EMDR for Burnout

You’re not just exhausted, overwhelmed, or emotionally fatigued. You’re burnt out, and you deserve relief.

EMDR therapy can be the reset button you’ve been looking for.

What is burnout?

When you're experiencing burnout, it's a lot more than just being tired.

It's giving everything to others until there's nothing left for yourself.

It's carrying the emotional weight of patients, loved ones, or colleagues day after day.

It's meeting endless demands and deadlines while your own needs get pushed aside.

It's a sense of helplessness that no amount of rest, vacations, or "self-care" seems to fix.

These aren't signs of weakness or failure.

They're your body and mind signaling that something needs to change.

EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) helps your brain process the accumulated stress and overwhelm that contribute to burnout, allowing you to restore your natural well-being and joy. It uses simple techniques like tapping to help release emotional burdens and reconnect with your authentic self.

At Shift Change, our EMDR certified therapists conduct sessions online, so you can begin your healing process wherever you're most comfortable, in an anonymous way.

Wondering if EMDR could help with your burnout? Let's connect.

What burnout really feels like

Burnout doesn’t always show up the way you'd expect.

It can look like…

  • Having nothing left to give at the end of the day, even to the people you care about.

  • Waking up more exhausted than when you went to bed.

  • Feeling emotionally flat, irritable, or detached.

  • Struggling to focus or get motivated, even for things you used to enjoy.

  • Living in a near-constant state of stress or anxiety, with no off switch.

This isn’t just temporary stress. It’s your body’s way of saying it can’t keep pushing.

If you’ve tried talk therapy but still feel stuck, EMDR can offer a different kind of relief. 

Can EMDR help treat caregiver or workplace burnout?

EMDR addresses the symptoms of burnout while also targeting the underlying patterns and experiences that contribute to it. Through gentle bilateral stimulation (tapping), your brain can process stressors and reset your nervous system's baseline.

EMDR supports caregiver and workplace burnout recovery by:

  • Breaking the cycle of chronic stress, compassion fatigue, and vicarious trauma

  • Releasing limiting beliefs about self-sacrifice and constant productivity

  • Processing the grief and loss that often accompanies caregiving roles

  • Creating healthy boundaries without guilt or shame

  • Restoring your professional fulfillment and personal well-being

  • Reconnecting you with the purpose and meaning behind your work

And because EMDR works at a neurobiological level, it can help even when the logical part of your brain already "knows" what needs to change, but you can't seem to implement it.

You don't have to keep pushing through the exhaustion.

At Shift Change, we offer our EMDR sessions online so you can access burnout therapy from the privacy and comfort of home. 

What to expect in our session of EMDR therapy for burnout

We structure every session with care, especially for clients experiencing burnout. Our approach is gentle, collaborative, and centered around nervous system safety.

#1 We build safety first.
You’ll learn simple tools for grounding and calming before we begin reprocessing. You're always in control.

#2 We go slow.
We’ll explore moments of stress or stuckness one at a time using gentle tapping techniques, no storytelling required. We will guide the system through a reset. When you are ready to work on the deeper stuff, we can do that too.

#3 We trust your brain to do the work.
EMDR activates your body’s natural ability to heal. Your job is just to notice what comes up and let your system process it.

#4 We always end with regulation.
Each session closes with techniques to return you to a calm, centered place so you can leave feeling more clearer than when you arrived.

Burnout might have disconnected you from your body, but EMDR is a chance to come back home to yourself.


All our EMDR sessions are online and fully anonymous.

What is the best therapy for burnout?

EMDR treatment vs talk therapy

If you’ve already tried talking about how burnt out you feel and are still stuck, you’re not failing, it’s just not the right tool for this kind of exhaustion.

Burnout is often tied to deeper emotional and physiological patterns, like high expectations, chronic overfunctioning, people-pleasing, perfectionism, or feeling responsible for everything. 

EMDR treatment gently untangles those patterns at the root, so you can stop white-knuckling your way through every day.

You don’t have to power through anymore.


Your Questions, Answered

  • EMDR helps your brain process all the stress and emotional weight you’ve been carrying, especially the kind that builds up over time. Through gentle, back-and-forth movements (like tapping), EMDR works with both sides of your brain to release stuck patterns, shift negative beliefs, and calm your nervous system. It’s especially helpful for people dealing with caregiver or job-related burnout because it doesn’t just focus on the mental load, but instead, helps your whole body recover from the impact of constant emotional labour and pressure.

  • Yes! All our EMDR online sessions are designed to be safe, effective, and fully anonymous. You’ll connect with a certified EMDR therapist one-on-one from anywhere you feel safe. We also offer group therapy in an anonymous way.


  • It depends on the root cause of your burnout. If you’ve already talked through things but still feel overwhelmed or depleted, EMDR therapy might help in a more body-based, healing-focused way.

  • Some people start to feel relief within just 3–6 sessions. Others may benefit from a longer course of EMDR treatment, especially if burnout is chronic or tied to past trauma. We offer a stepped-care approach to fit your needs.

  • Burnout can absolutely feel like trauma, especially if it stems from unsafe work environments, emotional caretaking roles, or chronic overwhelm. EMDR works for both trauma and stress therapy, so it’s well-suited to treat burnout at its core.