A very widespread syndrome is being tackled in new ways.

Professional burnout in the teaching profession is nearly unavoidable – the only question is when it hits you. This problem is the focus of an ongoing project at the Department of Pedagogical Psychology.

Associate Professor Rezeda Khusainova explains, “Teachers can basically “burn away” at work while creating emotional comfort for kids, caring for their safety, development, and health. How can it be any other way? Most of the time teachers work in a tense environment with concentration of attention and responsibility for children’s life and safety. Such factors influence their emotional and physical state; they can become nervous, irritable, fatigued, feel malaise, and, as a result, later in their careers they can stumble upon a teacher’s crisis and burnout.”

“Teachers tend to deny their own psychological difficulties. They are accustomed to being strong, and they love it. Often they think of the first symptoms of burnout as of “weaknesses” and don’t turn to psychologists for help.”

“The most prone to burnout are educators over 35 – 40 years of age and with experience of more than 10 years. They lose enthusiasm, feel fatigued and apathetic. A kid who happens to be near such a teacher also “fades out” after not finding any support.”

The Department has created an advanced training program to deal with exactly this problem. The program takes up 64 hours and aims to teach psychologists to detect and battle burnout in their clients. As methods of burnout prevention, the program students learn various types of therapy (color, music, and body). A gestalt specialist instructs them on the borders of contact. Much attention is given to self-help in difficult situations.

It is expected that over 100 educational psychologists will attend the courses in 2018.