In this episode I interview Melissa Reilly. She is a LCSW and got her undergraduate degree is in Business Administration – Marketing at the University of Texas at Austin. After volunteering at two agencies, she returned to graduate school and obtained her  MSSW at UT. Since 2003, her experience has focused on working with children, teens and adults who experienced trauma. She is starting a solo private practice this year.

Melissa shares her journey through burnout, what lead up to it and how she overcame through increasing self-care. She shares her journey from being a Clinician to becoming a patient.  She discusses how she was in an induced coma and her experience at an outpatient rehab center. She provides 5 lessons learned from her experience that renewed her interest in her career and helped her overcome burnout.

Lesson 1: Know your client and limitations, importance of using trauma informed language

Lesson 2: Before you do something, explain it to the client and reasons why

Lesson 3: Know what your clients enjoys & their strengths and change it up to keep you both interested

Lesson 4: Know your clients support system

Lesson 5: Provide tools to clients to continue work at home

  She discusses importance for providers to care for themselves if they want to care for others and it has to be a consistent practice.