INTRODUCING

Hearty

More than self-care, for when it’s more than burnout.

At this point, even burnout is burnt out.  

Burnout has spread like wildfire through our Western, American culture, fueled and fed by the idea that productivity is a moral obligation and a measure of value.  

Caregivers, in particular, are asked to make care not only our jobs, but our identities, afraid to step back, because of what it might mean about our goodness and worth.

 

But what if burnout is the visible, tangible expression of a larger problem: caregiver erosion.  While burnout takes away what we have, erosion takes away who we are.

For people in care positions, the erosion goes beyond physical and emotional resources, and wears away at our identity, intuition, and interdependence resources as well.  

And just as burnout doesn’t give a full picture of the problem, self-care, the most common prescription for burnout, isn’t sufficient as a solution.

  • You want to reconnect with your presence, intuition, identity, values, and stories in order to give and receive care meaningfully and advantageously.  

  • You don’t want to add more value to yourself, you want to reclaim the value that’s already there.

  • You don’t want to buy something or add in another task.  You want to tend to and make room for what you have always had.

  • You don’t want to build something new, you want to restore.

Hearty is a seven-day email series to help you locate, explore, and restore some of what you need to protect against caregiver erosion, so that you can connect and show up for what feels truly important to you, beyond your self.

I’m Allison Staiger (she/her), feminist care coach. 

I’ve spent over 15 years working in care positions (as a community social worker, teacher, and clinical therapist specializing in perinatal mental health), and over eight years living in a care position as a mother.  I consider myself fluent in erosion and have helped my caregiver clients successfully return to their whole-hearted selves through individual and group work. 

I’ve created Hearty for you to get curious. As we spend this week together, I will send you daily emails with a summary of the issues that perpetuate caregiver erosion, as well as some considerations for how to shift. Each email will include prompts and/or activities for journaling and reflection. Take what’s right for you at this time, and let the rest go.

Ready to Restore?

Feminist care requires consent, so full disclosure:

Signing up to receive Hearty will automatically add you to my email list.  This means you will receive my email newsletter, which I send out 1-2 times a month, and you’ll also receive emails about any new offerings.  You can unsubscribe from the newsletter at any time, and I will send out a “refresh your consent” email (h/t Kelly Diels), before I start promoting anything, to see if you’re still interested.  Keep me around if I spark joy, and if not, send me to the clutter pile.