@decolonizingtherapy Why is being exhausted treated like a personal failure? Why are we told to “toughen up” instead of asking why work feels so punishing? Why does every job demand our humanity—then shame us when it shows?
I see this every day. People blaming themselves for being tired, numb, irritable, or disconnected. People wondering why they feel like they’re failing even though they’re giving everything they have. We’re told we need better boundaries, more rest, a different mindset—while things stay exactly the same.
Burnout isn’t just “being tired.”
It’s when your body, mind, and spirit are all stretched past their limits at once.
As I write in Decolonizing Therapy:
“Burnout consists of three components: emotional exhaustion, depersonalization of clients, and feelings of ineffectiveness or lack of personal accomplishment”
(Maslach, Jackson, & Leiter, 1997).
And yet, burnout is still framed as an individual problem:
“You aren’t getting enough rest.”
“You are managing your time poorly.”
But that framing misses the truth.
“In fact, burnout is a result of the colonial capitalistic conditioning imparted on a person as soon as they begin school.”
From the beginning, many of us are taught the same rules: work hard, complain little, don’t make a fuss, keep authority figures happy, and you’ll be rewarded. This isn’t a rejection of hard work—focused effort toward meaningful goals can be nourishing. The harm begins when our worth, safety, and identity become fused with productivity.
These feelings hit hardest when people are already carrying more—when you’re underpaid, one of the only people of color in the room, doing deeply relational labor, or living in a body that already requires more care in a system that refuses to slow down.
Burnout isn’t a lack of resilience.
It’s a human response to unreasonable systems.
I wrote Decolonizing Therapy for people who feel like something is wrong—but were told the problem was them. If this resonates, I invite you to read more on page 293.
📖 Decolonizing Therapy: Oppression, Historical Trauma, and Politicizing Your Practice
— Jennifer Mullan, PsyD
#DecolonizingTherapy #BurnoutCulture #WorkingC
