Cost Borne by the Counselor: Comparing Burnout Between Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) Counselors and Non‐DBT Counselors. (8th June 2021) - Warlick, Craig A.
Abstract : Although counseling in itself can be a stressful task, counseling complex clients can exacerbate this stress and can lead to burnout. Burnout negatively affects the counselor's personal life, client care, and the health care system. Dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) is a multimodal treatment designed specifically for treating complex clients. The treatment contains counselor supports to protect against burnout. This study used a national sample of 209 counselors to assess whether DBT counselors ( n = 87) possess higher levels of burnout than non‐DBT counselors ( n = 122). The results suggest that despite literature stating that working with complex clients increases counselor burnout, there was no difference in client‐related burnout between DBT counselors and non‐DBT counselors. However, DBT counselors had higher levels of personal burnout and work‐related burnout compared with non‐DBT counselors, even after controlling for known covariates. Implications for future research and practice regarding mitigating counselor burnout are discussed.