Somatic Experiencing Therapy and Burnout
About Somatic Experiencing Therapy
Developed by Dr. Peter Levine, Somatic Experiencing (SE) is a therapy that guides people to gradually encounter and resolve the physical symptoms of trauma and other forms of chronic stress within a supportive social context. It is based on the idea that trauma is stored in the body, and that by paying attention to and releasing these stored sensations, a person can relieve the symptoms of trauma and other stress related conditions. In the context of job burnout, especially those in the helping professions, Somatic Experiencing can help by addressing the underlying physiology of burnout, restoring vitality and presence to the body and mind. This can be an important step in returning a sense of agency and resilience to either change the conditions leading to burnout or to feel empowered to set boundaries.
Job Burnout and Its Effects on the Body
Burnout is a condition of physical, emotional, and mental exhaustion mixed with a compromised sense of a person’s identity and effectiveness. It often affects people who work in the helping professions, such as therapists, doctors, nurses, teachers, activists, caregivers and social workers. However, anyone overwhelmed and pushed to their limits or working under deeply unfair conditions can experience burnout. It can be brought on by chronic stress, lack of support, a sense of powerlessness, excessive workload and ineffective boundary setting.
Being burnt out often involves physical symptoms like fatigue, headaches, difficulty sleeping, and a deep sense of futility. It can look like cynicism, irritability and problems with focus and maintaining relationships. When we are burnt out, it can be hard to enjoy things, have patience with ourselves and others or respond creatively to challenges. In the helping professions and amongst activists, burnout is closely associated with compassion fatigue, vicarious and secondary trauma – close encounters with the suffering of others that can seep into the nervous systems of those providing care. It is intensified by working conditions and other situations that put people in a position of compromising their values, in which they feel they have no say and/or where their contributions and efforts go unnoticed or unsupported. Unmanageable workloads, inadequate staffing or training and workplace toxicity are known to play a role in burnout. A history of trauma can make us more susceptible to burnout but anyone can become burned out under the “right” conditions. In their article “Have We Been Thinking About Burnout All Wrong?,” journalist Eve Ettinger shows how closely the symptoms of burnout and Complex PTSD (C-PTSD) mirror each other.
Somatic Experiencing Therapy for Job Burnout
Somatic Experiencing helps with burnout by working directly with how it feels in the body. Body awareness, gentle movement, and visualization all play a role in this process. A Somatic Experiencing Practitioner guides clients to safely connect with their bodies, finding and developing places of resilience and gently releasing the stored survival energies that build up from feeling overwhelmed. In this way, a person can start to recover from burnout and release its grip on their sense of self and well-being. Clients reclaim a felt sense of possibility - a confidence in their capacities and intuition. They may reclaim or develop the assertiveness and social connections to make changes personally or in collaboration with others. It can also mean recognizing limits and clarifying when and how to move on with dignity. In either case, tuning deeply into the body reveals a more reliable compass - pointing a way through the turmoil.
If you’ve been affected by job burnout and are interested in how Somatic Experiencing Therapy can help, contact us for a free consultation.
