How can teachers create a balanced schedule to prevent burnout?

Juggling lesson plans, student needs, and the ever-growing demands of the education system can leave your personal life feeling like a forgotten melody.

But creating a healthy work-life balance is essential to prevent burnout and keep the joy alive in your teaching career.

Here at LifeSpring Counseling, we believe therapy can play a powerful role in helping teachers find balance and peace in their lives.

At LifeSpring, we foster a welcoming and positive work environment for the providers who choose us as their place of employment. Our office has several LGPCs, LCPCs, and LCSW-Cs who have come to us grow their expertise, and we are happy to be able to provide them several workplace benefits, such as paid time off/holidays, health insurance, 401k plans with matching, life insurance, short-term disability, CEU and training opportunities, and more.

While these workplace benefits are part of what makes LifeSpring a great place to work, we also provide other perks to providers who choose to work with us, some you might not have even thought about!

How Do Night Shifts Affect a Nurse's Mental and Physical Health?Our bodies are like finely tuned machines, and they crave routine. Enter night shifts – the ultimate schedule disrupter. They throw a wrench into our natural circadian rhythm, that internal clock that governs our sleep-wake cycles. Think of it like constantly resetting your alarm – confusing, right?  This disruption has a domino effect on your overall health, leading to a cascade of issues.

Here at LifeSpring Counseling, we believe therapy can play a powerful role in heling nurses find balance and peace in their lives.

Common signs of burnout in nurses can include emotional exhaustion, depersonalization and cynicism, reduced sense of accomplishment, social withdrawal, and physical symptoms. These signs are a warning bell, but they don't define you. If you're experiencing some of them, it's a chance to course-correct and prioritize your well-being.

As a licensed counselor, social worker, or psychologist, you’ve had to undergo supervision in order to obtain your license. Once the required supervision hours have been met, however, our only requirements for continued growth are through continued education.  Fortunately, many licensing Boards allow attendance at peer consultation meetings to count towards the continuing education requirements. In this article, we’ll be talking about peer consultation and the benefits of it, even after you’ve become fully licensed. 

Emotional intelligence (EQ) is the ability to understand, use, and manage your own emotions in positive ways to achieve your goals and build strong relationships. While some people seem to be naturally gifted with high EQ, the good news is, EQ can be learned and developed.

Here at LifeSpring Counseling, we believe therapy can play a powerful role in fostering emotional intelligence.

Living with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) as an adult brings unique challenges, especially when sensory processing issues are present. Sensory processing refers to how our nervous system receives and interprets sensory information from the environment. Adults with ADHD often experience heightened or reduced sensitivity to sensory stimuli, referred to as hyper-responsiveness and hypo-responsiveness.

Taking care of yourself is one of the most important things you can do as a caregiver because your well-being is necessary in this role. Caregiving is not easy.  It takes a lot of responsibility, dedication, time and effort to care for an elderly individual. There are a lot of adjustments that have to be made as well. 

Have you ever heard of a runner’s high? If you have, you might imagine runners feeling extra great after a tough run or wonder how on Earth someone could feel good while running. 

One aspect that I have found particularly helpful in managing anxiety, processing trauma, and relaxing is the bilateral stimulation that the movement of running and walking can provide. 

If you think about it, your doctor probably has a doctor and that doctor probably also has a doctor. Your teacher had a teacher who was taught by another teacher. Your mailman has a mailman who has a mailman and your dentist has a dentist…who has a dentist!

So, why is it harder for therapists to see or talk about their own therapists?

How many times have you been in line in a store or scrolling online and come across some magazine or post that looked something like this?

“Get Summer Body Ready with This Simple Diet and Exercise Plan!”

Now, how many of those times did you then look at the picture of the “beach body” attached and think about all of the ways your body did not look like the photo in the article? Again, if this has happened to you in one way or another, I wouldn’t blame you!

But, how can one body type be the only body for summer when we are all under the same, summer sun?

The world of work is constantly evolving, and with it comes the reality of career changes. Whether it's a planned shift, an unexpected layoff, or the pursuit of a long-held dream, career transitions can be emotionally charged.

Here at LifeSpring Counseling, we understand the challenges that come with changing careers, and we want to assure you that therapy can be a valuable source of support.

As a therapist in private group practice, I’ve spent several years developing my professional identity. I look back on the first year of my work fondly and with a lot of empathy, because I learned a lot of valuable insight about myself, others, and the world of therapy. If you’re a new therapist, perhaps these ideas could be valuable to you as you begin your job search and hopefully help you get a great start to your career!

As a clinician with several years of experience in private group practice, I’ve gotten to know a lot about the signs of a workplace environment that supports therapists. When thinking about what to look for in a healthy workplace, some things that come to mind might include PTO, directors & supervisors who are accessible, or regularly receiving positive feedback. I’ve found these things to be true at LifeSpring, AND I’ve noticed in my time several other ways that I’ve felt personally supported and encouraged as an employee of this group. So I’ve decided to explore those a bit here! 

Life throws curveballs. Sometimes, it feels like these curveballs come one after another, leaving us feeling lost, overwhelmed, and unsure how to move forward. Whether you're facing a job loss, a health scare, a relationship breakup, or any other major life challenge, you're not alone.

While these challenges can be incredibly difficult, they also present opportunities for growth and self-discovery. Therapy can be a powerful tool in helping you not just survive these challenges, but to truly thrive in the aftermath.

You’ve heard of speed dating, but have you ever considered how nice it would be if you could speed interview a bunch of therapists at the same time, so you could quickly decide who’s the best fit for you? You can always schedule consultation calls with various therapists to ask them some questions and see which person feels like the best fit.

Our minds try to over-control, micromanage, and interfere in our lives every day, whether or not we notice. That is when we experience regrets about the past, fears for the future, self-labels, judgements, mental rules, and reasons—all of which aim to keep us safe from harm. Just as helicopter parents do, our minds do the same thing out of a desire to protect us in a world that can be seldom controlled. 

We can always tell something important has appeared when something bothers us. When something bothers us, it usually indicates that a value is being brought up, challenged, or tampered with. That is because as much as values help us find joy and meaning, values can also help us find pain and difficulty. If something weren’t a value, we wouldn’t care. So, the fact that you care is a good thing. It may not feel great now, but in one way or another, it will pay off differently.

It can be difficult to feel compassion for yourself or a loved one with a BPD diagnosis, especially if you experience its ups and downs or its social impact. However, holding compassion for the diagnosis and the person living with it can be a powerful way of reclaiming the power of one’s emotions, thoughts, behaviors, relationships, and sense of self. 

Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) has become a more heavily discussed mental illness diagnosis in recent years due to more exposure in the media. Its increased discussion, however, has also brought more misinformation about a complex and misunderstood diagnosis.