ABSTRACT
A school counselor will hear the complaints of everyone in the school building, but they don’t always have someone to vent to. The reason why self-care is so important is because of burnout. Burnout is a state of chronic stress that leads to physical and emotional exhaustion; cynicism and detachment; and feelings of ineffectiveness and lack of accomplishment. School counselors can face multiple and competing demands, leading to symptoms of stress, empathy fatigue, emotional exhaustion, counselor impairment, and eventual departure or resignation from their jobs. School counselors may become stressed, exhausted, and eventually burned out by attempting to balance their various professional requirements. The experiences of burnout can lead to a severe diminishment of school counselors’ abilities to deliver adequate services to students and their families. There are ways to mitigate burnout. The most important prevention is to practice self-care.
