Whether you are a physician, nurse, therapist, allied health professional, or anyone who cares for other humans, the demands of your workload are astronomical. The systems are stressed, overworked, and barely functioning - and so are you. You find yourself exhausted all the time. You dread going to work, or you can’t stop thinking about work once your shift has ended. You might find yourself numbing out, or feeling more emotional than ever and crying after every shift. Burnout, depression, anxiety, and compassion fatigue are more common than ever, and you know it, because you can feel it in your body. You’re tired of always being the responsible one, the calm person in a crisis, and then having nothing left to give when the work day ends. The stress is taking a toll, and you don’t know how you can continue on like this. Something has got to give, and you need it to not be you.

You spend your days caring for others. Therapy is a place where you don’t have to be the strong one, and you can get the support you need and deserve. You shouldn’t have to spend the first three sessions explaining what it’s like to work in health care. You need someone who understands your world, and things like

• shift work

• compassion fatigue

• staffing shortages

• moral distress and moral injury

• difficult patient interactions

• exposure to ongoing suffering, vicarious trauma, and work-related PTSD

• insurmountable workloads

• perfectionism and fear of making mistakes

• the weight of always having to be responsible and in control

The problem isn’t that you aren’t resilient enough; it’s that you’re having normal responses to incredibly high levels of stress and responsibility for things that are out of your control. You don’t have to convince me that your work is demanding. As a health care professional myself, I understand the impact on your life, emotions, and mental and physical health.

If you’re like my other health care clients, you already have some coping tools. You know that things like breathing, meditation, yoga, and exercise are helpful, but they don’t fix everything. Therapy cannot be a check list of to-do items to optimize your nervous system; you’ve tried these things and while they’re helpful, they don’t fix it. You need something more. Therapy offers space for you to make sense of your experiences and get targeted support. In our work together, I will use a combination of talk therapy, psychoeducation, EMDR, and other evidence-based practices to support your needs. We get to know each other first, and we figure it out together. Sometimes you may need an ear to vent to, or practical coping strategies to focus on. Sometimes you may need trauma processing to navigate the challenging things you have seen and experienced in your work. Your treatment plan will reflect what your actual needs are, using modalities that will make a difference.

Therapy isn’t about asking you to get better at tolerating an unsustainable life and working conditions. We can be curious about your experiences without rushing to fix them, and find ways to meet you where you are at. Together, we can make sense of what’s happening, and help you reconnect with yourself in ways that feel sustainable - not just in your work life, but for you as a person.

Individual Counselling Rates: 50 mins | $220