“It’s just stress.” “Maybe it’ll get better on it’s own.” “It’s only temporary.” “I can handle it.” These are all common things we tell ourselves. It can be hard to know if the stress you are dealing with needs professional intervention. The reality is that any changes in your life (positive or negative) can lead to significant emotional ups and downs. You might be stressed at home, feeling overwhelmed or unfocused at work, worried about the state of the world, unsure how to juggle all the responsibilities you have, or just feeling burnt out. You may notice challenges with tension, lack of energy, irritability, worry, and general dissatisfaction.

In therapy you can have the time to unload, take a breath, and get support. With treatment focused on understanding and dealing with stress effectively, you can get back to being yourself. Effective therapy for dealing with stress and burnout works to understand the factors at play, including the things that have prevented that stress from improving over time.

I offer therapy to adults in St. Louis looking for assistance with stress and burnout.  We would focus on building your recognition of your stress response, discovering coping patterns, building skills for changing unhelpful habits or patterns, and finding ways to help you enjoy life even when there are some things outside of your control. Together, we can work on the things that are holding you back.

Can therapy really help for burnout or chronic stress?

Yes! Well of course that is what a therapist would say, right? The truth is that although some people find themselves caught in chronic stress, therapy can be useful in helping them identify patterns that may be contributing, as well as their own strengths, areas for growth, values, and more. Sometimes therapy can help to identify effective ways of navigating through or coping with difficult situations. Through building awareness, identifying opportunities and possibilities, and engaging in skill-building, therapy can help people to make real changes in their lives, even when dealing with ongoing stress. We all have habits in how we cope with stress. Building your awareness as well as your coping skills can help position you for success in facing future challenges, and can support your momentum in building the life you want.

What if I can’t change the things that are causing me stress? How can therapy help?

Therapy isn’t about fixing all the things that are out of your control. Very often we all have circumstances in life that are extremely difficult and it is easy to feel helpless. But, that’s the trap. As an example, there is a concept in psychology called “Learned Helplessness.” I’ll share in summary what this concept is all about. When we are faced with chronic stress or ongoing difficult circumstances, individuals may try various things to resolve that stress. If, however, that issue or stress remains unresolved despite their efforts, it is common and natural for people to feel helpless and to stop trying to solve the problem. They may become more passive in how they cope and respond, and feel that there is nothing they can do. Unfortunately, this can result in them feeling very stuck over time, and they may wind up overlooking opportunities for improvement, because they became accustomed to the idea that nothing could change. Our battle is to recognize what influence and skills we have for managing the situation, and putting those into action. We all have unhelpful or negative thoughts, but if we can see them for what they are, we dont have to buy into them, and we don't have to let them lead our path.

Therapy won’t “fix” all the challenges you are facing in life, but it can help to build a balance between acceptance and change. Therapy would give you the opportunity to build space in your life for things that can’t currently be changed or resolved, including building acceptance of your own thoughts and feelings about those challenges, and getting support when it’s needed. In addition, treatment would include strategies to work on change where that is possible. Perhaps you want to focus on how you can take better care of yourself, on your ability to advocate for or ask for what you want or need, or on your willingness to pause rather than just push through when you’re running on fumes. Maybe there are opportunities for coping, self-care, stress management, or overall life balance that could be honed and put into action. Therapy can help you navigate your way through all this, even if you expect the stress to be ongoing.

How do I know if I need therapy for my stress?

It can be hard to know sometimes if starting therapy makes sense. It is true that sometimes your level of stress and burnout can improve naturally over time or with changes in your circumstances. However, not all circumstances or sources of stress can be immediately changed, and it is common for rises in your stress level (and how you may respond) to repeat in a pattern. Your stress can also often have other impacts and effects in your life.

It is important to remember that there is no requirement for you to attend therapy for an extended period of time. Some patterns can be addressed in relatively brief, time-limited forms of treatment. Time-limited therapy services can take a targeted approach to help you identify what is working and not working for you in your life right now, what areas are most important for you to focus on, and how you can best manage the stress you’re dealing with. Although it is common for some clients to benefit from longer-term therapy services, sometimes clients attend therapy more briefly. All this is here to say, if you are considering attending therapy, there are numerous ways in which you can benefit, and various ways in which therapy can be adapted to your needs, circumstances, and preferences.

If you want more information about stress and anxiety, and when to seek help, you can review more information here: https://www.apa.org/topics/stress/anxiety-difference