Burnout: The Why, What & How
Understanding burnout starts with understanding prolonged stress responses.
Burnout doesn’t happen overnight. By understanding the connection between the brain and body, we can begin to understand how prolonged stress responses can affect us physically, mentally and emotionally — and why recognising the signs early matters.
From stress responses to burnout
We explore Hans Selye’s General Adaptation Syndrome and his model of the three stages of the stress response: Alarm, Resistance and Exhaustion. You’ll discover how the body adapts to ongoing demands and what can happen when the stress response remains activated for too long. We track the journey of prolonged chronic stress responses and how these affect your energy, emotions, thinking and physical and mental health.
Understanding the journey of burnout
This part of the retreat takes you through the A–Z of burnout — exploring what burnout is, what it isn’t, how it can develop, and the physical and mental challenges that must be unravelled. We explain why burnout is different for everyone, and why nothing is “standard” when it comes to burnout. We all experience burnout differently, and how long it takes to recover from burnout is different for everyone. Understanding your individual circumstances and having support from loved ones are vital when recovering from burnout.
What does recovery look like?
We finish by exploring current burnout research showing that burnout is still not recognised or understood within healthcare and mental health frameworks, even though we were told it was recognised in the 2022 edition of the ICD. We show how burnout may be diagnosed as burnout but treated as depression with antidepressants that only manage to worsen and prolong burnout. Our aim is to give you a glimpse of the reality of burnout today, in 2026, 76 years after Hans Selye described burnout and how it affects our brain and body. We lay out a path to burnout recovery and outline what is vital to reach the finish line.