Managing the Weight of Emotional Labor You Carry as a Clinician

Every clinician carries extra emotional baggage. The profession itself involves high levels of stress due to regular exposure to disturbing situations. With the constant pressure at work, clinicians struggle in their attempt to balance their professional responsibilities with their own personal concerns. According to an emotional labor study, a clinician’s capability to deal with the needs of patients highly impact emotional labor. Although clinicians undergo training to get through hard situations and help their patients, it doesn’t make them immune to stress.

Common Causes of Stress

●    Demands of the Practice

Depending on the area of practice, some clinicians experience stress from having too many patients. The pressure of staying up to date with the latest medical trends, practices and equipment to be able to give the best care also adds on to the weight they carry.

●    Personal Issues

Even a clinician has a life outside his/her profession. Sometimes, personal and work issues become difficult to handle at the same time.

●    Compassion Fatigue

This is when a clinician experiences feelings of empathy with clients who are undergoing emotional trauma. It places a tremendous load on their shoulders when there’s a strong desire to cure all patients. Managing the weight of emotional labor is a vital part of every profession. If you are a clinician, make sure to have a regular massage to relieve workplace pain and stress. It’s important that you learn how to balance your life, and make time to relax every now and then. Who wouldn’t want to work in a job where feeling and actions are in great harmony? There’s no stress and no need for you to feel exhaustion every day. Although that is quite difficult to achieve in reality, there’s always something you can do to ease your emotional labor. Below are some tips to help you feel better at work.

Tip #1 – Remember why you chose to be a clinician.

Despite the stress that comes with work, being a clinician is quite a noble profession. Whenever you feel the weight of emotional labour, try to go back to your original purpose. What is your greatest reason for being a clinician? Is it to get a decent salary or because you want to help people improve their health? By truly embracing your life’s purpose, you’ll have a stronger connection with your profession.

Tip #2 – Change your mindset.

How you perceive the stress that comes with emotional labor can affect you physically. By changing the way you perceive it can alter your body’s reaction. Rather than succumb to negativity, you can use stress to motivate yourself.Stress is the body’s way of self-regulating to handle high-pressure situations. Develop your stress-coping skills by changing your mindset and spending time on your own, for yourself. Find a means for relaxation by going to a spa or getting a therapeutic massage.

Tip #3 – Get emotional support.

Humans do not exist to live in solitude, that’s why there’s a need for a social support system. Having a strong emotional support system doesn’t only have emotional benefits, it also helps your body heal from stress-related reactions. When you’re under extreme stress, talk to your friends or family. Emotional support from a loved one can trigger a positive and healthy stress response.

Tip #4 – Explore other interests.

It’s easy to think of your work as something you “have to do”, mostly because you don’t have the financial resource for work to be optional. If you’re into reflexology, massage courses for beginners can help enhance your skills.

Elevate your work into something you choose to do rather than as an obligation. It’s not just about thinking positive, you have to learn to rationalize your real concerns as well.

Tip #5 – Try job crafting.

Consider if you can tweak your job and align it with what is more valuable to you. The goal is to make your profession interesting so the weight of emotional labor gets reduced. Every person reacts to stress in a unique way, look for something in your work that can ease your stress.

If you feel that chatting up your patients once in a while makes you a better doctor, or that it enhances your relationship with them and helps with their healing, then by all means do it. Just make sure to consider how doing so also weighs on you as an individual.

When you think of emotional labor, don’t focus too much on the stress and burdens that it brings upon you. You have to be aware of it, but let your thoughts on it come and go without marinating in them. Emotional labor will always be a part of your job as a clinician — majority of jobs, actually, although stress levels vary and come in different forms. In your line of work, you shouldn’t only focus on your patient’s health. You also have to care for yourself, and learn to manage your stress to continue providing the very best care for your patients.

AUTHOR BIO 

Marc Innes is the Owner and Principal of the School of Natural Therapies, a training school for Massage & Holistic Therapies located in London. Marc began his career in the NHS, working in a number of managerial and training roles within the Ambulance Service in London. He spent much of that time educating and coaching medical staff. Over time, he developed an interest in all things complementary to Allopathic Medicine, in particular, Reiki Healing and EFT, which culminated in running a successful teaching and ‘energy healing’ practice. Marc is passionate about the massage and complementary therapy industry.