‘Do as we say but not as we do’: Organizational, professional and personal barriers to the receipt of support at work

Given the existence of an established literature on the costs of burnout to the well‐being of the clinician and to the effectiveness of therapeutic interventions for the client, self‐care amounts to sensible preventative action on the part of the mental health worker. This study focuses on experiences of clinical psychologists working in the National Health Service (NHS) in Britain. A two‐stage qualitative study was designed which explored the attitudes and practices of this group of mental health workers towards the receipt of support at work. Analyses revealed that psychologists may be vulnerable to poor levels of self‐care because they perceive the expression of support needs as psychologically threatening. Four themes emerged as significant factors in explaining the relationship between the receipt of support and psychological threat: Organizational devaluation of supportive work practices, ambivalent professional values, psychologists' own fears of being a client, and the perceived costs of the support process itself. An explanatory model describing the interrelationship between these factors is developed.