Austin, TX Helping Professionals: Creative Mental Activity Combats Burnout
Hey, there. From one helping professional to another, I know how hard it can be to find impactful resources for dealing with the elephant in the room: burnout.
That’s why I recently appeared as a guest on Noah Garcia’s NextQuest Podcast to discuss how helping professionals in Austin, TX and beyond can tap into their (hidden and dormant?) creative mental processes to combat burnout and its efforts to shut them down and shut them out of their very own lives. So while the podcast episode isn’t therapy, it’s good medicine for those who wonder if they need treatment and are taking a DIY self-help approach in the meantime.
Burnout Can’t Be Cured by Self-care
Let’s face it: burnout doesn’t enjoy the status of being an official medical diagnosis, so burnout therapy and burnout treatment aren’t popular search terms in web browsers. That means people like us aren’t even thinking of addressing the problem of burnout head-on.
In the meantime, the powers-that-be and well-intended others tell us to chase after the self-care unicorn. So we do, and the time and money we spend only to wind up in the same sad state again and again leave us wondering if there’s something wrong with us and this “thing” inside.
Compassion Fatigue, Vicarious Traumatization, & Secondary Traumatic Stress are Different Sydromes
In my interview with Noah (who’s on a mission to help people in the Austin, TX area find their ideal therapist—that’s the whole point of the podcast), I break down burnout to its core and differentiate it from its companion syndromes: compassion fatigue, vicarious traumatization, and secondary traumatic stress. It’s really important for helping professionals to understand that, for us, burnout is always accompanied by at least one of these other syndromes.
For people in non-helping professions, not so much; they can experience burnout without all the other stuff we’re at risk for. But if we helping professionals can understand how burnout, compassion fatigue, vicarious traumatization, and secondary traumatic stress are all different, we can accurately assess our needs and advocate for ourselves as well as develop a course of action. Bye-bye, self-care unicorn.
Creativity Equals Resilience
That’s where creativity comes in! As an online art therapist in Austin, TX, I help people in the Lone Star State break out of the box that burnout put them in, and together we expand capacity for overcoming the emotional and physical exhaustion, the cynicism and self-doubt, and the disturbing mental imagery that reverberates in places where words can’t talk them away.
Creativity is about mental activity—and if you’re reading this, you still have some mental activity left! You can use it to intentionally upgrade your experience in this very minute, or you can go on autopilot. Autopilot and robolife are two expressions of burnout. If you’re exhausted, it’s really hard to expand beyond this survival-mode way of being. Recognizing your potential for creating small but important shifts that give your nervous system new input is critical. New input = new output.
Kick Start Your Resilience in the Face of Burnout
Give the podcast episode a listen (scroll down to the bottom)—it’s a big overview of how creativity fits into the services I offer in private practice for helping professionals who identify with burnout, and it gives you a glimpse into the madness behind my method. Contents include:
A description of the supportive framework I use and a self-help book that’s based on this model (and it’s written for helping professionals!)
The causes and manifestations of burnout (it’s not your fault)
The experiences that led me to want to help helping professionals (I see you, I hear you, and I feel you!)
DIY tips for addressing your burnout right now (yes, you can)
Creativity’s special role in the combat against burnout (it’s a brain thing!)
A myth-busting definition of creativity (so you can stop saying you’re not creative, because nothing could be further from the truth)
The distinction between flow, mindfulness, and neurodivergent hyperfocus (flow is the way to go!)
Creative consumption vs. incidental ingestion as they relate to burnout management (it’s all about intention)
Guidance for helpers who work with creatives (you can be creative at the end of the day too!)
The ways I use creativity to push beyond self-care (no chasing after the unicorn here)
Permission for all helping professionals to ask for help with their burnout (asking is a sign of your strength!)
Test Drive Online Art Therapy for Burnout Treatment
Of course, there’s other stuff in the podcast episode (like a few yowls from my cat nephew, who’s apparently hoping to be included in the Austin, TX music scene). Noah interviewed me in a way that lets the people of central Texas use the info to check out who I am and get a sense of what it might be like to work with me in online art therapy for burnout treatment.
On that note, if you’re a mental health professional with a private practice that serves the Austin, TX area, give Noah a shout and let him know you’d like to be a guest on his podcast too. You can find him at https://nextquestcounseling.com/aboutnextquestpodcast.
Tired of What Burnout’s Done to Your Life?
If you’re feeling ready to take action against the burnout that’s forced you into survival mode as you live your robolife on autopilot, please let me know! I’m here for you. Visit my Contact page to reach out and get your complimentary 15-minute phone consultation scheduled so we can explore how online art therapy can reignite your creative spark and help you burn bright again.
Now…for the interview!