Counsellor Burnout and Work-Engagement

School teacher counselors are at higher risk of burnout than individuals in other occupations due to individual, interpersonal, and organizational factors.Teacher counsellors with burnout, are a liability to the school, students, colleagues, and themselves. On the contrary, engaged teachers feel strong and vigorous at work, are enthusiastic and optimistic about the work they do and are very often immersed in that work. Using Utrecht (2003) Work Engagement Model and the Maslach and Leiter (1997) Model of Burnout, the study explored the effect of teacher counselor burnout on their work engagement, using a cross sectional survey of teacher counsellors. The study generated empirical evidence on the effect of burnout on the work engagement of teacher counselors within Kenyan secondary schools.There was a strong significant inverse correlation between work engagement and burnout.The regression model suggests that burnout is a significant predictor of work engagement among teacher counselors and explains 25.8% of the variation in work engagement. The findings could benefit school counselors, policymakers as well as teacher counselors and also make recommendations for future research.

Autorentext

Jane is a holder of a Masters degree in Counselling Psychology and a Bachelors Degree in Education. She is a practising accredited counsellor with the Kenya Counselling Association, with a passion for high school students' counselling. Besides teaching, she is a speaker in youth camps, churches and schools on spiritual and psychological issues.