Stress & Burnout Counselling Calgary
Feeling like you’re running on empty, even though you’re still getting everything done? Chronic stress and burnout don’t always look like falling apart — often they look like quietly pushing through, long after your capacity to recover has been outpaced by what’s being asked of you. At Solasta, our registered psychologists and registered provisional psychologists help you understand what’s actually driving your depletion and build a realistic path back from it.
What Is Stress and Burnout Counselling?
Stress is usually tied to a specific, identifiable pressure — a deadline, a conflict, a life event — and tends to ease once that pressure lifts. Burnout is different. It’s a state of chronic depletion that builds over an extended period, when demands consistently outpace your ability to recover, and it doesn’t resolve just because one contributing factor changes.
Counselling for stress and burnout isn’t about being told to take more breaks, delegate more, or set better boundaries — though those may genuinely be part of the picture. It’s a more substantive process of understanding the specific combination of workload, role misalignment, perfectionism, and unaddressed patterns that got you here, and building something more sustainable than white-knuckling through it.
We’ve written in more depth elsewhere about how burnout specifically shows up when it’s hidden behind high functioning: The Signs of High-Functioning Burnout.
Therapists Specializing in Stress & Burnout Counselling
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Signs Stress or Burnout Might Be Worth Addressing
Burnout research, going back to psychologist Christina Maslach’s foundational work, generally describes three core dimensions. Most people experiencing burnout will recognize themselves in at least two.
Emotional and physical exhaustion
The kind of tired that sleep, a weekend off, or even a vacation doesn’t resolve. This is often accompanied by physical symptoms — tension headaches, disrupted sleep despite fatigue, a weakened immune system, or a general sense of physical depletion with no clear medical explanation.
Cynicism and detachment
A growing emotional distance from work, relationships, or things that used to feel meaningful. This can show up as irritability, a flattened sense of engagement, or catching yourself feeling numb or checked-out in situations that would normally matter to you.
A reduced sense of effectiveness
A persistent feeling that you’re not accomplishing much, even when your actual output hasn’t changed — sometimes alongside genuine declines in concentration, decision-making, or follow-through as the depletion continues.
High-functioning burnout
Not everyone experiencing burnout looks like they’re struggling. Many people — often high achievers, caregivers, parents, and people in helping professions — continue to perform well externally while quietly running on empty internally. This is often the hardest form to recognize, precisely because nothing on the outside looks wrong. You don’t need to have reached a breaking point to benefit from support.
Why Choose Solasta for Stress and Burnout Counselling in Calgary
Real clinical attention, not a wellness platitude
Our therapists treat burnout as a genuine clinical concern rather than something to be solved with a long weekend. We work with the specific pressures and patterns that brought you here, not a generic script.
Modality matched to your presentation
No single approach works for everyone recovering from burnout. We match the therapeutic approach — CBT, ACT, somatic therapy, or a combination — to what’s actually driving your depletion, rather than applying the same framework to every client.
Experience recognizing high-functioning burnout specifically
Cheryl Jejina and Melina Rodriguez both work specifically with burnout, and understand that many clients coming in for this are still performing well by outside measures — which is often exactly what’s made the problem hard to name.
Accessible in-person or online
We offer both in-person sessions at our NW Calgary office and online sessions across Alberta, with no referral required.
What to Expect from Stress and Burnout Counselling at Solasta
Initial consultation
Before your first full session, we offer a free 20-minute consultation to understand what’s brought you in, what you’ve already tried, and what you’re hoping will change. There’s no pressure and no obligation — this is your chance to ask questions and get a feel for whether a particular therapist is the right fit.
Understanding your specific stressors
Burnout rarely has a single cause. Your therapist works with you to map the actual sources of depletion in your life — workload, role misalignment, perfectionism, difficulty setting boundaries, caregiving demands, or some combination — rather than treating burnout as a generic, one-size-fits-all problem.
Building sustainable change
Depending on what’s driving your specific presentation, we draw on approaches like CBT, ACT, or somatic therapy. In practice, this usually means recognizing early warning signs before they compound, building boundaries that actually hold, addressing the underlying beliefs — perfectionism, over-responsibility, discomfort asking for help — that tend to sit underneath chronic overextension, and rebuilding a more workable relationship with rest and recovery.
Ongoing support
Recovery from burnout is rarely linear. Some clients need a handful of sessions to reset and re-stabilize; others benefit from longer-term work addressing the deeper patterns that keep putting them back in the same position.
Common Myths About Burnout
Burnout just means you're tired
Ordinary tiredness resolves with rest. Burnout is a more entrenched state of depletion that persists even after you’ve slept, taken time off, or removed yourself from the immediate source of stress — because the underlying patterns that caused it haven’t changed.
Burnout only happens in high-stress corporate jobs
Burnout shows up wherever demands consistently exceed someone’s capacity to recover — this includes parents, caregivers, healthcare and helping professionals, students, and small business owners just as much as corporate employees.
You can fix burnout by taking a vacation
Time away can help in the short term, but if the same workload, role, and patterns are waiting when you return, the depletion tends to come right back. Lasting recovery usually requires addressing what created the burnout in the first place, not just pausing it temporarily.
CAP
All of our psychologists are registered with the College of Alberta Psychologists.
PAA
Many of our psychologists are members of the Psychologists’ Association of Alberta.
CCPA
Many of our psychologists are members of the Canadian Counselling and Psychotherapy Association.
FAQs
What's the difference between stress and burnout?
Stress is usually tied to a specific, identifiable pressure and tends to ease once that pressure lifts. Burnout is more chronic — it builds over an extended period, typically from a combination of workload, lack of control, insufficient recognition, and values misalignment, and doesn’t resolve just because one contributing factor changes. Someone can remove the original stressor entirely and still be burned out months later.
I'm still getting everything done — do I really need support?
Yes, often especially so. High-functioning burnout is defined by the fact that the external signs of struggling aren’t visible — you’re still delivering, which makes it easy to convince yourself things aren’t that bad. Being able to function isn’t the same as being okay, and the longer high-functioning burnout goes unaddressed, the harder it typically becomes to recover from.
How many sessions does this typically take?
This varies significantly depending on what’s driving the depletion and how long it’s been building. Some clients see meaningful shifts in perspective and capacity within a handful of sessions focused on immediate stabilization; others benefit from longer-term work addressing perfectionism, boundary patterns, or role misalignment that keep recreating the same depletion. Your therapist will discuss a realistic timeline with you directly.
What causes burnout, specifically?
Burnout typically develops from a sustained mismatch between demands and resources — workload that consistently exceeds capacity, lack of control over how work gets done, insufficient recognition, unclear expectations, or values misalignment between what you’re doing and what matters to you. It’s rarely one single cause; most people experiencing burnout can point to two or three contributing factors compounding each other over time.
Is this covered by insurance?
Sessions with a Registered Psychologist are covered by most extended health benefit plans. Solasta offers direct billing to 30+ insurers. Visit our fees page to confirm coverage and see typical session rates.
Is this available online?
Yes — stress and burnout counselling is available online across Alberta, as well as in person at our Calgary office.
Our Calgary Office Space
Our thoughtfully designed counselling spaces are crafted to create a warm, welcoming environment where you can feel completely at ease.
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