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06.24.2025
Trauma Therapists are Human: Caring for Yourself when Providing PTSD Treatment
Michelle Fernando, PhD
Danielle Cooper, PhD
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June 24, 2025
Trauma Therapists are Human: Caring for Yourself when Providing PTSD Treatment
Authored by: Michelle Fernando, PhD, and Danielle Cooper, PhD
Developed by the ADAA PTSD Sig for PTSD Awareness Month
1. Seek support and consultation
Assessing and treating PTSD can be challenging and rewarding work. Seeking support from friends and colleagues (while maintaining confidentiality) can be particularly helpful to manage burnout and process your own reactions, as well as further enhance your ability to provide the best evidence-based care possible to your patients.
2. Self-reflect
Regularly engage in self-reflection through mindfulness, journaling, therapy, or consultation. In your personal life, consider how your own history and current stressors may influence your emotional bandwidth, ability to empathize, and reactivity to patients.
In clinical work, consider: how are you responding to homework non-adherence and ambivalence for treatment? Are you noticing yourself becoming frustrated and doing more of the work than some of your patients, spending excessive time outside of work thinking about your clinical work, or placing undeserved blame on yourself when patients don’t make significant progress or drop out of treatment?
Reflection can provide key insights into your approach to clinical work, level of burnout, and physical and emotional needs. Know yourself and what impacts you!
3. Maintain your boundaries
Boundaries are individual and can change with time. Patients can learn to tolerate limits, and these limits contribute to emotional safety. Understand your personal limits and clinical policies, such as: how willing are you to be contacted outside of work hours? What are your limits for tardiness, no-shows, and rescheduling? Are there presenting concerns that are “off the table” for you, at this stage in your life? Consider ways to communicate these boundaries upfront, maintain them when challenged, and, if possible, create clinic policies that support boundary setting.
4. Balance your caseload
Are there certain cases that are particularly challenging for you? Consider diversifying your caseload, limiting your total caseload or the number of PTSD cases on your caseload if feasible, being intentional about taking on certain kinds or amounts of cases you know are particularly challenging for you, and be mindful about when you schedule these cases throughout the week. Consider spacing these particularly challenging cases for you out across different days, placing them at the end of the day, or giving yourself a lunch break afterwards to decompress and practice self-care.
5. Manage Burnout
Time and emotional resources are finite and must be replenished. Be mindful of what drains and energizes you. Schedule breaks during your workday. Practice self-compassion and mindfulness, especially after challenging sessions, and respect your clinical boundaries. Get enough sleep and eat regular and nutritious meals. Exercise and meditate. Take time for valued activities, like spending time with family, traveling, or hobbies. Intentionally turn your mind away from work when you find yourself ruminating.
6. Join our Sig!
ADAA’s PTSD SIG is here to support you. Join our quarterly free consultation and education series to obtain support and continue to grow in your clinical knowledge and skills in this field. Receive regular clinical practice updates via email and meet with colleagues during our annual conference meeting. Sign up for the PTSD Sig to get email updates, including access to our consultation and education series!
Michelle Fernando, PhD
Danielle Cooper, PhD
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