Who Erin works with
Therapy for nurses and healthcare workers, with the care turned toward you.
Nursing and emergency care ask you to stay steady while other people are at their worst, shift after shift. ER staff are part of the first-responder focus at Be Well Behavioral Healing, and nurses are among the people burnout tends to find. Erin L. Smith, MSPC, LPCC, LPC, offers therapy for nurses and healthcare workers face to face in Georgetown, KY, or by telehealth for anyone located in Kentucky, Arizona or Minnesota.
01Nurses and ER staff
When compassion runs low
Compassion fatigue can set in when you give care, attention and patience all shift and the tank never gets refilled. You may notice you feel less for patients than you used to, then feel guilty about feeling less. Small requests at home start to seem enormous, and days off go to recovering rather than living. None of this means you chose the wrong career or stopped caring. It can mean you have been caring at full volume for a long time, with too little coming back to you, and the strain has started following you home.
02Nurses and ER staff
Knowing what a patient needed
One of the heaviest parts of healthcare is knowing what a patient needed and not being able to give it. Maybe the unit was short-staffed, or time, policy or a family's decision got in the way. That gap has a name, moral distress, and it tends to linger well past the end of the shift. It can show up as anger at the system or as guilt that is not really yours. Therapy gives you room to say what happened plainly and sort out what was and was not in your control.
03Nurses and ER staff
Codes, losses and the cases that stay
In emergency and acute care, exposure to death and crisis is part of the work, and it adds up. Many shifts get handled and set aside. Then one patient, one code or one family's reaction lodges somewhere and starts coming back at odd moments, such as when you try to sleep or when a similar case comes through the doors. When a memory like that keeps replaying, Accelerated Resolution Therapy is one option to talk through. Erin is certified in ART, sessions run about 100 minutes, and it is often paired with regular talk therapy.
04Nurses and ER staff
The guilt of stepping back
Many people in healthcare feel guilty about any step back: calling out sick, taking a full break, cutting hours, changing units or leaving the bedside. You know who picks up the slack, because you have probably been that person. That guilt can keep you working through exhaustion until something gives, whether it is your health, your patience at home or your feelings about the work. Therapy can help you look at the rules underneath, like the belief that rest is selfish, and test whether they still serve you.
05Nurses and ER staff
Fitting therapy for nurses into shift work
Long shifts, rotating schedules and overtime make a standing appointment across town hard to keep. Telehealth removes the commute, so you can meet from home, provided you are in Kentucky, Arizona or Minnesota at the time. When you are in Kentucky and want a room rather than a screen, the Georgetown office is there too. In either format, your therapy records are protected health information. Questions about scheduling, insurance and privacy in your own situation are all fair to raise on the free 15-minute consultation, before you book anything.
Signs this is the right page
- Dreading the drive in before every shift
- Nothing left for the people at home
- Guilt whenever you call out or cut back
- One patient you cannot stop thinking about
None of this is a diagnosis, and no outcome is guaranteed. It is a starting point for a conversation.
Questions
Common questions
- How do I know if it is burnout or depression?
- They can overlap and be hard to tell apart from the inside. Burnout centers on the job, while depression tends to color days off and the rest of life too. The guide linked below goes further, and it is a good question to bring to early sessions.
- Is therapy private for healthcare workers?
- Therapy records are protected health information. Telehealth also means you can skip the waiting room in your own town and meet from home instead. If you have questions about privacy in your specific situation, raise them on the free consultation before deciding anything.
- What if I am thinking about leaving healthcare?
- That is a fair thing to bring to therapy. Erin's style is solution-focused and strength-based, so the work can include getting clear on what you want, what you already do well and what a next step could look like, whether that means staying, changing roles or leaving. The decision stays yours.
In Erin's words
What she would say if you called today.
You spend your shifts caring for other people, so here we start with you: how you are sleeping, what steadies you and what you want to be different. We set those goals together. I will be honest about what I am seeing, and if something we try is not helping, tell me and we will change course.
Free 15-minute consultation
Book a consultation with Erin
Fifteen minutes by telehealth, at no charge. You can describe what is going on, ask how Erin works, and decide afterward whether to book a first session. Scheduling opens in her secure SimplePractice portal.
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