Phone consultation and burnout among providers of dialectical behaviour therapy

Adherent dialectical behaviour therapy (DBT) includes between-session phone consultation to help clients generalize skills, solve problems during crises, and repair relationships. Despite benefits of phone consultation, it is frequently not implemented in outpatient settings. The perceived burden phone consultation places on providers is one of the most frequently cited reasons for its omission. The current study examined phone consultation in relation to providers' burnout using a cross-sectional design. We hypothesized that (1) DBT experience and support from peer consultation team members, including perceived team efficacy and shared coaching responsibilities, would be associated with lower rates of burnout and (2) higher numbers of crisis contacts and "other" contacts, but not noncrisis skills generalization contacts, would be associated with increased burnout. Participants were 65 DBT therapists who completed an anonymous survey online. Results suggest that both having more effective consultation teams and sharing phone consultation among team members were associated with decreased burnout. Additionally, more crisis contacts were found to be associated with higher burnout, whereas higher number of skills generalization calls was not. This study represents an important first step towards evaluating the impact of phone consultation on providers and highlights the importance of effective peer consultation in reducing therapist burnout.