You’d be forgiven for getting stress, anxiety, overwhelm and burnout tangled up - they often overlap and feed into each other but putting it simply:

Stress says, “This is too much”
Anxiety says, “Something bad might happen.”
Overwhelm says, “I don’t know where to start.”
Burnout says, “I’ve got nothing left, but I don’t feel allowed to stop.”

Whilst this definition of burnout is a helpful jumping off point, it doesn’t tell the whole story. According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), burnout is defined as an “occupational phenomenon” resulting from chronic workplace stress.

When it comes to burnout, there are three key elements:

Exhaustion
Increased negativity towards your job
Feeling ineffective or unaccomplished

And this is the part where I need to speak up.

Yes, burnout is often linked to pressures from our professional lives - but that is only one part of a much bigger picture.

Burnout Isn’t Just Caused by Work

As someone who has experienced burnout several times, I know first-hand that pressures from my personal life have always compounded the stress I’ve experienced at work.

Personal pressures like:

Grief
Heartbreak
Medical appointments
Moving house
Planning a holiday
Household chores
Being a member of a bridal party
Anxiety about global politics
The cost of living crisis
Supporting loved ones through mental health struggles
Arguments with my partner
Financial hardship
Friendship break-ups
Fertility stress
And countless celebrations - birthdays, baby showers, engagement parties, hen dos, weddings, house warmings, cat’s christenings… it’s easy to feel trapped on the hamster wheel of life.

Sometimes life can just be a bit too much, can’t it? And I see this reflected time and time again with the clients I work with.

It isn’t just work that depletes our energy.

Life does.

The Key To Burnout Recovery

To break the burnout cycle for good, we need to work with both parts of the mind: the conscious and subconscious. Addressing one without the other often leads to short-term relief, not long lasting change. That’s why hypnotherapy can be such a powerful tool for burnout recovery, especially when exhaustion feels chronic.

A good place to start is with the conscious mind: making intentional choices around both your work and home lives and setting healthy boundaries.

For me, healthy boundaries look something like this:

Scheduling time at home to do absolutely nothing - that’s right zero plans.
Blocking off recurring time in my calendar to move my body and treating it like an appointment - it’s happening, no negotiation.
Only having one true priority per day - everything else is a bonus.
Cancelling social plans if I feel exhausted.
Not seeing clients at the weekend.

All of these things help me rest, recharge and refill my cup. It’s so important to protect your peace.

Another key part of successful burnout recovery is challenging deep-rooted and damaging beliefs around rest, productivity and worth - and this is where hypnotherapy comes into play.

What Is Your Burnout Story?

I’ll take you right back to the beginning.

Growing up, my mum worked her socks off. She was a young, single parent juggling teacher training and looking after me and my two sisters. She had a rock-solid work ethic and was a big advocate for achieving academically - it was the only way to survive and create a better life for her family.

So, naturally I followed in her footsteps.

I took GCSE’s early, I studied four A Levels, I achieved a First Class Degree and a First Class Masters.

For a while this approach to life seemed to be serving me well - that was until burnout hit.

I felt pressured to be productive all the time
I was plagued by perfectionism
I felt constantly stressed, anxious and overwhelmed
I felt cynical about my career and the industry in general
I stopped looking after myself - nutrition and exercise went out the window
I drank too much caffeine and alcohol
I became deeply unhappy

Something needed to change.

How Working With The Subconscious Mind Supports Burnout Recovery

Through gentle repetition and positive suggestion, new beliefs can be introduced and reinforced, allowing outdated beliefs to soften and shift. This is the process that is often referred to as “leveraging neuroplasticity.”

Alongside our dreams, memories, habits, automatic responses, fears and emotions our belief-systems live in the subconscious mind.

The subconscious mind speaks a different language to the conscious mind which is why we use hypnosis to access it directly.

Working with my subconscious mind was a huge turning point for me.

I used to believe that rest wasn’t an option. Weekends were a time to hustle harder and get ahead. If I wasn’t giving 11/10, I wasn’t trying hard enough.

Through hypnotherapy, I adopted a new belief: 8/10 is more than enough in most situations.

Now, hand on my heart, I genuinely believe that and I don’t feel guilty when I rest.

Whilst in hypnosis I explored memories from childhood and reframed my experiences. I was able to identify the belief system that had been driving me: “In order to be loved, you must overachieve.” That belief was silently destroying me - and it wasn’t true.

Working with a hypnotherapist allowed me to discover and embed new beliefs:

I am enough
My worth is not tied to my productivity
I am allowed to rest
There are many aspects of my personality that make me special and loveable
True burnout recovery begins when you start to believe you’re worthy of rest.

Hypnotherapy Is The Tap On Your Stress Bucket

Hypnotherapy can support burnout recovery in many ways.

To stop this blog turning into a book, I’ll focus on just one: how hypnotherapy helps you empty your metaphorical stress bucket.

“What on earth is a stress bucket?” you might be wondering.

The stress bucket is a simple way of understanding how pressure builds in the mind. Work, finances, relationships, responsibilities - they all add “water” to the bucket. When the bucket isn’t emptied regularly, it eventually overflows, leading to overwhelm… and over time, burnout.

Now picture this.

In your mind’s eye, imagine a shiny silver metal bucket. Every demand, worry, and responsibility pours more water in. On the front of the bucket is a tap - this represents relaxation and healthy stress release.

Hypnotherapy helps turn that tap on.

People who are prone to burnout often live in a state of chronic stress. Their nervous system is stuck in fight-or-flight, meaning it never truly feels safe to switch off and rest deeply.

Hypnosis provides a gentle yet powerful route into deep, restorative rest. Through guided relaxation, hypnotherapy calms the nervous system and reduces the body’s stress response, allowing built-up tension to drain away.

Research suggests that the deeply relaxed state achieved in hypnosis can mirror some of the restorative benefits of REM sleep, helping the mind and body recover more efficiently.

With regular hypnotherapy sessions - and by listening to bespoke hypnosis audio recordings at home - stress levels become more manageable. The bucket empties more easily, reducing the risk of emotional overflow and helping prevent burnout before it takes hold.

Ready To Break The Burnout Cycle For Good?

You’re not alone.

I’ve been there and I’ve come through the other side - hypnotherapy allowed me to break the burnout cycle for good.

And when you’re ready I’m here to support you every step of the way.

If you’d like support with burnout recovery you’re welcome to book a FREE 20-minute Discovery Call to see if hypnotherapy feels like the right fit for you.

Breaking the Burnout Cycle: How Hypnotherapy Supports Burnout Recovery