Name
Training with Intention: Promoting Resilience and Preventing Burnout in Early Career Therapists and Students
Description

FQHCs face challenges with recruiting and retaining experienced behavior health staff. As such, it is essential that FQHCs become adept at training and retaining the early career therapists and students as they work with the often complex and diverse FQHC population. To address this issue, the training department at Lynn Community Health Center created innovative seminars for their students and early career staff that help build community, alleviate the cognitive and emotional labor associated with being a new therapist and support agency. This presentation offers a model for how training programs can serve as effective recruiting and retention tools for health centers.

Speakers
Catherine Smail, PsyD
Diana Westerberg, PhD
Content Level
All Audience
Tags
Social justice or DEI, Training/Supervision, Workforce development
Session Type
Concurrent
Objective 1
... identify strategies to teach learners and early career therapists how to skillfully implement applicable and culturally appropriate evidence-based practices with a diverse and multi-stressed patient population
Objective 2
... understand an effective teaching model that provides systemic, social and clinical support for trainees and early career therapists to transition into a complex, integrated workplace Learning objective three:
Objective 3
... foster a department-wide culture of ongoing learning and professional development by inviting guest lecturers (from the dept) and supporting post-graduate learning for early career therapists
Content Reference 1

Allan, R. (2019). Teaching and learning evidence-based practices: Promoting dialogue for counselors and psychotherapists. Counseling and Psychotherapy Research, Vol. 19(3), 206-213. https://doi.org/10.1002/capr.12223

Content Reference 2

Association for Behavioral Healthcare. (2022). Outpatient mental health access and workforce crisis issue brief. (Feb.) [Issue Brief].

Content Reference 3

Duncan, S., Pond, R. (2025). Effective burnout prevention strategies for counsellors and other therapists: a systematic review and meta-synthesis of qualitative studies. Counseling Psychology Quarterly, Vol. 38(3), 526-555. https://doi.org/10.1080/09515070.2024.2394767

Content Reference 4

Heath, O., Maranzan, A.K., McCurtry, M., Shields, R., Sinclair, C., Stark, C., & Wilkins, L. (2026). Teaching ethics effectively in psychology. Psicologie Canadienne [Canadian Psychology], Vol. 26(1), 110-122. https://doi.org/10.1037/cap0000422

Content Reference 5

Wright, J. A., Bergkamp, J., Williams, N., Garcia-Lavin, B., & Reynolds, A. (2025). Privilege in the room: Training future psychologists to work with power, privilege, and intersectionality within the therapeutic relationship. Psychotherapy, Vol. (62)1, 82-89. https://doi.org/10.1037/pst0000563