The ReLit Practice™

Nobody warned us about the endings. Not the dramatic ones. The quiet ones. The client who stops booking after twelve sessions. The transfer you didn't have time to process. The termination that was complete but emotionally unfinished. These endings accumulate over years — with nowhere to go. In this episode, we go deep on the felt separation phase — the third phase of the Cycle of Caring — and why...

Episode Summary In this episode, Stacey Steele draws on her own experience as a psychologist diagnosed with ADHD as an adult, and a growing body of research, to explore the specific intersection of neurodivergence and occupational burnout in helping professionals. If you are currently experiencing clinical impairment or a mental health crisis, please reach out to your regulatory body’s peer suppor...

In this episode, Stacey Steele, R.Psych., takes on five of the most persistent and clinically consequential myths about burnout in the helping professions and replaces them with what the research actually shows. Drawing on recent empirical literature and honest personal experience, this episode reframes burnout as a nervous system and systemic response, not a personal failing. Stacey distinguishes...

Most clinicians have been trained to be exquisitely self-aware. Few have been trained in what to do with what they see. In this episode, we look at what the research actually says about therapeutic self, self-awareness, and burnout and why awareness, on its own, doesn't protect you. We distinguish burnout from secondary traumatic stress, moral injury, and PTSD. We examine why self-compassion (not...

You've heard it. You've said it. "You just need better boundaries." But what if the boundary conversation has become part of the problem? In this episode, we explore how self-sacrifice and unrelenting standards schemas, two of the most common patterns in helping professionals , can turn well-meaning boundary advice into a shame spiral. Drawing on Jeffrey Young's schema therapy model and Skovholt a...

If you’re a clinician providing therapy, how many times today have you used the word “boundaries”? Likely in the context of working with someone in their relationships or helping someone try to get more balance in their life. Now, in your professional context, what comes up when you think of boundaries? Maybe your ethical code and standards of practice, your schedule, client contact (or if you’re...

If someone asked you to name the core tool of your clinical practice, what would you say? EMDR? CBT? Your favourite assessment measure? Maybe it's none of the above. And maybe it’s you. The caring self, who you are in the therapy space, is the primary therapeutic instrument. And like any instrument, it needs tending and tuning. In this episode, I walk through the Cycle of Caring, a four-phase fram...

Thank you for listening! Everything on this podcast is guided by five pillars, recognizing and releasing burnout, repairing and rewiring overfunctioning patterns, restoring rhythm and regulation, redesigning practice for long-term sustainability, and relighting passion so you can stay in the work without losing yourself. Therapist burnout is often framed as having poor boundaries, inadequate self...

Rest didn't fix it. That's because burnout in clinical practice is often driven by something different: grief. Grief requires a different kind of repair. In this episode, we go beneath the surface of therapist burnout to explore its intersection with moral injury: the wound that forms when clinicians are repeatedly asked to act against their own values. We talk about why rest alone doesn't heal th...

Burnout, Moral Injury, and Sustainable Recovery for Therapists In this episode, we explore why burnout for therapists often reflects ethical strain, cumulative trauma exposure, and nervous system overload rather than simple fatigue. Reflection & Journaling Exercises for Clinicians If you want a deeper dive into moral injury and burnout, take some time and reflect on the following: Values: • Wh...