Feeding Yourself: Step One of Being a Therapist

Written by Connor Jewell, MA, LPC, Timber Creek Counseling

Imagine a baker. This baker is outstanding at their job, and each morning the bakery is full of customers who come from miles away to purchase the delicacies on display. Everyone who enters the shop leaves satisfied. That is, except for the baker. You see, the bakery became so popular and busy that the baker did not have time to stop working and eat. In the midst of feeding others, the baker slowly diminished and eventually could no longer keep producing. When the baker starves, everyone goes hungry.

I have heard this allegory multiple times to illustrate the importance of self-care. This message is especially crucial in the mental health field. Therapists are not immune to the challenges and conditions that they are experts in treating. Sometimes work/life balance is askew; sometimes personal struggles like depression and anxiety get in the way of everyday life. As therapists, we celebrate those clients who have the courage to reach out for help, but sometimes we struggle with doing it ourselves.

Timber Creek Counseling, the practice where I work, has been focusing on initiatives to support our clinicians across all dimensions. Health is a holistic endeavor that must include multiple areas of life. As a result, we collectively walked thousands of miles in an October step challenge, are compiling a cookbook of minimally-processed recipes, offer Employee Assestance Programs (EAP’s) for affordable mental health treatment (which I have used personally), and our directors are constantly optimizing our salary scale to promote our financial security. Wellness is an individual responsibility, but the goal of our team is to create an environment that supports and encourages the individual efforts of our employees, rather than impedes them

A therapist who has been drained cannot pour into others, and the same is true of anyone in a caregiving role. Self-care, therefore, is not selfish, but instead makes providing support to others sustainable.

Even a small shift in lifestyle, such as adding a 15-minute walk or taking an extra hour for yourself each week, can make a huge difference in your overall wellness. As they say, a little yeast leavens the whole loaf.