Here's how you can prevent burnout in a career in Peer Support by setting boundaries with clients.

One of the most important exercises you can do if you are neurodivergent is to inventory your challenges and your coping mechanisms. Awareness of this is key to know when they start to break down. And know that this is not a finite list. It is ever evolving, years after you begin your journey towards self-awareness, you may discover you’ve been doing something your entire life to help yourself navigate neurotypical culture.

Schedule in time out intervals especially if you work in a highly stressful environment. Also having hobby helped me to destress.

In my experience, it can be difficult to simply want to help when you don't know your limits, and I didn't know how to say "No" to a situation that my body was telling me to walk away from. In the end, you define those moments and walk away with intention and grace.

Having a keen sense of your own limits, not only based on Peer-Participant boundaries, but limits that also include boundaries related to your overall wellness play a role. Being able to balance your own wellness with the paid portion of your wellness can overlap - imperative to not fall into a trap of thinking you need to extend yourself, even if for additional income, if that extra mile can have a detrimental impact on your own wellness.

In my experience using empathy for clients, staff, and yourselves is the best bet. Please understand that if you are not taking care of your self you are no good at all to anyone. Self care is essential to avoid burnout. Take your mental health days no matter who needs you at work.

"A day late and a dollar short" - time is money! While we do not want to think in terms of time and money - the unfortunate truth can be just that. Setting and sticking to a schedule, whether that be a daily regiment to keep you (personally and professionally), on track to reach your goals, or preparing for each session by reviewing prior notes and preparing an agenda, is a way of not only ensuring you as a Peer are caring for yourself, but can send a clear, gentle, professional message to participants that you are in-tuned with their needs and making clear honest efforts to support them in their journey.

Never over extend yourself; keeping in mind that your role as a Peer is to support, not do for someone. Communicating the roles, the limits, even your own knowledge and resources, can ensure that a relationship is built upon transparency, trust, mutual respect and self-determination.

Another example of self care is keeping work at work during work hours. Don’t check emails or chats during your off hours. Having boundaries with a job is also a form of self-care. The less I try to figure out what’s going on at work while I’m gone, the easier it is to enjoy my time off and fill my cup!

Keep your personal time, exactly that. Make time for yourself to do simple things for yourself. Setting time aside to go for a walk, build flower legos, quality time with important people in your life, and keep space in your schedule to just be. Self-care also includes keeping your sleep schedule and make sure you're eating well. It's easy to get busy and stay awake later to watch that show, or forget to eat but it is important to take care of you first.

Connecting with a Participant can be emotional, and at times expressing yourself in an emotional way may be appropriate - a participant graduates from a training program - that is a reason to feel happiness/joy and possibly even tears can be shed. While this alone does not necessarily cross a professional boundary, as we are Peers and have emotions - but I'd follow-up the tears with a clear statement along the lines of "This is such an amazing accomplishment. What have you done or are thinking of doing to thank yourself for graduating?". For me, a question such as this can turn the emotional moment back to the participant and away from the Peer's natural emotional joy, which of course has the potential to be misleading.