Therapist guild to host free training on activist burnout
Utah activists, organizers, and the therapists who serve them can get practical tools to survive the fight, without burning out in the process, at an upcoming free training hosted by the LGBTQ+ Affirmative Therapists Guild of Utah.
“In-Service: Activist Burnout” runs September 17 from 8 to 9:45 a.m. by Zoom and is led by clinical psychologist Dr. Robert Ortega. The session will unpack activist burnout as its own distinct phenomenon, separate from garden-variety workplace exhaustion, examining concepts like the “culture of martyrdom,” vicarious trauma, and moral injury among people doing social justice work.
In an earlier essay on his Substack, The Agentic, Ortega noted that burnout strikes activists roughly twice as often as the general population, with severe burnout up to four times more common, carrying real risks for heart disease, depression, and suicidal ideation. His antidote is a framework he calls “Radical Hope,” borrowed from philosopher Jonathan Lear’s study of the Crow Nation’s survival amid genocide. Rather than naive optimism, Radical Hope asks activists to root themselves in the long arc of history, find pride in the commonly overlooked personality types who’ve driven real change (think introverted, methodical organizers like Susan B. Anthony, not just charismatic front-line leaders), imagine the future collaboratively, and reconnect with their original “why.”
“Getting someone from burnout to sustainable activism isn’t about ignoring pain or working harder,” Ortega writes. “It’s about a clear sense of purpose, with a collective understanding of how people have made change in the past.”
The training is free for Guild members, who also receive continuing education credits at no cost. Non-members can attend for free without CEUs, or pay $5 for a CEU certificate; separate AASECT credit is available for $35 through The Healing Group Institute.
Registration is open now at latgou.wildapricot.org/event-6810867. Utahns seeking an LGBTQ+-affirming therapist year-round can find one through the Guild’s directory at lgbtqtherapists.com.
