Conditions treated
High-functioning people are not immune to burnout — often, the traits that drive success are the same ones that make burnout more likely. Understanding what is happening and building a sustainable path forward is what this work is about.
Understanding the problem
Work stress is common and, in manageable doses, can be functional. The problem arises when demands consistently exceed available resources — time, energy, support, or sense of control — over a sustained period. The result is a progressive depletion that does not recover with a weekend or even a holiday.
Burnout is characterised by the World Health Organization as an occupational syndrome involving exhaustion, growing psychological distance or cynicism towards one’s work, and reduced professional efficacy. It develops gradually, often without the person fully recognising what is happening — partly because those who experience it are typically people who have managed demanding situations before and do not expect to struggle.
Burnout is not the same as clinical depression, though the two frequently co-occur and can be difficult to distinguish. A thorough assessment clarifies what is present and what the appropriate focus of treatment is.
Talk to Dr Mitchell about burnoutHow it presents
Burnout rarely arrives all at once. It accumulates — and is often only clearly visible in retrospect. These are the most common signs:
Feeling drained and depleted even after rest. Struggling to find resources for situations that would previously have been manageable.
Growing emotional distance from work, colleagues, or clients. A sense of going through the motions. Reduced sense of meaning or purpose.
Difficulty concentrating, making decisions, or completing tasks that would previously have been straightforward. Increased errors or procrastination.
Frequent illness, disrupted sleep, headaches, gastrointestinal symptoms — the body’s response to sustained stress load.
Anxiety, low mood, irritability, loss of confidence. In some cases, intrusive worries about work that persist outside working hours.
Work increasingly bleeding into time that should be for recovery, relationships, or personal life — often rationalised as temporary but becoming the norm.
What drives it
Burnout is not simply about working too hard. Research consistently identifies several key organisational and individual factors. The interaction between the two is what shapes any individual presentation. Dr Mitchell’s doctoral research focused specifically on the antecedents and consequences of burnout — giving this work both clinical and academic grounding that goes beyond general stress management.
Key organisational factors include:
At the individual level, perfectionism, high achievement orientation, and a strong sense of responsibility are consistent psychological risk factors — and often the same characteristics that drove earlier success, which is part of what makes recognising and addressing them complicated. Difficulty delegating and poor boundaries frequently compound the picture, particularly as roles and demands increase.
Aberdeen’s economy brings its own particular occupational pressures. Extended rotations, geographic separation from family and support networks, high-stakes technical environments, and cultures that actively discourage admitting to struggle are features of offshore and energy sector work that shape how burnout develops and how it is experienced. This context is well understood here.
Treatment approach
An important part of this work is clarifying the role that organisational factors play. Burnout often has genuine structural causes — an unsustainable workload, a poor fit between the role and the person, or a workplace culture that cannot change. Where that is the case, understanding it clearly matters: sometimes the most honest conclusion is that leaving, if it is possible, is the right course of action.
Where change within the current situation is the focus — or where leaving is not an option — psychological therapy addresses the internal dimension: the cognitive patterns, behavioural habits, and psychological vulnerabilities that shape how a person responds to workplace demands. This is practical, skills-based work aimed at building new ways of thinking and coping that allow for sustainable functioning, even in demanding circumstances.
Developing a clear picture of what has contributed to burnout for you specifically — including the role of work demands, personal patterns, and life context. This shapes a focused and realistic treatment approach rather than a generic stress management programme. In some cases, formulation makes clear that the primary drivers are organisational rather than personal — which is equally important to understand, and shapes what realistic change looks like.
Identifying and working with the beliefs and thinking patterns that drive overwork — including perfectionism, difficulty tolerating uncertainty, and the need for approval or achievement as the primary source of self-worth — where these are relevant to your presentation.
Clarifying values, building psychological flexibility, and learning to relate differently to difficult thoughts and feelings — particularly useful when burnout involves a sense of meaninglessness or disconnection from what originally motivated the work.
Practical work on boundaries, recovery behaviours, sleep, and pacing. Identifying the specific changes that will allow genuine restoration — and the obstacles, internal and external, that get in the way of making them.
When burnout is accompanied by significant clinical depression or anxiety, these are addressed directly using evidence-based approaches — not treated simply as downstream consequences of stress that will resolve on their own.
Sessions are available in person in Aberdeen or remotely. If you use BUPA, Aviva, Healix, WPA, or another major insurer, please check your policy before getting in touch.
Take the first step
Seeking support is not an admission of failure — it is a recognition that what got you here may not be enough to get you through this. An initial consultation is a confidential, no-obligation opportunity to make sense of what is happening and consider what effective support might look like.
Request a consultation