Dr Claire Plumbly

25/11/2025

If you don’t know Dr Naomi Fisher yet do check out her page. She provides helpful ideas around how we could offer education to children for whom the current system doesn’t fit well. If your child is anxious, avoidant or neurodivergent then you’ll find her writing so helpful. She also has an excellent book out called The Teenagers Guide To Burnout which I highly recommend.

This weekend I was at the EMDR Consultants Day in London. It’s a day specifically for EMDR consultant supervisors – and so inevitably, I meet lots of people I know or have come across online. I’ve been in the EMDR world for over twenty years, so in some ways it feels a bit like a family reunion. My supervisor was there from when I was just a trainee clinical psychologist, starting out in trauma. There were friends I’ve met along the way, people I’ve supervised and who have supervised me. People who I’ve facilitated for on EMDR training and who have facilitated for me. People I have trained and even the trainer who trained me. All brought together by our enthusiasm for EMDR.

Each time I meet some new people, and this time I met Dr Claire Plumbly, who I’ve never met in person before – but I knew who she was, because of her book.

Claire wrote a book on burnout aimed at adults that came out at a similar time to the self-help guide I wrote with Eliza Fricker () for teenagers. I’ve read her book and it’s great. Full of psychological techniques to help you to understand how you got into burnout, and how to start getting yourself out of it.

Claire, like myself, is an EMDR consultant and HCPC registered clinical psychologist and it really shows. She has decades of experience working directly with people who are struggling and helping them to find their balance again. She draws on psychological research and clinical experience for her book. And, my favourite thing, she tells stories while she does it. Her book is readable and engaging as well as evidence-based.

There are some real doom and gloom narratives out there about burnout, particularly in neurodivergent people. Some people will tell you that it’s inevitable, that you’re going to go in and out of burnout throughout your life – this isn’t Claire’s take. She’ll help you feel hopeful about your capacity to find a balance for yourself. She'll help you find the tools you need. And anyone who reads my work will know that finding hope and a way forward is at the centre of everything I do.

Claire’s book is available at all good booksellers – and if you’re interested in mine, it’s 99p on UK Kindle for just a few more days. Claire’s book is for adults, mine is for teens. Both are firmly based in psychological theory and best practice.

Burnout: How to manage your nervous system before it manages you - Dr Claire Plumbly

The Teenager's Guide to Burnout: Finding the road to recovery - Dr Naomi Fisher and Eliza Fricker

24/11/2025

“I don’t know how you do your job”

This was said to me again recently. As a clinical psychologist providing therapy to people who are highly-stressed or traumatised… I hear it a lot.

So here’s my secret:

I don’t try to do it alone.

They say it takes a village to raise a child.
I think it takes a village to do most jobs well - to feel safe enough to be creative, and in work like mine- to hold space for others.

Here’s my personal village make up:

- my amazing associates at Plum-Psychology
- my supportive supervisors and supervision groups
- my peer support and professional networking spaces
- my coaches and mentors
- the structural organisations that create guidance I can lean on
- personal therapeutic spaces like 1-1 therapy and retreats I’ve been on
- my husband, parents, siblings, kids, wider family and friends
- my PAs and accountant (!)

And last but not least,

- my three guinea-pigs, who to be honest, bear the brunt of a bad day but squeak their way through it magnificently.

Psychologists are lucky because we HAVE to have supervision and are actively encouraged to have therapy when training. This means we are socialised early in our careers to cultivate our village.

But in my work with burnout I’ve found that most other professions don’t do this.

Many of my client’s weren’t given time to nurture a village as they started to climb their career-ladder. Meaning that support-seeking becomes framed as a failure rather than a strength.

So here’s an invitation normalise support - share who’s is in your village here (feel free to tag someone to let them know you see them and all they do for you!).

And be honest with yourself - have you been making the most of them lately?

18/11/2025

I don’t wish to boast but…

I’m pretty sure I get way more of those delicious ‘Ah-ha!’ moments in my week than most people…

They’re not all mine of course!

But they’re equally delicious when I’m with someone and have played a small role in laying the ground for it.

Why do I think I get more than average? Cos I’m a psychologist! I’m trained in models that are designed for these!

I support deeper ‘Ah-has’ in therapy- ones that go back a long way and are a real relief to finally get.

And lighter, fun ones in webinars and keynotes when I shine a light on how the brain and body tick a what this means for common stress-related problems.

I got 32 simultaneous ‘ah-has’ yesterday in a workshop for museum curators when I explained the neuroscience of why switching off from work is so hard in the evening.

Today I’m on Fix It radio talking on the same topic. I’m sad I won’t get to witness those ah-has but I know they’ll be happening!

If you want me to shine a light on something for your own powerful ‘ah-ha’ moment you can-
- reach out for therapy
- book in a workshop, popular topics are: 1) how to unwind after work: 2) how to be reduce overwhelmed and increase productivity, and 3) how to manage your nervous system before it manages you.

Hashtag Ah-ha

12/11/2025

My branding revamp is complete! This is the cherry on the cake, some diamond artwork which has been gifted to me 😊 (thank you K!)

Look out for it in any of my videos or workshop backgrounds!!

The branding revamp was just one level o overhaul, we also developed new systems which has led to happier associates feeling more ‘held’.

We have a spaces coming up from next week for ACT, TF-CBT and EMDR therapies so do take a look at the site if you’d like to learn more. Link in the comments below.

27/10/2025

When someone is struggling with their mental health it can be very hard to imagine what support or feeling better could look like, let alone how to take steps towards it.

So I’ve written 4 fictitious case studies about how therapy can help someone in burnout.

Have you had therapy for this? What kind of approach did you have and how did it help?

Link to the blog in the comments below

26/09/2025

In case you missed it… the psychology practice I run has gone through a make over in recent months - both cosmetically and behind the scenes - to create a stronger structure for both our wonderful therapists and clients.

Please do check it out here and let your friends, family and colleagues know we have re-opened;

Plum Psychology are a team of psychologists specialising in therapy for busy professionals. Trauma | Anxiety | Burnout

18/09/2025

Want to make your club, team or community a safer and more inclusive space? 🤝 Join us for a FREE Active Bystander Behaviour training with Network!

These sessions are ideal for coaches or volunteers involved in sport/physical activity.
Book your spot here: https://www.sasp.co.uk/club-welfare-support

📅 Tuesday 23rd September
⏰ 6:30pm - 8:30pm
📍Glastonbury, BA6 9FR

📅 Monday 6th October
⏰ 6:30pm - 8:30pm
📍Bridgwater, TA7 8QW

Learn how to confidently step in and challenge harassment, discrimination or harmful behaviour, in a supportive space.

13/09/2025

My audiobook has gone into a time limited promotion until the 19th Sept! For the next 5 days you can get it for £3! Less than a cup of coffee 🤩.

If you’ve been thinking of getting it this might be the moment! Link to Audible in the comments.

21/07/2025

If you find the lack of boundaries that comes with flexible working hard then you might find this Telegraph article helpful. Spot my comments half way down!

18/07/2025

This time last year was scary!

Launching an offering into the world and not knowing what people will think isn’t easy.

I couldn’t pick the book up and read it for a month as I was fearful that I’d read a sentence or paragraph and immediately want to edit it. But… it’s all gone well and has led to some fun new experiences for me.

Thank you so much for all your support with sharing, reviewing, sending me messages about how the book has helped you. I appreciate this so so much.

It had an American sibling in January - The Trauma of Burnout. And in the coming months should appear in Polish, Chinese and Arabic too!

If it’s on your TBR list don’t forget you can also get it as an audiobook and kindle.

Here’s to the start of year two!

17/07/2025

It's Week 2 of my 4-week plan to psychologically warm-down for my holiday… and I’m actually following it (mostly)!

This week’s focus has been to signal to my nervous system that it's OK to take my foot off the gas over August. Permission to detach.

In practice, that’s looked like:

1. Listing the apps I'm deleting from end of next week (and whatsapp chats I'm muting ). It’ll be all the usual socials, although I'm on the fence about Substack!

2. Listing what won’t get done before I leave - I've put it on my board for Sept focus... including launching my new website, which is almost ready to share . It just doesn't make sense to launch and then say goodbye for a month!

3. And my favourite one has been choosing my holiday books. Reading has always been one of my fastest routes to detaching from work, but only when it's got a great storyline - so curating a summer stack feels like a small but important step in preparing my brain to rest.

I've got these three so far but open to more book recommendations!

I’ll share more about how I'm getting on next week! In the meantime the rest of the 4-week guide is in the link in the comments.

11/07/2025

Just let me know if you want this weekly dose by dropping your current favourite emoji into the comments (then I’ll DM you details).

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(Just having fun with these hashtags BTW!)