The Links Between Trauma and Burnout

How Big-T and Little-t traumas Impact On Us

Burnout is rarely about one isolated area of stress. It’s always more complicated than that, and trauma often plays a role. Sometimes the roots lie in early experiences of criticism, neglect, or upheaval which prime the nervous system to be on guard. Other times it's more about the inescapable stressors from work and adult responsibilities; moral injuries, or a lack of support, that keep your system in a hyper-alert state.

Trauma can take many forms. 'Big-T' traumas are the obvious, overwhelming events like accidents or abuse. 'Little-t' traumas are quieter but can have an equally damaging impact - the repeated criticism, neglect, or instability that slowly wears down resilience. Both Big and little- Ts leave lasting imprints on how we cope with stress and can feed into the burnout cycle, because they result in behaviours like overachieving, people-pleasing or Fear of Switching Off (FOSO) in an attempt to stay safe from further harm.

Certain themes come up again and again in sessions with clients. In particular, in my work in therapy over the years, I've noticed five ways in which trauma often interplays with burnout. Each of these touches on a different part of human experience - our basic needs, our boundaries, our relationships, our sense of agency and traumatic workload. Together, they help explain why burnout feels so all-encompassing, and why it can’t be solved by surface fixes alone.

1. Unmet needs

“Trauma is what happens to a person where there is too much too soon, too much for too long, or not enough for too long.” – Duros & Crowley

When we think of trauma we often picture “too much”, meaning overwhelming events or sudden shocks. But an equally powerful source of strain is “not enough.” Not enough safety, care, consistency, or validation. When those essential needs go unmet, both in adulthood and in childhood, the nervous system adapts by staying on high alert.

This is particularly hard if it happened consistently early on in life because that early wiring can show up in response to work-stress as relentless striving or never letting yourself rest -because some part of you still feels that only constant effort will keep you safe. In the short term, this drive can look like success. In the long term, it wears the body down and feeds the cycle of burnout.

2. Violated boundaries

“Burnout is overwhelming and boundaries are the cure.” – Nedra Glover Tawwab

Boundaries are how we protect our time, energy, and values. Trauma often involves those boundaries being ignored, trampled on, or rendered impossible to enforce. For example, a child who learns that saying “no” leads to rejection or conflict may carry that lesson into adulthood, finding it hard to turn down extra work or to walk away from unhealthy dynamics. Equally this pattern could be learnt during adulthood from a toxic boss or controlling authority figure.

Another form of boundary violation is moral injury. This results when you've been expected to do things at you don’t agree with or are upset by. For example, to meet targets in ways that conflict with your personal values, or deliver a service that was compromised by service cuts. These moments can be profoundly destabilising, because they don’t just drain energy, they clash with your sense of integrity.

Each time we override our boundaries to keep the peace, hold on to our job or avoid conflict, the nervous system takes the hit. Over time, the body absorbs this repeated stress as if it’s under siege. Burnout occurs from this slow erosion of boundaries.

3. Insufficient social support

“Trauma is not what happens to us, it’s what we hold inside in the absence of an empathic witness.” – Peter Levine

Connection is one of the most powerful protectors against stress. But interperonsal trauma often teaches us that reaching out won’t help, or that our feelings are too much for others. If no one was there to listen or offer guidance in the past, or if we learned to hide our pain to avoid humiliation, isolation or learning to push through alone becomes a default survival strategy.

In a culture that already prizes independence and productivity, this can feel doubly reinforced: keep going, don’t burden anyone, prove you can cope. Yet without safe connection, the nervous system has nowhere to offload pressure. The means our stress can build silently inside until it tips into burnout.

4. Feeling of being trapped

“The origin of trauma is the inability to move… trauma is characterised by being stuck.” – Bessel van der Kolk

One of the most overwhelming features of trauma is the sense of being trapped - wanting to act but finding no safe way to do so. The nervous system responds by freezing or flopping: a survival mode designed to conserve energy when escape isn’t possible.

Adulting in this day and age often echoes this same pattern. For example, in therapy we see may see people paralysed by too much workload or lack of childcare; trapped by a big mortgage or school fees. Exhaustion, detachment, and numbness are the nervous system’s way of shutting down when it sees no other option. These traits aren't a sign of weakness or failure though, it’s an understandable response to inescapable stressors.

5. Vicarious Trauma and 'Compassion Fatigue' (AKA empathy-distress fatigue)

If you spend your days supporting people through distress, trauma, or crises, you may find that their pain starts to seep into your own system. Over time this “empathic distress fatigue” can leave you feeling numb, hopeless, or emotionally depleted. Unlike compassion-which motivates us to help with warmth and care- absorbing too much empathy without replenishment wears us down. Professionals in healthcare, therapy, teaching, policing, and other frontline roles are especially at risk, but anyone in an emotionally heavy environment can experience this - particularly if there is not sufficient support and recognition of this aspect of the work. A helpful metaphor for this is of imagining a sponge soaking up other's pain and distress. If your internal sponge is full, without anywhere for you to go to decompress or process this, you will become saturated this starts to affect your wellbeing.

Conclusion

Naming the trauma–burnout connection is an important step. As a clinical psychologist, when I work with clients in therapy I find that the simple act of validating the source of their distress connects them to self-compassion, it helps them to see that exhaustion, people-pleasing, or the inability to rest aren’t personal failings -they make sense from what has happened to them. Once they understand that, they can begin to respond differently.

At Plum Psychology, we see this moment of recognition as the start of change. With the right support - from nervous system resets to trauma-informed therapy - you can start to shift the stuck patterns.

So what are the next steps?

You will find it helpful to Burnout: How to Manage Your Nervous System Before It Managed You by Plum Psychology founder and author of this blog post Dr Claire Plumbly.

Or contact us here to have a chat about how we can support your journey through 1-to-1 therapy or our intensive EMDR programs (for faster changes).