110. Stop Trying to Squeeze Out Summer: Therapist Edition

110. Stop Trying to Squeeze Out Summer: Therapist Edition

In the final episode before her first summer break in three years, Jen Blanchette explores what it really means to relearn rest. Her thesis is simple but countercultural: we don't need to squeeze out summer. Instead of chasing a mythical future moment of low stress — or curating the "perfect" sabbatical — Jen makes the case for weaving rest into the lives we're living right now. Take aways: We over-project rest into the future. We tend to believe there's a coming time — after we close the practice, leave clinical work, launch the practice, or finish training, etc. That belief keeps us from resting now. Summer carries an unfair burden. The real task of summer isn't to maximize experiences — it's to ask what rest, play, leisure, and family time you actually need, and sketch a rough rhythm for the season. We have more leisure than we think. Jen cites research suggesting we have more leisure time than at any point in history a statistic that feels impossible given how time-starved everyone feels. Much of that fullness comes from choices we've made and can revisit. Change happens incrementally. Just as we'd never tell a client to revamp their entire life in a week, we shouldn't demand it of ourselves. Jen advocates reviewing your work life every year and making small, structural changes so you can rest a little more each time. Treat decisions as experiments. Jen frames her move to full-time work as an experiment not a final destination complete with a built-in two-year probationary window. Six months, one year, two years: each is a natural checkpoint to ask whether a role truly fits. Notice your own capacity. Jen names her tendency toward people-pleasing, saying yes to fill gaps, and "time blindness" taking things on and getting in over her head quickly. She connects this to how therapists will squeeze in one more client even without the emotional, physical, or scheduling capacity to do it. WHAT REST LOOKS LIKE FOR JEN THIS SUMMER Family vacation to visit relatives; spending time in her garden and planting "We don't need to squeeze out summer." "I'm not busy, life is full." "Huge changes in your work life or in your personal life are not possible… let's just try one thing this week." "I will definitely keep that data going forward — that I don't have to do anything that I don't want to do." "There is always more to do… but at some point you have to say, actually, this is where I'm stopping." "What is it like for you right now to stop where you are — not have it be a perfect ending, not tie a bow on something?" "All happiness depends on a leisurely breakfast." — John Gunther RESOURCES & MENTIONS * Oliver Burkeman, Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals — the book that shifted Jen's thinking on productivity and time pressure. * Dr. Kevin Coakley — guest on a companion episode released around the same time, an expert on imposter syndrome ("impostoring"), with research areas including racialized stress and Black psychology. Worth a listen. * John Gunther — source of the closing quote: "All happiness depends on a leisurely breakfast." * Jen's upcoming course — fully built out and planned for release in the fall. Jen is taking a summer break from the podcast. She hopes to drop a few favorite past episodes into the feed for summer listening. New episodes return in September.

109. Imposter Phenomenon with Dr. Kevin Cokley

Subscribe to the Leaving the Chair Newsletter: https://balanced-thunder-281.myflodesk.com/drjenb [https://balanced-thunder-281.myflodesk.com/drjenb] EPISODE SUMMARY What does it mean to feel like a fraud even when the evidence says otherwise? In this episode, Dr. Jen Blanchette sits down with Dr. Kevin Cokley — a leading scholar of the imposter phenomenon and African American psychology — to unpack why imposter feelings are so common, who experiences them most acutely, and why they can't be understood apart from the environments that produce them. Dr. Cokley shares how he first discovered the imposter phenomenon during a literature review and recognized his own experience as a Black undergraduate at a predominantly white institution. From there, the conversation moves through the research: prevalence rates that climb as high as 80–90%, the gender and cultural patterns the data reveal, and Cokley's own work introducing a “racialized imposter phenomenon” and a scale to measure it. The discussion turns personal and political as Jen and Dr. Cokley connect imposterism to therapist burnout, maladaptive perfectionism, and self-compassion — then confront the current climate around DEI, including the APA's decision to disband its longstanding ethnic-minority training commission and relax diversity standards for accreditation. Dr. Cokley closes with practical guidance for clinicians: clients rarely name imposter feelings directly, so therapists need to listen for them. Dr. Kevin Cokley is the University Diversity and Social Transformation Professor and Professor of Psychology at the University of Michigan, where he serves as Associate Chair for Diversity Initiatives and principal investigator of the Research on Race, Achievement, Culture and Education (RACE) Lab in the Department of Psychology. His research and teaching center on African American psychology, with a focus on racial identity and the psychological and environmental factors that shape African American students' academic achievement. He is currently exploring the imposter phenomenon and its relationship to mental health and academic outcomes. Dr. Cokley is editor of the 2024 book The Imposter Phenomenon: Psychological Research, Theory, and Interventions (American Psychological Association). He is a past president of the Society for the Psychological Study of Culture, Ethnicity and Race, and has written widely read op-eds in major outlets on DEI, critical race theory, and the Black Lives Matter movement. * Imposter feelings are nearly universal — research reviews put lifetime prevalence around 80%, and in live audiences Dr. Cokley sees closer to 90%. * Recent meta-analytic evidence confirms women tend to report higher imposter feelings than men, though men experience them too. * Context is everything: predominantly white, highly competitive, and high-stakes environments are breeding grounds for imposterism. * The “racialized imposter phenomenon” reframes self-doubt as a response to racist environments, not just an individual deficit — and there's now a scale to measure it. * Like burnout, imposterism is too often treated as a personal failing to fix with self-care, ignoring the systems and structures driving it. https://www.kevincokley.com/ [https://www.kevincokley.com/]

108: Burnout isn't inevitable?

Subscribe to the Leaving the Chair Newsletter: https://balanced-thunder-281.myflodesk.com/drjenb [https://balanced-thunder-281.myflodesk.com/drjenb] Are other therapists gaslighting us about burnout? In this episode, Jen responds to a social media post claiming "burnout is not a given" — and unpacks why that framing, while well-intentioned, can quietly turn burnout into a "you problem." She talks honestly about arriving at burnout already burnt, why a new business model isn't always the escape hatch, and what she learned from running her first Leaving the Chair group. IN THIS EPISODE "Burnout is not a given" — yes, and… Jen responds to a post arguing that therapists just need a more sustainable business model to escape burnout. She agrees burnout shouldn't be normalized — and pushes back on the implication that if you're burnt out, you simply picked the wrong model. Many of us arrive at burnout in full surrender, with real mental health symptoms, needing recovery rather than prevention. Burnt by the work itself The research is clear: therapists often arrive at burnout, not burning out. Not "a little crispy" — fully burnt. Jen normalizes that some of us will face burnout, compassion fatigue, or vicarious traumatization despite our business model, because of trauma exposure. It's okay if you need help. Full stop. The escape-hatch industry Jen names the constant stream of pitches in her inbox — AI companies, coaching programs, consultation packages — all promising to "solve" therapist burnout. Some consultation is genuinely helpful (she's used it), but be discerning. People benefit financially from therapists buying their way out, and a stopgap is not a solution. What she learned running Leaving the Chair Jen's first cohort of the Leaving the Chair group wrapped in May 2026. Instead of "fix your nervous system in a weekend," the group started with pruning — cutting back what isn't working — and moved into the harder question: who am I now, and what do I actually value? The values bridge Through Susie Welsh's values bridge work (found via Kate Donovan's podcast), Jen was surprised to learn she's genuinely okay with a smaller life. Marketing, launching, scaling — not high on her list right now. Partnership, family, tennis, gardening, her dog — those are. The arrival fallacy, again High-achievers in this field are trained to look for the next rung: the license, the practice, the group practice, the podcast, the program. Jen reflects on being squarely in midlife and — maybe for the first time — being comfortable being where she is. "I don't want to." Borrowing from Martha Beck, Jen describes the little creature at the end of herself that finally said, "I don't want to." Not collapse — refusal. She wants to do good work, thoroughly, and still not overwork. She wants to play. A hobby is something that doesn't make you money Jen stopped teaching fitness classes during the group — $25/hour is real money, but it wasn't a hobby and it wasn't her job. She talks about reclaiming hobbies as hobbies, and helping therapists think about their whole life as something worth enjoying, not just optimizing. What a sabbatical is actually for Jen is taking a summer sabbatical in late June. Spoiler: a sabbatical is not a vision quest. It's not the time to figure life out. It's a time to rest and to cease work — something modern life has thoroughly messed up. A full episode on sabbaticals is coming. Thanks for listening. If this episode resonated with you, share it with a therapist friend who needs to hear it — and subscribe to the newsletter for more at https://balanced-thunder-281.myflodesk.com/drjenb [https://balanced-thunder-281.myflodesk.com/drjenb]

107: Can I create guardrails for burnout as a therapist?

Can you prevent burnout as a therapist? This episode explores the balance between work life and personal life, the importance of boundaries, and how to navigate systemic challenges in the therapy field. Main Topics: * The concept of guardrails in therapy and personal life * Practical boundary-setting techniques for work-life separation * The impact of systemic issues and environment on burnout * Personal stories of systemic injustice and boundary violations * How to implement small guardrails in daily routines * The importance of saying no and adjusting workloads * Reflections on burnout prevention strategies and the limits of individual efforts * The role of self-awareness and systemic change in therapist wellness Resources & Links: * Oliver Berkman - 4,000 Weeks: Time Management for Mortals [https://www.amazon.com/4000-Weeks-Time-Management-Mortals/dp/059319376X] * Cal Newport - Deep Work [https://www.amazon.com/Deep-Work-Focused-Life-Distraction/dp/1455586692] * Mary Oliver - Poem on Our One Wild Life [https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/43171/the-roof-ancient-and-modern] (related poem) Connect with Jen Blanchette: * Leaving the Chair Newsletter [https://example.com/newsletter] (subscribe for stories, journal prompts, and updates) * Jen’s Website [https://jenblanchette.com/] Connect with Therapist Colleague: * Website [https://therapistcolleague.com/] * LinkedIn [https://linkedin.com/in/therapistcolleague]

106: Imposter Phenomenon and Therapist Burnout 2.0

Subscribe to the Leaving the Chair Newsletter: https://balanced-thunder-281.myflodesk.com/drjenb [https://balanced-thunder-281.myflodesk.com/drjenb] Are you a therapist who keeps adding certifications, trainings, and credentials, hoping that this one will finally make you feel like you're enough? In this episode, Jen gets personal about the inner voices of imposter phenomenon — the ones that say "I failed," "I'm not cut out for this," and "how did I get it all so wrong?" — and shares the reframes (and the time it actually takes to get there) that helped her find compassion for herself and her journey. IN THIS EPISODE The knowledge trap in independent practice When we're working alone, we rarely get to mirror our expertise back to others — and that silence can make us feel like we're missing something. Jen explores how that feeling can send us chasing certifications instead of addressing what's actually going on. The dog walker who hit different Jen's new dog walker is a former ornithologist who left her career and summed it up simply: "I was never done." That phrase perfectly captures the arrival fallacy — the belief that once you hit a certain milestone (the EMDR cert, the LLLP, the full fee), you'll finally feel like you've arrived. The voices of imposter phenomenon Some of the loudest thoughts Jen experienced during burnout: "I'm not cut out for this. I failed. I worked so hard — how did I get it all so wrong?" She shares why these thoughts are so sticky, and why it can take years (not weeks) to move from being stuck in them to finding a true reframe. Tools for distancing from looping thoughts You already have these tools — now use them on yourself. Jen encourages therapists to apply the CBT and mindfulness techniques they use with clients to their own imposter thoughts: visualizations, cognitive defusion, and anything that creates distance between you and the story your brain is telling. The reframe that took three years "Of course you needed a break." Holding a therapy practice through a pandemic, as a mother of young children — of course that was too much. Jen reflects on the compassion she's finally found for herself, and invites you to find yours too. Slowing down instead of piling on Instead of launching a new program or changing your whole practice model, what if the answer was to prune? To get quiet? To figure out what you actually need? Jen makes the case for softening — and for finding someone to help you sort through it. LINKS & RESOURCES Episode 105 — Certifications and burnout: are you adding credentials to solve the wrong problem? Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/therapist-burnout-podcast-mental-health-business-and/id1698139097 [https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/therapist-burnout-podcast-mental-health-business-and/id1698139097] Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2Z1uyhMcqZHh2SH1uCZaZx [https://open.spotify.com/show/2Z1uyhMcqZHh2SH1uCZaZx] Leaving the Chair Newsletter — practical, honest writing for therapists who are burned out, burned through, or just figuring out what's next. Going twice monthly. https://balanced-thunder-281.myflodesk.com/drjenb [https://balanced-thunder-281.myflodesk.com/drjenb] Thanks for listening. If this episode resonated with you, share it with a therapist friend who needs to hear it — and subscribe to the newsletter for more at https://balanced-thunder-281.myflodesk.com/drjenb [https://balanced-thunder-281.myflodesk.com/drjenb]