Dr Claire Plumbly’s latest book offers a fresh perspective on burnout, arguing that it isn’t just stress, but a trauma response that leaves our nervous systems running in survival mode.
The book, Burnout: How to Manage Your Nervous System Before it Manages You, will be launched at Brendon Books on September 27 at 7pm during the Literary Festival.
Ms Plumbly, an accredited clinical psychologist and director of Good Therapy Ltd, argues that the current understanding of burnout just scratches the surface of what’s really going on in our bodies, mainly that it’s an emotional exhaustion and stress response.
In contrast, her book uses the Polyvagal theory to discuss burnout.
Dr Claire Plumbly with her new book, Burnout: How to Manage Your Nervous System Before it Manages You (Image: Claire Plumbly)
The Polyvagal theory, developed by American neuroscientist Stephen W.Porges in the 90s, explains the function of the autonomic nervous system (the part of our body that keeps us safe beyond our conscious control).
This theory has gained acceptance among psychologists working with trauma over the last decade.
The Polyvagal theory details a third branch of the nervous system known as the dorsal vagal branch.
This comes online when our fight or flight attempts have failed but we are still trapped in the stressful situation, like in the case of chronic stress or burnout.
She believes that people often know they should be doing these things and can’t understand why they can’t, or if they do manage them for a while are then hard on themselves when they can’t stick with them long-term.
Reviewing the book, Dr Liz White, consultant clinical psychologist and host of Hello Therapy podcast, said: “An excellent resource.. I will be recommending to all my burnout clients”.
Suzy Reading, psychologist and author of The Self-Care Revolution, praised Dr Plumbly’s straightforward explanations of complex concepts.
She said: “Complex science made simple, healing strategies made accessible.
“Highly recommend.”
Ms Plumbly proposes that effective long-term management of the nervous system needs a different approach.
She shares practical tools to soothe the nervous system and provides a roadmap to prevent burnout patterns from recurring.
In addition to being a practising clinical psychologist with over 20 years of experience helping individuals overcome anxiety, trauma, and burnout, she is also a highly-regarded EMDR Consultant.
She believes that many psychologists are using this approach in their one-to-one trauma therapy, but that she is the first psychologist to bring this out of the therapy room to explicitly apply it to burnout.
