Jump to ratings and reviews
Rate this book

The Resilient Practitioner: Burnout Prevention and Self-Care Strategies for Counselors, Therapists, Teachers, and Health Professionals, Second Edition ... Historical, and Cultural Perspectives)

Rate this book
Therapists and other helping professionals, such as teachers, doctors and nurses, social workers, and clergy, work in highly demanding fields and can suffer from burnout, compassion fatigue, and secondary stress. This happens when they give more attention to their clients’ well being than their own. Both students and practitioners in these fields will find this book an essential guide to striking an optimal balance between self-care and other-care. The authors describe the joys and hazards of the work, the long road from novice to senior practitioner, the essence of burnout, ways to maintain the professional and personal self, methods experts use to maintain vitality, and a self-care action plan. Vivid real-life examples and self-reflection questions will engage and motivate readers to think about their own work and ways to enhance their own resilience. Eloquently written and supported by extensive research, helping professionals will find this a valuable resource both when a novice and when an experienced practitioner.

310 pages, Paperback

First published December 17, 2000

46 people are currently reading
620 people want to read

About the author

Thomas M. Skovholt

21 books1 follower

Ratings & Reviews

What do you think?
Rate this book

Friends & Following

Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!

Community Reviews

5 stars
55 (33%)
4 stars
70 (42%)
3 stars
34 (20%)
2 stars
3 (1%)
1 star
4 (2%)
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
Profile Image for Izzy.
32 reviews6 followers
April 22, 2016
For a professional psychologist, professor teaching work-shops around the world, Tom seems very clueless sometimes. When it comes to the stories from his past, at least. The authors were surprised that Turkish students got offended when he corrected their English, and I imagine he wasn't there as an English teacher. And the story of a poor sick boy really broke my heart.
It's also a bit funny to see how they overuse exclamation marks, and some jokes are very adorable because they are the kind of thing your parents would post on Facebook. I am always very amused to see academics try to appeal and/or analyze the younger generation.
In my opinion the book is also very repetitive and could have been twice as short. I liked how it's written in a friendly tone, like a normal conversation rather than boring academic text-book. However, I guess, it is also that tone to blame for a bit "watery" content.
Otherwise, I of course found it very interesting and helpful.
UPD: now that I'm finished, I can tell you for sure that this book is, indeed, very repetitive.
Profile Image for Johnny Sprinkle.
35 reviews
March 10, 2025
There’s a lot of good here, and maybe I’d enjoy it more if I wasn’t reading 9 books for class right now.
Profile Image for Caroline.
38 reviews
March 4, 2008
Good analysis of burnout, but continues to leave several issues unresolved. For example, talks about the importance of development of identity in helping professions two years out of graduate school, and states the importance of needing good mentorship and healthy relationships in the agency. So what happens when you don't have any of those things? What if you cannot create a "greenhouse"? Continues to be a book on burnout that blames the worker. I do that enough myself.
111 reviews
November 14, 2020
I'm not really sure what my opinion on this book is. On the one hand, it was helpful as I learned a lot and thought over some things I hadn't before. On the other hand, I felt it was actually very guilt-inducing for a book on burnout prevention ! The authors kept going on about being a competent therapist and how burnout makes you less efficient, and, I mean... I'm really not sure that's what you need to focus on when you're on the verge (or in the middle) of burnout. I wish there had been more on how clients can be and actually sometimes are entitled and mean and how to deal with that, but while reading, I felt like the focus was placed on serving others no matter how they behave. I think that can be very detrimental to mental health in our professions, and learning how to set and maintain boudaries is SO important, I feel there should have been more of that in the book.
Profile Image for Danu Aji Nugroho.
23 reviews
April 6, 2022
"Helping others with significant concerns in their lives can be highly effective, satisfying, and meaningful. It can be great work. To do this well, however, we must constantly attach and separate successfully, over and over again, with person after person. We experience ambiguous professional loss, normative failure, secondary trauma, and vicarious traumatization. Yet, we must continually invest positively in others, and this means constant renewal of the self and an ongoing focus on the intricate balance between caring for others versus caring for self. Our work can be so valuable and so pleasurable"

Highly recommend book for practitioners and students in the helping fields! So many good takeaways to help me reflect on my journey to becoming a clinical psychologist.
Profile Image for Locker McDonald.
20 reviews3 followers
January 7, 2025
Simply a must read for novice practitioners. I read this with my supervisor, and this book gave important guidance for the realities of working in the helping profession and how to manage the challenges the helper faces. Whether you find yourself in the ambiguity of starting your helping career (therapist, nurse practitioner, teacher, pastor, etc.) or you have been working for sometime, this is a must read.
Profile Image for Jenny.
40 reviews1 follower
November 21, 2021
A great text for any helping profession to realize the importance of self-care to avoid burnout and to increase compassion for those we help.
37 reviews
May 28, 2023
I consistently refer back to this book for the topics of burnout, vicarious trauma and compassion fatigue. Would recommend for all therapists
Profile Image for Alix.
150 reviews
October 18, 2024
Appreciated the practical tips of self-care for those (especially in the early stages) of helping professions.
Profile Image for Karin  Bosveld.
Author 4 books2 followers
September 18, 2025
Het is het standaardwerk over zelfzorg voor hulpverleners en bevat veel nuttige onderwerpen, maar bevat ook erg veel herhaling.
Profile Image for Robert.
15 reviews3 followers
April 26, 2015
Not a page-turner. But loaded with relatable insights and strategies to prevent and respond to burn-out and build resilience in high-contact professions such as clergy, mental health practitioner, counselor and teacher. Read it for a class... but I believe the exercises in it and the examples mentioned will stay with me for a long time professionally and personally.
Profile Image for Olwen.
770 reviews14 followers
January 3, 2014
Excellent resources for practitioners and anyone who works in the caring professions. And teachers! Well written, easy to read, includes self reflection exercises to help you create a plan to beat burnout.
Profile Image for Brandalyn.
198 reviews1 follower
March 10, 2024
This is a great book for learning how to take care of yourself if you're in the helping professions. I felt like I already knew a lot of this information from my MSW program, but it's helpful to have reminders.
Profile Image for Nancy.
112 reviews
August 2, 2007
I really like this book so far. It's practical and helps me think about ways to prevent getting burned out at work.
Profile Image for Ben.
13 reviews1 follower
May 8, 2013
Absolutely brilliant. If you are practising and heaven't read this then it should be the next thing you read. Period.
Profile Image for Death Jon.
150 reviews
September 10, 2018
What’s good? Learning how to survive in a high stress job. What’s not good? Reading a book where the authors quote their other works and use shitty metaphors.
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews

Can't find what you're looking for?

Get help and learn more about the design.