Katie Carhart, PhD

Burnout and depression can often look similar. Both can feel difficult to manage. You’ve been pushing through for a long time. From the outside, things may still look intact. You’re showing up, meeting expectations, keeping things moving. But internally, something feels off. You’re exhausted, disconnected, maybe even questioning why things that used to matter don’t feel the same anymore. At that point, a common question starts to emerge: Am I burned out, or am I depressed? The answer isn’t...

Constant exposure to distressing news can overwhelm your nervous system and contribute to empathy fatigue, emotional burnout, and chronic stress. We are living in a time of unprecedented access to information. Within minutes of waking up, you can know about violence across the world, political upheaval, humanitarian crises, injustice, and human suffering, often accompanied by images, personal accounts, and emotional commentary. Many people I work with tell me a version of the same thing about...

An overview of Polyvagal Theory and nervous system regulation, including fight, flight, fawn, freeze, and the window of tolerance (visual created by Dr. Katie Carhart; adapted from work by Stephen Porges and Deb Dana). Note: Science is always evolving. Since this article was originally written, a recent scientific critique of Polyvagal Theory has raised questions about some of the specific biological claims made in the original model, particularly the idea that emotional states can be mapped...