Stress and burnout

What are stress and burnout?

Stress is the physical and mental strain that builds when demands outweigh the resources you have to cope with them, and burnout is what can follow when that strain continues without relief. Both are common reasons adults in Greenwich and south east London look for support, and both respond well to structured psychological therapy.

Burnout is different from ordinary tiredness. The World Health Organization’s ICD-11 classifies it as an occupational phenomenon rather than a medical condition, describing it as the result of chronic workplace stress that has not been brought under control. It shows up as exhaustion, a growing sense of distance or cynicism about work, and a drop in the sense that what you are doing makes a difference. Stress on its own can come from any part of life, not only work, and tends to ease once the immediate pressure lifts. Burnout tends to build more slowly and can persist even after the original source of pressure has changed.

Signs of stress and burnout

The signs are not always obvious at first, and they often build gradually rather than arriving all at once.

Physical signs

Disrupted sleep, tension headaches, a racing heart, digestive changes and a general sense of being run down are all common. Some people notice they are getting ill more often, or that minor ailments take longer to clear than usual.

Emotional and cognitive signs

Irritability, low mood, a short temper, difficulty concentrating and a mind that will not switch off at night are typical. Some people describe feeling flat or detached from things they usually enjoy, or find it harder to make small decisions than it used to be.

Behavioural signs

Withdrawing from colleagues or friends, working longer hours without getting more done, putting off tasks that used to feel manageable, and relying more heavily on alcohol or caffeine to get through the day are all patterns worth paying attention to.

Common causes of stress and burnout

Stress and burnout rarely come from a single event. More often they build from a combination of pressures that accumulate over weeks or months.

Work is a frequent driver: heavy workloads, unclear expectations, long hours, and a lack of control over how the day is structured. Commuting can add to the load too, particularly for people travelling into central London from Greenwich, Blackheath, Charlton or Lewisham on the DLR or Southeastern services. Caring responsibilities, whether for children, a partner or an older relative, add a layer of demand that rarely lets up. Financial pressure, health problems, bereavement, relationship difficulties and major life transitions such as a house move or a change of career can all contribute, particularly when several of these arrive close together. For some people, the cause is less about any single factor and more about the absence of recovery time between one pressure and the next.

How therapy can help

Psychological therapy gives you a structured space to work out what is driving the stress and what might reduce it, rather than only managing the symptoms as they appear.

Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) is recommended by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence for a range of stress-related and anxiety conditions, and its methods are widely used to address work-related stress and burnout. It looks at the link between thoughts, feelings, physical sensations and behaviour, and helps identify patterns, such as taking on too much or struggling to say no, that keep the pressure high. Therapy can also draw on acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT), which focuses on clarifying what matters to you and building flexibility around difficulties that cannot be removed straight away, alongside practical problem-solving and stress-management techniques such as pacing and structured rest.

Our approach

We are clinical psychologists working online with adults across Greenwich and the wider south east London area, supporting people dealing with stress and burnout across SE10 and the surrounding area, including Blackheath, Charlton, Deptford, New Cross and Maze Hill.

Sessions take place online, which suits people whose schedules are already stretched and who would rather not add a commute on top of a working day that already runs long. Each course of therapy is shaped around the individual, their circumstances and what they want to change, rather than following a fixed programme. We will update this site as the practice develops.

What does support for stress and burnout involve?

Getting started

Support usually begins with a conversation about what has been happening, how long it has been going on, and what you would like to change. This helps shape the sessions that follow and gives both of you a shared sense of what to focus on.

Ongoing sessions

From there, sessions tend to combine talking through current pressures with practical work: identifying early warning signs before they build, looking at boundaries around work and rest, unpicking unhelpful thinking patterns, and building routines that support sleep and recovery. Some people also work on communication, such as how to raise a heavy workload with a manager, or how to ask for support at home. The pace and content adjust to what is useful for you rather than following a set script, and progress is reviewed as you go.

When to seek help

There is no fixed threshold for when stress becomes something to get support with. It is worth considering if the strain has lasted more than a few weeks, if it is affecting your sleep, concentration or relationships, or if you find yourself relying on alcohol, food or work itself to cope. Burnout in particular is worth addressing early, since the longer exhaustion and cynicism about work go unaddressed, the longer they tend to take to shift. If you are finding it hard to see a way through the pressure on your own, or if things that used to feel manageable now feel overwhelming, that is a reasonable point at which to look for support.