Burnout.
Why We Stay When We Want to Leave
I am no stranger to burnout. In fact, looking back, I don’t actually remember a time in my life when I didn’t feel burnt out. It wasn’t just an event or time period. A constant, low-grade hum of depletion that I learned to tune out so I could keep functioning for survival.
I naturally, or perhaps because I can’t ignore what others overlook, need more time to be, and less time doing. But lately, the burnout inside me is telling a different story. It’s no longer just whispering about my own fatigue. It’s highlighting just how many healing professionals are burnt out and feel alone in their experience. I keep wondering, just how many of them are afraid to pivot, afraid to leave the profession they spent years building?
To be in the thick of it, knowing your survival income depends on being a therapist, makes leaving terrifying. So much of your adult life has been poured into this career: the years of schooling, the internships, the supervision hours, the emotional labor of learning how to hold space for others’ pain. You have invested your passion, your time, and your identity into becoming a healer. To walk away feels like abandoning a part of yourself.
But what gets lost when we don’t listen to our gut?
We tell ourselves we’re resilient. We do the ‘self-care,’ but individual self-care cannot fix this systemic hell. Recent data shows that up to 93% of behavioral health workers have experienced burnout, with nearly half considering leaving the field entirely (Behavioral Health Workforce). We are responding appropriately to our exhaustion to a system that demands endless empathy & work while offering little worker protection in return.
When we ignore our gut, the cost extends beyond our survival income. What happens to our health? Our relationships? Our ability to function in a world that is getting increasingly horrible and heavy each day?
Burnout doesn’t just steal your energy; it steals your presence. It makes it harder to connect with loved ones because you’re too drained to show up fully. It makes it harder to see beauty in the world because your nervous system is stuck in survival mode. And ultimately, it compromises the very care we strive to give. Studies link high clinician burnout to weaker session outcomes and higher client dropout rates (Sayer, 2024).
There is a stigma around leaving. We treat clinical practice as a sacred vow rather than a profession with limits. But choosing to step back, to pivot, or to radically change how you work is not a failure. It is an act of courage.
If you are reading this and feeling that familiar weight in your chest, please know you are not alone. If you’re needing a change, to pivot, or leave entirely… You got this <3!
In the meantime, come say hi to The Spiral Collective; we can be in this together.
Sources:
Behavioral Health Workforce Outlook for 2026. Behavioralhealth.careers. behavioralhealth.careers
Sayer NA, Kaplan A, Nelson DB, Wiltsey Stirman S, Rosen CS. Clinician Burnout and Effectiveness of Guideline-Recommended Psychotherapies. JAMA Netw Open. 2024 Apr 1;7(4):e246858. doi: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2024.6858. PMID: 38630477; PMCID: PMC11024738.
