Motivational Work Prevents Burnout

Motivational Work prevents burnout when personnel meets clients and patients in social services, psychiatry, and the penal system who are considered unmotivated. You have the same phenomenon in medical care. There is often reduced engagement in unmotivated patients that do not listen to the doctor’s recommendations and do not take care of their health (see” Helping the most vulnerable medical patients” by Melissa McCool: Medium).

1. Unmotivated

The significance of the word unmotivated is that there is no method for helping these clients/patients. So it is useless to be committed to them. What is actually described here is a loss of engagement, a burnout.

A. Negative Confirmation

All unmotivated clients and patients have one thing in common: they give negative feedback to carers. They do not come to meetings, leave abruptly, are aggressive, insulting, threatening, violent, under the influence of drugs or alcohol, or are compliant (that is, they adapt superficially to the personnel’s expectations).

B. Emotionally draining

To sum up, you only get a negative confirmation for engaging with them. Furthermore, clients are emotionally cut off, so no deep contact is established. This negative behavior creates feelings of meaninglessness and hopelessness in carers. Contact with unmotivated clients and patients is emotionally draining. It seems that they do not want any help. Why invest time and energy in them when the effort is without any reward?

Psychotherapeutic Approaches

One reason for this frustration is that most methods of working with clients are built on psychotherapeutic approaches. They require a reasonably well-functioning person to work. Someone who listens to what you say can reflect on the situation and attend the meetings. You risk getting burnt out when you use these methods on unmotivated clients/patients.

2. Motivational Work Prevents Burnout: The Protective Suit

Withdrawing from unmotivated clients is one way to avoid becoming drained of energy. It is effective in protecting carers from becoming burnt out. On the other hand, they can’t help the client because they don’t have a protective suit. There is, however, one way to meet clients/patients without becoming drained of energy. Motivational Work prevents burnout by creating a protective suit. It is achieved by integrating values and theory within you.

A. View of Humanity

One value is your view of humanity. If you have a humanistic idea of clients, you can assume they still have positive energy deep down in their psyche. The significance is that they have a positive core and strive to be constructive, benevolent beings. Every human being has this positive force.

Empower the Positive Core

The positive core of unmotivated clients needs to be stronger. The most substantial part is their destructive energy, but this destructiveness is acquired through environmental interaction. The destructiveness is attained, which means it can also be diminished. Having a positive core means two options when they meet other human beings. Dumping their anxiety on others is one survival tactic.

However, what is essential for clients is something else. The innermost meaning of their positive core is to strengthen the energy and to be constructive. Clients want to be liberated from their destructiveness and be human beings that care about themselves and others. This urge is the most profound drive in all of us: to empower the positive force. I discuss the positive core in my book “Values and Theory, Motivational Work Part 1” on pages 13 through 62.

B. Destructive behavior is a test

Another part of the protective suit is to view the client’s destructive behavior as a test. He will trust them more and dare to accept their engagement if they can still be committed to him despite his destructiveness. It is as if the client reaches out his hand, but it is hidden in barbed wire.

3. Case Study – How Motivational Work Prevents Burnout

Christopher is 37 years old. In his childhood, he started to use drugs and is still addicted to them. His criminality is drug-related, but Christopher has also spent time in prison for assaulting staff. He has lived in institutions for the homeless many times.

Abusive Behavior

However, his excessive drug abuse and threatening behavior have driven the staff to discharge him. All the same, he comes to visit the institution every day. It often happens in the evenings when only a few staff members are present. Christopher is abusive in his behavior, screams, is aggressive, and is influenced by drugs. The staff dare not confront him because they are scared of him. The other clients staying at the institution are intimidated by him and either withdraw or play along with him.

Staff Feeling Hopeless, Frustrated, and Angry

The staff has tried to talk to him and make him understand that he cannot come there because he no longer belongs to the institution. The more the situation deteriorates, the more hopeless, frustrated, and angry the staff feels about  Christopher being in control. Their reaction becomes more and more personal and less professional.

The situation around Christopher gets even worse. Several staff members are so afraid that they report in sick and stay home. There is increasing conflict among the staff. Some say that they should help Christopher more; others want to hire guards to protect people at the institution from him. The discussion among the team gets more and more aggressive.

The Client Dumping His Feelings

The staff lacks a protective suit, so Christopher can’t get the positive energy from them that he desires. Consequently, his anxiety, anger, frustration, and hopelessness are dumped on them because the staff is powerless to stop it. After visiting the institution, he feels relieved for the rest of the day. He has gotten rid of many of his painful feelings.

A Lose-Lose Situation

However, the effect is not long-lasting. At the same time, Christopher feels abandoned and misunderstood. The staff cannot give him what he wants. The next day he needs to do the same thing all over again. Christopher has to survive and still has the hope of receiving positive energy. The more the staff allows him to dump his feelings on them, the more they resemble him in their emotions. It is a lose-lose situation. Christopher receives no positive feedback, and the staff is drained of their energy.

Motivational Work Prevents Burnout through Protective Suit

After training and supervision in motivational Work, the team believes that Christopher has a positive core behind his aggressive and threatening behavior and that deep down in his psyche, he does not want to be destructive. Instead, Christopher wants to receive positive energy from the staff. Finally, the team succeeds in making a protective suit.

The staff now sees his destructive behavior as a test. He will trust them more and dare to accept their engagement if they can still be committed to him despite his aggression. It is as if Christopher reaches out his hand for help, but it is hidden in barbed wire.

The Reached-out Hand

The personnel has a choice. If the focus is on the barbed wire, the team will be drained of energy. On the other hand, concentrating on the reached-out hand will give staff protection. The personnel decides to regard Christopher’s aggression as an indirect, positive confirmation that he desperately needs their help. Christopher is coming to the institution because he has some trust in them. When the team can see behind his aggressive mask and discover his covert positive energy, they are not similarly vulnerable to Christopher’s destructive behavior.

The Suffering and Lonely Person

Instead, they begin to have a positive attitude toward him and are no longer so afraid. They focus on the suffering and lonely person behind the destructive façade, who desperately longs to be helped. This new attitude towards their client diminishes the conflict in the staff group, and they now understand that there is also the option of strengthening his positive core. In my book “Values and Theory, Motivational Work Part 1,” you will find an in-depth description of the protective suit, especially on pages 94 through 399.

Group Confrontation

In their supervision group, the supervisor suggests that they have a group confrontation with Christopher. The personnel already have a protective suit. If they meet him as a group, they will not feel intimidated by him. At first, the staff is hesitant. They are unsure and unsafe.

On the other hand, the staff feels they have their backs on the wall. They determine to try the confrontation when the situation becomes even more chaotic. There is nothing to lose. One evening, there is a large group of staff assembled. When Christopher arrives, they gather around him and start to confront him. They say that they understand he is not angry. He must be very lonely, sad, and filled with anxiety. The staff also say that they like him as a person but can’t accept his aggressive and threatening behavior. They want to help him, but his destructiveness must stop.

The client is silent and at ease

Christopher is initially aggressive, but the staff does not step back. Soon he is silent and seems to be confused. He completely changes his behavior and listens to the team as they continue to confront him. They stop after half an hour. Christopher is still very silent but seems more at ease than before. The personnel makes an agreement with him. The next day they will discuss with him how they can help him. After this group confrontation, Christopher is no longer aggressive, and the personnel has a more positive view of him.

Strong Positive Confirmation of The Client’s Positive Core

Here the client receives very positive confirmation. Many staff members engage with him simultaneously and do this even though he is not their client. They come in the evening outside their regular working hours. During the confrontation, they keep their positive engagement and are not afraid of him. By talking to the person behind the façade, they confirm that they see him and understand his existential situation. They feel that they have emotional contact with him.

Christopher’s positive core is strengthened; in other words, his self-esteem and self-confidence have increased. He has a stronger relationship with the staff and trusts them more. All this is possible because the team can give back positive energy, despite Christopher’s destructive testing. It is, therefore, potent positive feedback. You can read more about the method confrontation in “Method and Techniques, Motivational Work Part 3” on pages 11 through 291.

4. Summary

The case of Christopher illustrates how Motivational Work prevents burnout. One essential starting point is that you need to be filled with positive energy when you encounter unmotivated clients, and at the same time, you must have a protective suit. 

Before the group confrontation, the staff tries to talk to Christopher and make him understand and reflect on his situation. His positive core is not strengthened this way. Nor does it stop the energy drain from the staff. Christopher does not dare to relate to them. He needs more decisive positive confirmation from the team to trust them. They have to approach him in another way.

Helping a Drowning Client

Reaching out to an unmotivated client connects to a desperate and disillusioned human being. It is like encountering someone who has fallen into deep, cold water and is drowning. The person hesitates to accept help because he doesn’t trust the helper.

Simultaneously, he desperately wants to be rescued. By seeing the client this way, Motivational Work prevents burnout and strengthens his self-esteem and self-confidence.

P.S. You can get all four books on Motivational Work for free as an e-book if you apply for a Kindle unlimited membership at amazon.com. D.S.