Therapist Burnout Podcast: Mental Health, Business, and Career Tips for Therapists, Counselors, & Psychologists

In the final episode before her first summer break in three years, Jen Blanchette explores what it really means to relearn rest. Her thesis is simple but countercultural: we don't need to squeeze out summer. Instead of chasing a mythical future moment of low stress — or curating the "perfect" sabbatical — Jen makes the case for weaving rest into the lives we're living right now. Take aways: We ove...

Subscribe to the Leaving the Chair Newsletter: https://balanced-thunder-281.myflodesk.com/drjenb Episode Summary What does it mean to feel like a fraud even when the evidence says otherwise? In this episode, Dr. Jen Blanchette sits down with Dr. Kevin Cokley — a leading scholar of the imposter phenomenon and African American psychology — to unpack why imposter feelings are so common, who experienc...

Subscribe to the Leaving the Chair Newsletter: https://balanced-thunder-281.myflodesk.com/drjenb Are other therapists gaslighting us about burnout? In this episode, Jen responds to a social media post claiming "burnout is not a given" — and unpacks why that framing, while well-intentioned, can quietly turn burnout into a "you problem." She talks honestly about arriving at burnout already burnt, wh...

Can you prevent burnout as a therapist? This episode explores the balance between work life and personal life, the importance of boundaries, and how to navigate systemic challenges in the therapy field. Main Topics: The concept of guardrails in therapy and personal life Practical boundary-setting techniques for work-life separation The impact of systemic issues and environment on burnout Personal...

Subscribe to the Leaving the Chair Newsletter: https://balanced-thunder-281.myflodesk.com/drjenb Are you a therapist who keeps adding certifications, trainings, and credentials, hoping that this one will finally make you feel like you're enough? In this episode, Jen gets personal about the inner voices of imposter phenomenon — the ones that say "I failed," "I'm not cut out for this," and "how did...

📬 THE LEAVING THE CHAIR NEWSLETTER For therapists done with burnout, overwhelm, and overscheduling — whether or not you're leaving the chair. Published twice monthly, free, and practical. 👉 Sign up here: https://balanced-thunder-281.myflodesk.com/drjenb In this episode: Jen asks the question therapists are thinking but not saying out loud — are certifications in our field kind of like an MLM? Sh...

✨ New: The Leaving the Chair Newsletter Tired of the overwhelm, the over-functioning, and maybe even the therapy chair itself? Leaving the Chair is Dr. Jen's new newsletter for therapists who are ready to stop white-knuckling their careers and start building something that actually feels like theirs. Sign up here: https://balanced-thunder-281.myflodesk.com/drjenb Show Notes — Bonus Episode: Dr. J...

Join my Therapist Pen Pal list (free): https://balanced-thunder-281.myflodesk.com/drjenb Overbooked & Overwhelmed (again): How to Prune What You Can When Your Calendar Feels Impossible In this episode, I’m revisiting a topic I first talked about last year: what to do when you look at your calendar and genuinely can’t see how you’re going to make it through the week. I’m naming the backdrop we’...

Burnout Story: Today, I’m joined by Dr. Kiki Fehling (aka @dbtkiki ), a psychologist, author, and DBT expert (Linehan board-certified). Kiki shares the burnout story that started in grad school and became impossible to ignore after an unexpected heart attack at 29 during internship. We talk about what happens when your body forces a reckoning, why therapists normalize burnout so hard, and how Kiki...

Join Leaving the Chair (registration closes Sat, Jan 31 at midnight): https://balanced-thunder-281.myflodesk.com/jhvxnbroxe In this quick episode, I’m recapping the live webinar I just hosted on burnout and pivots — and what surprised me most wasn’t the content… it was the honesty in the questions. A lot of therapists who showed up were already in motion: closing their practice, leaving a job, or...

After nearly three years of talking with therapists about burnout (and living my own recovery in real time), I wanted to pause and name what I keep seeing underneath the surface — especially for therapists who feel stuck, spinning, or quietly wondering if they can keep doing 1:1 work. In this episode: Burnout isn’t just exhaustion — it’s losing your aliveness Therapist burnout isn’t a personal fai...

Quick note: Enrollment is open for Love It or Leave It (Leaving the Chair). Closes January 30 (at the time of recording). Join Love It or Leave It (Open Enrollment): https://balanced-thunder-281.myflodesk.com/jhvxnbroxe Book a consult call (limited availability): https://calendar.app.google/JBkK3aUPXyvxr46F7 About this episode Micah Freeman interviews Jen for Episode 100. We talk about milestones,...

Happy New Year, therapist. If you’re listening in real time, it’s 2026—and we made it through another year of “Earth school (thanks Liz Gilbert!)” in 2025. In this episode, I’m rejecting the hustle harder / reinvent yourself energy that shows up every January—especially when your nervous system is already fried. Instead, I’m making the case for a soft start : a gentle re-entry that’s doable, reali...

Join the therapist (Pen Pal List): https://balanced-thunder-281.myflodesk.com/drjenb I write back! Burnout isn’t just exhaustion — it’s the loss of feeling alive. In this final episode of the year, I’m sharing what burnout recovery has actually looked like for me: the slow parts, the stuck parts, the softening of ambition, and the small pockets of aliveness that are bringing me back to myself. In...

Ending a therapeutic relationship is never easy, whether it’s because you're closing your practice, changing your career path, or setting necessary boundaries to protect your own well-being. In this episode, I share my personal experiences and challenges with therapy terminations, especially when they’re not planned or mutual. We dive deep into the fears therapists often have about letting clients...

December is often the most dysregulated month of the year—for our clients  and  for us. From managing the anxiety of cancellations and income dips to navigating family boundaries that get pushed to the limit, today we are covering how to protect your energy this month. Plus, I have a confession: I’m seeing a therapy client again. In this episode, we are having a real talk about how to handle the h...

Therapists are experts at spotting gaslighting in our clients' lives, but we are often the worst perpetrators of it in our own heads. If you’ve ever thought,  "I should be able to handle this"  or  "If I leave, I’ve failed,"  you aren't just burned out—you are telling yourself what I call an  "A$$hole Story." In this episode, I’m identifying  The Top 5 A$$hole Stories  that therapists tell themsel...

Join the Therapist Pen-Pal List for weekly reflections and burnout recovery tips: https://balanced-thunder-281.myflodesk.com/drjenb After a difficult meeting left me dysregulated and questioning everything (again), I knew it was time to return to this series: Structured Rest. In this personal and practical episode, I talk about: Why traditional rest isn't enough in burnout recovery What it means t...

Therapy is profoundly weird . It forces us into a messy middle ground—a hybrid existence that few outside the profession understand. As Matt Hussey shared, the more "unprofessional" we were in discussing these realities, the more it resonated. Get more therapist real talk on the newsletter for podcast updates, offerings, and my upcoming circles in 2026: https://balanced-thunder-281.myflodesk.com/d...

If you’ve ever thought, “I just can’t do this work anymore, but I don’t know what else I could do,” this episode is for you. Host Jen Blanchette sits down with career coach and recruiter Alki Thompson to talk about the real-life process of career transition—especially for therapists and helpers who feel stuck, depleted, or unsure of what comes next. Together they unpack: What burnout, instability,...

What happens when you know you’re done with therapy work—but you still can’t leave? In this episode of The Therapist Burnout Podcast , Jen continues the Private Practice Closure Series with an honest look at the in-between season: when your mind, body, and heart are saying “enough,” but your circumstances don’t yet allow for a full exit. Jen shares her personal experience of sitting in this space—...

📥 Download the Free Practice Closure Guide: Your First 30 Days If you’re considering leaving therapy or closing your private practice, this guide gives you the emotional and logistical support you need during those first 30 days. 🛑 What no one tells you about leaving the field of therapy? It can feel like grieving a version of yourself. In today’s episode of The Therapist Burnout Podcast , we’re...

What if closing your practice wasn’t the end — but the beginning of a quieter, more intentional way of building? In this episode, I talk with Melvin Varghese , psychologist, creator of The Quiet Builder , and host of Selling the Couch . Melvin and I explore what it looks like to build a life and business rooted in peace, integrity, and enoughness — rather than urgency, comparison, or constant grow...

If you’ve ever thought, “I left my agency job to have more freedom, but now I’m more exhausted than ever,” — this episode is for you. In Episode 90 of the Therapist Burnout Podcast , I’m asking a bold question: Is private practice a scam? When I left my agency job, I was told that private practice would mean freedom — flexibility, financial ease, and time for my life. But a decade later, I see a h...

Work-life balance is a myth—and it’s keeping therapists stuck in burnout. We’re told to strive for balance, to neatly separate our professional and personal lives, as if caregiving, therapy, parenting, and invisible household labor can be tucked into separate boxes. But the truth? For therapists and other caregivers, life doesn’t work that way. In this episode, I introduce a new concept I’m callin...