How to avoid burnout - Psychologist Tips

Dr Marianne Trent (: 00:00

How can we avoid burnout and what key times of the day could be triggering us that we might be able to step back from? Let's learn these steps from a qualified clinical psychologist who is an expert in this field of anti burnout. I hope you find it so useful.

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Welcome along to the Aspiring Psychologist Podcast. I am Dr. Marianne Trent. I'm a qualified clinical psychologist. Now, we don't want you to burn out whether you are watching this as an aspiring psychologist or whether you are watching this because you are feeling stressed or overwhelmed. Wouldn't it be great to have a step-by-step guide for how to step back from the brink of burnout and how to keep yourself well? I have drafted in one of my friends and colleagues, Dr. Claire Plumbly, who is the author of Burnout, how to Manage Your Nervous System Before It Manages You. She's giving us a very special mini series over the summer called Burnout Bites, which is all about how to avoid burnout. This is episode five in the series of six. There is no need to watch all six. They do build on each other beautifully. So please do take a moment to watch the previous ones and listen to previous episodes. If you do like this one too, let's hand over to Claire and I will see you on the other side.

Dr Claire Plumbly (: 01:25

Welcome back to Burnout Bites. This is episode five out of six short episodes all about burnout. My name is Dr. Claire Plumbly. I'm a clinical psychologist. I specialise in anxiety, trauma, and burnout. I'm based down in Taunton Somerset and also have a practise that works online as well. On the 18th of July, 2024, my first ever book came out. It's called Burnout, how to Manage Your Nervous System Before It Manages You, and you can get a link to that in the show notes. So today we're going to talk about protecting yourself from burnout. In particular, thinking about the transitions in the day so that you can find those moments to settle your nervous system. I think it's a really good point actually, that Marianne has lent out her podcast seat to me here because this is one of those examples of what you can then do when you're tuned into what you need.

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She has delegated, she's given and trusted me to hold her podcast. Hopefully she feels that I'm doing this in a satisfactory way, and this has allowed her six weeks of space to focus on other things. When you are running something like a podcast, it's really easy to burn out because you're often really passionate about this project. So this is the kind of thing that hopefully you'll have some more ideas about by the end of this short episode. So you might remember in the second episode when I describe the difference between stress and burnout, that's a sign that we are in good wellbeing is that we can move in and out of our nervous system gears with fluidity, and that one of the signs of burnout is that we struggling at those transition points of the day. So when we stop or start work, when we begin to eat a meal and when we move from sitting in the car to getting out and going get the kids or putting them to bed, all of these are typical times when you might really notice a strain.

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Different activities require different cognitive faculties, different levels of energy and movement, and so not being able to move fluidly through all of that can cause us real difficulty. So this episode is all about an invitation to notice the transitions in your day. I've made social media posts on this and I often refer to them as micro moments. So the moment before you start something else, we're often so busy, there's often so many demands on us that we crash from one activity to another. The number of people who struggle with their sleep and yet they're still working on their computers or doing something work related right up until bedtime, it's a lot. So this is the time if you are begin to feel burnout or wanting to work on yourself to try and create gaps so you can pace yourself throughout the day. This might be creating gaps even when it feels like there's no possibility of a gap being created.

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So a classic for me is when I go and get the kids from school, what I used to do is shut my computer down, go and get in the car and park as close to the school as I could so that I could do it all at the last minute. And what I found I did when that happened was I was in my head and I was unable to really be there for the kids with whatever they were bringing from their transition coming out of the classroom and feeling unhappy that so-and-so said this or that the teacher had given them this to do or I wasn't able to absorb that in a way and be there for them in a way that they needed because I was still stuck in my own head feeling quite irritable that I'd had to break my concentration to come and get them.

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This was particularly the case when I was writing my book actually, and I was really in my flow and really didn't want to give that up. So what I realised was this was not benefiting anyone. We were all miserable. So even though that extra five, 10 minutes of writing felt really hard to give up, I did train myself to stop and got used to committing to myself that I would park in a certain place and the kids actually got really used to it and this just became a joyful part of their walk. So there's a little place I can park and it, I'm fortunate it walks down the back of a little stream so I can really use all of these things around me to ground myself. And there's rich fodder for me. There's squirrels jumping from Tree to tree. There are usually some sort of dog being walked.

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There's the trees and grass, and I try and put my phone either in the car or the bottom deepest pocket of my bag and I resist any urges to check so I'm not breaking out of this kind of ability to be grounded. So I was having this discussion with someone in supervision recently and they started to do this with their own clients, and I think something we identified was how hard it is to even notice the transition points when we're so used to kind of crashing from one thing to another without paying attention to them, and it's such a familiar feeling, isn't it? For example, everyone to arrive in a meeting a little bit, they've raced there and the thing is you're still carrying whatever you were doing with you. So your head's either in the past, I've got to do this, I've got to remember this, or what do they say?

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Then how will I remember? Or all these types of worry thoughts about the past or we're beginning to think about the next thing or how will I get to there in time? Or what are we going to eat for dinner? Or what will I do when I need to present on this? We're very rarely in the moment when we pause and have these gaps, this is the time that we can check in with ourselves and ground ourselves. So by checking in, I mean tuning in, scanning your head down to your toes, what's here in my body? Am I tense? Do I need to stretch it out? Do I need to move my body and discharge a bit of the energy and adrenaline or do I need to just be there for myself? This is typical. If I've had a really heavy session of a client who's really traumatised, maybe I just need to pause sometimes.

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Then once you've paused and seen what's here in your body and the quality of thoughts they're racing or busy or self attacking, I can then do something to meet my need and whatever that might be. You'll have different tools already in your toolkit. My book also offers more of that, but it might be some sort of self-compassion or slowing down or comforting. It might be something more energising and uplifting. So for me, for example, even though social connection is really, really good for all of us and I know I really benefit from it, there are times when there isn't anyone to do that with. When I'm in my clinic, I'm on my own, but one way I can do that is to look at videos. I've got a few videos that just make me always smile. They're off my kids being silly and also little secret here, but I do get quite a lot of benefit from watching Guinea pig videos and the algorithm has found me and tends to send me lots of funny Guinea pig videos.

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When I get home from a heavy clinic, there's a half hour gap. In the past, I have sometimes used that try and do admin, but now I know I'm so kind of rung out from holding a lot of emotional distress. I try to make sure I use that half an hour, just have a cup of tea, stare out into the garden or have a cuddle with a Guinea pig. So I'm paying more attention to what I need and tuning in and actually doing it. So using your mindfulness skills and any reset nervous system skills that you already have are really important once you start to do this. It might also be helpful to get an accountability buddy or two or three or more agree with each other. What's the compassionate way of managing our day together? Is it rushing from one thing to another? Is it finishing the meeting 10 minutes earlier?

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Even if we haven't finished everything on the to-do list or the agenda? Actually it's better to have had a conversation that went well and we know we've got that 10 minute to have some downtime and reset together. It might also be learning some skills in areas that maybe you're a little thin on the ground on. So for example, setting boundary delegating like Marianne has done with this podcast. What are the barriers to that? Is it about, for example, trust? Is it about feeling worthy of having boundaries and saying no, and is it perhaps practical things like scripts and words and what that actually looks like? So I go through the types of things this might look like at the end part of my book, but I do want to leave you today with a model that I find really, really helpful. It's Susie Redding's model.

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It's called The Eight Pillars of Rest, and I read it in her book Rest to Reset. She's kind of given me permission to share it in my book as well, but essentially what she's got eight pillars that show what you might need if you've been doing something so that you can rethink what rest actually looks like. Rest tends to get pigeonholed as kind of stillness and stopping, but obviously if you've got a lot of nervous energy, that's not helpful. So for example, she's got a pillow which is solitude. So if you've spent a lot of time on your own, maybe what you need at that point is to fill up emotionally. If you've been moving a lot, maybe it is to come to some sort of more peaceful, pausing kind of energy. But equally the opposite is true. So her pillars make it super practical and simple to see what is it I've been spending my time just doing tuning in, checking what I need, and here's an example of what might be the opposite of that. So I do hope this has been helpful and that you're able to take some of these ideas and make them really practical and make them your own. I will see you in the final of this short series in episode six where I'm going to go through the difference between external and internal pressures so that you can separate them out and know where you can maybe do some work on the internal pressures to support yourself. Thank

Dr Marianne Trent (: 10:13

You so much, Claire. What brilliant food for thought you are offering us and how to kind of step back from burnout at those key transition points in the day is going to be so, so useful for me and for everyone who is listening and watching too. Please do come and connect with Dr. Claire. She's Dr. Claire Plumbly everywhere and whilst you are on social media, why not come and connect and follow me too Well, I am Dr. Marianne Trent. We are doing beautiful things in the Aspiring Psychologist membership, so please do check that out and do come on over. If you think that the time is ready and you are ready for this next step in your career, you can join from just 30 pounds a month with no minimum term. Check out Dr. Claire's book with the details in the show notes and also search for my books, the Aspiring Psychologist Collective and the Clinical Psychologist Collective two.

(: 11:05

There's also the Grief Collective, Talking Head, and I have an upcoming book with two of my colleagues looking at people diagnosed with autism who work in the health profession. Come and let me know what you think to this episode, what you think to this series, the Burnout Bites series with Dr. Claire by coming along to the Aspiring Psychologist community with Dr. Marianne Trent. These do take a moment to subscribe to the show, to follow the show. It really is the kindest thing you can do for any podcaster, and it is totally free. Thank you so much for being part of my world. I'll look forward to bringing you the next episode, which will be the final episode in our Burnout Bites series, which will be available to you from 10:00 AM on Saturday on YouTubes and wherever you get your podcast from 6:00 AM on Monday. Thank you so much for being part of my world, and I'll see you very soon. Take care.

Jingle Guy (: 11:55

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