Date of Award

Spring 5-5-2025

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts in Clinical Mental Health Counseling

Major

Expressive Therapies

First Advisor

Dr. Angelle Cook

Abstract

Although professionals from many different fields experience the phenomenon of burnout, it is especially prevalent amongst human service workers. This is concerning because it not only impacts the professionals themselves, but potentially also the clients they work with. Burnout is a complex phenomenon due to the variability of each individual and workplace; however, it is commonly characterized by exhaustion, cynicism/depersonalization, and a reduced sense of professional efficacy. This community engagement project sought to gain deeper insight into burnout by exploring the lived experience of mental health professionals using the drama therapy technique of Developmental Transformations (DvT). The research consisted of one individual DvT session and one group session. The observational data collected was presented in two ways. First, the themes that emerged during the sessions were identified in a process inspired by thematic analysis. Second, the themes identified were presented through an arts-based research reflection using photographs.The findings provide supporting evidence for the existing definition of burnout and highlight the ways in which organizational structures impact individuals' experiences. Additionally, the observed data suggests that DvT may be an effective intervention to facilitate stress reduction with mental health professionals. This points to a potential area for future research to examine such an application of DvT further.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 4.0 License.

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