Stress and burnout are common experiences that individuals often feel they can manage themselves. A break, an outing with friends, or getting on a plane for a vacation is often enough for most people to feel like they are adequately managing their stress and burnout. And for most, these strategies work and often make you feel fantastic and refreshed.

However, what happens when these strategies start to feel less and less effective? Everyone has had the experience of going away on a glorious vacation and then within one or two days back at work, they are already experiencing the same level of stress or burnout as before.

Or everyone also knows the colleague who hesitates to even take too much time off of work, because of the fear of having that overwhelming feeling after returning from vacation. They don’t want to deal with an overflowing inbox of hundreds of emails, or a pile of requests on their desk when they return.

It is not uncommon to find ourselves in a cycle of work, then vacation, more work and another vacation, and even more work, just to get to a vacation. Or grabbing just a day or two of vacation, here and there, so as to not get behind or feel overwhelmed.

What has happened is that this gives you a reprieve or even a sense of protection from stress and burnout, but the reasons you are experiencing this stress and burnout in the first place, still remain unidentified and unaddressed. And these reasons are often different for every individual. This is where therapy can really help.

Therapy can help you identify the difference between stress and burnout, the root causes of your burnout, develop coping strategies to help you manage, and help you set realistic goals and boundaries. It can also help you to understand how your stress or burnout is impacting your mood and mental health, which can then help to improve how you perform at your job, but also positively affect the other realms of your life outside of work.

If you think you need more support, engaging a therapist is a safe place to start. Fully confidential and completely personalized to your needs and goals, I can work with you to help you to prioritize your wellbeing and take the steps to start feeling better.

Don’t hesitate to reach out – support is always there for you.