ABSTRACT
In the previous chapter, I talked about the necessity-for you and for your clients-of making room in your schedule for activities you enjoy. I stressed the importance of having a balanced life in general. This chapter is about having balance within your professional life. How can you fill up your work life with activities that stimulate and renew you, that continually recharge your batteries? One of the practitioner-tested, research-informed strategies for successful therapist self-care is diversity and synergy of professional activities (Norcross, 2000). This means having a lot of variety in what you do when you are at work. No matter how much you love your job, if you are doing the same thing, day in and day out, without any change, eventually, you will hit a plateau. Work will seem stale and routine at best-and boring and aversive at worst. Depending on the complexity of the job, it takes 3 to 5 years for the sense of mastery and challenge to be replaced by a feeling of boredom if the work remains the same (Bard-wick, 1988). So if you have been doing the same thing over and over for the last 3 years, you are very likely to have the plateau doldrums. If you want to remain fully involved and energizedfor yourself and for your clients-having constant change and new learning is essential.
