S asks ever felt like
you don't have the solution for someone's problem.
What to do in this case?
And how do you avoid the feeling
of helplessness?
I feel helpless all the time
as a practicing
clinical psychologist.
So number one is burnout.
This is when
I'm really struggling to deal
with the daily stressors that
are coming up in my life
or something's happening at work
that is requiring a lot more attention
from me. How do I deal
with it?
It's about personal self care.
I made a whole video about that.
A lot of it comes down to
making sure I'm sleeping well eating
well connecting
with my colleagues getting help
from colleagues friends
and family.
I also feel helpless when
I just don't know
how to help someone.
Something I've had to figure out as a psychologist
is what am I really good at
treating.
What can I treat
with help.
And what do I need to
refer to another colleague
of mine.
Another situation where I feel helpless is
when I'm working with someone
and they might be ambivalent
about the problem they're in for.
Ambivalent in the truest sense.
They're very torn.
They want to change
this thing that they're struggling with.
And at the same time they
don't or there are important
reasons why they might
want to keep things the way they are.
How do we deal with that?
Well there's this thing called motivational
interviewing which is all about
how to help people
be a little bit
more open to talking
about what are the barriers to
change
and helping them to move towards
engaging in more change talk.
We might ask someone who is smoking
and a bit ambivalent
about it - what are the
benefits to smoking?
And really understand what are the factors
that are contributing to them wanting
to keep the situation the same.
And then we'll also ask what are the less
beneficial things for you
about smoking?
We don't that's what the cons are
or what they don't like about it
but what are less beneficial to them
that will help us to understand
what are the things that do push them
towards wanting to change.
Something else that makes me feel helpless
is if I provide
a treatment that someone needs
and for whatever reason
they can't afford it they can't
get to the treatment.
Maybe they live too far away.
Their insurance won't cover it.
I hate this.
I hate this situation.
It's one of the worst things
about my job.
What I do in these situations?
Try to find someone closer to that person
and try to find more affordable treatment.
Sometimes I might refer people to training
clinics where they're work
with graduate students who
they'll see for a much lower fee
but still provide a high quality of
care. Sometimes I might refer someone to
an online treatment
or support group
or maybe even an
app
or a self-help book that might
be pretty good
and help that person
and move a little bit forward in
terms of what their goals are.
Then there's a situation where I did
everything I could.
And the problem
just wasn't
resolved the goals weren't met.
Something like that. And here I tried
to do a little
bit of a reflection
what went wrong.
Was I able to provide
the best care possible that I
knew of that I know of?
And also what have I learned
from the situation?
When I was right out of
grad school I started judging
how I was doing as a psychologist
based on how the people I was working
with were doing.
And that wasn't really
a healthy way to judge my progress.
Now what I tried to do is look back
to see did I provide the best
care that I know of
that exist in the research?
And then I can practically
implement.
And if not what got in the way
what can I learn so I
can do that better next time?
Thanks again to S for submitting
this question
and I'd love to answer your
question about psychology mental
health and life as a psychologist.
So if you have a question leave it
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