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Burn out

Within the past week, the Iowa winter has officially gotten to me. I happen to believe I tolerate winter as well as anyone else in the Hawkeye State. February typically brings the promise of warmer days, melting snow, and glimpses of spring. With incessant snow showers in the forecast, not a day over thirty degrees, an eight foot drift in my backyard, and getting our vehicle pulled out of the snow twice in one night; winter has worn out its welcome.

On my way to work Thursday evening, with a laundry basket of sheets in tow, I found myself cursing the slippery ice under my feet. I was battling a nagging feeling that this winter was never going to end. I looked up to the West as a got out my keys, a large nine foot icicle hanging from the roof with a hot pink sunset behind it caught my eye. It was truly, and simply, beautiful. Winter had shown me a glimpse of its beauty. I stopped and thought that in a few weeks this beautiful site would be gone. Now, when every day the forecast is the same as the day before, I close my eyes and remember the rare, but still beautiful, moments of winter. I am coping with my winter burn-out.

This leads me to the topic of career burn-out. Feeling “burned-out” is common. Even though it does not feel like it at the time, the feeling is often temporary. Everyone experiences frustrations and low points with their job. However, when a job causes insomnia, depression, anxiety, or chronic physical aches and pains, it is time to make changes or re-evaluate your career. I am sure many of you have found, few understand the life and limits of a massage professional. Clients do not know how many massages a day a person should reasonably perform. Massage professionals often care about their clients to the point they sacrifice their own physical and emotional health in order to help others. This can include scheduling too many clients in a day or week. I have heard many colleagues say, “It is not about the money; I just cannot say 'no' to my clients”. How many of you have this same problem? Does it leave you feeling overwhelmed or burned-out?

Massage therapy has its moments of never-ending laundry, monotony, relentless clients, and its moments of healing beauty. If you are feeling burned out or overwhelmed, make the changes to help you find the passion for massage therapy again. These changes may include finally learning to say “no” to that particularly persistent client, finding an employer that respects your physical limits, or getting the support you need from friends, family, or colleagues through the good and bad times.

Have you ever felt burned out by massage therapy? How did you overcome it?

Ivy Hultquist, L.M.T.

Advanced Massage Techniques

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Comment by Kimberly Jansen on March 1, 2010 at 5:34pm: Thanks for sharing.
I have found that taking care of myself so I can effectively care for others to be the most important thing in recovering from and avoiding burnout. This can mean anything from simply staying hydrated, to getting massages for myself, to practicing yoga regularly. Anything that fills you up, because you cannot give from a place of emptiness. :)

Comment by Stephen Jeffrey on February 28, 2010 at 11:13am: We don't listen to our mothers fathers teachers and friends. Do we ?

Some lessons in life it seem's can be only learn't the hard way, only when we are emptied out and in pain do we stop helping others and begin to look after number one.

I limit client numbers, so that those I do see get 110% of me at my best.

I also spend £2,000 on massage (1 per week ) and £600 a year on gym membership. If I dont then all I will do is hurt myself in looking after others.

Comment by Ivy Hultquist on February 27, 2010 at 9:15pm: Thank you for the comments everyone. I think as colleagues we need to help and support each other when we are experiencing feelings of burn-out. Like I mentioned, sometimes massage therapy can kind of be a lonely profession since not many understand the physical and emotional demands,

Personally, looking back, before my daughter was born I felt overwhelmed at time. I had some poor time boundaries, and definitely had a problem saying "no" to certain clients. If I would have let thing continue, I would have had had a bigger problem on my hands.

Ivy Hultquist

OT Rick, but I see you are from Norwich. I traveled around there a bit growing up. My mom and her family are from the Diss area. I hope to travel around there in the near future!

Comment by Gloria Jean Miner on February 25, 2010 at 10:44am: Thank you Ivy and Robert for sharing your burn out story. Those of you who never feel a little bit of burn out are very lucky. I have been doing this for 4 years now and have built up what I consider to be a very successful practice. I absolutely love what I do, but I have to admit, there are days when I am so grateful that a client called and had to reschedule. We definitely have to find time to take care of ourselves so we can be the best for our clients. I'm 53 years old and I really feel that God led me to this profession, but He also lets me know when I need to slow down. Thank goodness we are all in this together!

Comment by Julie Onofrio on February 25, 2010 at 10:25am: Yes burnout is why I started my websites. I got sick in about 1998 - about 10 years into my now 21 year career. i had been sponsoring intense workshops for a group and taking the classes too working towards advanced level training. I got very frustrated with all of the politics in the group and the confusing messages they were sending. They would say one thing and not be able to follow through with it in their actions. I had some very intense unexplained vertigo that would leave me incapacitated for weeks so I could do massage. I somehow started writing and decided to put it all into a website - www.thebodyworker.com was started as an attempt to create an apprenticeship program for a friend of mine who wanted to become a massage therapist. More websites followed and I was hooked when they started making me money in about 2004. Now I have a nice balance of writing and doing massage.

We weren't taught about boundaries or anything really in 1987 when I went to massage school. It was only a 250 hour program that was required for licensing back then. I learned the hard way but stayed with it.

Julie
www.massage-career-guides.com

Comment by Robert Chute on February 25, 2010 at 9:14am: Where are all the therapists who have felt burnt out from time to time? Is everybody that in love with the practice of massage?! Everybody all the time?! Jeez...

Okay, so there's me. I worked full-time for many years and then cut back because I treated burn out as a symptom of something. Early in my career it was a sign I was working too much and needed to take a continuing ed course, mix things up and get some intellectual and social stimulation.

Later on it was a sign to take some time off on a vacation and come back refreshed.

Sometimes it was about getting more exercise and sunlight exposure (Jan/Feb/March in the frozen north can be tough with all the SAD.)

Then it was a sign to cut back to avoid injury and boredom. (Building a business is a very energizing time. When there's a waiting list, I find it's less so.)

Then it was a sign to keep part-time hours (9 to 12 clients a week) and focus on my other career interests. I have three part-time jobs. Two and a half are massage related (sometimes I write stuff professionally that isn't related to the field and I work as a peer assessor for our massage regulatory body in their QA program.) The more engaged I am elsewhere, the more I find massage can be a time to slow down, settle down and have some quiet time.

What helps me is saying no to people who do not nurture me (I fired the haranging insurance agent for instance) and I say yes to the things that charge me up. I recently finished all my columns for M&B to the end of 2011. Right now I'm editing an apocolyptic novel, writing a YA novel and writing a 45 minute presentation for a lobby group on health regulatory reform. After that, someone else wants me to edit their novel. I'll attend two publishing conferences this year and take a family trip. I'll take more time off this year than I ever have.

And no, I have not been diagnosed with ADHD but I do require a lot of stimulation so I don't get bored. And yes, I put out the fire of burn out with a lot of planning. The more I read and write, the better I feel when I get to the table. The massage time decompresses me while I press the client. You can love massage again. My solution was to love it along with a lot of other things. I guess that's balance. This is not advice. It's only my experience and a question: Are things in balance for you?

Comment by lee kalpin on February 24, 2010 at 9:08pm: Hi Ivy and Gail
I think the "burn-out" here is on two different levels. All of us who live in cold, snowy locations experience feeling fed up with winter: - with shovelling, driving and getting stuck in the snow, and with the cold and darkness. Many northerners plan a short southern vacation, even for a few days, to help them get through the winter. If you can afford to do that, it will help you get through the winter. If not, try booking a couple of days in a local hotel with a pool. So that kind of burn-out is just about living in a snowy climate, and is not exclusive to massage therapists. (you got all our snow this year - I am in Ontario and we got very little snow)

As for profession-specific burnout, I'm with Gail. I have been practicing for 25 years and have never experienced any emotional or physical burnout. I love what I do, and I keep clear boundaries between my professional life and my personal life.
I take regular vacations; not necessarily long vacations, but just try to get away on a regular basis
If I find that I am NOT looking forward to my day or my clients, then I know I am well past time for a few days off.. I agree, you cannot help your clients if you are not doing your own self-care.

Comment by Gail F. Rosendahl on February 24, 2010 at 1:17pm: Hi Ivy, I can't say that I ever felt burned out, and I've been doing this for 10 years. I love what I do so much, but I quit after 15-20 hours of therapy per week because I know my limitations. I try to get massages myself on a regular basis, learn new ways of doing the same thing and learn new techniques as much as I can so I can perform my massages without much discomfort on me.

Boundries need to be set and you need to set them because you cannot help your clients if you cannot help yourself first.