Workplace psychological harm
Work can injure a mind as surely as it can injure a back. The injury is just harder to see — including, often, by the person carrying it.
What it is
Workplace psychological harm is harm to your psychological health caused or significantly worsened by work. Sometimes it comes from a single event — an assault, an accident, a public humiliation. More often it accumulates: unsustainable load, impossible expectations, conflict that never resolves, values violated one compromise at a time, support that never comes. (In work health and safety guidance and research you will also see it called occupational psychological harm; it is the same thing.)
Australian work health and safety law now formally recognises this. Employers are legally required to manage psychosocial hazards — things like excessive job demands, low control, poor support, bullying, harassment, organisational injustice and exposure to traumatic content — the same way they manage physical hazards. That legal recognition matters because it acknowledges that psychological harm can arise from the way work is designed, managed and experienced — not simply from the individual.
The forms it takes
Burnout. The state of depletion that follows sustained demands without sustained recovery — exhaustion, cynicism, and a creeping sense of ineffectiveness. Not a motivation problem. A resources problem. Read more →
Moral injury. The deep distress that follows experiencing, witnessing, or being unable to prevent something that violates your values, ethics or sense of who you are. Common in nursing, teaching, care work and emergency services — and almost never named. Read more →
Workplace bullying. Repeated, unreasonable behaviour directed at a worker — belittling or unfair criticism, exclusion, being undermined — by a manager, a colleague, or several people at once. Read more →
Workplace trauma. Trauma responses arising from events at work — critical incidents, violence, threat, or repeated exposure to distressing material.
Chronic workplace stress. The slow version. A nervous system held in threat-response for months or years adapts to survive it — at a rising cost to sleep, mood, memory, relationships and physical health.
Work-related psychological injury. When harm reaches the level of a diagnosable condition, it may be a compensable injury. Some of my clients have WorkCover or insurer claims; many don’t and never will. You do not need a claim for your experience to be real, or to get help. The work we do is the same either way. Read more →
These categories overlap, and most people arrive carrying more than one. Part of the first phase of therapy is simply sorting out what you’re actually dealing with — because burnout, moral injury and trauma each ask for a different path through.
How it shows up
Exhaustion that rest doesn’t repair. Dread with a timetable — Sunday evenings, the car park, the sound of email arriving. Going quiet and flat, or wired and unable to stop. Doubting your competence, your memory, your perception. Snapping at the people you love and despising yourself for it. Losing the thread of why you ever cared about this work. The body keeping score: gut, sleep, headaches, getting sick every break.
If you recognise yourself, it’s worth saying plainly: these are not signs of weakness. They are the predictable responses of a nervous system that has been asked to carry too much, for too long, with too little protection.
How I can help
Workplace psychological harm is the centre of my practice. Therapy is tailored to what has happened, what is affecting you now, and what you need from treatment.
Depending on your circumstances, we might focus on reducing distress, understanding what has happened, trauma processing, managing the impact of an ongoing workplace or compensation process, rebuilding confidence and functioning, or making decisions about work and return to work. Where appropriate, I draw on approaches including EMDR, Schema Therapy, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, Compassion-Focused Therapy and Cognitive Behavioural Therapy.
Two ways to work with me
Psychological Therapy — for assessment and treatment of psychological difficulties related to workplace harm, including privately, with a Medicare referral, or through an approved funder.
Professional Supervision, Consultation & Reflective Practice — for professionals who are not seeking psychological therapy but want a confidential space to reflect on difficult work, professional demands and the impact of their work on them.
You don’t need to know which is right for you before getting in touch.
Online appointments, Australia-wide · About Suzanne Robertson · GPs and referrers: referral information