🎙️ Episode 2: Burnout, Resilience, & What They Don’t Tell You in Grad School

Podcast: Burnout & Bullsht: Real Stories from the Mental Health Field*

🧠 Keywords: burnout, mental health, social work, resilience, education, graduate school, self-care, therapist life, trauma, over-functioning, healthcare

📖 Description:
Before the license. Before the letters after your name.
Burnout starts when you’re chasing trauma papers across a stranger’s yard, working 30 hours a week, and pretending a concussion is no big deal.

In this episode, Kayla Schubert-Wirth, LCSW and EMDR trainer, shares her unfiltered story of surviving undergrad and grad school in the mental health field. From unpaid internships and academic pressure to untreated health crises and impossible expectations, she breaks down how burnout begins long before your first paycheck.

This one’s for the grad students, interns, and early-career therapists who are drowning in over-functioning and calling it passion.

💥 You’ll Learn:
• Burnout doesn’t wait for licensure—it starts in school
• Unrealistic expectations destroy nervous systems
• You’re replaceable at work—but not at home
• Health matters more than hustle
• Self-advocacy is a survival skill in helping professions

⏱️ Timestamps:
00:00 – The Journey to Resilience
02:23 – Burnout Before the Paycheck
05:11 – The Chaos of Grad School
07:36 – When Health Collapses
10:24 – Early Career Red Flags
12:37 – Lessons from the Breakdown

💌 Got your own “what the actual fuck” story from the field?

Apply to be a guest

Submit an anonymous letter

🎙️ Episode 1: The Story She Couldn’t Silence
Podcast: Burnout & Bullsht: Real Stories from the Mental Health Field*

Keywords: burnout, mental health, therapy, social work, toxic workplace, supervision, eating disorder treatment, military, self-care, therapist burnout, new therapist support

Summary:
In the very first episode, host Kayla Schubert-Wirth sits down with Anna Bova, MSW, LCSW—a therapist specializing in eating disorder treatment—to talk about the story she couldn’t keep quiet anymore.

From crushing caseloads and toxic leadership to signing a four-year contract she couldn’t get out of, Anna opens up about the desperation that led her to join the military just to escape the mental health field. Together, they unpack how burnout really happens, what therapists wish they could say out loud, and why mentorship and boundaries matter more than ever.

🎧 In this episode, we cover:

• The emotional toll of high caseloads and poor supervision

• How desperation leads to signing career-limiting contracts

• The pressure to stay silent in harmful environments

• Why Anna joined the military to escape private practice

• Red flags new therapists should never ignore

• The power of mentorship, networking, and saying “enough”

📍Chapters:
00:00 – Intro to Burnout & Bullsht*
01:01 – Anna’s Journey into Mental Health
02:25 – The Reality of Private Practice
04:27 – Desperation and Contractual Obligations
07:06 – Joining the Military as an Escape
08:35 – The Struggles of a New Therapist
10:14 – The Cost of Leaving a Toxic Environment
12:22 – Experiencing Burnout
13:42 – Red Flags and Ignored Warnings
15:14 – The Hierarchy in Mental Health Practices
16:13 – Sustainability in Client Load
16:27 – Healing from a Toxic Experience
19:04 – Advice for New Therapists

📢 Feeling seen?Subscribe, share, and if you’ve got your own story—it’s time to stop pretending everything’s fine. Submit it here!

👥 Work with Anna:Anna Bova, LCSW is currently accepting new clients in Pennsylvania and specializes in eating disorder treatment and trauma-informed care.

Connect with Anna (Now Accepting Clients)

🧠 Work with Kayla:Burned out therapist? Stuck in a toxic job? Kayla offers EMDR consultation, business coaching, and support for therapists ready to take their power back.

Title: Burnout & Bullsht: Real Stories from the Mental Health Field

Host: Kayla Schubert-Wirth, LCSW, EMDRIA Trainer, Approved Consultant & Chaos Maker.

Burnout isn’t just working too much—it’s what happens when therapists are asked to hold it all together in a system that gives us nothing back.

I’m Kayla Schubert-Wirth, a licensed clinical social worker, EMDR trainer, ADHD human, and someone who’s worked in nearly every corner of the mental health field—from shelters to schools to private practice… and survived more than a few breakdowns along the way.

Burnout & Bullsht* is the podcast where therapists get honest. Each episode features unfiltered stories of burnout, red flags, unethical leadership, healing, and the decision to stay—or walk away. Some are mine. Some are anonymous. Some are from therapists who are finally ready to say the quiet part out loud.

If you’ve ever felt stuck, overworked, underpaid, unseen, or like you’re the only one struggling—this space is for you.

We’re naming what most people in this field are too scared to talk about.
We’re telling the truth.
And we’re not doing it quietly.