MFTs’ Burnout Prevention and Coping: What Can Clinicians, Supervisors, Training Programs, and Agencies Do?

ABSTRACT

Burnout is a significant challenge for helping professionals, and several unique factors make MFTs in agency settings particularly vulnerable to experiencing burnout. We identified key factors from the existing literature related to MFTs’ experiences of burnout in agency settings. To provide an updated snapshot of this phenomenon, we also surveyed 140 MFTs using the Counselor Burnout Inventory. Based on the accumulated evidence and our supplementary findings, we propose three categories of strategies for MFTs in agency settings to prevent and cope with burnout. Given that identifying burnout and finding effective remedies require not an either/or but rather a both/and solution, we also discuss how supervisors, training programs, and agencies can help clinicians manage and confront this issue.

KEYWORDS:

• Agency settings
• burnout
• coping
• marriage and family therapists
• prevention