Therapy for work stress and burnout in Croydon
When success feels like slow drowning
Key facts
- BACP registered #197852
- Croydon practice
- Individual therapy £70
- Couples therapy £100
- 50-minute weekly sessions
- Couples therapy in person only
You're good at your job. Really good. That's the problem. Because being good means more responsibility, more expectations, more messages at midnight that need responding to. You used to feel energised by the work. Now you feel like you're running on fumes.
People tell you to set boundaries, take breaks, learn to switch off. As if you hadn't thought of that. As if you could just decide not to care whether things fall apart.
Burnout isn't about workload
Most approaches to burnout focus on time management. Do less. Delegate more. Take a holiday. But you've tried that and here you are again, three weeks later, back in the same hole.
Burnout is not always only about having too much to do. It can also be about what work means to you. Maybe achievement is how you prove worth. Maybe staying busy keeps the anxiety at bay. Maybe you learned early that being needed is the only reliable way to matter.
Psychodynamic therapy is interested in why you can't stop. What you may be trying to prove, or escape, or earn. As those pressures become clearer, different choices may become more available.
What we'll do
We meet weekly or twice-weekly and explore what work is doing for you beyond the obvious. Not to judge it, but to understand it.
Maybe you're chasing something that can't be caught. Maybe you're trying to outrun a feeling that follows you anyway. Maybe you're living out someone else's definition of success and haven't noticed yet.
The work is to find what actually matters to you underneath all the should. Not what looks impressive, not what pays well, not what your parents wanted. What you actually want, once you learn to hear yourself again.
Common questions
- What's the difference between stress and burnout?
- Stress is feeling overwhelmed but still engaged - too much to do, not enough time. Burnout is what happens when stress goes on too long: emotional exhaustion, cynicism, feeling disconnected from work that used to matter. With stress, you still care. With burnout, you're running on empty.
- Can therapy help if I can't change my job?
- Sometimes the external situation genuinely cannot change, at least not immediately. Therapy may help you understand why you respond to work the way you do, what needs you may be trying to meet through overwork, and what choices are actually available.
- Why do I keep burning out even after taking breaks?
- Sometimes a break helps, but the same pattern returns because the pressure to overwork has not been understood. If achievement is how you prove worth, or busyness is how you avoid difficult feelings, rest alone may not reach the underlying conflict. Therapy explores why stopping feels so difficult.
- Is burnout a mental health condition?
- The WHO classifies burnout as an occupational phenomenon, not a mental health disorder. But it often coexists with depression and anxiety, and the exhaustion, detachment, and reduced effectiveness are serious. It deserves proper attention, not just a wellness day.