The seahorse mysteries

Willow Blooms #014 Velma learns about burnout

Apr 28, 2024

This week there has been a lot going on, with potential for some exciting, and I have to admit, also somewhat terrifying new opportunities. I am someone who has big dreams, but these usually play themselves out in my world travels, or in my writing, or the dreams stay in my head, but I am now being invited to act them out in my day to day life in multiple ways. In my last post, The Creativity Chronicles, I shared Marianne Williamson’s poem, Our Greatest Fear. ‘Your playing small does not serve the world’, she says. Am I brave enough to take the next big leaps?! I hope so!

In amongst the blooming opportunities, this week I went to a great workshop on burnout by Jayne Morris, Author of Burnout to Brilliance: Strategies for Sustainable Success (2015). Jayne has been working in this field for 15 years, and clearly loves what she does. Her session was full of enthusiasm and tenderness, despite admitting that public presentations of this nature are not the type of work in which she most feels comfortable. I’d not have known if she hadn’t said, the workshop was great- full of information, gentle, engaging, and insight inducing.

How do we show up?

Jayne started us off with a ‘getting to know you’ exercise. Two tables were covered in a range of toy figurines, and we were invited to choose an item, or two items, that best represented how we had arrived that day. There was a huge array of plastic animals, dinosaurs, Disney characters, play kitchen items, mysterious treasure chests, cars and dolls. We were given plenty of time to choose, and once everyone had done so, we went around the circle, sharing the items we had chosen, and giving voice to how it represented how we’d turned up that morning. These things can be like marmite- some people love the playfulness, others become fraught with anxiety. For instance, some people find it hard to use objects in this abstract way, whilst others can feel apprehensive about what they might unwittingly reveal about themselves. I didn’t sense significant anxiety about this activity within the group, everyone seemed up for the challenge. This is in large part likely because Jayne made it safe and playful, putting herself in a position of vulnerability by writing our names on the flipchart, with a picture to show our chosen item. Four people in, demonstrating an impressive skill in cartooning, she voiced her apprehension of whether she could maintain this for the entire group. She had no need to doubt her skills- she nailed it, and it set the session up as a space to be playful and psychologically safe to be vulnerable! I don’t know about you, but these are the types of settings in which I thrive.

It’s sometimes hard to be vulnerable as a clinical psychologist, and because I am not writing a therapy blog, but articles reflecting on my own journey with creativity and well-being, writing in the public arena of Substack invites me to share things about myself and my own personal journey. This is a boundary that I’ve been trained to keep very separate.

Eliza Butler

writes eloquently about this challenge in her latest article, reminding us that psychologists are people behind the blank slates of the therapy room. Like the Wizard of Oz, there is a human, vulnerable self behind the magic curtain, each with our sorted and not so sorted parts of ourselves. We, like the Wizard, are not all powerful and knowing, though some of us may not like to admit it! This means there is always an element of caution in what I share here on Substack. A part that considers how my clients or employers might respond to me sharing things. If they might worry that I share something about them. What it might mean for them to see me as a fallible human, figuring similar things out about life for myself. I am cautious about the boundaries, and yet, I love to write, and if offering my experience and reflections is a way of encouraging others to step into their vulnerability, it seems to be useful rather than merely exhibitionism. I am used to writing academic papers and assessment reports, where there are pretty clear rules and expectations about what needs to be written, and what is inappropriate. I had no idea until I tried it myself how much courage Proper Writers must have developed to so freely write and share their own voice. Ultimately, my aim is to become a better writer. Another Substacker, and Proper Writer, posted something in their notes today that I needed to read.

Veronica Llorca-Smith

The Lemon Tree Minset

100% of your articles help you be a better writer.

Well, that message was pretty clear.

Thank you for your encouragement

Veronica Llorca-Smith

‘Your playing small does not serve the world’, I hear Marianne Williamson say again. I want to be a better writer. So, am I brave enough to keep taking leaps?! Let’s see how it goes!

The wisdom in my figures

Having initially struggled to connect with the items on the table, in awe of the selection, I picked out my first figure, a character I recognised from Scooby Doo. Then I wandered over to the second table, mostly out of curiosity rather than a desperate need for a second item, to see if anything else leaped out at me. Without conscious deliberation, I was drawn to something, and picked it up. Holding them in my hands as I walked back to the circle of chairs, together they seemed an odd combination, but apparently these characters epitomised the two parts of me that were showing up that morning. Who am I to argue?!

Photo of a yellow seahorse alongside the character Velma from Scooby Doo

You may already know who Velma is. In case you don’t she is described as the ‘brains’ of the mystery solving group in the cartoon Scooby Doo. This is a pretty accurate representation of the analytical part of me that shows up at training events, and life in general, wanting to learn, and better understand a situation. Velma was the first figure I picked from the table.

Alongside Velma is a seahorse. Seahorses are small and vulnerable, and seem impossibly capable of swimming given their tiny fins. Also they are beautiful, and odd but elegant in the way they look, standing tall and upright with a sense of pride and regality (did I make that word up?!). Though they are delicate, they are also resilient in their ability to cling to coral and seaweed with their curled tail. The seahorse represents the shy part of me turning up to the workshop that morning. The part that tends to hide behind the more courageous Velma.

I shared these two parts with the group, giving a brief explanation of what I have described to you here. Looking at the figurines in the photo now, I notice how much bigger the seahorse figure is than Velma. I didn’t notice this at the time, as Velma felt like the bigger character. I won’t say much more about it now, but to highlight that it’s curious what you can notice at a greater distance!

What can this exercise add?

This was a playful and fun way of getting to know each other. It was interesting to witness what aspects of ourselves we each brought into the session that day. Jayne responded with open acceptance, and my impression was that everyone experienced the exercise positively. The introspection meant that we started the training from a place of connection with ourselves, and others. We were already being encouraged to listen to ourselves, and to consider what we might individually need from the session. This was the perfect way to start learning about burnout, as people in burnout have typically become disconnected from themselves and what they need. It made me think about how I might use this type of exercise in my own clinical practice. Or even as a way of starting the day.

Asking simply-

How am I showing up today?
What do the different parts of me need?

It is sometimes hard to find the right words. Our conscious minds are not always able to discern what we need, and choosing a physical object can allow us to step back and be curious, looking at that ‘difficult to understand’ state of being compassionately, as if with new eyes, making it more tangible.

With such an array of items on the tables to choose from, it is highly likely that we would choose something entirely different the next time we looked. This might allow us to see a different aspect of ourselves and start from a place of curiosity once again. This makes me smile, considering the what ifs..!

What does it mean if I am picking the Tyrannosaurus Rex every day of the working week?
What might I need if I pick Eeyore?
What is this onion encouraging me to notice in myself this morning?

Our imagination provides so many different ways into a deeper understanding of ourselves, and these are all useful questions to be asking ourselves. Words are often used as the first way to understand a situation, but more creative media clearly provide many different routes into insight!

I also wondered what it might be like to do this kind of exercise in the workplace. Having been ‘encouraged’ (expected) to engage in well-being exercises in working teams that did not feel psychologically safe to me, I imagine that I would engage in this very differently in these kinds of settings, to how I did with Jayne. Rather than engaging open heartedly, I would very likely consciously choose an item that presented an aspect of myself that felt safe and acceptable in that context, or make something up entirely. How often have we been encouraged (expected) to conform to workplace activities of this nature, without managers taking the due care and attention to establish safety first? What use is this kind of tool, if it becomes perfunctory, and for show?! I suspect it adds to the experience of burnout, rather than the intended outcome of preventing it.

But I am getting ahead of myself again. Back to the workshop.

Given the topic, I was curious how the parts of ourselves that we identified as showing up that morning might contribute to, or protect us from burnout. It is not an approach in which I am trained, but if you are familiar with IFS (Internal Family Systems) therapy or parts work, there is an idea that our personalities are made up of different subpersonalities, each of which has its own characteristics and perceptions, and each with different roles within the individual. We may or may not be aware of all of these, but each part can have different needs. My understanding is that IFS therapy involves getting to know the different parts, and exploring the ways in which they try to help us manage difficult situations or meet our needs. Where a part’s actions are unhelpful, therapy can also support the development of different coping strategies. This exercise might allow exploration at a deeper psychological level.

For Jayne to have collected enough figurines to cover two tables and offer such a range of different selves to choose from is no mean feat!

What is burnout?

My enthusiasm has raced me forward into ideas about exploring burnout, so let’s take a step back, and go back to the important question of what burnout is.

Burnout is a term that is increasingly being used, and I’ve seen a few recent Substack articles addressing the topic. It’s not something I’ve especially heard referred to in my workplace about staff well-being (Curiously my experience of working in a mental health setting has been that difficulties are often located within the individual, and referred to as a mental health problem, rather than workplace issues). But there is a similar concept that I have sometimes used when supporting carers of children who have experienced relational harm (harmful or neglectful caregiving), called compassion fatigue or blocked care (Again, despite the terminology, it’s important to recognise that this is something that arises in the context of caring relationships, not just popping up within the individual!). Compassion fatigue is said to be the stress that arises from supporting traumatised people, where we become preoccupied with the emotional pain of the person being cared for (Hunsaker et al, 2015) Burnout is identified as one component of compassion fatigue, the other being secondary traumatic stress (see Brown, 2021).

For some professions secondary stress and compassion fatigue might be relevant considerations alongside burnout e.g. nursing, support work, whilst other people may not have these additional elements to their work. There are many links and overlaps between terms used to describe the type of psychological, spiritual and physical depletion that occur in burnout, and the more we understand these conditions, the more we can support the underlying neurological, psychological, and physiological processes to enhance well-being.

Burnout may present in a range of physical, psychological, behavioural symptoms, which means one person’s experience of burnout may be very different to another. This makes it more tricky to identify, though it is included in the 11th Revision of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-11). Interestingly, it is classified as an occupational phenomenon, not as a medical condition, or a mental health difficulty.

ICD-11 defines it as:

“Burn-out is a syndrome conceptualized as resulting from chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed. It is characterized by three dimensions:

feelings of energy depletion or exhaustion;
increased mental distance from one’s job, or feelings of negativism or cynicism related to one's job; and
reduced professional efficacy.

I find it confusing that the ICD-11 classification system specifically refers to burnout as something within an occupational context that ‘should not be applied to describe experiences in other areas of life.’ What does this mean? With such an array of symptoms, surely burnout does not stop at the doors of the workplace. Although burnout might originate at work, the resulting difficulties exist within the individual’s body, not compartmentalised to the working context. In chronic burnout where there has been no resolution to the pressures of work, it can impact on every aspect of an individual’s life, leading to worsening symptoms that might lead to a mental health diagnosis, or physical illness.

Key Facts published by the World Health Organisation

It is not surprisingly difficult to tease these things out, and crucial for those working in healthcare to dig beneath the presenting problems, and try to make sense of what’s going on underneath.

There is a similar but slightly different use of the word, in ‘autistic burnout’. This is used to describe the state of exhaustion that some people with autism reach. It is thought to be due to repeated experiences of overwhelming sensory input and the stress of ‘camouflaging’ behaviours. It is well known that people with autism often develop strategies to compensate for sensory sensitivity or to fit in and conform to the unspoken social rules required of typical social settings e.g. perhaps copying the facial expressions of others, staying still when they really need to move their body about. The additional energy required to do this can take its toll. See this article by psychologist Dr Dan Carney for more information. In this context burnout results from living in a world that the author describes as ‘largely designed by - and for - neurotypical people.’ Workplaces will likely be a significant factor, but are only one setting contributing to autistic burnout. Jayne touched on this, and acknowledged that some autistic people may not realise that they are spending energy doing this kind of ‘masking’ or ‘camouflage’, and may continue to have unrecognised and unmet needs, and thus be at greater risk of workplace burnout.

Compassionate approaches to burnout?

Jayne Morris has a video on the first page of her website, with shocking stats-

‘53 percent of managers are burning out right now, and 64 percent have burned out at some point in their career.’

The implications of this are significant. Burnout not only prevents us from performing to our potential, but the state of depletion also makes us more susceptible to low mood, self-criticism, shame and anxiety about our performance. When these are viewed as a mental health problem, the typical treatment offer may be of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) and / or medication for anxiety and depression. Whilst these can be helpful, they may not help us to make sense of the wider difficulties in the workplace, and address what is going on underneath.

Once burnout has been experienced, it seems that it can be a risk that an individual bounces in and out of it, with well intentioned attempts to recover resulting in a return to old strategies which lead straight back into burnout. It is important to find exits, and helpful ways out of this cycle. The positive thing is that there is great capacity for self renewal and recovery, and mindful choices that acknowledge and meet underlying needs. It seems that there are huge benefits in things that support joy and self-compassion.

Last week I wrote about possible links between compassion and creativity. I considered how we can nurture our creativity by approaching it with a compassionate mind. The same holds true with burnout. Burnout is more likely where we are working in situations that are at odds with our values and beliefs, and where expectations from others and ourselves are unrealistic. It can be difficult to identify these things when in the situation. It is often only by stepping back and looking at a situation with compassion, that we can gain more understanding.

Dialling up compassion

Compassion is something that we can dial up and down like the volume button on the radio. It may not be easy, but it is possible. We first have to pay attention to the things we are saying to ourselves. The internal voice I mentioned last week might be saying encouraging things, or might be noticing our flaws, highlighting our mistakes, and the worst case scenario. We might notice a sense of dread, knowing what we are going to face is difficult, or anxiety, filled with ‘what ifs’.

If we can notice our inner voice, we can consider the impact it is having, and if necessary, make different choices. If the words are hard to identify, we can use pictures, or figurines like Jayne did, or try to notice what our body is telling us in these situations.

It can be helpful to try to notice what happens in your body when you are stressed, and becoming overwhelmed.

What body sensations do you experience?
What thoughts do you notice?

If these things make us feel unsafe or bad about ourselves, then we need to try and dial up the self-compassion.

Jayne went on to consider four different states of being that we will all likely flip between in life, and she talked through how she would work with someone as a coach, to help them stay in balance and not burnout. We were encouraged to consider what helps us to inhabit the position of renewal, where our nervous system is in a state of rest and repair. This might include journaling, yoga nidra, total rest, listening to music, walking in nature, stroking the cat, self massage, tapping.

Whatever we choose, these actions will be most restorative if we can accompany them with an inner voiceover that is compassionate. This isn’t easy to do, especially if someone is in a state of chronic burnout. We might need help and our self-compassion might take time to cultivate, but helps us to take one more step away from burnout.

Connecting with our inner wisdom

Burnout prevention is better than cure, although sometimes burnout serves to tell us we that we need to pivot and reset our priorities, perhaps even to follow an entirely new career direction. Sometimes we are being guided to the things we need by our unconscious and conscious minds, and it can be helpful to pay attention, and stay curious.

Jayne’s ‘get to know you’ exercise made me aware of the parts of me that were showing up that day, and made me curious about the parts that might need extra care. It helped me think about what I could do to meet these needs. As I’ve said, I like the idea of checking in each day, watching for the signs that something is amiss, and doing what I need to address this.

And of course in the process of writing this article, I Googled seahorses-Velma couldn’t stop herself! I discovered that the seahorse is a fish in the genus called Hippocampus. Discovering this made me smile because the hippocampus is also the word given to a part of the brain within the limbic system. I am hugely oversimplifying, but the limbic system is linked to our emotional behaviours, and the hippocampus in particular is thought to be responsible for transferring memories from short term memory into long term memory, and mental mapping (creating a map of things as they appear in the outside world, within our minds). The hippocampus is especially vulnerable to long term stress, and acute periods of very significant stress, so these functions can be impaired when in chronic states of burnout and other forms of stress, or trauma.

Hippocampus - Wikipedia

Seeing these pictures side by side for the first time, it seemed obvious why they were given the same name. I have a fondness for aesthetics, and have to admit that the brain hippocampus is not quite so beautiful as the seahorse! It is nevertheless pretty brilliant and especially important for our day to day functioning. We all have one, (or rather we have two hippocampi, one in each hemisphere) quietly doing its thing inside our brains, and I imagine it, like its namesake, doing its best to cling on and staying connected when the emotional weather within us gets tough. How then, amongst all the pressures of our busy lives, can we each protect it as fiercely as we might protect the magical sea creature?

Who’d have thought two little figurines would have sparked such a journey! Thank you for the inspiration this week Jayne!

Willow Blooms

The seahorse mysteries

Willow Blooms #014 Velma learns about burnout

Discussion about this post