Is Body Awareness Related to Lower Burnout in Psychotherapists? A Mixed‐Methods Study

Aim Burnout is frequent among psychotherapists due to the high emotional demands of their work. Body awareness has received little attention as a potentially relevant variable in this context. The present study aims to explore the relationship between interoceptive awareness and burnout in psychotherapists. Method Using a mixed‐methods approach, this cross‐sectional study combines self‐report measures of interoceptive awareness and burnout, completed by 107 psychotherapists, with qualitative interviews on psychotherapists' bodily experience conducted with a subsample of 9 of them. The Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) and the Multidimensional Assessment of Interoceptive Awareness (MAIA) were used, and regression analyses were carried out to analyse the data. The qualitative interviews addressed the subjective experience of therapists' own body in therapy. Results In our psychotherapists sample, interoceptive awareness was inversely and significantly associated with burnout. In a multiple regression analysis, the overall MAIA score significantly predicted burnout, controlling for age, gender, years of experience and workload. Qualitative data show that bodily sensations are a rich source of information for the therapist, which can be used for the benefits of clinical work and self‐care. Conclusions Our results support the idea that body awareness may be associated with lower burnout levels in psychotherapists. Qualitative findings suggest that bodily sensations function as a meaningful source of information for therapists, supporting both self‐care and the therapeutic process. Future studies could corroborate these initial results and deepen the understanding of the mechanisms of the associations found.