Specialty
Burnout, Chronic Stress & Perfectionism Therapy
When you cannot slow down, even when you need to
You are tired in a way that sleep does not fix. Work, or life itself, has become a treadmill you cannot step off, and even your downtime is haunted by the feeling that you should be doing something. Rest feels unearned. Mistakes feel unforgivable. And nothing you accomplish ever quite counts. *
Burnout and perfectionism often travel together. The inner rule that everything must be done thoroughly and well is exactly what makes it impossible to stop, delegate, or let something be good enough. Chronic stress becomes the water you swim in, until your body starts sending louder signals, exhaustion, irritability, tension, trouble sleeping. *
Pushing harder is not the answer, and neither is a vacation that undoes itself within a week of returning. Real recovery means changing your relationship with pressure itself, and that is workable. People do come back from burnout, often with a clearer, kinder way of operating than they had before. *
Signs burnout, chronic stress & perfectionism may be affecting your life
- Feeling exhausted no matter how much you rest
- Difficulty relaxing without guilt or restlessness
- Replaying mistakes and holding yourself to standards you would never impose on others
- Feeling that nothing you do is ever quite good enough
- Growing cynicism or detachment about work you used to care about
- Irritability with colleagues, friends, or family
- Physical signs of sustained stress, tension headaches, jaw clenching, stomach trouble, poor sleep
- Procrastinating on tasks because they must be done perfectly
- A constant sense of being behind, whatever you accomplish
- Neglecting relationships, health, or joy because there is always more to do
- Fantasizing about escaping your life rather than living it
Our approach to burnout, chronic stress & perfectionism
Burnout is not a personal failing, and it is rarely fixed by time off alone. It develops when sustained pressure meets an inner system, often perfectionistic, that does not permit recovery. Treatment looks at both the external load and the internal rules, where the standards came from, what they protect you from, and what they cost. *
The work is individualized. Traditional psychotherapy helps you understand and renegotiate the beliefs that keep you running, that worth must be earned, that slowing down is dangerous, that good enough is failure. Somatic and experiential approaches help a nervous system stuck in high gear relearn how to downshift, and clinical hypnosis can deepen that recovery of genuine rest. *
The aim is not to make you care less or achieve less. It is a sustainable relationship with effort, where ambition is powered by something healthier than fear. *
Clinicians who specialize in burnout, chronic stress & perfectionism
ACT · EMDR · Hypnosis
Dr. Faiwiszewski brings experience with chronic stress, perfectionism, and the physical toll of sustained pressure. She helps clients notice how stress lives in their body and untangle the standards that make slowing down feel unsafe. *
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EMDR · Hypnosis · Psychodynamic
Dr. Zylstra brings experience with work stress, overthinking, and the feeling of being perpetually behind. He helps clients understand what drives their relentless pace and build a way of working that does not run on self-criticism. *
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Therapy approaches that may help
We integrate these techniques, custom-tailored to you, in the order your nervous system can use first.
FAQ
Frequently Asked Questions
- Is burnout the same as depression?
- They can look alike, and they can co-occur, but burnout is tied to sustained stress and depletion, often improving when the pressure genuinely changes, while depression tends to color all of life regardless of workload. A careful assessment sorts out which is present, and treatment addresses what we actually find. *
- Will a vacation fix my burnout?
- Usually not for long. If the patterns that produced the burnout, the standards, the inability to say no, the guilt around rest, come back with you, the exhaustion returns too. Therapy works on those patterns so recovery actually holds. *
- Is perfectionism really a problem? It is why I am successful.
- High standards and perfectionism are not the same thing. Standards guide your work; perfectionism punishes it. Many clients find that when the fear of falling short loosens, their work gets better, not worse, because energy stops leaking into anxiety and self-criticism. *
- Can chronic stress affect my physical health?
- Yes. Sustained stress commonly contributes to headaches, muscle tension, digestive problems, disrupted sleep, and fatigue. These symptoms deserve appropriate medical attention, and therapy complements that care by addressing the stress load driving them. *
- What does treatment for burnout involve?
- A combination tailored to you: psychotherapy to renegotiate the inner rules that prevent recovery, somatic and experiential work to help your nervous system come down from high alert, and clinical hypnosis to restore access to genuine rest. Pace and sequence are set collaboratively. *
- How do I know when it is time to get help?
- A good signal is when your usual recovery strategies, weekends, sleep, exercise, time off, have stopped working, or when exhaustion and self-criticism are affecting your health and relationships. You do not need to hit a wall first. Earlier is easier. *
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