Dec 4

Dec 4 Is Being a Therapist During the Holidays Exhausting You?

Being in the therapist role at the holidays while simultaneously giving to those in your personal life can feel overwhelming. Are you getting enough time off to feel recharged and ready for the new year?

Oct 9

Oct 9 The Gift of Being a Deeply Feeling Therapist

April Snow, LMFT

highly sensitive person

Being a deeply feeling, empathetic therapist certainly has its struggles, but let’s not forget the bright spots that make this work special. When you can allow yourself permission to work in alignment with your needs, you get to bypass burnout and experience the best parts of being an HST while creating meaningful change for your clients.

Jun 19

Jun 19 Why Sensitive Therapists Shouldn't Work With Everyone

April Snow, LMFT

practice building

Can you be a good therapist and make choices about who you help based on what feels most aligned to your needs, personality, or interests? For HSTs, there is so much benefit in narrowing your clinical focus to help your clients more effectively while you feel more satisfied as the clinician. This work is often so draining for us, it’s paramount to bolster against burnout in every way you can.

May 15

May 15 How Much Time Off Is Enough for a Sensitive Therapist?

April Snow, LMFT

self-care

Don’t measure time off by what everyone else is doing, instead take the time you need to maintain a sustainable practice and work-life balance. You can build your therapy practice around your bandwidth.

Apr 18

Apr 18 Why You’re Actually Not Available Between Sessions as a Sensitive Therapist

April Snow, LMFT

self-care

Being a therapist takes a significant amount of energy and focus, but friends and family don't usually understand what your work entails. It’s important to protect the space around the work so you’ll have the internal resources you need to show up fully for your clients, get your admin work done, process and decompress afterward, and then have something left over for yourself. Are you often pulled between work and personal life?

Mar 20

Mar 20 6 Ways to Reduce Referral Overwhelm When Clients Aren’t a Good Fit or Your Practice is Full

April Snow, LMFT

systems

Finding referrals can be exhausting and tug on your heartstrings. Whether your caseload is full or an inquiring client isn’t a good fit (presenting concerns, location, fee, insurance, etc.), you may feel the pressure to find the exact right referral for everyone. What can you do instead? This post shares 6 ways to release the burden of finding referrals for everyone who reaches out while also being responsive and helpful.

Jan 17

Jan 17 Are Your Needs as a Sensitive Therapist Being Ignored?

April Snow, LMFT

self-care, systems

When you create a practice or therapeutic style that honors your needs, the work can feel more sustainable. When you feel supported, you can more easily support your clients. Making changes may make your services unavailable to some folks and that’s okay! You can’t help everyone, especially if your needs are ignored, but you can help some people in deeply profound ways.

Oct 18

Oct 18 Being a Therapist Changes You, For Better and Worse

April Snow, LMFT

highly sensitive person

If you knew then what you know now, would you still choose to be a therapist? Reflections on the impact of being a therapist and how this role changes you and impacts your personal relationships. This work is special, it’s just mixed with the dread of doing paperwork, the exhaustion of the daily emotional rollercoaster you go on session to session, the self-doubt of being enough for your clients, and the upkeep of running a private practice or navigating the politics of a group/agency setting.

Sep 20

Sep 20 Is Referring Clients Out the Key to a Sustainable Practice?

April Snow, LMFT

practice building, systems

During the screening process, are you trusting your intuition to refer clients out? Initial contact with clients can seem so insignificant compared to the therapy itself, but this process is a critical part of maintaining a sustainable practice. You and the client must match on availability, fee, presenting issue, and other factors. Maintaining your boundaries is the compassionate choice and in the best interest of the client.

Jun 15

Jun 15 Reflections on My 5-Week Sabbatical From a Sensitive Therapist

April Snow, LMFT

self-care

What if stepping away to recharge and reconnect with yourself was part of the framework of being a therapist? Here I share my own experience of taking a sabbatical and what I discovered along the way.

Apr 19

Apr 19 Consistent Boundaries + Fewer Decisions Equals a More Sustainable Practice

April Snow, LMFT

systems

As a highly empathetic and deeply feeling therapist, setting boundaries feels uncomfortable, difficult, or impossible. You worry about being too business-like and not a caring human, but predictability creates safety for clients. With stronger boundaries comes fewer decisions and less emotional fatigue for you, the therapist.

Feb 16

Feb 16 The Gift of a Supportive + Sustainable Practice

April Snow, LMFT

practice building, systems

As a Sensitive Therapist, it’s important to think outside the box when setting up your practice. Don’t worry about what you should do or what everyone else is doing, but what would feel supportive and sustainable to you. This could include more phone sessions, fewer phone calls, scheduling boundaries, and dedicated self-care days.

Aug 24

Aug 24 5 Reasons to NOT Schedule Back-to-Back Sessions as a Sensitive Therapist

April Snow, LMFT

practice building

Back-to-back sessions are a Highly Sensitive Therapist's worst nightmare. Your mind doesn’t have time to process all your session details and your nervous system never gets a chance to decompress from the stimulation. If you’re on the emotionally spongy or empathic side, you’ve also picked up some of your clients emotional “residue”. With too many sessions crammed into one day, you leave work drained, frazzled, irritated, or on the verge of burnout. This article dives into the specifics of why too many sessions and not enough downtime will leave you feeling depleted.

May 31

May 31 5 Ways to Transform Your Schedule from Burnout to Balanced

April Snow, LMFT

systems

When you create an intentional and predictable schedule based on your own unique needs, you’ll feel more prepared for sessions, have energy to write notes, enjoy more self-care time, and have peace of mind knowing everything is done.

Apr 28

Apr 28 Is Therapist Guilt Keeping You Stuck in Burnout Mode?

April Snow, LMFT

self-care, highly sensitive person

You may want to help every client who reaches out, but putting empathy first often leads to therapist burnout. It’s important to consider how many clients you can support long-term when you set adequate boundaries.

Apr 6

Apr 6 The Battle of Sustainability for Therapists vs. Accessibility for Clients

April Snow, LMFT

self-care

The struggle of accessibility vs. sustainability burdens Sensitive Therapists who are highly empathetic and care deeply for their clients. You alone cannot solve the problem of mental health accessibility, but you can make sure you maintain a sustainable practice so you can offer care for years to come while honoring your own needs.

Dec 8

Dec 8 How to Navigate the Winter Worries of the Sensitive Therapist

April Snow, LMFT

self-care

Winter can bring specific challenges for the Sensitive Therapist such as overwhelm from holiday obligations, financial anxiety and irritability from changes in routine. It’s difficult to manage the expectations to support our clients, run our businesses and maintain family commitments, all at the same time.

Jun 24

Jun 24 Is It Time for a Schedule Revamp?

April Snow, LMFT

practice building

When you look over your schedule for the next week or even the next few weeks, does everything feel sustainable or do you get an immediate sense of overwhelm and dread? Although it may seem impossible, there are ways to make your days run a bit smoother and to make sure what’s important to you makes it to the top of your priority list.

Jun 18

Jun 18 Do You Feel Guilty When Charging Your Clients?

April Snow, LMFT

practice building, systems

Being empathetic is a powerful clinical skill, but becomes a burden when we need to switch from clinician to business owner. Our guilt can make it difficult to enforce our business policies and collect fees. We prioritize the needs of our clients over our own leaving us at risk for financial distress and emotional burnout.

Nov 13

Nov 13 Why Are Boundaries So Important for Sensitive Therapists?

April Snow, LMFT

self-care

Setting boundaries can be a very difficult but essential practice to avoid overwhelm, exhaustion, anxiety and burnout for Highly Sensitive Therapists.