Work Stress Anxiety | Burnout Recovery for High-Achieving Women
The weekday podcast for high-achieving women dealing with work stress, workplace stress, work anxiety, anxiety at work, emotional exhaustion, burnout and being human.
If you're struggling with workplace anxiety, feeling emotionally drained, lying awake at 2:03 a.m. looking at the clock, replaying conversations, or wondering why your success feels so expensive now, you're in the right place.
Hosted by Cheryl Paris, Clinical Hypnotherapist and Stress Recovery Coach, this podcast helps high-achieving women understand work-related stress, prevent burnout, build emotional resilience, and recover from chronic workplace pressure.
Work Stress Anxiety uses metaphors, nervous system education and real-world workplace examples to help high-achieving women make sense of stress, anxiety and emotional exhaustion at work.
Through honest conversations with ordinary people you’d walk past in the street every day, Cheryl explores real stories, real struggles and practical ways forward, without the motivational nonsense.
You'll get to learn practical strategies for:
• Work stress and workplace stress
• Work anxiety and anxiety at work
• Burnout prevention and burnout recovery
• Emotional exhaustion and nervous system overload
• Emotional resilience during difficult periods
• Stress recovery after prolonged pressure
• High-functioning anxiety
• Workplace conflict and investigations
• Toxic workplace cultures
• Setting boundaries without guilt
• Sleeping better when your mind won't switch off
• Coping with uncertainty, change, and job insecurity
Helping you understand what's really happening in your workplace mind, what's happening in your nervous system, and what you can do next.
ABGW stands for Awareness, Balance, Growth, and Win-Win Wellbeing.
Not pretending that a breathing exercise fixes your dysfunctional workplace.
None of that resilience theatre or so-called positivity.
Just practical support for high-achieving women who want to stop paying for their success with their health.
Shared stories are anonymised.
This podcast is for educational and reflective purposes only and does not constitute medical, psychological, legal, workplace, or professional advice.
Episodes
125 episodes
How to Reduce Work Stress by Trusting Your Team—Without Lowering Your Standards
If you’ve ever gone home and realised your mind is still “on shift,” you’ll relate to Ella. She’s a lead electrician on construction sites, responsible for ensuring safe and compliant work, and she has a strong team around her. However, she kee...
How Leaders Use Play To Cut Stress | Nervous System Reset
High-achieving women often push harder to manage stress—but what if the real stress recovery strategy is play? Join Cheryl Paris and Zander Phelps as they unpack why nervous system regulation through play isn't a distraction, it's a leadership ...
Why Your Brain Can't Fix Burnout — Play Coach Explains
When work stress hits, your first instinct is to think harder—but that's exactly what keeps high-achievers stuck. In this episode, Cheryl sits down with Zander, a play coach who treats play as a nervous system regulation skill, not childish fil...
Play Your Way Out of Work Stress | Nervous System Reset for Busy Women
When did you last genuinely play—not perform, not doom-scroll, but actually play? In this episode, we explore why nervous system regulation and burnout prevention start with reclaiming unstructured play, the stress recovery strategy high-achiev...
Burnout Recovery | How to Track Wins When You're Drained
When you're exhausted, measuring progress feels impossible—and the traditional metrics fail you. In this episode, discover how to track real wins in burnout recovery: regulated nervous system moments, boundaries you kept, and the tiny brave ste...
Toxic Positivity at Work | When Stress Relief Becomes Burnout
That sinking feeling when your manager posts a "helpful" reminder isn't you being too sensitive—it's your nervous system recognising a stress pattern you've been conditioned to ignore. On today's episode, Cheryl Paris unpacks toxic positivity a...
Why Work Stress Keeps Coming Back: Reading Emotional Triggers
When one colleague triggers panic, shrinking, or freezing—it's rarely about them. In this episode with Amy Vincze, we unpack why that coworker activates your nervous system and what your stress response is trying to tell you. Learn how emotiona...
Press Pause on Work Anxiety | EFT Tapping in 2 Minutes
When work anxiety spirals, you don't have a thinking problem—you have a nervous system problem. With Amy Vincze, discover how two minutes of EFT tapping can calm your fight-or-flight response and bring you back to clarity before a big meeting, ...
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Burnout Prevention Through Tapping | Nervous System Reset Before Stress Spirals
A panic spike at your desk, tension in your body, and your inner critic on overdrive—it feels like it comes out of nowhere. With Amy Vincze, we unpack Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT tapping) as a practical, evidence-informed nervous system...
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The Kolher Principle | Perfectionism & Work Stress Recovery
You've done brilliant work. But is it ever 'enough'? Explore the Kohler Principle—why high-achieving women sacrifice nervous system health chasing polish over truth—and the burnout pattern hiding behind your "I'm fine." Cheryl Paris reveals how...
The Umbridge Effect: High-Functioning Anxiety & Self-Doubt at Work
When one email undoes a week of solid work, is it really about performance—or about how high-functioning anxiety hijacks your identity at work? Meet Roberta, a bus driver who saves lives with her first aid skills, yet finds her confidence crash...
The Overthinking Trap | Why Evidence Fuels Work Stress
You know the right answer—so why can't you trust yourself to act? That gap between knowledge and confidence is where high-functioning anxiety lives, especially for conscientious managers. In this episode, we follow Caroline's story of perfectio...
Sleep as Self-Respect | The Recovery Tool Burning Women Overlook
You can spend thousands on health tools and still feel worn out, foggy, and snappy—trapped in 2 am anxiety spirals. Sleep isn't a luxury; it's nervous system regulation. If work stress is hijacking your nights, this is why burnout prevention st...
The Costume of Competence | Stress Relief for High Achievers
You can be brilliant at your job and still be burning out. In this episode, we explore high-functioning anxiety—the quiet exhaustion that comes from being the capable one everyone relies on. Through Mr Darcy and a conversation with Frederica, w...
The Stupid Idea of Perfectionism | How High-Functioning Anxiety Kills Your Peace
Perfection is supposed to make us feel confident, but it often does the opposite: it keeps us stuck, second-guessing messages we already sent and replaying moments we cannot change. We dig into why that happens, why “perfect” is an imaginary fi...
Nervous System Damage From Fear-Based Leadership | A Voldemort Lesson
A room can feel fine one second and unsafe the next, all because one person walks in. We’ve both felt that sudden shift: conversations stop, shoulders rise, and everyone starts editing themselves in real time. We dig into what’s really happenin...
Quiet Toxicity At Work | High-Functioning Anxiety Unmasked
Nice people can still be unsafe people. That sounds harsh until you’ve lived the quiet version of workplace stress: the meetings where everyone speaks calmly, the smiles that don’t match the outcomes, the slow shift in access and warmth that le...
New Management, New Stress | Nervous System Awareness for Women Leaders
When a new leader arrives, your nervous system often reads the room before your mind catches up—and that early-warning feeling is real. In this episode, Cheryl explores how female managers develop intuitive awareness of subtle workp...
The Cost of Clarity | Why Burnout Coaches Charge for Discovery
Why do high-functioning women say yes to free consultations that leave them drained? In this episode, Cheryl reveals why the ABGW Method® starts with a paid discovery session—and why this isn't about money; it's about nervous system recovery an...
Why I Created the Emotional Survival System™: For Women Who Are Always Expected to Cope
In this insightful episode, Cheryl unveils the Emotional Survival System, designed specifically for women who are often seen as the reliable ones, yet struggle silently under the weight of expectations. She challenges the damaging m...
Stress Recovery Through Real Gratitude | Beyond Toxic Positivity
Gratitude gets a bad rap—and for good reason. Cheryl explores why forced thankfulness is actually a trauma response and how authentic appreciation serves as a powerful tool for regulating the nervous systems of stressed women leaders.&nb...
Work Stress Ruining Your Sleep? Nervous System Reset for Women
When work stress keeps you awake at 2 AM, your nervous system isn't broken—it's stuck in high alert. In this episode, Cheryl Paris explores why high-achieving women's brains won't switch off and shares practical nervous system regulation techni...
Why Your Energy Matters More Than Your Willpower | Burnout Prevention
High-functioning anxiety often disguises itself as productivity—until your nervous system runs out of fuel. In this episode, Cheryl explores why burnout prevention starts with energy protection, not willpower. She shares the warning signs of de...
Burnout in Women: Why Pushing Through Is Not Recovery
High-functioning burnout looks nothing like collapse—it's answering every email, leading every meeting, and drowning anyway. In this episode, Cheryl reveals why "pushing through" delays recovery and what actually signals real burnout in ambitio...
What ABGW Really Means | Breaking the High-Functioning Anxiety Cycle
In this episode, Cheryl introduces the concept of Work Stress Anxiety, aimed at women who appear to be coping but feel overwhelmed beneath the surface. She discusses the importance of recognising emotional overload and the need for self-care am...
