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When you can’t stop thinking about work, can’t sit still on a Sunday, and the holiday didn’t help — the problem usually isn’t the workload. Hypnotherapy works on what makes stopping feel unsafe.
Work addiction, or workaholism, is the compulsive need to keep working — driven not by genuine productivity or enjoyment but by anxiety, a fear of falling behind, or an identity so fused with achievement that stopping feels like disappearing. It is the one compulsion everybody congratulates you for, which is exactly why it runs for years before anyone calls it a problem.
In Canberra it hides particularly well. In a city built on policy, briefs and deadlines that genuinely matter, working late looks like commitment, and the people around you are doing it too. The test is not how many hours you work. It is whether you can stop when there is nothing that needs doing — and how you feel when you try.
Underneath it there is almost always something specific: a fear of being found out, a sense that rest has to be earned, or a belief that your worth is only ever as good as your last piece of work. Those sit below conscious reasoning, which is why knowing better changes nothing. Here is how hypnotherapy works if it is new to you.
Before anyone works on their relationship with work, it is worth asking an honest question: are the hours coming from inside you, or are they being handed to you? Chronic understaffing, an unreasonable workload and a culture that expects replies at 11pm are workplace problems, not personal failings, and no amount of therapy will fix an employer. Where that is what is happening, the conversation to have is with your manager, your HR area or your union — and psychosocial hazards at work are a work health and safety matter in their own right.
Often it is both, and that is worth untangling early. Hypnotherapy helps with the part that is yours: the guilt at stopping, the inability to switch off, the dread of a quiet weekend.
This is a non-clinical service. We don’t diagnose or treat depression, anxiety disorders or burnout as medical conditions — where that is what is going on, please see your GP, and we are glad to work alongside them. If you are in crisis, Lifeline is 13 11 14, or call 000.
Free 20-minute consults can be booked by phone, text or message — 20 minutes you can find
Nobody books an appointment because they work hard. They book because of what it has quietly taken.
Being at dinner with half your mind on an email is noticed by everyone at the table. It is usually a partner or a child who prompts someone to finally do something about it.
Exhaustion, cynicism and a flattening of the things you used to care about. By the time it is obvious, a long weekend no longer touches it.
A quiet Sunday producing genuine unease is one of the clearest signs. If stillness is uncomfortable, work is doing a job beyond the job.
Sleep goes first, then exercise, then meals eaten properly. Each one makes the next day harder, which makes working later feel necessary.
Past a point, more hours produce worse work, not more of it. Judgement, writing and decision-making are the first things to go, and they are the things you are paid for.
Hobbies, friendships and the capacity to do nothing without guilt all quietly fall away. Getting those back is usually what clients are actually asking for.
Call or text Stella on 0421 206 918, or send a message and we’ll come back to you.
Nobody here is going to tell you to care less about your work. What we work on is the compulsion underneath it: the fear of failing, the need for external validation, the unease of stillness, and the fusion of who you are with what you produce. Loosen those and the hours sort themselves out — usually alongside better work, because judgement and creativity return when you are not permanently depleted.
Spiro Apostolopoulos and Stella Jones are Clinical Hypnotherapists, Strategic Psychotherapists and NLP Master Practitioners, and have worked with Canberrans since 2012 — including plenty of people whose jobs genuinely are demanding. Every session is tailored to the person in front of us. Meet Spiro and Stella →
Your first session starts with a private conversation about your history, your triggers and what you want to be different. From there your therapist guides you into a deeply relaxed but alert state, where the subconscious is far more open to change. We work on the beliefs driving the compulsion, build a tolerance for stopping, and strengthen your own sense of control.
Each session builds on the last. You leave with practical tools and a recorded audio to use in between, and secure online sessions are available anywhere in Australia — which for most clients here is the difference between going and not going. See what to expect from your first visit →
Call or text Stella on 0421 206 918, or send a message and we’ll come back to you.
The difference is compulsion, not hours. The signs worth paying attention to: you keep working when you genuinely want to stop, you feel anxious or guilty when you are not working, you are not really present with the people you are with, and a break doesn’t restore you the way it used to.
A genuinely demanding period of work is not the same thing. Plenty of people work hard for a stretch, then stop, and are fine. The question is whether you can stop.
No. There is no clinical diagnosis of work addiction, and burnout is classified by the World Health Organization as an occupational phenomenon rather than a medical condition. That does not make either less real — it means the problem is described rather than diagnosed, and that suits how we work. This is a non-clinical service, and we work with the pattern in front of us rather than a label.
That is the goal, and it is the question almost everyone asks first. We are not working towards less ambition. We are working towards choice: the ability to go hard when it genuinely matters, and to properly switch off when it doesn’t. Most clients find the quality of their work improves, because judgement and creativity come back when you are not running on empty.
Then say so, and we will be honest with you about it. An unreasonable workload, chronic understaffing or a culture of after-hours contact are workplace issues, and no amount of therapy fixes an employer — those belong with your manager, your HR area or your union. Often it is some of both, and sorting out which part is yours is useful work in itself.
Usually that is the main event. Anxiety is very often the engine driving compulsive work, and treating the hours without touching it tends not to last. Where the anxiety is severe enough to need clinical care, we will say so and work alongside your GP or psychologist. More on hypnotherapy for anxiety →
Very often, yes — lying awake rehearsing tomorrow is one of the most common things clients describe. It responds well, and it is frequently the first thing to improve. More on hypnotherapy for sleep and insomnia →
Many clients notice meaningful shifts within four to six sessions, depending on how deep the identity fusion and the underlying anxiety run. You will get an honest view at your free consult rather than a package quoted before we have met.
Yes to both. Secure online sessions are available anywhere in Australia and are as effective as being in the room. We know the scheduling is often the real barrier for this particular group — raise it on your free consult and we will work something out.
Call Stella for a free 20-minute consult — no obligation, and no suggestion that you should care less about your work.
Monday – Friday, 10:00am – 6:00pm · 42 Geils Court, Deakin ACT 2600 · online Australia-wide
We're confident you'll benefit from hypnotherapy, so we'd like to offer you a free 20-minute discovery call to see if it feels right for you.
Prefer to speak with someone? Call 0421 206 918
