for a walk or drive i can no longer offer said ruksheda also strapped for her quarterly metime breaks besides dealing with the swell in demand there have been financial troubles to boot with some offering their services pro bono while struggling to earn a living many clients are requesting discounts or are unable to pay its hard if youre a therapist with no other sources of income explained bapat to beat the burnout or compassion fatigue mental health professionals have been seeking therapy to examine their own emotional state for bapat it was about choosing between her clients and her sanity on one hand you know their problems are real and the distress palpable but when your phone is continuously buzzing with sos messages or youre added to a whatsapp group without consent it gets too much to take in march she took help to deal with children who had lost their parents to covid i needed help to process that life was unfair says bapat for whom finding the right therapist was like a matrimonial match it helped me get things off my chest and have someone external to me be objective about it syeda fell back on her network of therapist friends weve bonded with each other more than ever because of necessity for instance if we notice someones sounding a bit off on a messenger or at a webinar we reach out and most of us are comfortable talking and venting to each other kedar tiwale consultant psychiatrist with the fortis network of hospitals says that the buddy system of having a goto person that could be a mentor or a colleague inculcated during mental health training is reaping dividends in the pandemic a lot of people from the medical fraternity have been reaching out from across states for oneonone candid talks its allowing us to recalibrate what we are going through and help our clients in the process last month bapat decided to gamify an initiative to support practising psychologists by dedicating her tuesdays to help fellow therapists vent while urging them in turn to do the same for another mental health worker the initiative has now snowballed with the asian american psychological association offering free psychological firstaid to healthcare frontline workers in india including therapists attending such vent out sessions is helping psychologist saba jamwal recognise signs of a burnout initially i thought it was going smoothly until screen time increased backaches became prominent and my entire family got covid i got back to seeing clients in a week but with the second wave my emotions overlapped with the grief anger helplessness and fatigue that my clients were feeling says jamwal who sought therapy two months ago peer supervision is helping me process whats happening within mebesides taking a pause to examine their own emotional competence small restorative activities cultivating healthy bedtime habits journaling or quitting messaging groups to escape the infodemic is helping them rise to