Burnout therapy in Nelson, BC

You've been exhausted for a while now, and rest isn't fixing it. The exhaustion goes deeper than tired — it's a bone-level depletion that doesn't lift after a weekend off or even a vacation. You may notice yourself feeling distant from things that used to engage you, or doubting your capacity in ways that don't match your actual abilities.

Burnout isn't limited to demanding jobs. It shows up in parents who haven't had a moment to themselves in years, in people caring for aging family members, in anyone whose life has become an accumulation of demands without adequate rest. And it often reflects genuinely unsustainable conditions — not personal weakness or a failure to cope.

“A burned-out house — the structure still stands, but the interior has been gutted.” — Herbert Freudenberger, who coined the term in 1974

Rest alone won't reset a depleted nervous system

Most people assume they just need a vacation, a weekend off, or more sleep. But passive rest doesn't resolve burnout. When stress responses have been activated repeatedly without completion — when you've had to keep going, keep functioning, keep holding everything together — your nervous system doesn't simply return to baseline because you stopped.

The body needs something more active: a way to complete what it started, to discharge what's been held. This is why willpower to “just rest more” doesn't work, and why recovery requires a different kind of engagement than simply stopping.

These patterns were once adaptive

Burnout rarely arrives without history. Whether you identify with over-functioning, difficulty setting limits, or the tendency to sacrifice your own needs, these patterns usually developed for good reasons. At some point, they were adaptive. They helped you survive, succeed, be the person others could count on.

But what was once adaptive has become unsustainable, and burnout is the signal that something needs to change.

In our work together, we explore what led here — not to assign blame, but to understand what you learned about your own needs, what felt necessary about pushing past your limits, and what beliefs about rest or worthiness are still running. And we work actively with what emerges: building boundaries that reflect what you actually have to give, grieving what you've sacrificed along the way, and untangling your identity from the role of the one who holds it all together. If perfectionism or people-pleasing are part of the picture, we work with those too. Sometimes the work involves learning to receive care — not just give it.

The body bears the cost of pushing ahead

While we work with the patterns and beliefs that led to burnout, we also work with your nervous system directly. The body has been carrying what the mind kept overriding, and it needs attention too.

Using Somatic Experiencing® and body-centred approaches, we help your nervous system complete stress responses that were interrupted — all those moments when you couldn't stop, couldn't rest, couldn't let down. We work gradually, rebuilding your capacity for the kind of deep rest that actually restores. Sometimes this includes table work and therapeutic touch, which can support the nervous system in settling in ways that talk alone cannot reach.

Recovery from burnout isn't solitary work. The therapeutic relationship itself becomes part of the healing — a place where your nervous system can experience co-regulation, where you don't have to hold everything yourself. And there's something larger here too: taking care of ourselves and each other is how we show up for the changes our world needs.

A different relationship with demands

Although many clients seek therapy for burnout for symptom relief, they leave with something more than that as well. Learning how to step off the treadmill of obligation represents a fundamental shift in how you live.

Deep rest becomes accessible — no longer a luxury you can't justify, but as a capacity to which your body becomes increasingly accustomed. Your relationship with demands changes: you begin to hear your body's signals before collapse and to set boundaries that reflect what you actually have to give. The chronic overdrive that felt like the only way to function gives way to something more sustainable.

If you're recognising yourself in this, I offer a free 20-minute consultation to explore whether we'd be a good fit. You can also learn more about how I work, or explore perfectionism and emotional regulation, which often connect with burnout.