Thriving, burnout, and coping strategies of early and later career counseling center psychologists in the United States

2016/02/05 by Wonjin Sim, Gina Zanardelli, Mary Loughran +2 · 27 citations
Health Professions · Medicine · Psychology · #Applied psychology #Burnout #Career counseling #Clinical psychology #Coping (psychology) #Counseling Practices and Supervision #Healthcare professionals’ stress and burnout #Interpersonal communication #Medical education #Medicine #Mental Health Treatment and Access #Psychology #Psychotherapist #Social psychology #Thriving

paper · doi:10.1080/09515070.2015.1121135

published in Counselling Psychology Quarterly 29(4), 382-404 (Taylor & Francis)

openalex publication_date 2016/02/05 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2025/11/06

Abstract

We interviewed seven early career psychologists (ECPs) and seven later career psychologists (LCPs) employed at university counseling centers in the United States about their experiences with thriving, burnout, and coping. We analyzed the data using Consensual Qualitative Research. Typical factors that contributed to thriving included recognition for achievement and the climate of counseling center and campus, although the latter was more important for ECPs than LCPs. Typical factors that contributed to burnout included challenges with tasks and responsibilities and challenges related to professional relationships. Finally, interpersonal support (general), self-care, cognitive strategies, and behavioral strategies (typical) were coping strategies used by both ECPs and LCPs, but only ECPs identified using personal therapy. Implications for counseling centers and for research are presented.

Citations

• Modulation of attentional inhibition by norepinephrine and cortisol after psychological stress
• Trust, Connectivity, and Thriving: Implications for Innovative Behaviors at Work
• Prevention of burnout: New perspectives
• Consensual qualitative research: An update.
• Compassion satisfaction, compassion fatigue, and burnout in a national sample of trauma treatment therapists
• Preventing burnout: the effects of LMX and mentoring on socialization, role stress, and burnout
• The job demands-resources model of burnout.
• Thriving at work: Toward its measurement, construct validation, and theoretical refinement
• A Guide to Conducting Consensual Qualitative Research
• An Analysis of Coping in a Middle-Aged Community Sample

Cited by

• Emotional exhaustion [wikipedia]

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• A clinical perspective on burnout: diagnosis, classification, and treatment of clinical burnout