Counseling for Burnout

You’re exhausted. All day you work to care for your patients, your students, your clients. You give everything you have, and no one seems to appreciate it. Too many consecutive days at work, unpaid work time, too little pay, or not enough safety precautions… It’s like no one even cares that you’re running yourself into the ground.

The work doesn’t stop when you get home either. Whether it’s pets, your partner, kids, aging parents, or some random person on the Internet, someone always needs your help. You have to clean, cook, and run errands. When do you even get a break??

You used to have goals and hobbies. But those things have fallen by the wayside. Sometimes, you aren’t even sure you know who you are anymore outside your helping roles. You’d love to be yourself again, but you aren’t really sure who that is. 

The people in your life outside work respect your needs. You aren’t always running around like a chicken with your head cut off. And perhaps most importantly, you feel like you actually have time to do stuff outside of work.

I’m Regina Marie Stiffler, LPC, LCPC, and I know what it’s like to struggle through burnout. I also know that sometimes it feels like there’s no way out. But I found a way through burnout, and I believe that you can too. But you don’t have to do it alone. Let me help.

I look at counseling for burnout as a collaborative venture. If something isn’t working for you or you’re having some sort of inner dialog about therapy, I encourage you to talk to me about it. Therapy isn’t one size fits all, so your feedback is important! 

As a professional, it’s hard to find time to see a therapist. I offer telehealth sessions to make it easier to access sessions. A limited number of evening or Sunday sessions are also available for those that can’t meet during regular business hours. And since sometimes things come up, I have a flexible cancelation policy. 

You want a therapist who is going to be real with you. I won’t just show up as a real person, make-up free with all my flaws. Instead, I’ll also acknowledge that sometimes things just suck. You don’t need someone to tell you it’s sunshine and roses when it’s actually a sack of flaming shit. And yet, I’ll also help you notice the sunshine and roses.

It’s normal to have reservations when you are thinking about something as significant as counseling. These are some of the most common questions people have before starting counseling for burnout.

I could give you some crap about how great therapy is and there’s no way it won’t work. But that’s not my style. What I can tell you is that what you’ve been doing isn’t working. It’s time to try something else. I can also tell you that at a minimum, counseling gives you 50 minutes every week that someone will give you their full attention. If nothing else, you can vent about all the demands in your life without worrying about hurt feelings.

Usually, we will start with a period of assessment and getting to know each other. Then, we’ll move to learning how to stabilize and manage your feelings of stress. Next, we will help you be very clear about your purpose in life and you can work through whether your current job will help you live up to that purpose. The final stage to address burnout is building your resiliency and support system so that you don’t reach the same level of stress in the future.

The minimum anticipated number of sessions for counseling for burnout is six sessions. However, therapy is a very individualized experience, and while one person may feel relief after six sessions, most people require a longer period to feel better. Also, you may find that your feelings are resulting from more than just burnout. If you discover that you are also living with depression, PTSD, or anything else, you will benefit from youre than just the minimal sessions.

Of course you want to know how much counseling for burnout will cost you! Most people opt to use their insurance benefits for therapy. We are in network with most major insurance companies in both Maryland and Texas. Please check our FAQ for more details about insurance. We also offer courtesy billing for clients who are out of network, allowing you to get reimbursed without extra work. Session costs for self-pay or out of network clients vary depending on session length, with 45 minute sessions at $140, 55 minute sessions at $160, and 25 minute sessions at $70. 

Limited sliding scale slots may be available, ranging from $60 to $100 for 45 minute sessions. You can ask about these during your free consult. If you are not using insurance, you will recieve a “good faith estimate” which outlines what you can reasonably expect to pay for sessions throughout the remainder of the calendar year. If you have questions about this estimate, please feel free to ask.