How Therapy for Burnout Can Help You Heal
Last Updated on May 26, 2025 by Manassa Shrikanth
Reviewed by April Justice, LICSW
- Published on 26 May 2025
Did you know that a staggering one in two Australians experience burnout?
Contrary to popular belief, it’s not a badge of productivity, a social media buzzword or a productivity issue that you can fix with better time management. And it’s not just a workplace problem; it’s a systemic one.
Burnout is a serious mental health condition rooted in chronic stress, long-term emotional exhaustion and being stuck in survival mode.
It’s your body’s way of telling you something is wrong – that you need to stop and reset. Therapy can help you with just that.
Join us as we explore the different types of burnout, tips on what to do when you feel burned out and how therapy can help you recover.
This Article Contains:
4 Types of Burnout
Not all burnout looks the same and understanding which type of burnout you’re facing can be key to your recovery journey.
Below are four common types of burnout, each with a distinct set of causes, symptoms, and effects:
1) Frenetic or Overload Burnout
This type of burnout occurs when you push yourself too hard for too long. You might constantly take on more tasks, work late, and ignore your body’s signals, often stuck in an endless cycle of perfectionism and toxic productivity.
Key traits: Overworking, sacrificing rest or other areas of your life & feeling constantly overwhelmed, yet never enough
2) Under-Challenged Burnout
Here, the issue isn’t doing too much – it’s doing too little that feels meaningful. You crave challenge but feel stuck in a job or situation that seems mundane, boring or misaligned with your values or skills.
Thus, you may start feeling disengaged, detached and emotionally numb.
Key traits: Boredom, lack of motivation, feeling unfulfilled & disconnected
3) Worn-Out or Neglect Burnout
This kind of burnout usually happens when you feel helpless in your work or life situation.
You’ve tried to make changes or cope in the past, but nothing worked, and you’ve mentally checked out.
Key traits: Mental fatigue, apathy & giving up on trying
4) Misalignment Burnout
Sometimes, burnout stems from a misalignment between your personal values, beliefs, or needs and your environment.
You may love your job, but if the work culture, leadership or organisational ethics are starkly at odds with your own, it can slowly drain your motivation and morale, leading to workplace burnout.
Key traits: Internal conflict, dilemma, frustration & disillusionment
What to Do When You Feel Burned Out
- Take breaks without guilt – a week’s vacation or even a day to rest.
- Plan the next day’s tasks right before you log out.
- Switch off work notifications and limit screen time after hours.
- Say no to one task that isn’t urgent.
- Block out an hour (or even 15 minutes) of quiet time after work every day.
- Take mini-breaks through the workday – even 2-minute breaks help your brain rest.
- Speak to your manager about your workload.
- Schedule a short walk, stretch break or coffee break daily.
- Stay hydrated and eat regular meals – don’t skip them.
- Talk to someone you trust, a partner, friend, or relative.
- Write down what you feel in a journal – even if it’s just one or two sentences.
- Try mindfulness practices like meditations and body scans to wind down after work.
- Unfollow social media accounts that remind you of work or drain you.
- Spend some time every day doing something you’re passionate about or enjoy – read, cook, bake, garden, listen to music.
- Take a new route home or try something new – even if it’s as simple as buying a new brand of cookies.
How Therapy Helps with Burnout
If you’ve been feeling drained, disconnected or constantly overwhelmed for a long time without a clear reason, it may be time to pause. These may be signs of burnout.
So, can therapy help with burnout? Absolutely.
No matter whether you’re struggling with workplace burnout, emotional burnout, or both, therapists in Australia can offer professional guidance and support.
Here’s how the process of burnout recovery with a therapist can look:
a) Identifying the Root Cause(s)
While you can often manage the outward symptoms of burnout on your own, it’s only a temporary fix.
Therapy helps you dig deeper to understand the underlying causes of burnout.
Your therapist in Australia may help you explore causes such as:
- Chronic work stress and extreme workloads
- Toxic work cultures and unhealthy leadership patterns
- Unrealistic self-expectations, people-pleasing tendencies or perfectionism
- Continuous emotional pressure in relationships, with no healthy outlet
- Lack of proper breaks and rest
- Misalignment and lack of satisfaction at work (one of the common signs of workplace burnout)
Understanding why you’re burned out is key to lasting recovery.
b) Acknowledging & Validating Your Experience
Being a widely misunderstood mental health concern, burnout is shrouded in stigma and misconceptions. It’s often dismissed, minimised, or worse – romanticised.
It’s vital to acknowledge your feelings and validate your experiences. Therapy creates a safe space for you to do that.
Through regular therapy sessions, your therapist can help:
- Validate what you’re feeling without judgment
- Understand that burnout and ensuing mental exhaustion are mental health struggles, not personal flaws
- Recognise the signs of burnout earlier next time
c) Creating a Recovery Plan
During therapy, your therapist will work with you to curate a personalised recovery plan, a roadmap to healing.
Here’s how burnout recovery with a therapist can look:
- Identifying practical steps for rest, healing and recovery
- Setting doable goals and drawing boundaries
- Learning coping strategies, tools and techniques
- Understanding what to do when you feel burned out or mentally exhausted
d) Exploring Coping & Healing Strategies
Recovery isn’t just about taking a vacation – it’s about learning ways to cope with the effects of burnout and heal from it.
Therapy introduces various helpful tools and strategies to manage and recover from chronic stress and burnout.
Some strategies you may explore include:
- Mindfulness and grounding techniques such as Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR)
- Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) techniques such as cognitive reframing, ie reframing negative thought patterns such as ‘I’m not doing enough’
- Emotion-Focused Therapy (EFT) for emotional regulation and release tools for anger, guilt, and anxiety
- Role playing for boundary setting, assertive communication and learning to say no or delegate without guilt
- Behavioural activation techniques to unfreeze yourself from numbness and apathy
- Journaling and reflecting to track triggers, emotions, energy levels and progress
- Somatic therapy techniques like body-based grounding, movement, breathing, etc
- Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) to improve self-compassion and self-confidence
e) Setting Boundaries & Building Resilience
Therapy doesn’t end with recovery; it also equips you with the resilience and tools to prevent future episodes of burnout.
You learn to recognise warning signs early, proactively work on your boundaries, and prevent stress from snowballing into mental exhaustion and burnout.
In therapy, you’ll learn to:
- Spot the warning signs of burnout and take action
- Set and communicate clear boundaries, especially at work
- Proactively prioritise your mental wellness
- Say no without feeling guilty or second-guessing yourself
- Prioritise yourself – your mental health, hobbies and personal time
Key Takeaways
Burnout can often leave you feeling like you’re unproductive, failing, or not strong enough.
In reality, it’s a very human response to long-term pressure. It’s your body’s way of shielding you from further harm.
Here are some key takeaways about chronic stress and burnout:
- Burnout is more than just tiredness; it’s chronic mental and physical exhaustion.
- There are four common types of burnout.
- Common burnout symptoms include fatigue, detachment, apathy and lack of motivation.
- Workplace burnout is most common, but burnout can happen in any area of life, eg caregiver burnout.
- Therapy helps you navigate burnout with clarity, validation, and support.
Therapists in Australia can guide you through burnout recovery with proven strategies and professional support.
Your road to burnout recovery and healing starts here – book your therapy session with Talk Your Heart Out (TYHO) today.
