In the present study, the relationship of emotional exhaustion in psychotherapists with coping mechanisms, locus of control and emotional stability tendeny, and the predictive power of those mentioned variables on emotional exhaustion were examined. 279 psychotherapists between the ages of 23-59 participated in the study. 84% of the participant group were females. 41% of the participants’ professional experience was less than 3 years while 21% and 38% of the participants had 3-5 years and more than 5 years of professional experience respectively. Participants filled out the Coping with Problems Experienced, Locus of Control, Big Five and Maslach Burnout Inventories and the demographic form. The results revealed that emotional exhaustion was negatively correlated with positive coping mechanisms-self-help, approach and accommodation- and emotional stability whereas it showed a positive correlation with with external locus of control and negative coping mechanisms- avoidance and self-punishment. Moreover, the results showed that emotional stability tendency, self-punishment and self-help coping mechanisms significantly predicted emotional exhaustion. It was considered that these findings would contribute to both filling the related gaps in the literature and indirectly protecting community psychological well-being by providing relavant information to be considered with respect to the support programs which would be formed in the future in order to prevent or heal emotional exhaustion among the psychotherapists.

Keywords: Psychotherapists’s Emotional Exhaustion, Locus of Control, Stress Coping Mechanisms, Emotional stability tendency