Webinar

1 CE Hour

“Mental Health Counselors in Private Practice: Risk Factors for Burnout”

Frankie Fachilla & James Schut

​Details

Private practitioners are a vital part of the mental health workforce. Burnout can decrease effectiveness and even drive counselors out of the mental health field altogether. Based on a study of 256 participants, this is a research-driven presentation that will help private practitioners (and those supervising private practitioners) identify risk factors for burnout that are relevant to private practice. This presentation will also discuss how to alleviate burnout symptoms within private practice.

Workshop Objectives

1. Attendees will learn and understand the Maslach and Jackson (1981) model of burnout: a sequential, three-stage process of feeling exhausted/depleted by work, disconnected from work/clients (a coping mechanism for exhaustion), and, finally, feeling less competent and accomplished at work. Burnout will be normalized and de-stigmatized through a review of research supporting the prevalence of burnout in the mental health field. Attendees will learn how burnout harms clients, as well as practitioners, and how identifying risk factors for burnout and remedies for burnout will improve client care as well as attendees’ own mental health and wellness.
2. Attendees will identify the following eight, research-supported risk factors for burnout and how they apply to private practitioners: a higher proportion of managed care clients compared with direct pay clients, a higher proportion of administrative hours versus direct client hours, more clients exhibiting difficult/challenging behaviors, over-involvement with clients, low income and higher debt, higher conflict between work and home roles, and lower professional support.
3. In light of the known risk factors, attendees will learn four research-supported remedies for burnout that can be applied to their practice, including: having at least 25% of their client load pay for services directly (instead of through managed care), increasing daily balance behaviors to counteract over-involvement and overwhelm, increasing professional support and professional development, and decreasing conflict between work and home roles.

About the Speakers

Frankie Fachilla

Frankie Fachilla, LPC-MHSP, has over ten years of experience as a counselor in community-based and correctional settings. She is a doctoral candidate at Trevecca Nazarene University currently conducting research focused on private practitioners.

James Schut

L. James A. Schut, Ph.D., MMFT, is professor of graduate counseling at Trevecca (10 years) and has over 25 years of experience in research and program evaluation. Prior to Trevecca, his focus was suicide prevention, although more recently he has developed a strong interest in counselor development and counselor effectiveness.

TLPCA Contact

If you any questions, please contact Robin Lee.