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Writer's pictureNatalie Cooney

Somatic Therapy and Its Benefits for Managing Work-Related Stress and Burnout

Updated: Oct 22

Burnout does not happen overnight. Work-related stress and burnout can impact our health, relationships, and ability to feel connected. Burnout happens when overreaching, over-efforting, or over-functioning happens without enough resources. Masking, a term used to describe the effort to engage like a “normal” person, leads to burnout as well. Burnout is the slow depletion of physical and mental resources. One way to manage burnout is to find support with somatic therapy to restore balance and prevent further depletion.


I see burnout to be a long-term process. In my experience, people with childhood overwhelm are more likely to experience work-related stress and burnout. In the integrative nutrition and functional medicine field, we call this vital exhaustion. For childhood trauma victims, their nervous systems have been efforting and overworking for a very long time.


Chronic stress, and recovery from it, can make or break your risk of chronic disease. The ACE's study, a longitudinal study, explores the impact of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE). The higher occurrence of adverse childhood experiences leads to a higher likelihood of developing chronic disease. Chronic stress depletes your system of essential nutrients, minerals, amino acids, and disturbs hormones. Restoring depletion states, in conjunction with active steps for changing the stress cycles, will help!


Adverse experiences are stressful. Pile those up over time, don't process them, and your systems will get out of sync. Then, have your nervous system be stuck in a threat response, and boom: burnout. Not knowing how to decompress your nervous system after stress you will have burnout on your hands. At some point, your body will present the receipt. Bessel Van der Kolk's seminal book put this idea into the hands of millions, finally and irrevocably, the title says it all, "The Body Keeps The Score". More specifically, the nervous system keeps the score, the body and its many different systems will experience the cost.


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The Nervous System and Burnout: The Fight, Flight, or Freeze Response


The nervous system innervates all the systems of the body, when it is stuck in fight, flight, freeze (or all three at once), the consequence is stress. Stress without decompression, or integration, going unprocessed is the kicker. Stress isn't bad, it's getting stuck there that leads to burnout. These survival states of fight, flight, or freeze are meant to be short-term states. Think tiger...run or freeze. That episode is quick. For us humans, we have this silly neo-cortex that makes our nervous system relate to our bosses, bills, sex, finances, or whatever we may be stressing about like we would a tiger. In his research, Robert Zapolski reiterates through his awesome book, Why Zebra's Don't Have Ulcers, how animals naturally complete the stress cycle, while humans can outthink and override, especially if they don't have the support to signal to them that the threat has passed.


Somatic Therapy: Building Resilience and Moving Between States


The goal in somatic therapy is not to eliminate the stress unless that situationship does need to go! Our goal is to increase resiliency. Resiliency in somatic therapy is the ability to shift between different states like fight/flight/freeze/fawn and back to rest and digest. Chronic work stress and burnout puts your system into being stuck on. Think car with the full gas pedal on AND the brake pedal on…at the same time. That is what leads to burnout. 


I thoroughly enjoyed Emily and Amelia Nagoski's book on Burnout and it truly expelled so many myths that come in through my door. They spell it out, "To be “well” is not to live in a state of perpetual safety and calm, but to move fluidly from a state of adversity, risk, adventure, or excitement, back to safety and calm, and out again. Stress is not bad for you; being stuck is bad for you.” (Burnout by Emily and Amelia Nagoski).


Because survival states are meant to be short-term, they are the most costly to the body. Having them be stuck on, is seriously expensive to all the other systems of the body. These survival responses will take resources from necessary systems, like the gut, heart, immune system, and brain, to pay the cost. Enter dis-ease.


Not to sound all doom and gloom at all, but this should explain a lot. Knowledge is power. And as I like to say, the story isn't over, there are more chapters to read. And spoiler, YOU are the main character, and guess what, also THE AUTHOR.


Recovering from Burnout: How Somatic Therapy Helps


Because so much happens on a nervous system level, somatic therapy has developed tools and processes to help the nervous system. What helps someone recover from these states? What does interrupting and completing these cycles look like? How can somatic therapy help with the stress at work or the burnout you feel?


Somatic therapy is oriented towards increasing resiliency. Somatic therapy does this by supporting the completion of the threat response and practicing somatic resiliency. The practices help the nervous system move out of the threat to safety and easefulness. We need to be able to access all these states--survival and easefulness. Toggling between these states in the nervous system is resiliency.


We can use this knowledge and apply it to work ourselves out of burnout states and work-related stress. Recognizing that our jobs can induce stress and that you have a choice in how you handle it is the first step. Most people know they have stress. Using Somatic Therapy to help you recover from stress or worse, the dreaded burnout will open up a new chapter in your story.


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Steps to Use Somatic Therapy to Address Work-Related Stress and Burnout


To use somatic therapy to help with work-related stress or burnout follow these few steps. And if you find it hard to relax, looking into working one-on-one with a Somatic Therapist could be the ticket.


First, recognize symptoms of burnout or work-related stress:


  • Feeling exhausted/drained all day, can't recover with regular sleep

  • Dependent on substances for energy

  • Functioning, but numb a.k.a. Functional Freeze

  • Irritability, anger, annoyance, low window of tolerance

  • Chronic anxiety, restlessness, or collapse.

  • Negative outlook

  • Difficulty sleeping, nighttime waking up with "bursts of adrenaline"

  • Isolation

  • Loss of empathy or compassion for others

  • Loss of motivation

  • Headaches

  • Muscle pain and tension

  • Procrastination

  • Loss of joy for simple pleasures


Second, explore the people, dynamics, and work-related stress that might have increased your stress.


  • Identify the source.

  • Create a plan of action for setting boundaries.

  • Practice staying connected to your body, breath, and self around these people, dynamics, and work-related stress.

  • Give yourself de-compression time to acknowledge the shift if you were able to advocate for yourself in a new way.


Finally, Use Somatic Therapy to Begin to Heal From Work-Related Stress and Burnout:


  • Focus on the basics: sleep, nourishment, and hydration. These are essential to begin to restore depletions. Use whole foods, good salt (feeding the adrenals yum!), proteins, carbohydrates, vitamins, and minerals. Loads of sleep, water, and regular meals scream, "We are not in danger body, we can rest".

  • Set a timer for 10 minutes and lay down on the ground, couch, or bed. Close your eyes, notice your breath, and notice any sliver of relief physically or emotionally by lying down. Add in breathing, visualizing, or tracking if you want (see below).

  • Breathe in for 4-5 counts, hold for 2-3 counts, and exhale for 7-8 counts, hold for 2-3 counts. Repeat. The numbers aren't important. The exhale is longer than the inhale is where a breath practice really shines. An alternative breath pattern is a physiological sigh (inhale, inhale, exhale): an inhale (6-7 count), inhale (1 count), hold (1-2 count), exhale (7-8 count). Repeat.

  • Use Visualization to go to a calm place or to complete a threat response by visualizing yourself running, fighting, screaming, etc.

  • Muscle activation and relaxation cycles. Go with the tension in your body, exaggerate it, hold it for a few counts, and then slowly relax. Couple this with "I am safe", or "I am relaxing now".

  • Complete your stress cycle: walking, pushing/pulling, weight lifting/weight training. Dance, yoga, ecstatic dance, or restorative yoga are good options too!

  • Boundaries: establish clear boundaries with work and your personal life. No email, no calls/texts, and set realistic goals for deadlines.

  • Practice saying no. "I can't" and attach an alternative.

  • Develop a self-care ritual to mark work is over and personal life is present. For example, after you leave the office or log off for the day, signal to yourself that "work is done" and do a somatic ritual like a full body shake, changing your clothes, a shower, a cleansing breath, or pushing against a wall. "It is over”. Set automatic reply or do-no disturb. 

  • Train who you work with that you are not accessible after hours by not being accessible after hours.

  • Self Care like focusing on sleep, sleep hygiene, and drinking water.

  • Time Management. Watch out for getting lost in co-dependency crossing time boundaries and communicating clearly. For example, "I have to leave this meeting at 4:50 pm" and then leave at 4:50 pm. In training my assertiveness and time management skills, I put alarms on and followed through.

  • Practice Presencing. Being present where you are in your environment, your body, and in time, is part of nervous system resilience.

  • ReAccess Values and goals in your life.


Making Significant Changes to Address Chronic Work-Related Stress and Burnout


If you suffer from chronic work-related stress and burnout you likely need to make significant changes in your work dynamics. Sometimes this includes boundaries to enhance your non-work life. Other times, adding quality self-care can create more resiliency. Other times, if your chronic work stress and burnout don't shift, you will need to make the necessary job changes or change your job entirely.


If you want to work on work-related stress and burnout, seeing a professional at Compass Healing Project who knows about stress and resiliency might be the trick. There is a path out of chronic stress and burnout and we know it.


Other options for healing chronic work-related stress and burnout are Ketamine Assisted Therapy and Relational Therapy. Ketamine, paired with psychotherapy, has a nutritive and restorative effect on our brains and nervous systems. Couples and relational therapy also shift our home life to more security, safety, and easefulness. We'd love to have you!


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Heal From Your Work-Related Stress and Burnout With Somatic Therapy in San Diego, CA


Are you feeling overwhelmed by work-related stress and burnout? Somatic therapy can help you restore balance, build resilience, and reconnect with yourself. Reach out to our skilled somatic therapists at Compass Healing Project to begin your journey toward healing and reclaiming your well-being! Follow these three simple steps to get started:


  1. Reach Out and Fill out our New Client Inquiry Form to get started.

  2. Schedule a discovery call with one of our skilled somatic therapists to discuss your needs and goals.

  3. Begin healing from work-related stress and burnout with the help of somatic therapy.


Additional Counseling Services at Compass Healing Project


At Compass Healing Project, we provide a holistic approach to therapy, incorporating a variety of modalities to address a wide range of issues. Alongside our somatic therapy to help you with work-related stress and burnout, we offer EMDR, Clinical Sexology, hypnotherapy, ketamine-assisted therapy, and embodiment practices. These therapies are effective in treating anxiety, depression, PTSD, grief and loss, sexuality concerns, and relationship challenges. For more information and to get to know us better, visit our blog. Our Colorado and California clinics are staffed with caring therapists who specialize in trauma resolution, emotional healing, and integrative therapy here to help you thrive.

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