The Lifeworks Group, Inc.

 By: Megan Brewer, LMHC Burnout can be an easy topic to read about cognitively, file away as good information, and then disregard without letting it impact you further. But as we talk about burnout in this article, I encourage you to not only engage it cognitively, but to consider the personal implications for how it affects your own life. Burnout can be discussed in different contexts, such as in our careers or personal lives. but let’s start with a simple definition of burnout that can cover a lot of contexts. Burnout is the depletion of a substance that is needed to keep something going. When we strip the definition of burnout down like this, we can easily see burnout in a number of different areas, such as in the physical, emotional, mental, and relational arenas. Anything that requires something of you—some output of energy or effort—will 1) require you to have what is needed to engage the work you want to do, and 2) require replenishment to keep going. Now, if we th...

 By: Megan Brewer, LMHC Caring for yourself with an emphasis on mental health has become an increasingly familiar topic, and the more we learn about mental health, the more necessary it becomes to pay attention and care well for every part of ourselves. As we discover more about the human brain and body, we recognize the greater need to tend to our internal world because it will ultimately impact all the other parts of us. However, in order to tend well to your mental health, you first have to become aware of your current mental health landscape: How aware are you of what you experience in your daily life or in situations that are out of the ordinary?  Do you know how the things happening to you and around you impact how you feel and think? Do you know how they impact your relationships?   Knowing these things are prerequisites to creating healthy strategies to care for your internal world. The problem is, knowing anything requires us to be activel...

By: Christine Hammond, LMHC, NCC Marie’s first response to her therapist when asked about her childhood was “It was fine, my dad was perfect”. Now, this statement is gold for a therapist and begs to be mined further. After indulging Marie in the perfect father fantasy for a few minutes, the therapist took things on a different approach and asked about her mother. Marie described her as highly anxious, a bit of an alcoholic, stressed for no apparent reason, and unable to make even small decisions without consulting her father. Further probing into her mother revealed a woman that seemed traumatized all the time. With no discernible traumatic event, Marie realized that her mom was responding to demands from her father. It wasn’t too long after the initial remark of “my dad was perfect” that Marie began sharing troubling stories of her childhood. Her revised description of her father fit the profile of a narcissist. As the therapy progressed, Marie came to terms with h...