There’s an awful adage that says “doctors make the worst patients.” We sat down with someone who knows whether that’s true—Tamara Haynes, a Licensed Practicing Counselor who regularly provides therapy to healthcare professionals. Here’s what Tamara had to say about working with healthcare professionals as therapy clients.
(Spoiler: She thinks they tend to be highly engaged, knowledgeable, and prepared).
Tamara, you work with healthcare workers in therapy. What makes therapy with them different from working with other clients?
There are several factors that therapists need to consider when supporting healthcare workers. Therapists must create a safe space for healthcare workers that consider the demands of their professions. Healthcare workers are often highly skilled and highly educated and their role as caregivers may make it difficult to transition to the role of “care receiver” and/or “patient.” Taking this into consideration, therapists must create an environment that’s free of stigma thus making it safe for healthcare providers to be supported and vulnerable.
Healthcare workers are at a higher risk for burnout and compassion fatigue due to the high stress nature of their profession. Understanding this is helpful when developing treatment strategies. Due to the fast-paced, high stakes nature of their profession, treatment strategies should be practical, solution-focused, and easy to implement.
That makes sense! What do you enjoy most about working with healthcare clients?
Healthcare workers face a tremendous amount of stress and emotional strain, often working long hours, rotating shifts and supporting a high volume of patients making them more susceptible to burnout and compassion fatigue. Providing therapy offers healthcare workers the chance to work through difficult emotions and mitigate the adverse impact of burnout and compassion fatigue. This in turn can lead to improvements in their overall mental well-being, job performance, job satisfaction, and improved patient care.
Supporting healthcare workers’ mental well-being indirectly supports the community at large because healthcare workers are front-line workers when it comes to the general welfare of public physical health.
Assisting healthcare workers with the development of coping skills can not only help them thrive in their work setting but also in their personal lives as well by mitigating the adverse impact of stress, burnout, and compassion fatigue.
As a healthcare worker yourself, what experiences can you empathize with for healthcare workers?
Healthcare workers face many unique challenges that are often experienced by therapists such as exposure to high levels of stress related to a myriad of factors such as life and death situations, long working hours, burnout, and high emotional demands. Mental health professionals can relate to these challenges, provide empathy and validation, creating a safe environment for healthcare workers to share their thoughts and feelings without judgment.
Mental health professionals understand the need for practical and easy to implement strategies so that they can continue to support individuals in need while taking care of their own mental wellbeing. Therapists can teach healthcare workers evidence-based tools to manage stress, anxiety, depression and other difficult emotions.
Like healthcare workers, mental health professionals are often exposed to trauma. Trauma-informed care is an integral part of therapy because it acknowledges the impact of trauma on one’s mental health. Trauma-informed care provides a framework for helping individuals process their experiences while they work towards healing.
Mental health professionals understand the stigma associated with seeking mental health support, especially when you work in a profession where you are supposed to be the go-to person and the expert who supports others with their issues. Mental health professionals can reduce the stigma by normalizing the need for mental health support.
What do you think about the phrase, “doctors make the worst patients?”
Although “doctors make the worst patients” is a common stereotype, it’s not exactly true by my own experience. Similarly, to mental health professionals, because of their training, doctors have an inherent understanding of appropriate care. They are often more likely to follow treatment recommendations because they understand the pros and cons of nonadherence to interventions. Doctors have a clear understanding of what is at stake both professionally and in many cases personally if they do not address mental health issues.
Doctors, due to their training, can clearly express their feelings and articulate their symptoms, which makes it easier to develop clinically appropriate treatment plans.
What do you think is important for healthcare workers to know about therapy?
Because of the fear of judgment for seeking mental health support, it’s imperative that healthcare workers know that therapy is confidential and nonjudgmental. Confidentiality is the cornerstone of the therapeutic process. Therapists are bound by legal and ethical standards to protect an individual’s privacy.
It’s important for health professionals to know that seeking mental health support is not a sign of weakness. The intense nature of their profession makes healthcare workers more susceptible to burnout and stress which may not only adversely affect their job performance but also their personal lives. Therapy can provide practical tools for managing difficult emotions, stress and burnout. Therapy can help healthcare workers understand that an integral part of being able to care for others (patients and their own loved ones) is to take care of themselves.
