You've been climbing for a long time.
Maybe you're still showing up for work, for family, for everyone, and quietly running on empty. If rest doesn't seem to refill the tank anymore, it might be time to stop, catch your breath and look out at the view.
Vistas offers therapy for burnout, ongoing stress and life transitions, in person in Toronto's Cabbagetown and Ottawa's Centretown, and virtually anywhere in Ontario.
Stress is part of being alive, and short bursts of it can even help. Burnout is what can happen when the climb doesn't let up and there's nowhere to rest. Therapy for burnout can offer a place to set the pack down, look at what's been happening and find your footing again.
This is general information, not a diagnosis. Stress doesn't always look like stress, either; sometimes it shows up as worry, irritability or a racing body. Read more in why stress and anxiety don't always feel like anxiety.
Burnout rarely has a single cause. It usually builds where a lot is being asked of you and not much is coming back.
Long hours, constant change, unclear expectations or work that matters deeply to you. Work stress therapy can help you look at the pressure from outside and the rules you carry inside, like "I should be able to handle this."
Helping professions such as health care, teaching and social services can be especially hard on the nervous system.
Parenting, supporting a partner, looking after an aging parent, or caring for clients all day. Caregiver burnout often comes with guilt or resentment, and both are very human.
You're allowed to need care too.
A move, a new job or no job, a relationship ending, a new baby, retirement. Even good changes can leave the ground feeling uneven for a while.
Counselling for life transitions ↓Some changes you choose, and some choose you. Either way, transitions can ask you to let go of one way of living before the next one has fully arrived. Life transitions counselling offers a steady place to sort through that in-between.
Sometimes there isn't a clear change at all. There's a quieter sense of being stuck, or bigger questions about meaning, purpose, faith or who you are now. Those questions deserve room too.
Amanda draws on Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), which focuses on getting clear on what matters to you and taking steps toward it, even while things feel uncertain.
Sandra offers spiritual psychotherapy for people who'd like to explore meaning, faith or spirituality as part of their therapy, whatever their beliefs.
At Vistas, we think of mind, body and relationships as one nervous system, shaped in relationship. Burnout tends to live in all three, so we work with all three.
Noticing the thoughts, beliefs and habits that keep you pushing past your limits, and trying out new ones. This can include cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) and ACT, along with talking through what's been happening and what you need now.
Body-aware tools that help a stressed system settle: slowing the breath, noticing where you hold tension, grounding through the senses. Learn more about somatic therapy in Toronto or in Ottawa, and what nervous-system-informed therapy means.
Why the view matters
Our name comes from a simple grounding practice: letting your eyes rest on a distant horizon. Many people find that a wide view helps the body slow down.
Burnout has a way of narrowing everything to the next task. Part of our work together is helping you find the wider view again, of your life, your values and what you might need.
Some of our work draws on polyvagal theory, a framework many therapists find useful for understanding stress responses. The research behind it is still developing, so we treat it as one lens among several.
Looking for a therapist for burnout or a stress counsellor? Our three psychotherapists each bring something different. We also offer mindfulness and yoga instruction, which are separate from psychotherapy.
Psychotherapy
RP, M.Ed., EMDRIA Certified Therapist, RYT-200
In person in Toronto and Ottawa · Virtual across Ontario
Integrative, body-aware therapy for stress, burnout and anxiety, drawing on ACT, CBT and attachment-focused work. Amanda also offers yoga-informed therapy for people who'd like movement in their sessions.
Read Amanda's bio →
Registered Psychotherapist
Virtual across Ontario
Spiritual psychotherapy, CBT and inner child work, for stress, anxiety and the bigger questions that can come with burnout. Sandra also offers CBT for insomnia.
Read Sandra's bio →.avif)
Registered Psychotherapist (Qualifying), practising under clinical supervision
In person in Toronto, including walk-and-talk · Virtual across Ontario
Narrative therapy and culturally grounded care, including for Indigenous clients. Heather offers lower fees while she completes her registration.
Read Heather's bio →
Learn meditation and mindfulness practices you can come back to on busy days, and build a routine that actually sticks. Virtual.
Short, targeted sessions to release tension and practise slowing down, with Amanda in person in Toronto, or Natalie or Mark virtually.
*Yoga instruction is a separate, non-regulated service, billed separately from psychotherapy. Amanda teaches yoga only to people who aren't her psychotherapy clients. See how we bill our services.
Not sure which fits? Start with our guide to finding the right therapist →
General ideas many people find helpful. They aren't a treatment plan, and they're not meant to be one more thing to get right.
Between tasks, look out a window at something far away for a minute. Let your shoulders drop and your exhale get a little longer than your inhale.
Mark the shift from work to home with something small and physical: a walk around the block, changing your clothes or a few slow stretches.
Plan one thing that has nothing to do with being productive, and let it be enough. Time outside counts double.
Burnout isn't a medical diagnosis, and its signs overlap with other conditions, including depression, anxiety, thyroid problems, anemia and sleep disorders. If you're noticing new or worsening physical symptoms, exhaustion that rest doesn't touch, or big changes in sleep, appetite or mood, please check in with your family doctor or nurse practitioner as well.
If low mood is part of what you're carrying, see depression counselling. If stress shows up as worry or panic, see anxiety counselling.
If you're in crisis
Call or text 9-8-8, the Suicide Crisis Helpline, any time. If you or someone else is in immediate danger, call 9-1-1 or go to your nearest emergency department.
Vistas isn't a crisis service, and messages may not be answered right away.
Burnout is a state of exhaustion that can build when stress goes on for a long time without enough recovery. The World Health Organization's ICD-11 describes it as an occupational phenomenon linked to chronic workplace stress, with three features: exhaustion, feeling distant or cynical about work, and feeling less effective. Many people also use the word for the depletion that comes from caregiving or long stretches of change.
Common signs include feeling drained even after rest, dreading tasks you used to manage, pulling away from people and getting less done despite trying harder. Burnout symptoms can also show up in the body, such as tension, headaches, stomach upset, getting sick more often or trouble sleeping. These are general signs, not a diagnosis, and they overlap with other conditions, so it can help to check in with your doctor as well.
No. The World Health Organization classifies burnout as an occupational phenomenon, not a medical condition. Our therapists don't diagnose burnout; we work with what you're experiencing and how it's affecting your life. If you're wondering about depression, anxiety or a physical cause, your family doctor or nurse practitioner can help.
Caregiver burnout is the exhaustion that can build when you're caring for someone else, such as a child, a partner, an aging parent or clients in a helping profession, and there's little left over for you. It often comes with guilt, resentment or numbness, which are common and human. Therapy can offer a place to set some of that down and think about what support might look like for you.
Yes. All three of our psychotherapists offer secure virtual sessions anywhere in Ontario. Amanda also sees clients in person in Toronto and Ottawa, and Heather sees clients in person in Toronto, including walk-and-talk sessions.
Psychotherapy is a regulated health service provided by Registered Psychotherapists, who can help you explore the patterns, relationships and history underneath your stress. Mindfulness coaching is a separate, non-regulated service focused on learning and practising meditation and mindfulness skills. Some people choose one, and some use both side by side.
Yes. Our psychotherapists offer counselling for life transitions such as career changes, moves, relationship endings, new parenthood and retirement. We also make room for the quieter sense of being stuck, and for questions about meaning, purpose or faith, including through Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) and spiritual psychotherapy.
You've carried a lot to get here. You don't have to keep climbing alone.
Book a free 20-minute consult to talk about what's been happening and find a place to start.