How I Avoid Burnout by Abigail Kay, MA, MD
About ten years ago, with having a better work-life balance in mind,
I decided that I wanted a new hobby and signed up for a 10-session
introduction to pottery class. Each Sunday, Clay in hand, I went to the
pottery studio. After a few sessions I was confidently centering my clay
on the pottery wheel, creating a symmetrical mound and skillfully
creating the beginnings of a bowl. Sadly, however, as my classmates
began to make tall vases, I discovered that I couldn’t get my bowls past
that initial, beginnings of a bowl stage and after those 10 weeks,
decided to look for a different hobby.
I thought about other crafts and decided to try woodwork. After my
first weekend course, I knew that I had found my new hobby. Many small
tables and cutting boards later, one can only comfortably fit so many
tables into their home, I decided to try my hand at bowl turning. There
was a small group of members who would go into the woodshop each day,
make a beautiful bowl, and then head home. As I struggled to make a
simple bowl, I admired another turner’s elegant bowl and he told me that
if I made one bowl every week for a year, that I too could make a
beautiful bowl. Each week I went in, made a small bowl, watched the
experienced bowl turners make works of art and learned from their
experience. One of the turners would watch YouTube videos and after
learning how to make a new style of bowl, would teach me how to make it.
When someone would ask me what kind of bowl I was making, I would joke
that however it turned out was exactly what I was trying to make. As I
became more skilled, I often added that what the expert creates on
purpose, the novice creates by accident, and I was still the latter.
Years later, I had the most wonderful, serendipitous moment. Halfway
through making the outside of the bowl I paused and realized that I
could leave the outside of my bowl as it was, rather than trying to make
it a traditional, round bowl. That realization has led to my making
“outside of the box” bowls in which I try and focus more on the bowl as
a piece of art, rather than only as a traditional bowl. People often ask
me if I have an Etsy store, but in my mind that would change my hobby to
an obligation, rather than something that gives me joy.
About Dr. Abigail Kay
Abigail Kay, MA, MD, DFAPA- Biosketch
Dr. Abigail Kay did her residency training in psychiatry at Thomas
Jefferson University Hospital, where she has been a faculty member and
attending physician since 2005. In addition to being board certified by
both the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology and the American
Board of Preventive Medicine (Addiction Medicine), she is also a
psychoanalyst, having trained and graduated from the Psychoanalytic
Center of Philadelphia. In her clinical role, Dr. Kay specializes in
insight-oriented psychotherapy. From 2005 until 2015, she served as
medical director of the Narcotic Addiction Rehabilitation Program.
Dr. Kay is an APA Distinguished Fellow (DFAPA). She is a prior
recipient of the Outstanding Educator Award of the Philadelphia Chapter,
Pennsylvania Psychiatric Society (PaPS). Dr. Kay has received other
prestigious awards including the Dean’s Award for Excellence in
Education, Sidney Kimmel Medical College, and the APA’s Nancy C. A.
Roeske Certificate of Recognition for Excellence in Medical Student
Education. Dr. Kay is widely known as a mentor to women seeking careers
in the field of medicine.
Prior to 2010, Dr. Kay founded a local study group for women
physicians treating patients w/ substance use disorders. This group
evolved to its present day form- Women Advancing Addiction Medicine
(WAAM).
In 2015, Dr. Kay co-founded the Addiction Conference of the
Philadelphia Chapter of PaPS, which continues as a premier event
today.
Dr. Kay has extensive experience in medical student education. From
2015 until 2025, she served as Associate Dean of Academic Affairs and
UME at the Sidney Kimmel Medical College. Prior to that time, she was
the associate director of medical student education in the department of
psychiatry and human behavior. She has taught extensively in all 4 years
of the medical college curriculum and presents nationally on innovative
ways of teaching medical students, as well as on caring for individuals
who use/misuse substances.