Abstract Essay, in its fifth season, features an insightful conversation with Rachel Sietzema, who helps high achievers and dedicated “helpers” break free from people-pleasing, perfectionism, and burnout. This episode offers practical perspectives on redefining success, setting healthy boundaries, and cultivating sustainable well-being without guilt.
Description
Rachel Sietzema
Undoing the Survival Mode Trap: Burnout, Boundaries & Brave Living.For those who are capable but exhausted—let’s talk about the cost of saying yes, and how to finally listen to yourself without guilt.
Years of giving, fixing, and striving taught me what burnout really costs — not just energy, but connection to yourself. Through loss, illness, and rebuilding life from the ground up, I came to understand how deeply our survival patterns run — and how possible it is to change them.
That insight shaped my work as a mindset and personal development coach. I help people who’ve spent their lives being “the strong one,” “the dependable one,” or the one who quietly keeps everything together — whether they’re trying to avoid burnout or have ignored themselves for so long they’re already in it. Together, we uncover the patterns that keep them stuck and create practical ways to pause, set boundaries, and choose themselves without guilt.
With over 30 years in education, trauma-informed coaching, and human-behaviour training, I translate complex emotional dynamics into simple, everyday tools that bring calm, clarity, and confidence back into people’s lives.
My approach blends lived experience with grounded methods. Inviting audiences to see themselves differently, to stop rescuing, and to start listening inwardly.
For leaders and teams, I also reveal how people-pleasing quietly undermines communication, performance, and retention. Shifting these patterns isn’t soft rather it’s strategic.
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