Work stress & burnout · in person, online, Phone, Messaging
Burnout & Work Stress Therapy
When rest stops being restorative and the job you used to care about now feels like something to survive. Therapy for the exhaustion, cynicism and self-doubt that chronic pressure leaves behind.
Evenings and weekends available
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Harjeet Hayre
Integrative Psychotherapist · BACP Registered Member · NHS-experienced Reviewed September 2026 · About Harjeet
Does this sound familiar?
Running on empty.
You are tired in a way sleep does not touch. Work you once found meaningful now provokes irritation or numbness. You are quietly convinced you are doing a worse job than you used to, even when nobody else has noticed. Sunday evenings arrive with dread.
The World Health Organization describes burnout as a syndrome resulting from chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed, with three dimensions: exhaustion, growing mental distance or cynicism about your job and a sense of reduced effectiveness. It is not a personal failing. It is a predictable response to prolonged pressure.
The scale is striking. In 2024/25, an estimated 964,000 workers in Great Britain were suffering from work-related stress, depression or anxiety, costing 22.1 million working days. The main causes workers cite are workload pressures and a lack of managerial support, which is to say the problem usually starts with the job, not with you.
What the evidence says
Burnout is real. It is also not a diagnosis.
The WHO classifies burnout as an occupational phenomenon rather than a medical condition. That matters for two reasons. First, it means there is no NICE treatment guideline for burnout itself and anyone promising a "clinically proven burnout cure" is overstating things. Second, it means burnout and depression can overlap or shade into one another. Reviews of the research describe the boundary between the two as genuinely blurred.
Where chronic stress has tipped into depression or anxiety, the evidence is clear. NICE recommends talking therapies including CBT, counselling and short-term psychodynamic psychotherapy for depression and CBT for generalised anxiety. Part of what I do in our first sessions is help you tell which is which.
You are far from alone in this. In a 2026 UK survey, 91% of adults reported high or extreme pressure or stress in the past year and one in five needed time off work because of it.6 BACP's own research found one in five UK adults experiencing work-related burnout.
How I work with burnout
Inner patterns and outer pressures, both.
Burnout usually has two engines: a workplace that asks too much and a set of inner rules that make it impossible to stop giving. My integrative approach lets us work on both.
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Psychodynamic work explores the older beliefs about worth and achievement that keep you saying yes, so the pattern loosens rather than repeating in the next job.
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CBT-informed tools test the predictions underneath overwork ("if I stop, everything collapses") and build boundary experiments you can actually run this week.
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Somatic awareness helps you notice the body's early stress signals the NHS lists, from muscle tension to a racing heart, before they become collapse.
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Person-centred space means one hour a week in which nothing at all is demanded of you.
Many clients with burnout choose walk and talk therapy in Kew precisely because it takes them out of the environments that drained them. For those in the thick of a working week, online sessions fit around the calendar. If your exhaustion comes with the particular texture of neurodivergent overload, my article on ADHD burnout may resonate.
Not by classification. The WHO lists burnout as an occupational phenomenon while depression is a diagnosable condition affecting every area of life. But symptoms overlap heavily and research finds the boundary blurred, so if low mood has spread beyond work an assessment is worth having.1, 3
Honestly, there is no reliable figure and I would be wary of anyone who quotes one. Recovery depends on how long the pressure has lasted, whether the workload genuinely changes and what support you have around you. We review progress together as we go.
Sometimes both. Therapy helps you understand the external pressures and the internal survival patterns that keep overwork going, so that a change of job, if you make one, is not simply a change of scenery for the same pattern. HSE's data shows workload and lack of support are the leading causes, so structural change often matters too.2
Sources
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World Health Organis ation (2019). Burn-out an "occupational phenomenon": International Classification of Diseases.
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Health and Safety Executive (2025). Work-related stress, depression or anxiety statistics in Great Britain, 2024/25.
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Bianchi, R., Schonfeld, I.S. and Laurent, E. (2015). Burnout depression overlap: a review. Clinical Psychology Review, 36, 28 - 41.
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NICE (2022). Depression in adults: treatment and management (NG222).
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NICE (2011, updated 2020). Generalised anxiety disorder and panic disorder in adults (CG113).
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Mental Health UK (2026). The Burnout Report 2026.
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BACP (2026). Work burnout is the last thing people will admit to.
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NHS (2026). Stress.
This page is general information from a registered psychotherapist, not medical advice or a diagnosis. If you are in crisis, call 999, NHS 111 (option 2) or the Samaritans free on 116 123.
Ready when you are.
A free introductory call, no forms and no obligation. Just a quiet conversation to see whether working together feels right.