At first, you told yourself it was just a busy week.
Then a few weeks.
Then months.
Now you wake up already exhausted. You stare at emails you can’t answer, sit through meetings where your heart isn’t in it, and end the day with nothing left for the people or things that matter most. You feel detached. Tired. Cynical. And maybe even a bit numb. If this sounds familiar, you might be dealing with burnout—one of the most common and least talked-about mental health issues in the modern workplace. Burnout isn’t just stress. It’s the accumulated wear and tear on your emotional, physical, and psychological system when the demands exceed the internal and external resources you have to meet them. But the good news? You don’t have to stay stuck in this state. There is a way back to clarity, energy, and purpose—even if you’ve been running on empty for a while.
What Does Burnout Look Like?
Burnout often unfolds gradually, making it hard to catch until you’re deep in it. Common symptoms include:
- Chronic fatigue or low energy, even after rest
- Emotional numbness or increased irritability
- Lack of motivation or sense of achievement
- Reduced performance and creativity
- Trouble concentrating or making decisions
- Feeling detached from your work or colleagues
- A sense of dread at the start of each workday
- Headaches, insomnia, or digestive issues
Left untreated, burnout can lead to anxiety, depression, and even physical illness.
What Causes Workplace Burnout?
While high workload is a factor, burnout is rarely just about “too much work.” It often stems from a mismatch between the worker and the environment.
Common causes include:
- Lack of autonomy or creative input
- Unclear or unrealistic expectations
- Poor leadership or toxic team dynamics
- Misalignment with company values
- Constant context switching and multitasking
- Emotional labour (especially in caregiving or service roles)
- Feeling undervalued, unseen, or replaceable
It’s important to note: burnout is not a personal failure. It’s a signal that something vital needs attention.
The Nervous System Behind Burnout
Burnout isn’t just psychological—it’s physiological.
When your body stays in a state of prolonged stress activation (fight-flight-freeze), cortisol and adrenaline remain high, your sleep cycle gets disrupted, and your emotional range becomes narrow or reactive.
In therapy, we start by regulating the nervous system—not through productivity hacks, but through grounding, breath, and reconnection with the body’s signals of “enough.”
Steps Toward Healing: A Holistic Framework
Here’s how we begin to address burnout—integrating mind, body, and environment:
1. Awareness and Permission to Slow Down
Many people resist acknowledging burnout because they fear it will be seen as weakness. In therapy, we challenge that idea.
You are not weak. You are human.
We start by:
- • Identifying where the overload is coming from
- • Validating your body’s fatigue and emotional numbness
- • Recognising survival patterns (e.g., people-pleasing, over functioning)
- • Naming grief around lost energy, meaning, or connection to your work
This naming process is liberating. It lays the foundation for change.
2. Restoring Core Health Routines
Burnout depletes the very systems that help us recover. We rebuild those foundations through:
- • Sleep hygiene and circadian rhythm alignment
- • Blood sugar-stabilising, anti-inflammatory nutrition
- • Short, daily movement or stretch breaks to reawaken energy
- • Technology boundaries to reduce dopamine depletion and screen fatigue
- • Rest practices that aren’t “productive” (e.g., daydreaming, walking without purpose, quiet time)
The body must feel safe to restore capacity.
3. Mindfulness and Boundary Practices
Mindfulness isn’t just a stress management tool—it’s a boundary tool.
It helps you:
- Notice internal limits before you crash
- Pause before overcommitting
- Identify emotional signals from the body
- Stay present with what matters, not just what’s urgent
We work together on:
- Micro-mindfulness sessions (1–3 min check-ins throughout the day)
- Calendar and energy audits
- Rituals for starting and ending your workday
- Somatic cues for “I’m approaching my edge”
This is about protecting your energy as a sacred resource.
4. Rediscovering Meaning and Purpose
Burnout is often a sign you’ve lost touch with why you’re doing what you’re doing.
Therapy helps you explore:
- What parts of your work feel aligned or misaligned
- How your current identity has become over-attached to performance
- Whether it’s time to refocus, renegotiate, or reimagine your role
- What values still matter—and how to express them, even in small ways
Purpose doesn’t have to be grand. It can begin with reconnecting to what feels authentic and sustainable for you.
5. Navigating Workplace Dynamics and Systemic Stress
Sometimes the source of burnout isn’t you—it’s the environment.
In therapy, we may explore:
- How to advocate for yourself without fear or guilt
- How to disengage from toxic dynamics
- Whether a job or career change is necessary
- How to maintain psychological health even within challenging workplaces
We also explore how cultural norms (e.g., hustle culture, perfectionism, caregiving expectations) may be affecting your mental health.
Burnout Recovery Is Not Linear
Some days you’ll feel clearer. Other days you’ll still feel stuck. That’s normal.
Recovery from burnout is not about “getting back to your old self.” It’s about becoming someone more balanced, spacious, and self-aware than before. And that takes time, patience and support.
Let’s Begin the Process of Restoration
You don’t have to white-knuckle your way through your workday anymore. If you’re feeling burnt out, foggy, or disconnected from your work—or from yourself—it’s time to pause and tend to what matters. I offer online therapy for burnout and workplace mental health across Queensland and beyond, with in-person sessions available on request.
To make an appointment with Dr. Scott Terry, please Book Online or call Vision Psychology Brisbane on 07 3088 5422.