Professional Burnout: 8 Steps to Heal and Restore
Professional burnout is a significant issue affecting many adults today. Especially professional parents. Here is an accessible quick guide on signs & symptoms, plus eight ways to cope with suspected or diagnosed extreme professional burnout.
Professional Burnout is about to become another pandemic/epidemic. Do you feel like maybe we’re already there? Evidence is largely alarming. Medscape’s 2024 physician burnout and depression report 2024 indicates 49% burnout rates: a slight reduction from last year when 53% of physicians reported burnout. However, this year’s rate is significantly higher than it was before the pandemic—44% of surveyed physicians reported burnout in 2019.
The people taking care of other human beings are not well and burning out at alarmingly higher levels than previously. It's definitely something that is worth doing a deep dive discussion on in my eyes! This subject is near and dear to my heart, as the last five years have been excruciatingly difficult for our parents. As a professional parent, supporting those parents over the years, I’ve seen it firsthand in my clients and experienced it myself.
I am writing from the viewpoint of a professional parent experiencing burnout, however, this applies to any caregiver or partner role: if you are caring for a romantic partner, child, parent, roommate, or work relationship, this article is for you. Hence the professional burnout problem.
Let’s begin by taking a look at some of the contributing factors behind the current high rates of professional burnout.
Loss or Lack of Social Support Fuels Burnout
We all know why we are burned out: balancing high demands at work and insufficient family rest time causes significant issues for both parent and child. Let’s face it, society; when parents are unwell, the world is unwell. Research consistently shows that high work demands and insufficient family time contribute to burnout. Throw in a global Pandemic, with forced long-term isolation and the loss of social support (which is known to accelerate burnout), and the subsequent results simply highlight the protective role of social support in reducing parental stress and burnout for working parents.
Unrealistic Workplace Expectations
Many high performers set unrealistic expectations of work and or parenting performance, which leads them to chronic stress levels. Perfectionism is linked to higher levels of one’s individual stress and burnout in empirical studies, therefore this is amplified for burned-out parents experiencing from both of their identities.
Inadequate Sleep/Rest
As we may also see, many parents steal their nighttime hours to get some of their own “me” time or worse, to catch up on work disrupted by childcare responsibilities during the day due to lack of support. Disrupted sleep patterns due to childcare responsibilities or work-related stress just underscore the sleep deprivation on parental well-being and ability to cope with stress further. This is why I am here to write about what we can do about it, instead of wallowing in its impact.
Unresolved Trauma
Trauma responses are often at play here for parents, where professional parents are often juggling multiple roles (parent, partner, employee, caregiver) without adequate resources or time to integrate self-care and personal needs. Role overload is consistently associated with higher levels of burnout in working parents & often steals rest and recuperation time for them individually.
Pandemics and Politics
The ripple impact of COVID and the political and emotional unrest we are facing due to polarization of ethical political beliefs, climate change, and overall existential components we are all facing, plus job insecurity, career transitions, or dissatisfaction– all these combine to create a pressure cooker of stress for working parents. These job-related stressors significantly contribute to burnout among professionals with children and during the Pandemic, juggling virtual learning while working remotely was for many, the straw that broke the camel’s back for career anxieties.
The Results of Unaddressed Burnout in Caregivers
If our parents are not well, then clearly our children aren’t going to be well either. Professional parents have to manage more behavioral issues, developmental stages, or special needs of children on their own than in past generations. Our tribes and villages have been condensed and cleared out in the hustle of remote life culture. Professionals are moving further away from family and friends who can help them raise children who are experiencing big feelings, often accompanied by big behaviors.
I have seen so many burned-out professionals who were lured into the corporate rat race through “unlimited paid time off” and “total flexibility of your schedule” which often did not equate to the work culture & their lack of flexibility of coverage and distribution of workload that allows people to have vacations, regular days off, and actual accrued paid leave when they left the company. Evidence is clear, companies that actually promote paid time off, parental leave, and shared work shifts to allow for a balance of mind, body, purpose, and spirit allow for more fruitful, longevite successful years of productivity by permanent staff.
Parents have been struggling, trying to navigate all these roles successfully as they are being closely monitored for safety, ethics, and differences on every social media platform presented. The stress is rightfully insurmountable and to deny it as a licensed mental health provider would be a blatant gaslighting of my client’s mental health (hell, my own, too!).
Let’s Define Burnout, For Clarity
What is professional parent burnout? Often you see the memes and Tiktoks embodying exhausted “burnt out”, or what I like to call “Crispy” parents, but what are the exact symptoms we are seeing under the surface of their external presentation? Here are some common signs to look for:
Doesn’t sound so hot, does it? And these are the people responsible for the physical, mental, and emotional well-being of our children, elderly, and animals! Our future leaders… or terrorists! We should take a bit more care of our adult parents, especially single moms and working professionals, don’t you think? These realities are dark and these people are often deeply depleted. So let's be rebellious and do it ourselves- take care of ourselves so we can take over the world!
8 Steps to Successfully & Effectively REAWAKEN From Professional Burnout
All right, we’ve talked about the origins of the problem, we’ve clearly defined the problem, and now let’s talk about some practical solutions.
1.Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR): You might have heard people talking about Mindfulness, it’s becoming kind of a buzzword on social media these days. But you might not know what those words actually mean. The easiest, most simple, and effective way to explain it is that its main job is to reduce your stress in the moment. It is by far the most effective & easy to utilize tool and consists of deep breathing, meditation, or visualization to calm your mind and central nervous system to center in the present moment. Your breath is always with you, it's currently free, and it's up to you to prioritize and block off the time and distractions to accomplish your calm. If you do this alone, you will improve immensely.
Quick reminder: for all the scary things- childbirth, scuba diving, tattoos, painful procedures- what is the constant thing that professionals and wise elders tell you to focus on the most? Breathe. The one thing in your body’s control. The evidence is profound in reducing stress, improving emotional regulation, and enhancing overall well-being.
2. Prioritize Physical Health: The physical basics are essential to one’s health but are so often forgotten in the professional parent burnout world. Regular exercise, and movement in the body allow for the body to work out the cortisol (stress hormone) and allow for a deeper connection to nutrition, rest, and restoration. As we may understand logically, we feel better - our minds are often calmer, sharper, and less foggy when we are able to show up for our body’s basic needs. Crucial body survival tasks are often robbed by cortisol take over- maintaining one's hydration, nutrition rich in vitamins and minerals (protein, vegetables, carbs) aligned with physical activity levels, sleep & adequate rest to restore the body daily. Evidence is strong that these enhance resilience and reduce physiological symptoms of burnout. As an LCSW, I see this is often the downfall for professional parents when they lose their ability to be consistent in these areas and it starts to impact their overall physical & mental health.
3. Invest in Personal Therapy: Truly I wouldn’t be here without the loving, compassionate supportive lens of a professional therapist guiding me through the darkness of professional parenting burnout towards the light of how I would like to live more authentically. Perfectionism is a terrible trait that can produce some dark times. Talk therapy can be life-changing for some folks, and somatic body-mind-focused energy for others. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) is a therapeutic framework focused on identifying and modifying negative thought patterns ingrained from childhood, often in core negative beliefs. Therapeutic rapport is everything, find someone who helps you to feel safe to unpack your backpack. Whether it's talk (CBT, DBT, Cognitive Processing), somatic therapies, TMS, Brainspotting, EMDR, or PAT approaches, find your effective treatment to work through negative core belief systems.
4. Maintain Your Social Support: This is one of the biggest things I push as a therapist and can be absolutely the hardest to accomplish when you are drowning in professional parent burnout isolation. Building or enhancing social support networks (e.g. support groups, group exercise classes, peer mentorship, parent tribe, an accountability partner) is a skill that also needs to be honored and experienced individually. Professional parents are not often taught about the nuances of building these types of support, due to prioritizing caregiving or work. This can be so detrimental to their health. The research is clear, that a social support buffer is best against stress and reduces feelings of isolation. Living amongst others harmoniously is far better than self-isolation, even when we cannot stand our partner or children.
5. Set Appropriate Boundaries: Oftentimes, professional adults are self-isolating due to a lack of resources to handle conflict and differences with others. We have to feel comfortable creating a new rhythm of boundary setting. Getting cozy with getting uncomfortable: this is the new normal you will be able to transform into what you actually need and desire within. It's a muscle that needs to be developed if it hasn’t been used or respected in the past. Give yourself permission to do it imperfectly. Establishing clear boundaries between work and family, friends, caregiving responsibilities, and substances is essential for professional parent burnout to be consciously changed. Remember, boundary setting and saying the harder things helps prevent role conflict and reduces stress from overlapping responsibilities- essentially bringing you closer to whom or what you would like to set the boundary with.
6. Establish Authentic Values: Engage honestly with yourself on the question; what are your true authentic values that are all your own? What are the values of your couple-bubble, or your family of origin? It may help you to realize sooner rather than later that you are not in the right work environment for your current needs, and enable you to make decisions that bring you closer to those values. Finding alignment in your workplace environments that permit flexible work arrangements, job redesign, or stress management programs is the future and absolutely needed for the culture designed. This allows you to communicate what your needs are around working with those you love, improving the connections and relationships there with trust and commitment. Improves work-life balance and reduces burnout among employees, both short-term and long-term. Think about how this can also improve the lives of your children, employees, clients, parents, friends, etc.
7. Seek Out Parenting Support Programs: It's hard for us to connect if we are isolated, so reaching out to professional, virtual, and free support groups is an excellent way to decompress and refresh from burnout. I know from personal experience that parenting classes, workshops, and counseling for specific parenting challenges are so effective. A lot of inner child and trauma attachments become exposed when one becomes a parent. Specific support is essential and improves parenting efficacy and reduces parental stress.
8. Career Counseling: This is a tough one for many to accept. Your dreams and goals may not be in alignment with your current job demands & expectations. This is the time to spend time working on career planning, understanding the realities of the current job market, skills development, and the realistic expectations for merging personal and professional values. It's a tough decision to start today on an educational program that may result in better life outcomes in 3-5 years while you are a professional in burnout. Weighing the pros and cons in regards to the career allows you to find hope and a purposeful path forward with less stress.
Professional burnout is real. It's wreaking havoc on our bodies & our society and needs to be addressed systematically. I encourage you to reflect on how you are feeling right now and what you can do TODAY to make a shift in the direction of your health and wellness. These evidence-based causes, symptoms, and treatments for professional burnout provide a comprehensive framework for understanding and addressing professional (parent) burnout effectively. If you need further support and strategies to deal with your professional symptoms and “stuckness”, please feel free to reach out to me!
