Low energy and burnout
🔎 Client Situation: Low Energy, Burnout, or Exhaustion
Clients may show signs of fatigue, lack of motivation, emotional flatness, or physical exhaustion. Often tied to stress, misaligned values, over-commitment, or emotional overload.
⚡ Techniques & How to Use Them
1. Energy Audit
- How: Help the client list what drains vs. what energizes them (people, tasks, habits).
- When: To gain clarity on energy leaks and potential restorers.
2. Wheel of Life (Burnout-Focused)
- How: Use the Wheel of Life, but reframe it around energy and fulfillment in each area.
- When: To spot where imbalance or burnout is strongest.
3. Micro-Restoration Planning
- How: Create small daily or weekly actions that restore energy (e.g., 5-min nature walk, journaling, breathwork).
- When: When client says they have “no time” or “nothing helps.”
4. Values Alignment Check
- How: Explore whether their life/work is aligned with their core values. Misalignment often causes burnout.
- When: When energy dips are chronic or existential.
5. Compassionate Prioritization
- How: Guide client to rank responsibilities based on importance vs. urgency. Invite them to let go or delegate.
- When: When they're overwhelmed and stretched too thin.
6. “Permission to Pause” Exercise
- How: Ask: “If you gave yourself full permission to rest, what would change?”
- When: When guilt or perfectionism blocks rest.
7. Somatic Check-In
- How: Invite awareness to body tension, posture, fatigue. Let the body “speak.”
- When: When client is disconnected from physical signals.
8. Resilience Inventory
- How: Reflect on past times they felt energized or overcame stress. What worked? What supported them?
- When: To reconnect them with internal and external resources.
9. Nervous System Regulation
- How: Teach breathing, tapping, or grounding exercises to help them move out of fight/flight/freeze.
- When: When client is frazzled or shut down.
10. Purpose Reconnection
- How: Ask: “What would make this effort feel meaningful again?” or “What are you doing this for?”
- When: When burnout is linked to a loss of motivation or deeper ‘why.’
🔎 Powerful Questions
- "What’s draining your energy that you’ve been tolerating?"
- "What would your body say it needs right now?"
- "If you could take one small action today for yourself, what would it be?"
- "What boundary or ‘no’ would feel like relief to say?"
- "When did you last feel truly restored? What was happening then?"
Tip: With burnout, slow down the coaching pace. Start with nervous system and energy awareness before diving into problem-solving or goal-setting.