How Can Therapy Help Burnout?

4 Mini Case Studies on Burnout Recovery

Burnout doesn't always look the same. Sometimes, it’s highly visible because you’re off sick and struggling to do the things you usually do. Other times, it hides in plain sight—you’re still showing up, but running on fumes.

At Plum Psychology, we see every version of burnout—from those who appear to be functioning to those who have actually collapsed.

It can be hard to imagine a way out when you're in the thick of it. Below are four brief case studies of fictitious people depicting examples of how therapy can help.

1. When a Toxic Workplace Leaves Scars: EMDR Therapy for Burnout and Betrayal

Dan started therapy a few months after beginning a new job. He couldn’t understand why he was burning out again now that he was in a new company—one where he wasn’t being micromanaged and sent emails at 11 PM. Yes, his new job was busy, but he had managed 'busy' before without feeling so flat, anxious, and lost.

External Stressors

His therapist mapped out everything in Dan's life (not just work) that contributed to his stress. For example, there was:

• The unknown of new and unfamiliar work processes, bosses, and colleagues.

• The stress of caring for his elderly parents (he didn’t feel like he had time to struggle at work with that on his shoulders too).

• Pressure from his wife to leave this profession for a less stressful alternative, making him feel he needed to prove her wrong.

  
  

Internal Stressors

Even though he was in a new company, his inner experience was holding on to the lead-up and moment of his redundancy:

• His mind replayed moments of humiliation as if they were still happening.

• Shame told him he “should be over it.”

• Fear of being blamed and let down by his team again led to people-pleasing, which exhausted him.

  
  

Dan attended therapy for a few weeks to map this all out. Once the impact of the redundancy became clearer, he decided to take three days off work for an EMDR intensive with his therapist to process this. The intensive block of trauma therapy supported his brain and body to identify this threat as being in the past and reconnected him to his resources. It didn’t change the fact that it had happened, but it did stop the intrusive thoughts and loosened the grip of his people-pleasing patterns.

Gradually, he began valuing himself again. He and his therapist visualized boundary-setting, and he surprised himself by actually sticking to these boundaries with his new colleagues. He also started to remember that work was only one part of his identity—that he was also a husband, dad, and runner. He began to engage in activities that aligned with these parts of his identity, reclaiming his work-life balance.

Therapy focus: EMDR Intensive Programme, trauma processing, values work from ACT therapy.

2. When Health and Work Collide: Functional Burnout During Fertility Treatment

Amira was juggling two enormous stressors—a demanding job and relentless fertility treatment—yet she expected herself to cope as if nothing was happening.

External Stressors

External stressors may not be within our control to 'fix,' but becoming aware of them can allow problem-solving. This reconnects us to our sense of agency and helps clarify who or where support might come from within the system, which might have previously been overlooked.

For Amira, these external stressors included:

• Physically draining medical treatment and side effects, impacting both her and her partner heavily.

• A manager who didn’t understand the physical or emotional toll of her treatment and wasn’t giving her any grace with deadlines.

• A very full weekly schedule, with no recovery space from medical appointments or time to absorb news from doctors.

• Lots of extra 'admin' linked to the fertility treatment, such as filling in forms, taking medication, researching, planning, cooking new recipes for nutrition, and trying to fit in extra yoga to help herself relax.

  
  

Using Compassion Focused Therapy (CFT), she and her therapist mapped all the pressures and advocated for reasonable workplace adjustments, making clear and practical recommendations for her manager. This was well received—more than Amira had expected. She hadn’t realized her manager felt at a loss for what to do and say.

They also planned flexible coping strategies, such as compassionate decision-making and pacing, allowing her to practice a different relationship with work—listening to her body rather than pushing through every day and crashing at the end.

Internal Stressors

Her body and brain's threat system was in overdrive. Therapy helped identify these internal stressors:

• A harsh inner critic insisted she “should just get on with it; thousands of other women do.”

• Grief at how she perceived her body to be letting her down, along with fear of the unknowns with fertility treatment.

• A rigid sense of her identity tied to work performance and productivity, leading to feelings of failure.

  
  

CFT helped her build a more compassionate (and therefore resilient) relationship with her own suffering. She stopped ignoring her body and learned that this was a strength. As a result, she could think more clearly, was less snappy, and performed better for shorter bursts when she had scheduled gaps between meetings. This allowed her to reconnect with the people and activities that nourished her.

While Amira had come for therapy due to overwhelm at work, she realized that spending time on the losses associated with trying for a baby and the strains on her relationship helped her stop putting so much pressure on herself. Everything began to feel more manageable over the course of therapy.

Therapy focus: CFT, paced recovery, values-based planning, workplace empowerment.

3. When the System Shuts Down: Severe (Clinical) Burnout

When Sophie’s partner contacted a therapist, Sophie hadn’t been able to get out of bed for weeks. She worked as a hospital ward manager and was typically highly motivated and accustomed to long hours. Both she and her partner were shocked when her level of functioning suddenly fell, and she could no longer speak in full sentences without crying. Her GP had signed her off work, but rest alone wasn’t helping.

Stabilisation

The therapist couldn't start by mapping the external stressors with Sophie at first. Therapy was needed to help her stabilize, put basic building blocks for wellbeing in place, and feel safe in her own body again.

Sophie was shocked at how her body had just stopped. She feared she might 'break' again if she started leaving her house or doing anything work-related. Using gentle grounding and nervous system regulation, CBT tools were gradually introduced to improve her sleep and reconnect her with small parts of daily life: showering, walking her dog, and replying to friends' messages. Over time, she rebuilt her capacity and began to reconnect with exercise, reading, friendships, and her lost sense of self.

Attention then turned to her longer-term needs:

Mapping External Stressors

Sophie’s work environment had been unsustainably intense for far too long. Understanding why she had clinically burned out allowed her to be more compassionate toward this episode. Leading up to her sick leave, she had experienced:

• Long shifts and high-stakes responsibility as a ward manager.

• Chronic understaffing and pressure from above to turn beds quicker than she felt was ethical (she was working against her values, which is called moral injury).

• No buffer for emotional recovery—her work didn’t consider her role as being emotive, despite her hearing difficult stories that broke her heart daily.

  
  

Internal Stressors

Internally, Sophie faced several psychological pressures, some rooted in childhood and others resulting from her breakdown:

• A belief that she must always be the resilient one and a tendency to be 'hyper-independent' (never asking for help).

• A deep identity tied to helping others.

• Strong fear and shame about “breaking down” again.

  
  

After grounding and stabilizing, and gentle reintegration into the world, Sophie’s therapist continued with ACT therapy to evaluate her old ways of relating to work. They explored the costs to her wellbeing and quality of life. They spent time considering her value of 'resilience' and developed a fresh version of what this might look like upon returning from sick leave—breaking her free from the burnout cliff's vicious cycle. Her therapist supported her with a graduated return to work, helping her stick to her commitment to schedule rest rather than waiting to 'earn' it. They also taught her techniques for responding to unhelpful thoughts about being '100% responsible' all the time and managing the guilt that had previously pushed her to the brink.

Therapy focus: Stabilisation, mindfulness, CBT/ACT integration, nervous system repair.

4. A Small Business Owner and Perfectionism: IFS-Informed EMDR

Rachel had her own business as a wedding photographer. She edited photos late into the night and constantly feared “letting someone down" if she made a mistake (which would "ruin" someone’s wedding day). She had grown up with highly expectant parents—mistakes made them angry or upset, which she carried into adulthood without understanding its role in her current over-achieving and perfectionism.

External Stressors

The demands placed on her were enormous:

• She had numerous photography jobs booked and little admin or editorial support.

• She had two neurodivergent children, requiring extra liaison at school.

• Her salary was the main income in the household, so she couldn’t afford to take many breaks or be off sick.

  
  

Therapy included discussing the reality of juggling these responsibilities as a small business owner—always being 'on' to tend to incoming inquiries and wearing 'all the hats'—accountant, bookkeeper, administrator, and photographer. There were never enough hours in the day to get everything done, and missing something meant her whole brand suffered.

Internal Stressors

Her perfectionism was an internal protector, which made sense given what she knew about her past. It grew louder and more insistent with the current stressors. Rachel's inner protector had:

• A deep fear of letting others down.

• Tied her self-worth to flawless performance.

• Panicked when she took any time away from work, fearing her business would fold or customers would be let down.

  
  

Using Internal Family Systems (IFS), Rachel understood the protective role her perfectionist part played and learned to view it more compassionately. EMDR then helped process the early memories driving her fear of failure. Over time, Rachel began to feel able to invest in herself and her business in new ways—securing some accountancy support and a few hours a week of PA input for invoicing.

Therapy focus: IFS-informed EMDR, self-compassion, boundary-setting.

What These Stories Have in Common

In my experience as a therapist for 20 years, burnout is often a sum of many parts. Mapping out a holistic view of your health, relationships, past and present experiences, as well as workplace stressors helps to understand how you respond to stress in the here and now. This understanding reveals the areas for you and your therapist to work on first.

Each of these example clients needed practical problem-solving, self-compassion, trauma processing, tools for responding to negative thoughts and emotions, or permission to slow down. The theme running through all our clinical work in this area is this: healing burnout involves looking at your own internal pressures (trauma, perfectionism, people-pleasing, using busyness to avoid pain) as well as the external pressures linked to work demands, family juggling, or health issues. Oh, and we always spend time in therapy thinking about prevention and how to keep yourself well in the future too.

If You Recognise Yourself in One of These Stories…

You don’t have to wait until collapse to get help. As you can see from Sophie’s case study, therapy at that point might take longer because we must re-establish the basic building blocks for wellbeing. At Plum Psychology, we specialize in holistic, evidence-based therapy and EMDR Intensives to help busy professionals recover from burnout, trauma, and chronic stress. We have experience with many external stressors, from fertility difficulties to moral injury. When you get in touch, we will consider all these aspects to support you with the best match of therapist.

Take a look at our EMDR intensives here.

Or our therapists here.

Or make an enquiry to get started here. We look forward to supporting you.

Not ready for therapy but want to learn more? My book on burnout has more case studies and self-help tools you can try.

*These are fictional case studies based on themes arising from my many years of experience in the therapy room and in supervising other psychological staff.