Why Working Mums in Chiropractic Are Burning Out (And Why It’s Not a Personal Failure)

Why Working Mums in Chiropractic Are Burning Out

(And Why It’s Not a Personal Failure)

If you’re a working mum in chiropractic, there’s a good chance this scene feels familiar.

You’ve already done school drop-off.
You’ve mentally run through your patient list before your first coffee.
You’re holding space for your clients, your team, your family - and quietly telling yourself to just keep going.

From the outside, your life might look “successful”.
But inside, you feel stretched thin, exhausted, and confused about why something you love is starting to cost you so much.

Let me say this clearly, before we go any further:

You are not failing.
You are responding normally to an unsustainable system.

And you are not alone.

The Invisible Load Working Mum Chiropractors Carry

Burnout for women in chiropractic doesn’t happen because you’re disorganised, unmotivated, or not resilient enough.

It happens because you are often carrying multiple full-time roles at once - many of them invisible.

You are:

• A healthcare provider holding emotional and physical space for others

• A business owner responsible for income, decisions, and leadership

• A mother navigating matrescence, identity shifts, and constant mental load

• Often the emotional regulator for everyone around you

And most of this work goes unseen.

In Work Mama Life, I talk a lot about the invisible labour women carry - the planning, anticipating, remembering, regulating, and managing that sits underneath the visible work. For working mums in healthcare, this load is amplified.

You don’t just do your work.
You hold it - in your body, your nervous system, and your heart.

So when you’re told to “just manage your time better” or “push through this season”, it misses the point entirely.

The problem isn’t effort.
The problem is capacity.

Why Women in Chiropractic Are Especially Vulnerable to Burnout

Chiropractic is deeply relational and body-based work.

You are using your physical body to care for others.
You are using your nervous system to co-regulate, reassure, and connect.
You are often working in close proximity, high responsibility, and high emotional demand.

Add motherhood into this mix, and something important shifts.

Matrescence - the psychological, emotional, and neurological transition into motherhood - changes how you experience work, time, and responsibility. Yet most professional structures don’t account for this at all.

So women adapt.
They compress.
They carry more.
They override their own needs.

Until eventually, the system asks more than the body can sustainably give.

Burnout isn’t a breakdown.
It’s a biological response to prolonged overload.

A Nervous System Perspective on Burnout

One of the most important reframes I teach - in my book, my podcast, and my mentoring work - is this:

Burnout is not a mindset problem.
It is a nervous system problem.

When your nervous system spends too long in “do more”, “cope harder”, or “hold it together” mode, it eventually loses flexibility.

You may notice:

• Constant fatigue, even after rest

• Irritability or emotional flatness

• Difficulty making decisions

• Loss of joy in work you once loved

• Feeling trapped between responsibility and resentment

These are not signs that something is wrong with you.

They are signs that your system needs support, not discipline.

Yet many business models for chiropractors still reward over-functioning and availability, rather than sustainability and regulation.

The Business Model Wasn’t Built for This Season of Your Life

Here’s a truth many working mum chiropractors quietly wrestle with:

The practice model that helped me build success may not be the model that supports my life now.

Most traditional practice growth advice still centres around:

• More hours

• More volume

• More output

• More availability

But motherhood introduces real constraints - physical, emotional, relational, and energetic ones.

Trying to grow within a model that ignores those constraints doesn’t make you stronger.

It makes you tired.

And often, it makes women feel like they’re the problem - when really, the model simply hasn’t evolved.

The Work Mama Life Reframe: Capacity Before Strategy

Work Mama Life isn’t about doing less because you’re incapable.

It’s about doing what fits - your body, your season, your values, and your nervous system.

The reframe looks like this:

• Capacity before strategy
  How much can your system genuinely hold right now?

• Values before volume
  Growth that costs your health or family isn’t aligned growth.

• Regulation before expansion
  A dysregulated nervous system cannot sustain success.

• Support before self-discipline
  You don’t need to try harder - you need to be held better.

This isn’t about lowering standards.

It’s about building a practice that actually supports the woman running it.

What Sustainable Practice Ownership Can Look Like

When working mum chiropractors are supported properly, something powerful happens.

They begin to:

• Work fewer hours with more intention

• Make clearer decisions without guilt

• Set boundaries that protect energy, not just time

• Design revenue models that support life, not compete with it

• Reconnect to purpose without self-sacrifice

Sustainability doesn’t mean losing ambition.

It means redefining success in a way that allows you to still be well, present, and alive inside your own life.

You Don’t Have to Do This Alone

One of the most damaging myths working mums in healthcare carry is that they should be able to “figure it out” on their own.

But isolation is a burnout accelerator.

Support - the right kind of support - changes everything.

Support that understands:

• Chiropractic

• Motherhood

• Nervous system regulation

• Business realities

• Values-led decision making

Whether that support comes through community, mentorship, or shared language, it matters.

Because the goal isn’t just to keep your practice running.

The goal is to build a life and practice that can grow with you - not at your expense.

A Gentle Invitation

If this resonates, I want you to know this:

You are not behind.
You are not broken.
And you don’t need to hustle harder to be worthy of success.

There are ways to practise chiropractic, lead a business, and mother well - without burning yourself out in the process.

When you’re ready, there is support designed for this exact season of your life.

And until then, let this land:

Your work matters.
But so does the life you are living while you do it.