Course Summary

Practice Level: Intermediate

Social workers, counselors, marriage and family therapists, and psychologists, work with adults, families, and children who struggle with difficult life circumstances. Their problems can be emotionally laden with adverse life experiences that range from mildly disruptive to traumatic and life-altering. While there is the potential for it to be incredibly rewarding, this work can exact a toll on providers’ work and home lives. Clinicians must be aware of this possibility and take conscious steps to balance personal, social, and work life in order to remain healthy themselves. Furthermore, clinicians must be prepared to recognize and provide professional therapeutic services to clinicians experiencing burn-out who seek their professional help (i.e., clinician clients); and, those human service and mental health professionals providing supervision to colleagues, newer professionals, or trainees need to be prepared to help identify, prevent, and intervene when burnout threatens or becomes apparent. This learning material is written with the recognition that educating clinicians about burnout has implications in their multiple professional and personal roles including recognizing and addressing burnout in: themselves, their clients who are clinicians (i.e., clinician clients), their supervisees and trainees, their employees in agencies where they are administrators, and their colleagues, coworkers, and supervisors. Burnout does not only affect the individual practitioner; rather, it also affects their clients and can affect whole systems of care. If left unattended, burnout symptoms can lead to ethical violations in clinical practice, high turnover rates in the agency, increased ineffectiveness of clinical interventions, and overall feelings of work dissatisfaction. This learning material will provide information for clinicians about how to recognize the signs and symptoms of burnout, conduct assessments, and engage in prevention efforts. It also helps clinicians plan for self-care for themselves and with clinician clients as a burnout intervention.

Course Format

This course contains downloadable online lessons (PDF) and a practice test. When you’re ready, purchase the course by clicking the “Add To Cart” or “Enroll” button. This will let you take the test, complete the course evaluation and receive your certificate for CE credits.

Learning Objectives

  • Identify the signs and symptoms of burnout.
  • Recognize the causes and risk factors of burnout and vicarious traumatization.
  • Describe burnout self-assessments.
  • Explain prevention measures against burnout and the role of supervision.
  • Discuss counseling techniques to use with clinician clients experiencing burnout.
  • Describe self-care planning and strategies for burnout intervention.

Course Syllabus

Introduction

Signs and Symptoms

Causes and Risk Factors

            Clinician Factors

            Gender

            Ethnic/Racial Background

            Age

            Other Factors in Employee Burnout

Vicarious Trauma

Burnout and the COVID – 19 Pandemic

Self-assessment

Prevention Strategies
            Micro-practices for Burnout
                        Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT) Approaches
            Organizational Trainings
            Mind-Body Interventions
            Supervision
            Expressive Arts
            Helping the Helper Program
Supervision
Self-Care Planning
            SMART Goals
            Mindfulness
            Expressive Arts
            Physical Health
            Spiritual Health
Summary and Recommendations
References

Authors

Teresa Crowe, PhD, LICSW

Teresa Crowe, PhD, LICSW is a licensed clinical social worker in the District of Columbia and Maryland. She is a professor of social work at Gallaudet University and teaches practice, theory, and research in the MSW program. Her recent research focuses on deaf and hard of hearing populations, especially in the areas of behavioral health, intimate partner violence, telemental health, well-being, and help-seeking.

Accreditation Approval Statements

CE4Less.com, provider #1115, is approved as an ACE provider to offer social work continuing education by the Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB) Approved Continuing Education (ACE) program. Regulatory boards are the final authority on courses accepted for continuing education credit. ACE provider approval period: 08/08/21-08/08/24. Social workers completing this course receive 3 clinical continuing education credits.

Courses have been approved by CE4Less.com, as a NAADAC Approved Education Provider, for educational credits. NAADAC Provider #91345 CE4Less.com is responsible for all aspects of the programming.

We are committed to providing our learners with unbiased information. CE4Less never accepts commercial support and our authors have no significant financial or other conflicts of interest pertaining to the material.

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