Therapy for Therapists in Sycamore and North Aurora IL
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If you are interested in counseling and you are a therapist, call OakHeart at 630-570-0050 or 779-201-6440 or email us at [email protected]. We have counselors, psychologists, and social workers available to help you at one of our locations in North Aurora, IL, Sycamore, IL, and/or via Telehealth Online Therapy Services serving Kane County, DeKalb County, Dupage County, and beyond.
OakHeart provides individual therapy for licensed and pre-licensure mental health professionals, including psychologists, licensed clinical social workers, licensed counselors, licensed marriage and family therapists, psychiatrists, psychiatric nurse practitioners, addiction counselors, school counselors and school social workers, behavior analysts (BCBAs), case managers, and graduate students and trainees in any of the above fields. We also work with adjacent helping professionals, including chaplains, hospice and palliative care providers, and first responders engaged in behavioral health work.
Entering a helping profession comes with significant rewards and significant occupational hazards. Over time, it is easy to put yourself on the back burner, squeezing in extra sessions, absorbing the increase in client crises, and staying late to manage paperwork and other duties. The work is your passion, so of course you are giving your all. However, helpers are at recognized risk for burnout, vicarious trauma, compassion fatigue, and moral injury because of the work they do, and effective and sustainable practice requires attention to your own wellbeing. In terms of congruency, it is also worth modeling what you encourage in your clients, which is seeking out support when it is needed. Common Reasons Mental Health Professionals Seek TherapyPeople in this field come to therapy for the full range of reasons that anyone else does, including depression, anxiety, trauma, grief, relationship concerns, substance use, and others. They also come for concerns that are specific to or amplified by working in the helping professions:
You do not need to have a specific clinical reason to start therapy. Wanting your own space to think, process, and reflect outside of supervision, consultation, or peer support is reason enough. |
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Distinguishing Burnout, Vicarious Trauma, Compassion Fatigue, and Moral Injury
These terms are often used interchangeably but refer to related and distinct experiences. Understanding which is operating for you can help clarify the focus of treatment.
Burnout is a syndrome of emotional exhaustion, depersonalization (a sense of detachment or cynicism toward clients or work), and reduced sense of personal accomplishment. Burnout typically develops from chronic workplace stressors (e.g., excessive caseload, lack of control, inadequate compensation, organizational dysfunction) rather than from the clinical content of the work itself. Treatment often involves both individual work (e.g., stress management, boundary-setting, processing organizational dynamics) and changes to the work itself when possible.
Vicarious trauma refers to changes in your own thinking, beliefs, emotions, and sense of safety that develop from sustained exposure to clients' traumatic experiences. Vicarious trauma can present similarly to PTSD symptoms (e.g., intrusive imagery, hypervigilance, changes in worldview, altered sense of safety for self or loved ones) and reflects the cumulative impact of holding others' traumatic material over time.
Compassion fatigue is closely related to vicarious trauma but emphasizes the gradual erosion of empathy and emotional availability that can develop in helpers exposed to ongoing suffering. Clinicians experiencing compassion fatigue often describe feeling numb, less engaged with clients, and unable to access the empathy that once came naturally.
Moral injury describes the psychological, emotional, and sometimes spiritual impact of perpetrating, failing to prevent, or witnessing acts that violate deeply held moral beliefs. For mental health professionals, moral injury often arises from systemic constraints that prevent providing appropriate care (e.g., insurance denials, productivity quotas that limit clinical judgment, policies that conflict with clinical best practice, witnessing ethical violations in the workplace). Moral injury is increasingly recognized as distinct from burnout and often requires different treatment approaches.
Many clinicians experience overlapping features of more than one of these. Treatment is tailored to the specific presentation rather than applied as a generic "self-care" intervention.
Burnout is a syndrome of emotional exhaustion, depersonalization (a sense of detachment or cynicism toward clients or work), and reduced sense of personal accomplishment. Burnout typically develops from chronic workplace stressors (e.g., excessive caseload, lack of control, inadequate compensation, organizational dysfunction) rather than from the clinical content of the work itself. Treatment often involves both individual work (e.g., stress management, boundary-setting, processing organizational dynamics) and changes to the work itself when possible.
Vicarious trauma refers to changes in your own thinking, beliefs, emotions, and sense of safety that develop from sustained exposure to clients' traumatic experiences. Vicarious trauma can present similarly to PTSD symptoms (e.g., intrusive imagery, hypervigilance, changes in worldview, altered sense of safety for self or loved ones) and reflects the cumulative impact of holding others' traumatic material over time.
Compassion fatigue is closely related to vicarious trauma but emphasizes the gradual erosion of empathy and emotional availability that can develop in helpers exposed to ongoing suffering. Clinicians experiencing compassion fatigue often describe feeling numb, less engaged with clients, and unable to access the empathy that once came naturally.
Moral injury describes the psychological, emotional, and sometimes spiritual impact of perpetrating, failing to prevent, or witnessing acts that violate deeply held moral beliefs. For mental health professionals, moral injury often arises from systemic constraints that prevent providing appropriate care (e.g., insurance denials, productivity quotas that limit clinical judgment, policies that conflict with clinical best practice, witnessing ethical violations in the workplace). Moral injury is increasingly recognized as distinct from burnout and often requires different treatment approaches.
Many clinicians experience overlapping features of more than one of these. Treatment is tailored to the specific presentation rather than applied as a generic "self-care" intervention.
Distinguishing Burnout, Vicarious Trauma, Compassion Fatigue, and Moral Injury
Each person has different signs, but the following are commonly reported by clinicians experiencing burnout:
These are signs to take seriously. Some level of fluctuation in these areas is part of working in this field; persistent patterns suggest it is time to seek support.
- Finding it difficult to go to work, and possibly even dreading it
- Finding yourself repeating the same feedback or interpretations over and over
- Giving advice as a shortcut rather than helping clients learn and grow
- Beginning sessions late and ending early
- Dozing off or spacing out during sessions
- Experiencing a noticeable decline in empathy
- Doing things that would make your former ethics professor cringe
- Pushing your theory, technique, or agenda rather than listening and adjusting
- Feeling relieved when clients cancel
- Falling behind on continuing education and reading in the field
- Self-disclosing in ways that are not helpful to clients
- Fantasizing about other professions
- Increasingly thinking about clients during your personal time, or conversely, finding yourself emotionally absent from clients during sessions
- Sleep difficulties, including clinical material intruding into dreams or pre-sleep thinking
- Increased use of substances or other behaviors to manage end-of-day distress
These are signs to take seriously. Some level of fluctuation in these areas is part of working in this field; persistent patterns suggest it is time to seek support.
Confidentiality and Working with a Therapist Who Understands the Field
Many clinicians delay or avoid their own therapy because of concerns about confidentiality and dual relationships within a small professional community. These concerns are legitimate. OakHeart clinicians who work with mental health professionals take particular care to identify and discuss any existing or potential overlap at the start of treatment, to maintain rigorous confidentiality, and to make referrals out when an appropriate therapeutic boundary cannot be maintained. If you have concerns about overlap with a specific clinician before scheduling, you can ask about this during intake.
How is This Work Approached at OakHeart?
OakHeart clinicians use evidence-based, individualized approaches matched to what you are working on. There is no single protocol for therapist-as-client work, and treatment may draw from CBT, ACT, trauma-focused approaches, Mindful Self-Compassion-informed work, and other modalities depending on the focus.
A few things tend to be true of this work regardless of the modality:
A few things tend to be true of this work regardless of the modality:
- The clinical content you bring is held with the same confidentiality, care, and respect as any other client's material. You are not expected to perform competence, modulate your distress, or function as a peer in session.
- Your professional identity is welcome in the room, but you are not required to keep your "therapist hat" on. Many clinicians find significant relief in being able to be a client rather than a colleague for the duration of session.
- Insight is welcome but is not a substitute for change. Many therapists are exceptionally good at understanding their own patterns and exceptionally good at not changing them. Treatment often involves working at the behavioral and experiential level, not only the insight level.
- Wanting to leave the field, change populations, or restructure your professional life is a legitimate focus of therapy and does not require a particular conclusion.
For Graduate Students and Pre-Licensure Trainees
Graduate school and the years of supervised practice toward licensure are a period of significant stress for most clinicians. Common concerns during training and pre-licensure include:
Therapy during training is not a sign of weakness or unsuitability for the profession. Many of the most effective clinicians have done their own significant therapeutic work, often beginning during training.
- Heavy academic and clinical workload alongside financial strain
- Practicum and internship placement stressors, including challenging populations, inadequate supervision, or workplace dysfunction
- Anxiety related to the licensure exam, including for clinicians who have already failed it once or more
- Impostor syndrome, including in students who appear to be doing well externally
- Difficult or harmful supervision experiences
- Personal mental health concerns that emerge or worsen during training
- Activation of personal material by client content, particularly when training in trauma, eating disorders, child abuse, or other areas with personal overlap
- Decisions about specialization, populations, theoretical orientation, and post-licensure career direction
- The specific challenges faced by trainees from underrepresented backgrounds in the field
Therapy during training is not a sign of weakness or unsuitability for the profession. Many of the most effective clinicians have done their own significant therapeutic work, often beginning during training.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is it normal for therapists to be in therapy? Yes. Surveys of mental health professionals consistently find that the majority have been in their own therapy at some point, with many returning at different career stages or maintaining ongoing therapy as part of sustainable practice. The "wounded healer" tradition, the historical analytic requirement that clinicians be in their own analysis, and current professional norms all reflect the view that therapy for the therapist is not unusual and often improves clinical work.
Can I be honest about my doubts about clients, supervisors, or the field? Yes. This is one of the more common reasons clinicians come to therapy: there are things that cannot be said in supervision, in peer consultation, or to colleagues, and these things often need to be said somewhere.
What if I am thinking about leaving the field? This is a legitimate focus of therapy. Many clinicians at some point reconsider whether the field is the right fit, including for reasons related to burnout, financial sustainability, family considerations, mismatched specialty or population, organizational dysfunction in their workplace, or personal evolution. Therapy can support clearer thinking about this without a predetermined conclusion in either direction.
Can I do this work via telehealth? Yes. Telehealth is available throughout Illinois and is particularly useful for clinicians whose schedules make in-person sessions difficult or who live some distance from our locations.
Can I be honest about my doubts about clients, supervisors, or the field? Yes. This is one of the more common reasons clinicians come to therapy: there are things that cannot be said in supervision, in peer consultation, or to colleagues, and these things often need to be said somewhere.
What if I am thinking about leaving the field? This is a legitimate focus of therapy. Many clinicians at some point reconsider whether the field is the right fit, including for reasons related to burnout, financial sustainability, family considerations, mismatched specialty or population, organizational dysfunction in their workplace, or personal evolution. Therapy can support clearer thinking about this without a predetermined conclusion in either direction.
Can I do this work via telehealth? Yes. Telehealth is available throughout Illinois and is particularly useful for clinicians whose schedules make in-person sessions difficult or who live some distance from our locations.
Therapy for Therapists Related Blogs:
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As a practicing therapist, I have learned over the years that it isn’t necessarily about what we know, but more about who we are. That very piece of knowledge…who we are…not only inspires me and drives my passion, but also is exactly what I strive to include in everything I do in my current practice. Question is…how do we get there? Well, in my experience, it is the willingness of the therapist to seek support when needed, to do the inner work, to explore their limits/biases/fears, and to process personal traumas in order to remain present centered during work with clients. The self-awareness that comes from our own inner work is the key to laying a strong foundation for an incredible therapeutic relationship...(to read more, click on the link above).
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