SHANNON A SWALES
Compassionate care for lasting wellbeing
My services and resources are born not just from clinical insight, but from lived experience. What began as a quiet blog during my midlife burnout recovery—later becoming the memoir Nothing Left to Give—has since grown into something much bigger: a space for real, sustainable healing.
Through one-on-one therapy, reflective writing, and the Midlife Reclaimed podcast, blog and online community, I guide burnt-out adults (especially women in midlife) toward a new way of being—one that’s not built on overfunctioning, but on authenticity, connection, and self-trust.
Here, you’ll find more than coping strategies. You’ll find a chance to rebuild your inner resources, feel seen in your struggles, and reclaim what burnout has worn down.
Ready to reconnect with your well-being—on your own terms?
Meet Shannon Swales
Your guide through burnout recovery and beyond
I’m Shannon Swales—a Clinical Psychologist, midlife women’s coach, writer, speaker and someone who knows midlife burnout not just professionally, but personally. My work is grounded in both clinical expertise and lived experience, offering a compassionate space for those feeling depleted, overwhelmed, or unsure how to keep going.
My own turning point came after career-halting burnout and mental health challenges of my own. I began writing about it through my blog, A Different Kind of GAP Year, which later became my memoir, Nothing Left to Give: A Psychologist’s Path Back From Burnout. That story has shaped everything I do.
Today, I guide others through burnout and recovery via 1:1 therapy, provide coaching for midlife women, host the Midlife Reclaimed podcast, and a supportive community space for midlife women. I also deliver workshops, contribute to podcasts and publications, and speak on topics like burnout, self-compassion, emotional fatigue, and the deep work of reconnection.
My work today brings together the different threads of my professional and lived experience, with a particular focus on burnout, sustainable caring, and the experiences of women navigating midlife.
As a Clinical Psychologist, I provide psychological therapy via telehealth to adults across Australia. My therapy work particularly supports women experiencing burnout, chronic stress and empathy fatigue, including those who spend much of their lives caring for, supporting or holding space for others.
Separate from psychological therapy, I also offer coaching for midlife women. This is a reflective, forward-focused space for women wanting to reconnect with themselves, explore what matters in this season of life, and consider what they might be ready to reclaim.
Across both spaces, my intention is not to tell people how to live their lives, but to create room for reflection, self-understanding and compassionate change — supporting people to find their own way forward in a way that feels meaningful and sustainable.
If you’re ready to reclaim your energy, your clarity, and your connection to self, I’d be honoured to walk alongside you.
Professional Background & Credentials
I am an AHPRA-registered Clinical Psychologist with close to two decades of experience across mental health, counselling, psychology and related helping roles.
My career in the helping professions began in 2005, initially in crisis counselling with Lifeline and later in roles supporting people experiencing long-term unemployment. From 2008, I worked in psychology and counselling roles across public health, private practice and specialist services, including several years with Quitline as a counsellor and team leader. My work at Quitline also included training and supervising counsellors, supporting both their skill development and their work with clients.
Following my postgraduate clinical training, I became a Registered Psychologist in 2013 and received endorsement as a Clinical Psychologist in 2015. My clinical experience has included private practice, specialist diabetes care, addiction and smoking cessation, and health psychology. During my clinical training, I also worked across hospital outpatient services in areas including persistent pain and weight management, as well as university psychology clinics supporting both adults and children.
Across these settings, I have worked with people experiencing anxiety, depression, trauma, addiction, chronic health concerns and significant life transitions. My professional interests have increasingly converged around burnout, empathy fatigue and the sustainability of those who care for others. Since 2023, this work has expanded further into the experiences of women navigating midlife.
My therapeutic work is particularly informed by Mindful Self-Compassion (MSC), Compassion Focused Therapy (CFT) and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), alongside training and experience in Motivational Interviewing (MI) and Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT).
Alongside clinical practice, I have worked in tertiary education as a lecturer with the Australian Institute of Professional Counsellors (AIPC), teaching in areas including lifespan development, cognitive behavioural therapy and addictions.
Supporting the development and wellbeing of other helping professionals has also been a thread throughout my career. This began with training and supervising counsellors at Quitline and has continued through my work with psychologists and other health professionals experiencing burnout and empathy fatigue.
More recently, this has led me towards reflective supervision for psychologists. I am particularly interested in creating spaces where psychologists can turn some of their attention away from the clinical work itself and towards the person of the practitioner: their relationship with their work, the impact of caring, their boundaries, sustainability and what they need to continue doing this work well. My own experiences of individual and group reflective supervision have strongly shaped this emerging area of my practice.
Qualifications & Registration
Master of Clinical Psychology — Griffith University, 2013
Bachelor of Psychology (Honours) — Griffith University, 2006
Bachelor of Science, majoring in Psychology — University of Southern Queensland, 2005
Clinical Psychologist — AHPRA Endorsed
Clinical Psychology endorsement since 2015
AHPRA Registration: PSY0000980023
Medicare Registered: Provider No.: 4702036J
Areas of Professional Interest
Burnout • Empathy fatigue • Sustainable caring practice • Paid and unpaid caregivers • Health professional wellbeing • Psychologist wellbeing • Midlife women • Perimenopause/Menopause
Writing, Podcasting & Professional Conversations
My work extends beyond the therapy room into writing, podcasting, teaching and conversations about how we care for ourselves while caring deeply for others.
I am the author of Nothing Left to Give: A Psychologist’s Path Back from Burnout, where I bring together my professional understanding of burnout with my own lived experience of reaching it and finding my way forward.
I am also the creator and host of Midlife Reclaimed, a podcast exploring the question: What is this season of life asking us to reclaim?
You can also connect with me professionally on LinkedIn.
Perfectly imperfect psychologist, Shannon Swales, suffered a major burnout at the beginning of 2021, and to help herself heal began a journal recording her path of recovery. Her vividly honest account of what it’s like to burn out and what it takes to recover destigmatises mental health issues and provides a practical way forward for others also suffering burnout.
Learn from Shannon’s experiences and the practical tools she provides to move away from prioritising care for others, perfectionism, people pleasing, worry, self-criticism, and low self-worth, all precursors for burnout. Discover how to make the change to prioritising self, rest and fun, setting boundaries, listening to and respecting your own needs, letting others support you, settling your mind, and dealing with uncertainty; all precursors for good mental health and recovery from burnout.
Whether you are experiencing burnout or not, reading Psychologist Shannon Swales’s journey from burnout to recovery will help you understand what it takes to look after your mental health and well-being.
Available: Ebook and paperback. Amazon and other online retailers. You can order a copy at your local bookstore or request it at your local library.
Feeling ready to begin your way back to yourself?
Book a free 15-minute consultation with Shannon Swales, Psychologist and Coach, to explore how therapy or coaching can support you. This is a calm first step toward relief, reconnection, and a more sustainable kind of wellness.
You are not judged by the height you have risen, but for the depth you have climbed.
– Frederick Douglas
A Gentle Invitation to Connect
Free Guided Journal + Burnout Support in Your Inbox
If you're moving through midlife, burnout or both, you're not alone—and you don’t have to do it all yourself.
Join my mailing list for calm, thoughtful reflections, practical tools, and updates on soft spaces of support—all offered with care by someone who’s walked this road too.
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🖋️ Journaling as a Way Back to Yourself
A free guided journal to help you slow down, listen inward, and gently reconnect with what matters—at your own pace, in your own way.
This isn’t about doing more. It’s about making space to feel, rest, and reclaim your energy—one small step, one honest moment, at a time.