Burning Up While Burning Out: Stress Management for Professionals
Professionals, regardless of specialty and work setting, are under more stress than ever, as evidenced by increases in demand, higher costs, reduced staffing, and diminishing resources. Many workers are putting in longer hours and for less pay.
With increases in demand for qualitative services and diminishing resources, workers and organisations are more vulnerable than ever to compassion fatigue and burnout. Hence, practitioners need to be aware of fatigue and burnout signs and know how to prevent both in order to serve their clients effectively and enjoy a healthy work/life balance.
This training will help you learn about compassion fatigue and burnout, become aware of stressors that lead to these conditions, and develop methods for managing and preventing them. Resources and strategies for preventing burnout are provided throughout. Participants will create individualized compassion fatigue management and burnout prevention plans.
The focus will be on:
- Comparing the two conditions of burnout and compassion fatigue
- Specific triggers
- Awareness of key signs and symptoms of compassion fatigue and burnout
- Techniques for managing stressors and their consequences
- Key stress factors that include physical, emotional, mental and behavioural symptoms
- The impacts of stress on fatigue and burnout , along with how the brain and body interact in the stress response system
- Strategies for maintaining a healthy body and brain as well as improving the brain body connection.
Participants will learn about recognizing fatigue in others, how to deal with work conflicts, and how to address lack of motivation. Finally, an antidote to addressing stress, managing fatigue, and preventing burnout will be suggested in the general form of compassion built through a new framework the presenter calls “Integrative Resilience.”
This course will help you learn valuable concepts, research, strategies, and solutions for changing your relationship to stress and thereby improving compassion, managing fatigue, and preventing burnout and to creating improved work/life balance.
Learning Objectives:
- Understand burnout, stress and compassion fatigue
- Identify symptoms and causes
- Learn original theory and key concepts for managing
- Explore strategies and solutions
- Create individual compassion training and burn-up plans
Program Outline:
Module 1: Stress, Compassion Fatigue & Burnout
- Burned Out Early On
- The Epidemic of Burnout
- What is Burnout?
- The Role of Stress
- Signs & Symptoms
- Understanding Compassion Fatigue
- Causes of Compassion Fatigue
- Underlying Beliefs
- The Continuum of Scare
Module 2: Theory & Research
- Resilience & Integration
- What is Compassion?
- Scaling Compassion
- Conflict within Compassion
- Workplace Conflict & Connection
- Compassion Studies
- Self-Compassion
- The Confused Brain
- The Compassion Body
- Compassion Body Brain Connection
Module 3: Strategies, Interventions, & Inventions
- The Basic & Practical
- Reframing the Narrative
- Co-worker Fatigue Intervention
- Conflict Resolution
- Mentoring
- Find your ZENS
- Mind/Body Care
- Personal & Work Compassion Strategies
- Motivation – Burning Up!
- Compassion Coaching & Training for the Workplace
- Mental Health & Advocacy
CPD Information For Mental Health Professionals
Enjoy complete flexibility with 100% self-paced learning you can access anytime, anywhere, and on any device. Pay once for lifetime access.
Course Duration: 6 learning hours
Certificate and CPD hours: On completion you’ll receive a Certificate of Completion to support your CPD records.
Assessment: Complete a short quiz at the end (80% pass mark), which you can resit as many times as needed.
Lifetime Access: Your access to the course does not expire, so you can revisit key concepts anytime you want a refresher for practice.
CPD Eligibility: This program may be suitable for CPD for professionals such as:
- Psychologists
- Counsellors and Psychotherapists
- Social Workers
- Community Workers
- Mental Health Nurses
- General Practitioners (GPs)
- Occupational Therapists
CPD requirements vary between professional bodies, so please check with your association or credentialing body to confirm you can claim CPD hours/OPD points for this program and what evidence they require.
Course Content
Meet Your Instructor
Mental health professionals struggling to build thriving private practices - or those experiencing burnout from the business side of clinical work - often lack the practical tools and guidance needed to create both professional success and personal fulfillment. Howard Baumgarten has spent over 25 years mastering the intersection of clinical excellence and business acumen, becoming one of Colorado's leading experts in helping therapists build sustainable, profitable practices without sacrificing their passion for helping others.
As Founder and Director of Atomic Behavioral Care and author of Private Practice Essentials: Business Tools for Mental Health Professionals (2017), Baumgarten represents a unique blend of seasoned clinician and successful entrepreneur. His pioneering work at the University of Colorado, where he developed one of the first private practice business courses in a CACREP-approved graduate program, demonstrates his commitment to preparing therapists for real-world business challenges. As a practice builder who helped create one of Colorado's largest private practice group mental health practices, he brings proven strategies that have been tested in competitive markets.
Baumgarten's expertise spans individual, couples, and family therapy, business consulting for mental health professionals, private practice development, resilience training, and compassion fatigue prevention. His approach recognises that clinical skills alone aren't enough - practitioners need business literacy, self-care strategies, and systems thinking to create practices that serve both their clients and their own well-being. He specialises in helping clinicians who feel overwhelmed by the business aspects of practice, those experiencing burnout, or practitioners ready to scale their impact through group practices or consultation services.
What sets his training apart is integration of compassion-based principles with practical business strategies. Baumgarten doesn't just teach marketing tactics - he shows practitioners how to build practices aligned with their values while maintaining healthy boundaries and preventing burnout. His research on compassion fatigue leading to "Integrative Resilience Theory" development reflects his commitment to evidence-based approaches to professional sustainability.
For your practice, expect to gain specific tools for practice management, strategies for preventing compassion fatigue, and frameworks for building resilient professional systems. His approach particularly benefits clinicians transitioning to private practice, those struggling with business aspects of their work, or practitioners wanting to expand their impact through training or consultation.
Quick Win: Baumgarten's "compassion-based business model" helps clinicians align their marketing and service delivery with their core therapeutic values - often increasing both client satisfaction and practitioner fulfillment simultaneously.
Qualifications
- MA, Psychology and Counselor Education, University of Colorado, 1997
- Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC), Colorado
- Over 25 years clinical experience
- Private practice since 2000
- Member, American Counseling Association (since May 1995)
Authored Publications
- Private Practice Essentials: Business Tools for Mental Health Professionals (2017)
- Research on compassion fatigue and resilience leading to "Integrative Resilience Theory" development
Teaching & Leadership
- Founder & Director, Atomic Behavioral Care, LLC, Denver, CO, 2022–present
- Founder, Smart Practice Central, 2013–present
- Licensed Professional Counselor, Private Practice, Lakewood, CO, 2001–present
- Adjunct Professor, University of Colorado (developed one of first private practice business courses in CACREP-approved program)
- Practice Builder & Manager, one of Colorado's largest private practice group mental health practices
Clinical Background
- Neurobehavioral Counselor & Family Services Coordinator (early career)
- Traumatic brain injury patient and family therapy
- 25+ years experience in individual, couples, and family therapy
- Diverse client populations including adolescents and adults
Speaking & Training
- International lecturer on mental health, business, and wellness since 2008
- Healthcare training conferences and workshops
- Podcast guest: The Juniper Center ("Resilience in the Face of Adversity")
Business Consulting
- Small business consultant specialising in healthcare practices
- Owner of two successful small businesses
- Healthcare Training Leader expert
- Compliance and wellness training specialist
- Specialised in mental health and specialty practices
Ready to build a thriving practice that serves both your clients and your own well-being? Discover how Howard Baumgarten's compassion-based business strategies can help you create professional success without sacrificing the values that drew you to this calling.
Feedback & Reviews
This course includes:
- Lessons 4
- Topics 0
- Duration 6 hours
- Quizzes 1
- Language English