2. What If Burnout Is Your Body Talking

Coffee at night, overtime call-outs, and a brain that won’t shut off, if that sounds familiar, you’re in the right place. We talk through the real-life collision of sirens, schedules, and sanity, with the kind of honesty that only shows up when you stop pretending you’ve got it all together. Whether you’re a first responder spouse, a therapist, a working parent, or a business owner trying to keep the wheels on, this conversation is a reminder that the messy weeks are not a personal failure.

We use simple weekly prompts to slow down and reflect: What was your Mayday? What was your biggest challenge? What went wrong? What made you question your life choices? From broken trust in business to second-guessing a group practice and the weight of chronic stress, we name what so many people carry in private. We also talk about dissociation and that frozen, “not present” feeling, and why a steady support person can be the difference between spiraling alone and coming back to yourself with care.

We close with practical, relatable truths about burnout signs, somatic stress like back pain, and the hidden load of financial management, staffing challenges, payroll panic, imposter syndrome, boundaries, and insurance headaches. Most of all, we focus on finding peace on purpose and watching for resentment and guilt before they take over. If this resonates, subscribe, share the show with someone who needs it, and leave a quick review, what was your Mayday this week?

Transcript

Welcome Back And Finding The Groove

SPEAKER_00 0:36

Okay, welcome back, people. Week number two. It's so lovely to hear from to hear from you or to believe that you're listening, which sounds silly, but I have some faith. So I hope you enjoyed the last episode. You know, a pilot is a pilot for a reason, right? So our it's our first one, we're just getting it out there, and then we kind of get a groove. And

Coffee Chaos And Real Talk

SPEAKER_00 1:05

so this week, the groove that I want to get into is the concept of coffee, chaos, and call-outs. Now, I don't know what happens to you when you hear that. For me, my body gets all out of sorts. One of the biggest things is, you know, having real conversations, whether it's from a firefighter wife, a therapist, an entrepreneur. I mean, because we all know that they're up to their eyeballs and in tasks and all the things. And even being a mom, you know, trying to hold it together, trying to model what regulating your emotions looks like. So your little mini you's don't, I guess they will, but we try to model that, right? So look, at the end of the day, at least from my perspective, where sirens and schedules and sanity freaking collides, there's a lot of honesty, humor, and hope right underneath it.

Who This Is For

SPEAKER_00 2:17

So kind of narrowing it down, if you are a first responder, a first responder spouse, a mental health professional, anybody that's trying to or running a business, women, men, whomever. A working mom, oh, working mom. My eyeballs are rolling out of like exhaustion and just and just like relatability. Group practice owner, we don't really know what that looks like until we're in it. And we'll go down, we'll we'll go over that down the road. Helpers experiencing burnout. Burnout, you guys, burnout is like one of the number one I won't say concerns, but excuse me, it's one of the number one things that people deal with that really kill us, like slowly from just chronic stress. And anyone juggling too many hats, just too many things, and and wondering if they're failing, because I'm gonna be I'm gonna be honest with you, when that happens to me, I feel like so low. I I don't not so low as in solo by myself, but so so low that I I don't see anything past Murky Cloud. So let's talk about it. Let's

Weekly Mayday And Feeling Alone

SPEAKER_00 3:42

go with the weekly May Day. Maybe take a second and ask yourself, what was your Mayday? You know, like what did that look like? You know, just whatever, whatever it is, whatever it looked like, it's so oh, it's so common. And I'm not even just saying this. Statistically, yes, research does say, but also anecdotally, just in my practice, the amount of chaos and balancing a family and running a business, owning a business, working for a business, marriage, and just your own sanity, like your own personal well-being. I feel like sometimes I go cuckoo, like rockoo. You know, it's it's it's really difficult when we think again, going back to episode number one, when we think we're alone, it's like debilitating. It almost feels it's so we're in solitude, right? And we're just carrying this pain, and it's so awful, and I'm getting so therapeutic on you, and I'm gonna switch gears because I'm getting up all of my feels. So let's go with this. Let's go with kind of what we the layout we did last week. What

Trust Gets Broken In Business

SPEAKER_00 4:55

was your biggest challenge this week? And before I ramble off, maybe think about what was something that you truly struggled with, something that not could have been avoided because that's silly. But you know, like I guess like what did you learn from it? You know, like what did you learn from that challenge? I learned that you know, when you run a business, trust is is very delicate. How do you know when you can trust someone in anything in life, right? Being betrayed or whatever that looks like, how do you know? So I learned that I need to learn how to figure out how to get faith back. Trust is a hard thing to for to be broken, and not that it can't be not addressed, but we can heal from it, but it does take time. So I don't know if you can relate to that. I'm hoping not, but if you can, I get it. The biggest challenge is looking at that and being honest with ourselves and saying, you know, I didn't really have control over what that person was going to do, say, think, or how they were going to treat me, him, her. So yeah, there's that. Hope that helps. I mean, sometimes it helps me, sometimes it doesn't.

What Went Wrong In Real Life

SPEAKER_00 6:17

So what is something that went wrong, you guys? What went wrong this week? I feel like so many things have gone wrong for me in the past. Hold on. 14 days that I can't pick one. But I want to talk about the chicken that I made that was bad and how I cross-contaminated it. Um, but that didn't happen recently. That happened like two months ago. And this is why I don't cook. And when you're married to a firefighter, they cook. And they cook well. So not that I want to gas my husband's head up more than it already is. I mean, the man makes beef wellington. Okay, so sometimes it's kind of worth dealing with as tantrums, but at the end of the day, yeah, I don't cook. So let's go to the next one. While you think about what went wrong, you know, maybe we can also think about what went right. While we while we think about what went wrong.

Dissociation And The Power Of Support

SPEAKER_00 7:16

Okay, what made you question your life choices? That's a good question. I feel like this is a this is one that gets the wheels turning, especially when I ask my clients, because it really does force us to process and reflect on what we what our week looked like, what it what we did. So, questioning my live choices, I definitely questioned my group practice. I definitely asked a couple people if they wanted to switch lives with me, and they said no. So that's cool. And you know what? It it does these trials and tribulations, they do make us stronger. It doesn't mean though that we we won't question these things. You know, they're it is so common to second guess yourself when you're not certain. And for whatever reason that is, right? Without any judgment. So, with that said, what nearly sent me over the edge, I think I started to hardcore dissociate and go into this catatonic frozen state every once in a while. I'm pretty sure people like would intimate intermittently say, like, are you alright? Like, are you present? No, I'm not. I'm neither. So a social support is huge. I I have a wonderful person in my life. Not my husband, I'm just kidding. No, he's in my life, and he can be wonderful. But no, I have someone whom I call a unicorn, and she is just a gem. And you know, she's the kind of person that when you fall apart, she won't tell you to fix it, she won't walk away from you like you are the black plague. She'll sit with you. I mean, it's all my therapist, but this is different. She'll sit with you and and and she'll say, you know, like it's it's okay to fall apart, and there's so much power in that. You know, it's one of those things where if you're gonna lose it, find a way in place to lose it and allocate that pain and hurt somewhere. Because when we don't build that muscle, it kind of just comes out whenever we don't want it to. I don't know if any of you can relate, but at some point before we became a licensed psychotherapist, if I were to cry, I guess I was so good at holding holding it in. If I were to cry for more than like five minutes, it wasn't gonna be five minutes. I can recall crying for hours and it knocking me on my ass. Like I could not function for the day. And and again, nothing is wrong with that. I just had to learn to compartmentalize and allocate that. It's hard to sometimes. So, you know, there's no e there's no easy way out, there's no there's no easy way down the road. It's just the road is the way that the road is. Ooh, didn't what did we talk about last week? We talked about I'm trying to keep like an like I'm trying to stay organized. It's kind of hard, but I'm working on it.

Small Wins During Big Pain

SPEAKER_00 10:26

A win. What was a win? What what what did we do, everyone, that felt like a win, that was a win. I my back was hurting, so that's not a win. My my back blew out, and that was definitely not a win. Ended up in the ER, not a win, also. The doctor was nice, and that was a win. The x-ray was uncomfortable, that was not a win. Clients, you know, despite my pain, my clients were very attuned, and they were maybe they didn't say it, but there's there was a lot of compassion and understanding, and I was still able to, in some degree, and in some capacity, show up for them. So that was a win. And then always with my kids, they're so funny. Like, I really need to start writing down what Ari says, and Eli is just he they crack me up. I I can't give you an example right now, so I'm hoping my next week I'll have one. But I want to stop making it about me for a second, because it's really hard for me to ask you a question and hear it. I kind of have to imagine it. And I really do like to hear people, excuse me, and I don't want to deal with this with the coffee chaos and call-outs about myself.

Burnout Signs And Group Practice Pressure

SPEAKER_00 11:43

Not that I want, not that I want you to be miserable, miserable with me. I want to feel like a herd of elephants. They're cool, they stick together, and they get it. So here's a little shout out to the women that get up and work, put on their boss pants, and you know, they just show up and do their thing. The working moms, the group practice owners. My god, shout out to you. That is a whole other beast. Always those, always, always, always. People who struggle with burnout, please know the signs. It's not fun. Your body will break. If you don't take a break to rest, your body will do it for you. God only knows I've I've dealt with that at least like four times in the past five years. And you know, I say it very nonchalant, but it it was very painful, you know. And and if you're a therapist, I'm just saying, try not to lose your mind when you're you know meeting with clients, running a practice while staying sane is it's a thing, running a practice while staying sane and growing into a group practice. And here I am, I'm like, oh, let's go with the IOP. Okay, we are not even there yet, so let's baby step this, yeah. Um, oh, excuse me. I don't know. I feel like there are so many things in our lives that we can relate to, whether it's your your workplace setting, work-life balance, stress, and it's really tough because I actually listened to a podcast, the group, the group exchange with Maureen. She's great, she she's really helped me a lot with my group practice. She has given me some helpful tools, and I really can't, I I'm like a fan for sure. And I wanted to kind of replicate what she does because of all the things that I experienced falling on my face, getting back up, dealing with staff, you know, dealing with amazing staff, dealing with stuff that doesn't fit with your practice, all the things that that are just freaking hard. And then I realized, you know what? I'm gonna learn from her stuff and I'm gonna apply all the things in my life and help people understand that there are different ways of coping, even if it looks manic. And I say that with humor because I feel like it and I don't want there's so much shame and judgment with that. And yet here I am, you know, I might look like a crazy person wearing crazy pants, writing a book about how to survive. Actually, the title is oh gosh, what is it? The title is When the Therapist Needs a Therapist and then How to How to Survive Growing a Group Practice Without Losing Your Mind. That book is literally being published like right now. This podcast is literally going to be marketed. Uh, I'm going to use it as I'm gonna market this with a pitch that I'm sending to the I don't want to give you the I don't want to give you all of the the deeds, but I will over the weeks and it'll be good, I promise. So let's let's kind of kind of segue into wrapping up. My

Overtime Life And The Search For Peace

SPEAKER_00 15:09

husband got called in for an overtime, so that's cool. 72 hours. The struggle between that and me in life is having to work around my schedule and my clients, thank God I'm I'm able to to some degree. So, you know, I kind of gradually go from one to two cups of coffee in the morning to like 8 by 9 p.m. So if you if your week felt messy too, shoot, I am right there with you. A couple things that I want to just end with. We are looking at as human beings, financial management. That's always tough. So let's just notice that growing pains, boundaries, imposter syndrome, insurance headaches, regular headaches, back pain, payroll panic. See how I snuck that in, staffing challenges, and this is like more of the business area, but it doesn't mean that we can't have these somatic symptoms that are not comfortable just from regular life stress in and of itself. So, people, we need to find our peace. We need to find peace, whether that's in Costa Rica or Paris or at the beach that we don't have here in Vegas, a massage, a facial. We we need to find it. It's we have to like otherwise we're gonna end up. I can visualize it, but I will not articulate it because it's borderline dark. And you know, as a therapist, dark humor works, but not really sure because I don't really have control fully over the audience, so I want to be mindful of that. Wrapping up, just be mindful of resentment and guilt that may come up for you, whether you're any of the 5,000 things that I am I am kind of the jack of all trades on like regarding what I'm standing for in this podcast. And you know, I'm gonna end with this love and resentment and resilience and everything in between is something that I want you to think about over the next week. And I am glad that you joined me because I'm curious to hear more about how this helps people out and more of what I can share by being a normal human who does not always have it together. There's that distortion who does not have it together sometimes. Thank you for tuning in. Remember, you are not alone, and I look forward to hearing back from you, seeing you visually in my mind, or just knowing that you are listening next week. Thank you, have a good one.