Stressed and Exhausted?
How Therapy Intensives Can Help you Overcome Burnout Fast:
What is Burnout?
Burnout isn’t just being stressed out. Burnout is what happens when you’ve been chronically stressed for an extended period of time. It’s going and going until you hit the wall and slide down it. It looks like feeling like nothing you do will make a difference, struggling to have empathy for others, difficulty relaxing or shutting off your brain at the end of the day, dreading going into work or completing certain tasks, trouble sleeping or sleeping too much but never feeling rested, wanting to ‘zone out’ by streaming tv shows or disappearing into a book - every night. It can look like feeling resentful or anxious about work, or a sudden, strong urge to change jobs or even entire career paths. Burnout is real, and it often starts with work but typically bleeds out into your relationships, hobbies/free time (if you even have those anymore), and your physical health. The good news is that burnout is treatable, and you can recover from it quickly.
How to Recover From Burnout and Why Traditional Therapy Isn’t Always Enough
I’m going to be brutally honest here: recovering from burnout is going to require you to do things you have not done before, think in ways you have not thought before, and act in a way that you have not acted before. Leaving your job or going on a long vacation isn’t going to fix burnout because you have to address what got you there in order to stop repeating the same cycle in a new environment. Quitting your job won’t help if you just end up in a job where you’re still stressed out all of the time. No one is coming to save you from the taxing job, unreasonable boss, demanding clients, overbearing family members or anything else that keeps you stressed out regularly. You cannot change other people, but you can change how you show up. You can save yourself. You can change your thoughts, your expectations, and your environment. You can learn how to recognize what drives you to end up in and then stay in situations where you burn out, and change it. And you can do it quickly with therapy intensives.
Therapy Intensives allow you to dive deeply into your behavior and thought patterns that keep you stuck in environments that always end up stressing you out, so you can start making changes immediately. Weekly therapy is wonderful and is appropriate for many people, but it can take several weeks to get to the bottom of what drives our behaviors and begin to change the way we think and act because weekly therapy typically addresses a range of concerns, whereas therapy intensives will focus on one thing, which in this case is burnout. When you are not spending time catching up about the week, or processing what happened with your partner or colleague, you’re able to focus on what is keeping you stuck in burnout so you can start changing it now. In a therapy intensive for burnout, you will explore how you got to burnout and be given specific tools to change it so that you can interrupt and ultimately change the cycle.
How Therapy Intensives Can Help
Therapy intensives have a specific structure to best support you in recovering from burnout quickly. First you will have an intake appointment which is where you provide background information about yourself, including any relevant cultural background, any family history of mental health issues, your previous experiences in therapy or how you are feeling about starting therapy, as well as give you a chance to share any information you want the therapist to know. It’s like an introduction with important information so that during the intensive session, which is usually scheduled a week or so after the intake, you can dive into the burnout issue immediately.
During the longer session which is typically about 3 hours and includes breaks, you will closely look at what drives you to seek out or stay in environments that lead to chronic stress, what’s keeping you from leaving them, including what beliefs, values or fears, and then immediately begin to address those things. Part of the session will also include practical, tangible tools to change thoughts and behavior and will teach you how to set boundaries around work. Lastly, you will have a follow up session scheduled for after the intensive where you will get a chance to go over any questions or barriers that have popped up since the intensive, check in with progress and discuss further steps if wanted or needed.
Why It Works
Therapy intensives work because they provide you with a designated amount of time without distractions, and time to review and practice tangible skills to stop the burnout cycle. Weekly therapy doesn’t allow time for all of this and therefore it can take weeks of regular sessions to cover everything that can be covered in one 3 hour intensive therapy session. Some people prefer the routine and consistency of weekly sessions, but intensives can be better for those who travel often, have busy work and family/life schedules, or for those who just want to feel better faster and have the time and resources to devote to making progress quickly.
If you are someone who has been battling burnout and you’ve been wondering if therapy is the thing that can finally help you beat it for good, then you’re on the right track. Therapy intensives can be an ideal option for recovering from burnout and learning what tools and boundaries need to be in place so you can stop it from happening again. Whether you choose to treat burnout with weekly therapy or therapy intensives, it is important to keep in mind that you will have to be willing to look at yourself honestly and evaluate how you are contributing to being burnt out. The only way to create lasting change is to understand how you got there and make different choices moving forward. If you want to do that quickly then therapy intensives are a great option.
If you’re in Colorado and would like to learn more about therapy intensives for burnout you can book a free consultation with me by clicking here.
DISCLAIMER: This blog is for educational and entertainment purposes only; it is not therapy and is not a replacement for therapy. Reading this website does not constitute a provider-client relationship. Consult your licensed physician or licensed mental health provider regarding advice, questions and support for your mental health. Information found on this website should be used only in conjunction with working with a licensed mental health professional or physician. If you are experiencing a mental health emergency, call 911 or 988. Nothing found on this website is intended to be a substitute for professional or medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Denver Therapy LLC, authors and contributors to this blog assume no liability for any actions taken or decisions made in reliance upon, or in response to information contained on this website. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay in seeking it because of something you have read on this website.