Should I Keep Being a Trauma Therapist? How to Check In Before You Burn Out

We don’t always name it out loud, but many of us have been there: 

• Scrolling job boards at night, 

• Wondering if we’re actually done with this work,

• Fantasizing what life is like for non-therapists

We don’t get here because we’ve stopped caring or because we no longer believe in the power of healing. 

This happens because our bodies eventually start talking loud enough, telling us something isn’t sustainable.

If you’re floating in that space between staying and walking away, you’re not alone. 

One of the main reasons I even started The BRAVE Trauma Therapist Collective was because I know what it’s like to hit that wall. To feel like I’ve got nothing left to give, and to not know if that means I need to walk away or just catch my breath.

This blog won’t give you an answer. But it will give you a process—a way to check in with yourself, your body, and to be honest in a loving way. 

So, before you jump ship, give yourself this moment.

The Signs You Can’t Push Through Anymore

Burnout doesn’t always start with a crisis. It’s a gradual process that begins with our normal experience of vicarious trauma, which can eventually starting showing up as:

• Dreading your sessions

• Feeling completely drained by 10am

• A therapy hangover that knocks you out the next day

• The blank stare when someone asks, “How was your day, your week?”

Sometimes we call it vicarious trauma. Sometimes it’s compassion fatigue. Sometimes it’s just plain burnout. Whatever the label, the impact is the same: your nervous system is waving a red flag.

And if you’re asking yourself, Can I even keep doing this? — it doesn’t mean you’re failing. It means something important needs attention.

A Different Kind of Check-In

I first learned this exercise in a training with Dr. Michael Gomez, a colleague and friend in the trauma therapist space. I’m so grateful to have learned it from him back in 2021 as I return to it anytime I feel like I might be done. 

This exercise isn’t about clarity on demand, rather it helps you create and find the space you need to listen to your brain and body.

There are four steps. After each one, I invite you to pause for a full 60 seconds. If you can, set a timer. Notice what comes up. Notice how it shows up in your body.

And if you prefer to watch a video of me guiding you through this, head on over to our YouTube channel!

Step 1: Think of one client, one case, or one professional situation from the last year you wish never happened. 

Now erase it. Imagine your life without it. And notice what that’s like!

Step 2: Now erase all of the clinical work you did in the past 12 months. Every note, every intake, every moment of holding space. Gone. 

Start your timer - What do you feel?

Step 3: Go back to March 2020. Imagine you never became a trauma therapist. You took a different path. 

60 seconds start now - Notice who you are today after wiping out all your clinical work since March 2020.

Step 4: Now go even further back—to high school. Erase every moment of helping you’ve ever done. Supporting a friend, volunteering, showing up. 

Start timing - Who are you without that part of yourself?

Closing Reflection: 

Now, take a moment just to notice yourself, allow for passive awareness of the effects of the exercise on your brain and body. 

Don’t rush to explain what just came up, you don’t have to know what it all means.

Just check in.

What are you feeling—right now?
Not what you think you should feel.
But what’s actually here.

Notice where your body is holding all of that.
The tightness. The release. The ache. The stillness.

You’ve just invited yourself into a kind of honesty that we rarely give ourselves in this field.
Let yourself stay here a little longer.
Let whatever came up be real.

Now comes the hardest part: not rushing to make it mean something.

So let’s talk about that.

After the Pause: Don’t Rush to Meaning

If you’re like most trauma therapists, this is the part where your brain might want to analyze or explain away what came up. Try not to. Let the pause stay a pause.

You might notice your mind jump in with reasons to dismiss what you felt—

• “That doesn’t mean anything.”

• “I was just tired today.”

• “It’s not that bad.”

Or maybe you felt nothing at all—and you’re judging that. Let that go too.

Staying in the in-between is hard. Especially when our training tells us to name and treat. But this isn’t about fixing. It’s about noticing. And letting that noticing matter.

So... Should You Stay or Go?

Here’s the truth:

You might realize you need to leave—and that’s not failure. It’s integrity. You might realize you want to stay—but you can’t keep doing it like this. You might still not know—and that’s okay, too.

Every one of those is valid.

And there are more paths than we often name:

• You might take a sabbatical

• You might shift to part-time or stop taking trauma cases

• You might stay, but only if you’re surrounded by peers who actually get it

• You might finally get a supervisor who holds space for your vicarious trauma

What matters is that you make the decision from a grounded place—not a survival one.

Let’s also be honest that this isn’t just about personal resilience. The systems we work inside—insurance, productivity quotas, high acuity with low support—are not built for sustainability. Naming that matters, too.

You Don’t Have to Figure It Out Alone

If this stirred something in you:

• Go watch the video version of this reflection 

• Journal what came up

• Talk to a colleague you trust

• Send this to a friend who gets it

You don’t have to decide today. You just have to listen.

Journaling invitation: Come back to your body. What does it know now that it didn’t before this exercise? What would it say if it could speak without interruption?

And if you’re still hovering in that in-between? The BRAVE Collective is built for this exact moment. When you’re not sure what comes next, but you know you can’t do it alone.

Let your body land. Then take the next step.