Burnout Therapy: How Therapy Helps You Recover From Burnout

You are overwhelmed. You try to do it all and you aren't doing all of it well. You feel like you are not enough; that you are falling short of the expectations that others have for you, or that you have for yourself. The stress mounts as you worry about your job, your friendships, and your interactions with your family.  

You are swept away by your emotions and it is getting worse. There are moments at work, at home, in your relationships, and in your private thoughts when your responses surprise you and seem out of your control. You are not even always sure where the reactions are coming from or how to be more effective, and it certainly isn’t for lack of trying. You feel stuck and trapped, and then you feel guilty for feeling that way. Sometimes you even wonder if there is something really wrong with you. It is not something that you talk about. In fact, most people would be shocked to know this about you.

You dream of just running away from it all some days, but your life doesn’t seem to slow down so that you can catch up. So, you write another email; run a load of dishes; add a few more lines to your endless “To Do” List. Then, you are off to bed to see if you can sleep any better tonight than you did last night, and hoping that your pounding headache will go away because tomorrow you have to do it all again.

Burnout can emerge from many sources. Many of the people who reach out to me are looking specifically for therapy for burnout because of demanding careers, caregiving responsibilities, chronic stress, or the emotional load of parenting, particularly for parents of neurodivergent children.

Burnout Therapy in Chicago and the North Shore

If you are searching for therapy for burnout in Chicago, you are not alone. Many professionals, parents, and high-achieving adults across Chicago and the North Shore reach a point where stress becomes chronic and overwhelming. Therapy can help you understand the deeper patterns driving burnout and develop sustainable ways to restore balance and energy.

You don't want to settle. A part of you is ready to do the work to figure out what changes to make and to learn how to make them. I am Dr. Corrie Goldberg, a licensed clinical psychologist and certified EMDR therapist. I help adults and young adults who are feeling overwhelmed, discouraged, and stuck in parts of their life to gain insights, build skills, and process challenges to be more effective and to feel less stress, burnout, and exhaustion. My clients experience connection, compassion, and empathy; often opening up more than they expected to and letting go of more weight than they even realized that they were carrying around. 

How Therapy for Burnout Helps You Feel Clearer, Calmer, and More in Control

I work with a lot of people who think, analyze, and strategize for a living or for a lifestyle including executives and business professionals, engineers, lawyers, doctors, teachers, therapists, and students. This doesn’t mean that therapy with me needs to be stuffy or overwhelmingly cerebral. We use a lot of humor and laughter in the midst of some pretty intense work. Many of my clients have tried therapy before but in therapy with me, they report that they feel more connected and comfortable; sharing things they have previously kept to themselves.

Burnout Therapy That Helps You Feel Seen, Supported, and Understood

I really believe in the power of being and feeling seen, and how this can help you open up to being helped. In addition to talk therapy to process thoughts, individuals working with me make progress toward their individual therapeutic goals using evidence-based methods that feel comfortable and work for them in order to help clients heal. These may include psychoeducation; skills-based approaches such as Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) or Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT); depth therapy including Ego State Therapy and IFS-informed Parts Work; affirmative therapy to deconstruct inequalities such as ableism, racism, sexism, and heterosexism; Self-Compassion; and brain-based methods, such as EMDR.

My hope is that through therapy and EMDR, you will feel safe and learn to let go of guilt, shame, misdirected anger, anxiety, and pain. Imagine what it might be like to feel calm and to respond from a confident place instead of reacting all the time. Clients often say that they feel seen and understood in new ways, which helps them develop their own self-understanding and self-compassion, and allows for growth. 

What Does Burnout Therapy Actually Help With?

Burnout therapy can help you:

• understand why stress keeps building instead of resolving
• reduce emotional exhaustion and mental overload
• develop boundaries that protect your time and energy
• process underlying trauma or chronic stress patterns
• reconnect with meaning, motivation, and relationships

EMDR and Evidence-Based Therapy for Burnout Recovery

Your time is precious, and we will use the time in sessions actively and effectively. Having a supportive person you feel safe talking to is necessary for therapy to provide benefits, but just talking about your struggles is often not enough to produce deep growth and healing. EMDR therapy can also help address the underlying trauma, chronic stress, or nervous system overload that often contribute to burnout.

Through my doctoral training as a research scientist and a clinician, I learned the importance of carefully evaluating and selecting treatment approaches in light of their outcomes for people. I choose treatment modalities based on professional training and expertise as well as individual client feedback to curate a therapy experience designed to meet your goals efficiently and effectively. My clients benefit from therapy approaches that provide knowledge and skill development, insight, growth, and healing. I want our work together to be transformative and impactful; leading to lasting change that transcends the therapy space and ripples out into the rest of your life.

In our time together, you will see the benefit from committed, goal-directed work that drives meaningful changes in the areas of your life that are important to you such as self-understanding; career; parenting; friendships; family relationships; and romantic partnerships, to improve your overall quality of life.

Therapy for Parental Burnout and Caregiver Burnout

Parents and caregivers are especially vulnerable to burnout when they are navigating constant demands, advocacy, and emotional labor. This is particularly true for parents of neurodivergent children who may face ongoing systemic barriers and high support needs.

Burnout Resources and Support

If you are exploring therapy for burnout, these additional resources may also help you better understand what you’re experiencing:

• Autistic Burnout Guide - an in-depth look at causes, symptoms, and how autistic burnout feels

• Parental Burnout Quiz – a quick assessment to help caregivers understand their level of burnout

• Parent Burnout Symptoms – signs that parenting stress may be reaching burnout levels

• Parental Burnout Course – structured support for parents experiencing chronic exhaustion

Start Therapy for Burnout in Chicago or Online

There is no need to settle for a life that is less than what you deserve. We can work collaboratively in a safe environment and without judgment, to move you through where you are now, to where you wish to be. If you are ready to make a change to reduce the negative effects of stress, anxiety, burnout, or trauma in your life, contact me for a complimentary 15-minute phone consultation to discuss your needs for therapy in Chicago or online therapy, and how I can help.

I specialize in parenting therapy; neurodiversity-affirming therapyand affirming therapy for the LGBTQIA+ folx;trauma therapy; Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR therapy); and providing quality online therapy and EMDR therapy onlinein Chicago; along the North Shore; and in many states across the U.S. as a PSYPACT therapist. Read more about me and my training and experience; review the answers to frequently asked questions; or contact me today.