How the Lack of Financial Wellness Drives Burnout

Often when talking about burnout people imagine the pain, overwhelm, and exhaustion one is feeling. In fact, it is pretty easy to think about the feelings than it is to recognize the full spectrum that burnout touches. For the average American, when you’re faced with burnout, you’re likely faced with a financial struggle as well. In this post, I explain exactly why The Delightful Clinician, has decided to take on the burnout therapists experience.

Where is all this burnout coming from?

When talking to new clinicians and colleagues the consensus is, when you are first starting out, it is easy to learn toxic habits that contribute to high stress and overwhelm. One colleague described the feeling as “being on the fast train to a brick wall and not sure how to get off.” This is especially true if initial work starts in a community mental health organization.

There could be many contributions towards why burnout begins in early work in the field. My examples include:

1. Lack of adequate education about the mental health industry.

While in grad school, there was NO literature on creating, sustaining, or performing in a virtual practice or using telehealth. There was also no discussions about private practice and how it can operate completely different than community mental health organizations. What this led to was unrealistic expectations about the work therapists were completing, and the compensation in the field at the time.

While many clinicians aspire to be in private practice, very rarely are they given the tools to start that business. You typically learn on your own, how to gain clients, how to put together an adequate business plan, how to market, and how to talk about your services in a way that your potential audience would be interested. Most clinicians don’t do this, leading to frustrations and fear around building their own clientele. Or they end up rely on directories.

How does this contribute to burnout? Well, clinicians end up having unrealistic expectations about their field in general. This leads to desperate situations. The lack of knowledge delays people entering into private practice even if that was something they initially dreamed.

2. Poor organization policies.

It has to be said community mental health organizations can be a wonderful resource, as they offer low cost and affordable mental health services. But often times, those services come with long waitlists and high turn over. This in part is because of poor organization policies.

Clinicians often have high caseloads to meet both demand and productivity. Young clinicians are thrown into situations that feel like water above your head with little tools to handle said situations. In addition often there is A LOT of paperwork resulting in panic about getting non-billable hours as well as billable hours to meet the demands.

3. Not enough time

It can take a lot of time to learn what you didn’t to make a business run. Most clinicians I know are wrapping up their time in back to back sessions so they can meet their demand, and it is exhausting. Eventually they grow to hate what they are doing and sometimes the job they work for. There isn’t enough time to break and reset let alone start a business. That can be very frustrating.

4. Low reimbursement

Not having enough wages truly tethers a person to where they are. You see if you don’t have enough money to make ends meet, your first instinct is going to be to work more. So, you continue to drive your car, without an oil change, until something breaks. Except this concept applies not just to the car but many areas in life. People who cannot afford their basic needs end up spending more on quick fixes.

When young clinicians are offered a small salary, they have to configure how they would get their basic needs met. And since they start off behind, because of high costs and inflation, they spend so much time playing catch up while losing time wrapped up in a single service, that they begin to lose passion within the field.

Financial wellness is apart of wellness as a whole.

When thinking about Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, in this society in order to obtain basic needs, you will need funds. To obtain your physiological needs, food, water, shelter, you’re going to need money to obtain those things in some way. If even you lived with your parents, there would still need to be money exchange to pay for the home, the food, and the water even if it did not come out of your pocket.

As humans in this society it is difficult to obtain and maintain your needs without financial wellness. The average salary for a licensed associate is $45,334 per year with the average student loan for a student loan debt of $80,000. This means, clinicians typically don’t make enough to pay off their student loan debt and account for other needs (bills, shelter, food, water).

Panic about making ends meet

When people don’t make enough they begin to panic about making ends meet. They stay up all night worrying about what bill to pay and which one not to pay. We are taught to take care of ourselves through selfceare ie. proper sleep hygiene, relaxation, and exercise, but very rarely do we talk about financial wellness. Though many people experience the fallout of not meeting their financial needs.

Mental Health Professionals are burning out because they are not financially taken care of

All of this has come to ahead during the pandemic. The mental health industry was already running many young professionals out of the field but in 2020, we saw women lose ambition in their work as well as 1.3 million women leave the workforce.

And yet, we are in a mental health crisis with a high demand for practitioners. With a field that is made up of 71% women, it is difficult to adequately meet the demand when people are leaving the field in droves.

How is this countered?

This in part is why The Delightful Clinician talks about side hustles. Much of the basis of financial wellness is not only know what to do with your money but also making enough money to make it money for yourself.

Drop unrealistic troupes

There is this unrealistic troupe that “clinicians didn’t get into the field to make money.” This is untrue for many. While we didn’t get into the field to take advantage of hurting people, you likely absolutely did get into a career to help you obtain and sustain financial wellness, in part that is making money.

Stay on the up and up

You have to be aware about what is happening around you, including in the financial world. In November 2021 the consumer price index was up 6.8% percent from the previous year. That means everything was more expensive by almost 7%. That means, if you didn’t receive at least 6.8% raise, your dollar isn’t going to stretch the way you need it to.

That also means the everyday things you pay for is going to be that much more expensive. So you either need to be good at finding the loopholes or making more money. Honestly you’ll likely need to be doing both.

Find ways to make more money

I’m sure many people got into the field hoping to see people all day and be done with it. The truth is, for some it’s easy to see people back to back, for others that is a lot of emotional labor to contribute and then turn around and do it all over again at home. Weekends aren’t enough for a reset.

This is a why a diverse income stream helps. It give you an opportunity to do what you love, but also utilize your skills in other ways. It also help you to put your money to work.

Staying well in the field takes both financial and emotional wellness

Longevity in the field will depend on financial wellness. It is clear people are burning out because emotionally they are stretched thin, but also financially they are stretched thin as well. Both of these concepts play into each other. No, money does not buy happiness, but it makes life easier in a capitalistic society.