unique. I have seen people realize change in how they relate to stress, and to actualize new ways of meeting this ever-present moment we humans call REALITY.
If you’re curious about burnout or how to find support while in a challenging work environment, I offer free consultations. And I’d be happy to meet you wherever you find yourself— we can connect online from anywhere in California that you find a signal.
May you be happy, may you be healthy, may you feel at ease.
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