Burnout

Burnout. You’ve probably heard the term over the course of the last few years in regard to work, the pandemic, and the general state of the world. According to Psychology Today, burnout is a state of emotional, mental, and often physical exhaustion brought on by prolonged or repeated stress. Though it’s most often caused by things at work, it can also appear in other areas of life, such as parenting, caretaking, or romantic relationships. At the core of burnout, is stress. Stress can manifest itself in many different ways and it does a number on the body, mind, and soul when it’s not acknowledged and addressed.

In today’s episode, we talk about how to recognize burnout and how to treat it with the help of two people who are rather familiar with it: Sheena Grosshans who is a parent and the spouse of an educator, and Jen Sutton, a long-time teacher.

Sheena works as TWLOHA’s Director of Key Relationships and is a Brooklyn, NY native who found both her love and home in the South. She is a lifelong creative and professionally compassionate but spends most of her days being bossed around by her two-year-old daughter. She also shares an eight-year-old son with her husband, a third-generation educator who currently teaches at a middle school in Florida.

Our second guest, Jen, is in her 13th year as a high school science teacher. This year, in particular, she has even added a few middle school classes to her agenda. And one of her coworkers is actually her husband, who teaches at the same school. But Jen is much more than just a teacher—she is passionate about mental health and advocating for both educators and students alike, she has a corgi named Millie and a cat named Bev, and she’s a really big fan of the show Ted Lasso (her favorite character is Mae).