ABSTRACT
Preventing burnout is the flip side of “sharpening the saw.” It is not just taking care of yourself to become more “sharp” and effective but also to avoid the incapacitating effects of burnout. Learning to recognize and prevent burnout is essential to all practicing therapists, and I feel that every graduate program in the mental health professions should have a course in its curriculum devoted to that topic. Unfortunately, very few do, and many clinicians learn about burnout the hard way, by experiencing its disastrous results and the unfortunate consequences for them and their clients.
