Burnout and Complex Trauma: Why You’re So Tired
Burnout is often blamed on weakness or lack of motivation, but for people living with complex trauma, it usually runs much deeper.
When you’ve spent years overworking, over-giving, monitoring everyone else’s emotions, or staying constantly alert just to feel safe, your body eventually reaches a limit. Burnout isn’t a failure. It’s your nervous system asking you to stop and listen.
This course helps you understand burnout through the lens of Complex Trauma. You’ll explore what burnout actually is, how it shows up in your body and mind, and why old survival patterns make it so hard to slow down. Through teaching, reflection, and practical tools, you’ll learn to recognize the early signs of overwhelm, uncover the beliefs that keep you overextended, and begin recovering with boundaries, rest, and compassion.
Healing from burnout isn’t about pushing yourself harder. It’s about learning to live in a way that doesn’t cost you everything. Your exhaustion is a sign, and this course will help you understand what it’s been trying to say.
Get Access with the EVERGREEN Membership
Get unlimited access to Tim Fletcher Co’s Evergreen library for just $30 per month, or $300 per year. With six new self-development courses added every month, you’ll always have fresh, practical tools to support your growth in areas like trauma recovery, boundaries, relationships, and personal transformation. Learn at your own pace, revisit lessons anytime, and build lasting change with guidance that’s both compassionate and deeply practical. See more details here.
*All prices are in Canadian Dollars.
Course Curriculum
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Welcome Video
Introduction
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Many people with Complex Trauma push themselves long past their limits without realizing the body has been in survival mode for years. This module helps you understand what burnout actually is and why your system can no longer run on adrenaline alone. You’ll begin seeing exhaustion not as failure but as your body’s request for care.
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Burnout doesn’t arrive suddenly; it builds through ignored signals. In this lesson you’ll learn to identify the physical, emotional, and behavioral clues that your body has been sending long before collapse. Noticing these signs early becomes the foundation for a more sustainable life.
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Many people with Complex Trauma carry beliefs that rest is weakness or that they must earn the right to stop. This module explores how shame, fear, and old survival strategies keep you overworking even when you’re exhausted. You’ll begin untangling these internal pressures so rest becomes possible again.
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Burnout becomes clearer when you understand what’s happening inside your body. Here you’ll learn how sympathetic overdrive, dorsal shutdown, and limited capacity shape your daily life, and why they make ordinary tasks feel overwhelming. This lesson gives you a compassionate framework for what your nervous system has been trying to communicate.
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Healing from burnout is a slow reconnection with yourself, not a quick fix. This final module guides you through early recovery steps like compassion, mindful pacing, boundaries, and community support, helping you rebuild a life that matches your real capacity. You’ll learn how to move forward without abandoning your body, your needs, or your limits.
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This section offers a collection of books, talks, music, somatic practices, and community supports to deepen your recovery from burnout. These resources help you understand how trauma shapes exhaustion, offer tools for nervous system regulation, and provide gentle ways to rebuild safety, resilience, and rest. Each one is an invitation to move at your own pace, discovering what nourishes you as you learn to live with more balance, honesty, and compassion.
