SHANNON A SWALES
Compassionate care for lasting wellbeing
Burnout Psychology Support was born not just from clinical insight, but from lived experience. What began as a quiet blog during my own recovery—later becoming the memoir Nothing Left to Give—has since grown into something much bigger: a space for real, sustainable healing.
Through one-on-one therapy, reflective writing, and the Midlife Reclaimed podcast, blog and online community, I guide burnt-out adults (especially women in midlife) toward a new way of being—one that’s not built on overfunctioning, but on authenticity, connection, and self-trust.
Here, you’ll find more than coping strategies. You’ll find a chance to rebuild your inner resources, feel seen in your struggles, and reclaim what burnout has worn down.
Ready to reconnect with your well-being—on your own terms?
Meet Shannon Swales, a Psychologist
Your guide through burnout recovery and beyond
I’m Shannon Swales—a Clinical Psychologist, writer, speaker and someone who knows burnout not just professionally, but personally. My work is grounded in both clinical expertise and lived experience, offering a compassionate space for those feeling depleted, overwhelmed, or unsure how to keep going.
My own turning point came after career-halting burnout and mental health challenges of my own. I began writing about it through my blog, A Different Kind of GAP Year, which later became my memoir, Nothing Left to Give: A Psychologist’s Path Back From Burnout. That story has shaped everything I do.
Today, I guide others through burnout and recovery via 1:1 therapy, the Midlife Reclaimed podcast, and a supportive community space for midlife women. I also deliver workshops, contribute to podcasts and publications, and speak on topics like psychological flexibility, emotional fatigue, and the deep work of reconnection.
My therapy practice is offered online across Australia and centres around personalised, evidence-based support. I bring warmth, curiosity, and deep respect to every session—because I believe healing is possible, and that your story deserves to be met with care.
If you’re ready to reclaim your energy, your clarity, and your connection to self, I’d be honoured to walk alongside you.
Who is Shannon Swales, the Therapist?
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As a therapist, I bring a warm, grounded, and deeply reflective presence to my work. My practice centres on supporting midlife women-particularly those navigating burnout, identity loss, or overwhelm-to come back home to themselves with compassion and care.
I hold space gently, honouring each person's lived experience while guiding them to move toward healing in a sustainable, values-aligned way. Whether in individual therapy, community spaces, or creative offerings like Midlife Reclaimed podcast, I aim to create emotionally safe environments where people feel seen, soothed, and supported.
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- Compassionate Presence: I create soft, emotionally attuned spaces where people feel safe enough to explore what's heavy, messy, or uncertain.
- Reflective Practice: I engage in ongoing self-inquiry and supervision, using my own history and values to stay aligned and ethical in my work.
- Trauma- and Neurodivergence-Informed: I avoid pathologising and instead support clients to understand their inner world through a lens of safety, systems, and self-acceptance.
- Creative Resource-Building: Through card decks, podcasts, writing, and journaling tools, I extend therapeutic work beyond the therapy room.
- Feminist and Systemic Lens: I recognise how cultural and gendered expectations contribute to burnout and disconnection, and help clients reclaim voice, agency, and belonging.
- Integrity and Thoughtfulness: I hold high ethical standards, especially around consent, data use, and the therapeutic alliance.
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I work integratively, drawing primarily from:
ACT (Acceptance and Commitment Therapy): Values-based, compassionate, and present-focused. I support clients to move with life rather than struggle against it-helping them let go of perfectionism, honour their pain, and take meaningful action aligned with what matters most.
CFT (Compassion-Focused Therapy): Compassion is not an add-on in my work-it's foundational. I support clients in quieting harsh inner critics, activating their soothing systems, and relating to themselves with gentleness, especially in the wake of burnout or trauma.
CBT-Informed Tools: I selectively draw on CBT strategies to help clients understand unhelpful thinking and behavioural patterns, but always through a humanising, flexible lens-not a corrective or rigid one.
Narrative & Trauma-Informed Practice: I help clients explore the stories they've inherited and internalised, and gently support them to reclaim their own meaning-making. I view healing as relational, contextual, and non-linear.
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My work is relational, reflective, and reclamatory.
I don't aim to "fix"-I help people reconnect to what's already wise within them.
I show up with authenticity, creativity, and care-inviting others to do the same.
Feeling ready to begin your way back to yourself?
Book a free 15-minute consultation with Shannon Swales, Psychologist, to explore how therapy can support you. This is a calm first step toward relief, reconnection, and a more sustainable kind of wellness.
Perfectly imperfect psychologist, Shannon Swales, suffered a major burnout at the beginning of 2021, and to help herself heal began a journal recording her path of recovery. Her vividly honest account of what it’s like to burn out and what it takes to recover destigmatises mental health issues and provides a practical way forward for others also suffering burnout.
Learn from Shannon’s experiences and the practical tools she provides to move away from prioritising care for others, perfectionism, people pleasing, worry, self-criticism, and low self-worth, all precursors for burnout. Discover how to make the change to prioritising self, rest and fun, setting boundaries, listening to and respecting your own needs, letting others support you, settling your mind, and dealing with uncertainty; all precursors for good mental health and recovery from burnout.
Whether you are experiencing burnout or not, reading Psychologist Shannon Swales’s journey from burnout to recovery will help you understand what it takes to look after your mental health and well-being.
Available: Ebook and paperback. Amazon and other online retailers. You can order a copy at your local bookstore or request it at your local library.
A Gentle Invitation to Connect
Free Guided Journal + Burnout Support in Your Inbox
If you're moving through midlife, burnout or both, you're not alone—and you don’t have to do it all yourself.
Join my mailing list for calm, thoughtful reflections, practical tools, and updates on soft spaces of support—all offered with care by someone who’s walked this road too.
💛 As a welcome gift, you’ll receive instant access to:
🖋️ Journaling as a Way Back to Yourself
A free guided journal to help you slow down, listen inward, and gently reconnect with what matters—at your own pace, in your own way.
This isn’t about doing more. It’s about making space to feel, rest, and reclaim your energy—one small step, one honest moment, at a time.
You are not judged by the height you have risen, but for the depth you have climbed.
– Frederick Douglas