Why many healers burn out (and how to avoid it)

Over the years, I’ve worked with many healers who were struggling with similar problems: compassion fatigue, burnout, and patterns of over-giving.

Serving others and walking with them on their spiritual path isn’t always easy… it requires a deep commitment to your own healing so you can show up as clear, present, effective, and grounded as possible.

One of the fastest ways to burn out doing healing work is by being in confusion about our role as healers (or as coaches, spiritual practitioners, etc).

An important question here is: how do you perceive the SCOPE of your role when working with clients in a healing capacity?

What are you truly here to do, provide, and help your clients with?

And, on the other hand, what falls outside the scope of your role as a healer or coach?

Some common misperceptions that quickly lead to burnout include:

• Believing your role is to heal or “fix” your clients
• Believing your role is to make everything ok for your clients
• Believing your role is to please your clients (i.e., not in a “customer satisfaction” kind of way, but in a dysfunctional people-pleasing kind of way)
• Believing your role is to have ALL the answers for your clients
• Believing your role is to help every single client who walks thru the door, even if they have issues or questions beyond your training or area of expertise (or if they have issues/questions you’re NOT excited to help them with!)

A key thing to remember, always, is: we are not gurus. We are not all-knowing. We are not all-seeing “oracles.” We don’t have all the answers.

It’s also not our place (or within our human capacities) to heal anyone else – or even to do their healing work for them.

If we were to examine this more deeply, we’d likely find that this impulse to heal, fix, or “save” others comes from old patterns, childhood programming, dysfunctional attachment styles, poorly defined boundaries, and/or feelings of unworthiness in ourselves…

… all of which can end up unconsciously driving us to take over-responsibility for our clients, trying to become the Savior, the Fixer, or the Rescuer.

And the more we try to “save” others, or to have all the answers for them, or to demonstrate our value and worthiness by “healing” them…

… the more exhausting the whole thing becomes.

So, what to do instead?

The first thing is to get into CLARITY about your role as a healer, coach, or practitioner.

Let’s counteract each mistaken belief from above with a more accurate and useful one:

• Instead of believing you must fix your clients, you can focus on guiding them – one step at a time – and walking WITH them on their path
• Instead of believing you must heal your clients, you can encourage and lead them to activate their own innate healing power and gifts
• Instead of believing you must make everything ok for your clients, you can create a non-judgmental, loving space for them to feel ALL of their feelings and release whatever isn’t working for them in their lives
• Instead of believing you must “please” every single client, every single time, like your life depends on it… you can prioritize delivering the highest-quality service while also focusing on giving your clients what they most NEED (which may be different from what they want or are attached to getting from you)
• Instead of believing you must have all the answers, you can give yourself permission to own your humanity and say “I don’t know – let’s figure this out together”
• Instead of putting pressure on yourself to help every single client with every single issue or question, you can hone in on your areas of expertise (and training) and set clear boundaries about not going beyond them… which means being willing to say “dear client, I can’t help you with this, so I lovingly release you to find the person who CAN”

Can you feel the relief that comes with making these mindset and energetic shifts?

These can safeguard you against burn out, compassion fatigue, over-responsibility, and over-giving.

In my Akashic Records Certification Program for Practitioners, we’ll be addressing and resolving these and other unconscious healer patterns…

… so you can show up as present, conscious, clear, and energized as possible to serve your clients. (And actually enjoy the work and be nourished by it!)

Would you like to join us for the next round?

You can explore the details and apply here: Akashic Records Certification

With love,
Josephine