Today you could not get out of bed and make it work. Your body feels so heavy. You have been working so much to prove yourself and you still don’t feel seen or appreciated at work. You have been drinking more and more coffee just to keep up at work and feel drained even after days off work.

You are tired of saying yes at work when someone asks you to take something else on. You don’t even take your lunch breaks. You are worried you will not be able to find another job and be homeless. You feel like you can't rely on anyone to help you.

Will your family judge you for leaving this “good job”? Your parents were immigrants to this country and always told you “you should be grateful for a job ”. You start wondering “Maybe I am the problem and something is not right with me?”

You are tired of feeling burned out and want to feel better and make changes in your life. Therapy can help you heal from burnout. 

Burnout can take away the joy you once felt at your job. Burnout can show up as physical, emotional and mental exhaustion. Burnout can be easily mistaken for work stress but they are different. To read more about the differences click here. 

Burnout has three main differences from Work Stress:

·  Exhaustion: A profound lack of energy, both physically and emotionally, that does not improve with rest or time off. For example: after taking time off you still feel drained. 

·  Cynicism or detachment: Developing a distant, negative, or callous attitude toward your job, coworkers, or clients. You may feel numb, hopeless, or start to care less about work that once mattered to you. It can look like mentally and emotionally “checking out” of a job role. 

·  Reduced Performance: A sense of incompetence, loss of achievement, or feeling that you can no longer perform your role effectively. It can look like you are being written up or given verbal warnings at work. You are not performing at the level you once were before you were burned out. 

Recovering from Burnout

Unlike stress, which can sometimes be motivating, burnout drains your sense of purpose and can lead to serious consequences for your mental and physical health. In the Latinx community it may be challenging to identify burnout especially as an immigrant, 1st or 2nd generation adult. As being a “hard worker” is seen as a positive and being burnout may be normalized to the point that one can dismiss it. In therapy; I often see Latinx adults struggle with recognizing the difference between work stress and burnout. In therapy I often help my client identify where they are and how to better manage stress and burnout.

Therapy can help you identify the root cause of the burnout you are experiencing. Therapy can help you develop better coping skills.  As Latina women it is challenging at times to see when we are burnout and need to seek help. Family pressure ( click here to read more about familismo)  and expectations can get in the way of noticing and accepting we are burned out from work and/or caregiving. . Therapy can help by providing a safe place to heal and overcome burnout.

If you recognize symptoms of burnout, it is important to act compassionately. Seek professional help: A therapist can help you process your feelings and develop a recovery plan. Contact me for a free 15 minute consultation were we can talk about your unique needs and how can therapy support you in overcoming burnout.