There's a particular kind of stress that doesn't announce itself dramatically. It accumulates — through demanding work, caring responsibilities, financial pressure, living with serious illness such as cancer, or simply the relentless pace of modern life. You keep going, because you have to. And then one day you realise you've been running on empty for longer than you can remember.
Burnout isn't laziness or failure to cope. It's what happens when the demands on you consistently exceed your capacity to recover. It often comes with insomnia, irritability, exhaustion, cynicism, difficulty concentrating, and a creeping sense that nothing quite matters anymore. When exhaustion becomes chronic — including for people living with chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) or ME — the question is not only how to rest, but what has been driving you past your limits for so long.
Psychoanalytic therapy for chronic stress
Sometimes stress is simply about circumstances — and changing those circumstances is the right answer. But when stress persists despite changes, or when your reaction feels disproportionate to the situation, it's worth asking what's underneath.
Psychoanalytic psychotherapy explores how patterns from earlier in life — including how you learned to manage pressure, please others, or push through difficulty — may be contributing to present-day stress. Understanding this doesn't remove external pressures, but it can change how you carry them.
Online therapy for work stress and burnout
Work is one of the most common sources of chronic stress I see. This includes high-pressure environments, difficult relationships with managers or colleagues, redundancy, imposter syndrome, and the particular exhaustion of caring professions. The work isn't about teaching you to tolerate unacceptable conditions — it's about understanding your relationship to work and what you need.
Sessions are 50 minutes, held weekly online, at £75 per session. I work with adults across the UK.