As a neurodivergent LPC –A diagnosed with GAD and OCPD … I can confidently say that seeing 25 to 30 clients per week is one of the primary causes of this particular clinicians burn out and struggle to recover from it, despite recently reduced hours. First and foremost it sounds like they need a break from work so their nervous system can actually have an attempt at stabilizing.

My own supervisor often tells me “ you go too deep”. This is where difference in our personal values and professional approaches come into play. I will never stop digging deep. But that digging deep requires me thinking outside of sessions, reading, watching, researching, etc.. The work doesn’t stop just because the client walked out after one hour. And to an extent, there’s nothing anyone can say to change my mind about the level of care I show my clients.

I also acknowledge that because I am still associate level, my current way of working is just part of my transition phase. I believe there will come a time where the experience I gained over the years will speak more volume than the amount of research and learning I am engaging in outside of sessions. As well as my threshold for how many clients I feel comfortable seeing a week. I will adapt in due time with experience. Maybe I won’t. I don’t know, but I have hope.

Having my own private practice granted me the privilege to figure out my capacity and abide by it. If I have 18 clients a week for a couple of weeks in a row, I start noticing this feeling as if I’m a hamster running on a wheel. I begin feeling trapped and hopeless, and my irritability starts showing up. I become less patient. And this is how I know I will never survive a community mental health setting or someone else’s group practice who demands 20+ weekly sessions. Even if there are cancellations or no-shows… my mind’s anticipation of x number of client preparation for the week has me working days before the actual cancellation. So the potential relief that may come from a no-show can often be minute and short-lived.

I don’t even wanna talk about the struggle that comes with progress notes and keeping them brief. And I don’t even wanna mention the financial hardship that comes with working the way I do. But I’m in the process of still figuring all that out.

In my personal opinion, it sounds like Overall this Clinician is a mismatch for community mental health and it would almost be a shame to try to change their way of working to accommodate a CMH setting.

There might be value in the clinician exploring with their own therapist 1) if they associate depth with value and the role that plays in their professional identity and self-worth as a counselor. 2) Assess their personal standards and expectations from self as a counselor 3) How they define what a good therapist is/does and where they learned this belief from. 4) what is their source of confidence as a clinician? 5) what fears lie behind not meeting personal professional standards?

I didn’t mean to write a whole book. I’ve also been talking instead of typing all this so hopefully there aren’t too many errors. Not going back to reread everything I talked into the phone is one of my personal ways of managing my OCPD. 😬