Women disproportionately carry the invisible labour of caregiving, emotional regulation, and relational management across both professional and personal domains. For many women, particularly those working in healthcare and caring professions, the cumulative impact of this mental load contributes to chronic stress, burnout, and identity strain. Despite growing awareness of workplace wellbeing, many burnout interventions fail to account for the gendered realities of emotional labour, caregiving responsibilities, and economic pressures that shape women’s psychological health.

This presentation explores burnout through a gender-responsive lens, integrating neuroscience, lived experience, and clinical insights from pain medicine and nervous system regulation. Drawing on the speaker’s dual perspective as both physician and spinal cord injury survivor, the session examines how caregiving roles, motherhood, and professional expectations interact with the nervous system to sustain cycles of over-functioning, emotional exhaustion, and self-criticism.

Participants will gain insight into how the “mental load” operates neurologically and psychologically, and why traditional productivity-focused solutions often fail women in caring roles. The session highlights how chronic stress activates the body’s threat response, reinforcing patterns of hyper-responsibility, perfectionism, and emotional depletion that are common among women in caring professions.

The presentation introduces evidence-based approaches grounded in polyvagal theory, self-compassion research, and trauma-informed leadership. These strategies support nervous system regulation, emotional resilience, and sustainable engagement in work and caregiving.

By reframing burnout as a systemic and physiological response rather than a personal failure, this session offers practical insights for clinicians, leaders, and organisations seeking to support women’s mental health, workforce longevity, and economic participation.