Therapy for Burnout in Chicago
Burnout is a state of chronic physical and emotional exhaustion, usually tied to prolonged stress - most often work-related, but it can also stem from caregiving, parenting, or other sustained demands.
It's typically described as having three components: exhaustion (feeling depleted and unable to recover with normal rest), cynicism or detachment (a growing sense of negativity, irritability, or emotional distance from work or people), and reduced sense of accomplishment (feeling ineffective or like nothing you do matters).
Burnout often creeps in gradually, so people frequently don't recognize it until they're deep in it - showing up as trouble concentrating, physical symptoms like headaches or GI issues, disrupted sleep, withdrawing from relationships, or losing interest in things that used to bring satisfaction.
Common Thread Counseling Chicago can help you navigate burnout so you can return to healthier relationships and quality of life.
Our Approach to Therapy for Burnout
Individual therapy offers a space to step back and honestly assess what's driving the burnout. We will focus on boundaries, boundaries, and more boundaries.
Together, we will examine patterns that make you prone to burnout in the first place: perfectionism, difficulty delegating, an inflated sense of responsibility, or people pleasing.
Sometimes, situations that lead to burnout feel impossible to change. We will work together to identify the core beliefs around what got you here, how it serves and doesn’t serve you, what parts of you want to continue this path and what parts of you want to change.
Techniques We Use at Our Therapy Practice
-
We can use Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) to target perfectionistic or all-or-nothing thinking patterns that fuel overwork.
-
We will explore how your current habits and patterns are aligning with your short and long term goals and values.
-
Mitigating burnout can involve mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) to build present-moment awareness and nervous system regulation skills to counter chronic stress activation.
Practical Skills We Teach
boundary-setting (at work and in personal life)
learning to recognize early warning signs before hitting full depletion
values clarification to guide decisions about time and energy
assertive communication for negotiating workload or expectations
self-compassion to interrupt the cycle of guilt and overcompensation
nervous system regulation techniques (breathwork, grounding) to manage chronic stress
rest as an active practice rather than something earned
untangling identity from productivity - and how this is through sociocultural and familial systems.
