Burnout Critical Review

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Burnout, as a phenomenon experienced in helping professions, has largely been documented. Maslach and Leiter (2008) detail predictors of job burnout in their longitudinal study. Four hundred and sixty-six organizational employees completed measures that evaluated work-life and burnout twice across a one-year period. Of the participants, 186 were female and 255 were male, and ages ranged from 18 to 60 years old. The authors found that 8 themes appeared to influence movement on a burnout-engagement continuum. These 8 themes included: workload, control, reward, community, fairness, and values. Individuals who had inconsistent scores from time one to time two were likely to experience burnout. Specifically, those that reported burnout were found to report exhaustion and cynicism in the measures. The authors suggest individualized interventions like …show more content…

Specifically, the authors paid close attention to coping measures utilized by this population and correctives. Ten novice therapists discussed their feelings of incompetence in 45-90 minute semi-structured interviews. The interviews were transcribed verbatim and coded for salient themes. The authors found that feelings of incompetence had both positive and negative impacts on novice therapists. Central to our study, the authors offer 5 themes regarding coping mechanisms: shifting attributions/expectations, reliance on therapeutic parameters, making choices, trusting the process, and self care. The authors additionally offer anecdotal evidence that regardless of experience and training, feelings of self-doubt are prevalent throughout mental health professionals at varying levels. Similar to Maslach and Leiter (2008), this study provides a thematic overview on the coping mechanisms used by novice support providers. The results of this study offer a unique perspective on thematic trends on coping that can be mapped onto our

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