Today's session was 50 minutes, in-office. Keisha came in looking completely drained and said she's been feeling numb lately, like she just doesn't have anything left to give. She's a social worker, and she said quote 'I used to care so much, but now I just feel nothing, and it scares me' unquote. She described how she's been feeling irritable, especially with her family, and she's started dreading going to work even though she used to love her job. She said she feels guilty about it, like she's failing the people she's supposed to help.
We talked about compassion fatigue and how it's a real thing, especially for people in caregiving and helping roles who are exposed to other people's suffering over and over. I validated that the emotional numbness, the irritability, the dread, those are all signs that her system is overloaded and trying to protect her. It's not a personal failure, it's what happens when you give and give without enough time to recover. She seemed relieved to hear that, like she'd been carrying a lot of shame about it and finally had permission to acknowledge how hard it's been.
We started building a recovery plan together. First, boundaries, she agreed to stop checking work emails after 6 p.m. and to actually take her lunch breaks instead of working through them. Second, reconnection, we talked about activities that used to fill her up, like painting and spending time with her sister, and how she's let those slip. Third, peer support, I suggested she look into a consultation group or peer support space where she can process some of the hard cases with people who get it. Her homework is to pick one boundary and one reconnection activity to try this week. She said she didn't realize how much she needed this. We'll meet again next week to see how the recovery plan is going and keep building it out.
