When the Gavel Falls Inside: What Burnout Is Really Trying to Tell Attorneys
By Polly Haley | Licensed Professional Counselor Associate for Attorneys and Professionals; Supervised by Dr. Rozan Christian, LPC-S
“You wear a mask for so long, you forget who you were beneath it.” – Alan Moore
You’ve Done What the Job Required
Late nights. High stakes. Staying calm when others couldn’t. You’ve built a career on showing up strong and staying in control. But lately… something’s different.
The motivation is gone.
You’re exhausted in a way sleep doesn’t fix.
You dread your day, feel numb, or find yourself snapping at people you care about.
This isn’t just “stress.” It may be burnout—but not only the kind that comes from doing too much. It may be a sign that you’ve been disconnected from something important: yourself.
Burnout Isn’t Failure — It’s a Signal
In the legal profession, attorneys are trained to push through, to stay sharp and never show weakness. Pushing through, while sacrificing your mental health, your physical health and even your personal relationships, is unsustainable. This tension builds over time, and eventually, something inside pushes back, rebels, or just gives up.
Psychologist Carl Jung called this inner disruption the voice of the self—the deeper part of us that doesn’t go away, even when we try to silence it. Many attorneys spend years becoming what the profession demands—reliable, rational, resilient—until there’s no space left for who they really are. The true self fights to be heard. And often, it shows up as symptoms like exhaustion, irritability, anxiety, apathy, anger, disillusionment, despair, etc.
If you are experiencing these symptoms, you are not broken, but you may be out of alignment with what makes you whole.
What Burnout Might Be Telling You
You’ve lost touch with why you started practicing law
You’ve sidelined your emotions for too long
You feel stuck in a role that no longer fits
You’ve ignored your needs to meet everyone else’s expectations
You’ve been the strong one, with nowhere safe to fall apart
These aren’t personal failings. These are messages from the parts of you that want to be remembered.
Reclaiming Yourself Starts with Reflection
You don’t need to walk away from your career. But you might need to take a step inward.
As a former litigation attorney and now therapist, I work with attorneys and other professionals, to help explore what burnout is really asking of them. Together, we slow down, look beneath the surface, and begin the work of returning to wholeness.
This isn’t about fixing a problem. It’s about listening to the parts of you that have gone unheard for too long.
Let’s Talk
If any of this resonates, I invite you to schedule a confidential one-on-one counseling session. This is a space where you don’t have to perform, prove, or pretend. Just come as you are. You don’t have to carry this alone. And you don’t have to wait for things to fall apart before you seek support.
