When people use the word burnout, they are often describing exhaustion and reduced capacity after prolonged demands without enough recovery, flexibility, control, or support.
It can involve exhaustion, irritability or cynicism, reduced motivation, cognitive fog, difficulty concentrating, and a growing sense that things you used to manage now take more than you have available.
Figuring out what is actually happening
“Burnout” describes a real experience, but it does not always tell us what is causing it.
Similar symptoms can occur alongside chronic stress, depression, anxiety, ADHD, caregiving demands, perfectionism, relationship strain, difficult workplaces, or combinations of these.
Understanding the drivers matters because different problems require different responses.
Someone overwhelmed primarily by executive-function difficulties may need something different from someone working in an objectively unsustainable environment.
What we might work on
- workload and boundaries
- recovery and rest
- executive functioning
- perfectionism and unrealistic standards
- guilt about slowing down
- people-pleasing
- resentment
- difficulty saying no
- loss of motivation or meaning
- anxiety or ADHD occurring alongside burnout
- decisions about what actually needs to change
Sometimes therapy focuses on helping you function differently.
Sometimes it becomes clear that the environment itself needs to change.
Psychological treatment should not automatically turn every unsustainable situation into a problem of individual coping.
Sessions
Individual therapy for adults and older teens, generally age 16 and up.
In person in Edmonton and virtually throughout Alberta.
50-minute sessions. $235 per session. Direct billing is available with many extended-health insurance providers depending on your plan.
