Therapist Life: What I do on my weekends

Just like everyone else, even your therapist needs a break. Helping people heal is amazing, but can also be emotionally demanding. Weekends are so important. You never want a distracted and exhausted therapist.

• Self-Care: Yoga, Rebounding, walking outside (San Francisco weather is amazing), thrifting, and watching terrible Netflix series. My partner and I are committed. It doesn't matter how terrible, we watch the entire thing. Bottom line.
• Hobbies and Interests: This is an ever changing topic for me. I tend to go "all in" and exhaust myself. Currently I have been spending my free time learning about SEO. This may be "work" related, but I am finally figuring this stuff out. And I enjoy updating my website. The art, the color, the style. It is my artistic outlet.
• Family and Friends: I usually call my Dad about once a week and chat with my sister when she has a minute. I live with my partner and we spend our weekends drinking our "fancy" coffee, relaxing, watching TV, and spending our alone time. We love our "lazy" weekend mornings with absolutely no rush.
• Continuing Education: It's time to renew my trauma certification. So, I'm squeezing in my continuing education requirements.
• Relaxation and Rest: Running my own practice is a combination of rewarding, exciting, and tiring. I love my clients, but I hate doing my budgeting, and the other boring business requirements. So, being a totally lazy person on the weekend is just as important as doing things a little more exciting.

I really focus on allowing my Saturday's to be as free from work as possible, but by Sunday evening I like to ease into the work-week by checking my email, updating the calendar, and always trying to make sure that my billing is neatly tucked away. My clients are amazing and know that I am always struggling with their ever-changing schedules, so my Sunday night calendar panics are frequent :)