Maybe you keep waiting for the tiredness to life but it doesn't, not after a weekend off or a full nights sleep. Maybe things that used to feel manageable now take everything you've got and even the things you used to enjoy can feel flat or like too much effort to bother you.

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Burnout is what happens when the demand has outstripped your capacity for long enough that your system starts to shut things down to cope. It's not just being tired, it's a deeper kind of depletion that usual rest doesn't seem to fix, often alongside a flatness or numbness where your energy and interest used to be.

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It isn't laziness and it isn't a character flaw. It's usually a sign that you've been pushing through for longer than was sustainable, often because stopping didn't feel like an option or because you'd learned to keep going long after your body was asking you to stop.

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In your body

• Exhaustion that sleep and weekends off don't seem to touch

• Getting ill more often or small symptoms (headaches, tension, stomach issues) that won't shift

• Feeling wired and exhausted at the same time

• A kind of flatness, going through the motions without much feeling behind it

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In your mind

• Struggling to concentrate or make decisions that used to feel easy

• A flatness or detachment about things you used to care about

• A persistent sense of not being able to keep up, however hard you try

• Guilt about resting or a feeling of being a fraud when you do

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In your behaviour

• Pushing through, even when your body is asking you to stop

• Withdrawing from people or things that used to feel manageable

• Cancelling plans because ordinary demands have started to feel like too much

• Losing the routines or hobbies that used to help you recover

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We'll look at what's actually been asked of you, for how long, and why stopping hasn't felt possible, alongside finding ways to recover that don't depend on things getting quieter before you're allowed to.

For a lot of the people I work with, burnout is tangled up with masking, overworking to compensate for feeling 'not enough' or pushing through because rest has always felt like it needs to be earned. If that's part of your experience, we'll work with that directly, not around it.

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If any of this feels familiar, I'd love to hear from you, no need to have it all figured out first before you get in touch.

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• In-person sessions at Burslem Enterprise Centre, Stoke-on-Trent (ST6)

• Also available online or by phone

• Free 15-minute introductory call, so we can check the fit before committing to anything

• £45 per 50-minute session

• Registered Member of BACP

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Get in touch by email or text/call, whatever's easiest for you, and I'll respond as soon as I can, within my working days (Monday to Friday).