From Stress to Strength: Clinician Resilience
Written by: Kayla Koster, PsyD. Candidate
Balancing coursework, clinical hours, and personal growth can be overwhelming during a practicum, internship, or residency. Psychology students might face self-doubt, stress, and emotional exhaustion as they start supporting clients while still learning. Understanding how to develop resilience—the ability to adapt and recover from difficulties—is essential for maintaining emotional health, participating effectively in supervision, and finding long-term fulfillment in mental health practice.
Defining Resilience
Resilience isn’t about “toughing it out.” It’s a dynamic process of regulating emotion, maintaining perspective, and accessing support during stress. For clinicians-in-training, this might involve practising mindfulness or reflective journaling after intensive sessions or setting boundaries around workload. Research highlights that clinicians who actively develop coping resources—such as peer consultation, mentorship and collegial relationships—report lower burnout and greater confidence in managing clients with anxiety, trauma, or depression. Supervision can serve as a structure within practicum, internship, and residency programs that can offer a unique opportunity to foster resilience through guided reflection, feedback, and emotional processing.
Challenges in Clinical Training
Students often balance client care, research, and self-evaluation. This can increase stress and self-criticism. It’s common to experience “imposter feelings,” worrying that one isn’t skilled enough to assist others. These pressures can affect mental health, relationships, and learning engagement. Interns may also face systemic challenges like high caseloads and diverse clinical settings’ expectations. Recognizing stress early and addressing it through supervision and/or mental health resources helps prevent feeling overwhelmed, maintains consistent client care, and fosters a strong sense of professional identity.
Practical Strategies for Building Resilience
Resilience is developed through intentional routines. Some examples of these habits include:
- Focusing on regular supervision check-ins that address both clinical skills and emotional responses.
- Building a peer network of trainees to normalize shared challenges.
- Practicing self-care activities like exercise, mindfulness, and reflective writing to cope with emotional stress.
- Taking breaks between sessions and setting achievable goals can help manage workload effectively.
- Utilizing counselling services, especially mental health resources or campus-supported services, to help maintain emotional stability during training.
Clinical training is both demanding and transformative. By actively cultivating resilience through reflection, supervision, and supportive resources, clinicians-in-training can manage stress and thrive personally and professionally. Building these habits early fosters long-term well-being and competence in supporting others. For additional mental health resources or psychotherapy services, please visit Centre for MindBody Health.
