Please don't struggle in silence

I don’t know about you, but one thing that really surprised me during our podcast interview with Dr. Maelisa McCaffrey was how quickly so many therapists signed up for her Paperwork Catch Up Group!

Not because it isn’t a great idea but because I had no idea documentation was such a significant struggle for so many therapists. I wonder how many of you were equally surprised by the uptick on her Paperwork Catch Up Group? I’m guessing it was a lot of you. And I’m also guessing that a lot of you weren’t surprised, not because you’ve never struggled with documentation yourself, but rather because you thought you were the only one with this struggle.

I think Maelisa’s podcast interview and approach to helping therapists with documentation are such great illustrations of the application of our 4 C’s framework for self-care: connection, compassion, courage, and yes, even creativity and play.

Struggling in silence with documentation - or other aspects of our work - is never good. It’s not good for us or for our profession. It’s only once we have the courage to acknowledge and share our work-related struggles with trusted colleagues (there’s the connection part) that we can begin to have the compassion that naturally comes when we realize our struggle is part of the human (female therapist) experience.

And when we’re armed with courage, connection, and compassion it naturally opens us up to another connection—the connection with new information and new tools to help with our struggle (like the great resources Maelisa has developed). And, as our playful practice section highlights—there can even be room for creativity and play.

So, the next time you find yourself struggling with a work-related issue, take a moment to think about how connection, courage, compassion, and creativity might guide you towards actionable and effective self-care.