Time Off is Essential: Are You Getting Enough?
Nearly eight months have passed since I took a break from my client work, yet I was feeling more guilty than ever about taking time off. Perhaps you can relate to the difficulty of creating time for yourself in the midst of a pandemic when your clients could be needing you now more than ever. If you can’t travel anywhere or don’t have vacation plans, it may also be difficult to justify a break from your clinical work.
I encourage you to check in with yourself and ask how sustainable the work is without a break? If you’re feeling the looming effects of overwhelm, stress, exhaustion, or burnout, it’s time to hit pause for a moment. This is what convinced me to step away for a week and find a trusted cover therapist. I knew that if I didn’t pause now before the Fall season started, I would end up feeling depleted and getting sick. Instead, I decided to take an intentional week off now and give my clients proper notice. Considering the type of work we do of supporting people emotionally and caring for their mental health, we need more time off to care for ourselves and also catch up on administrative tasks. It’s okay to step away from time to time.
Even if you can’t take time away for a true vacation right now, I highly suggest creating a staycation or home retreat. The benefit is you can turn everything off without leaving the house and dealing with the overstimulation of travel arrangements. The other reason to take time off is for a “workcation”, especially as many of us are quickly getting behind on progress notes and billing during this time.
Taking time off of your practice to work may seem counterintuitive since you aren’t relaxing or making money, but the workcation is actually the best move for a Sensitive Therapist who has a propensity to get overwhelmed when multitasking. By taking a few days off of seeing clients you can finally get caught up on notes, organizing files, revamping the copy on your website to bring in new clients.
How to Get the Most Out of Your Time Off
It’s a common experience for Sensitive Therapists to feel more drained than refreshed after time away. Completing a few extra steps ahead of time will ensure you can unplug without worry.
Get Coverage: No matter what type of vacation you are planning, it’s imperative that you can truly immerse in the experience so be sure to:
Find a cover therapist to meet with your clients if a crisis arises while you’re offline.
Turn on your out-of-office message on your email with the contact information of your cover therapist and the dates you’ll be away.
Update your voicemail message so folks won’t be expecting a return call while you’re away.
Schedule a Buffer Day: A buffer day is so important for Sensitive folks who need more time to transition. Going back to work immediately without time to adjust to being back to your typical routine may leave you feeling more frazzled. Schedule a buffer day between your time away and the first day officially back to work. Maybe you have a day to catch up on emails and voicemails before seeing clients.
Don’t Overextend Yourself: Prioritize rest and engage with meaningful activities. No matter what type of break you’re diving into, take the pressure off to not do ALL the things! Just because you’re not working doesn’t mean you still don’t need downtime to process all the little details you’ve taken in all day.
How to Take More Time Off
The two most common obstacles to taking more time off for Sensitive Therapists are financial worry and the guilt of how prioritizing our needs will impact our clients. Both of these are very valid and real concerns that can be easily managed with a bit of planning.
Create a Vacation Fund: Start a dedicated savings account that is just for vacation expenses and income.
Plan Ahead: Set an automatic deposit into your vacation fund each month. If you never see the money, you won’t miss it.
Set Clear Expectations: Let your clients know ahead of time that you take a week off each season so they expect it from the beginning. Although the guilt may be strong, remember that you are modeling good self-care and direct communication. Without adequate time off, you risk burning out and not being able to help anyone.
Clean Up Your Recurring Expenses: Cancel any subscriptions or professional memberships you aren’t using and redirect those funds to your vacation savings account.
Keep It Simple: Take shorter breaks and stay closer to home if you have a smaller budget. Staycations or short weekend getaways can sometimes be more rejuvenating than more elaborate trips with extensive air travel.
Sync Your Schedule with Clients: Take advantage of holidays and maximize slower months. For example, if you live in a cold climate with a lot of snow days, plan more time off during the snowy season or if you work mostly with children, sync up your time off with school vacations.
Raise Your Fees Slightly: Even raising your fees by $5 per session could make an impact in your vacation fund.
Modify Your Schedule: If you have a lower caseload, you could also modify your weekly schedule to work only three or four days per week and build in an extended weekend every week. Once per month you could schedule a staycation or weekend getaway without taking any additional time off.
As a Sensitive Therapist, you have a greater need for downtime which means taking more time away to ensure our work is sustainable long-term and doesn’t lead to burnout. This means planning ahead of time to ensure you have time away for staycations to decompress and workcations to catch up on administrative tasks. Taking so much time off may bring up financial worries or feelings of guilt, but can be managed with budgeting and setting clear expectations with your clients. Taking time off is not optional, but essential to thrive in the work you do of supporting the emotional well-being of others.
