Success can be tiring; after all, the expression “climbing the ladder” has a reason. Collecting accolades and hitting milestones is an exhausting process. You end up where you want to be, but by the time you get there, you feel like you’re on autopilot, the days a haze of monotony, as you complete your tasks with thoughtless, robotic execution.
That feeling is called burnout, and, according to a survey of 1,500 desk-bound workers by DHR Global, 82% of those employees feel some degree of burnout. Taking time off can help. Setting clearer boundaries between your work and home life helps. And, thanks to destigmatization and a growing body of research, psychedelic-assisted experiences are a new path toward minimizing career burnout.
Here’s what you need to know about potentially embarking on a psychedelic experience to improve your relationship with work.
Career burnout is characterized by exhaustion, cynicism, reduced effectiveness, and a questioning of one’s professional identity. For many high achievers, work isn’t just what they do; it has become who they are, and that can cause them more stress than fulfillment. Career burnout manifests as:
These feelings don’t stem from a lack of motivation, but a misalignment between your personal and professional lives. It’s common for career burnout to emerge when the demands of professional success require individuals to sacrifice other aspects of their life. The costs accumulate invisibly until suddenly they’re unavoidable, and typically appear as:
Many professionals reach a breaking point where continuing the status quo becomes unbearable, yet the prospect of change feels equally terrifying. You’re stuck—unable to stay, unable to leave, unable to see a third option.
Let’s be clear: psychedelics aren’t an alternative to therapy or medicine. If you are struggling with depression or another medical condition, always consult with your doctor before exploring alternative therapies. It’s also important to understand that psychedelics don’t directly treat career burnout. They help you understand the underlying causes of your feelings and bring more clarity to your situation.
That said, there is some evidence that psychedelic use can help reduce feelings of burnout. One small study looked at the effects of ketamine-assisted psychotherapy (KAP) in healthcare workers and first responders. The researchers say the results should “offer cautious optimism for KAP treatment in reducing the symptoms of anxiety, depression, and PTSD among our sample participants.” They also acknowledge that the KAP improved two of three measured subcategories of burnout.
Psychedelics like psilocybin work by temporarily disrupting default patterns of brain activity, particularly in the default mode network (DMN). The DMN is a neural system responsible for self-referential thinking, rumination, and maintaining fixed beliefs about who you are and how the world works.
When this network’s activity decreases during psychedelic experiences, the way we typically think about ourselves and our situations shifts. You start to recognize that the “truths” about yourselves are just self-imposed beliefs you’ve chosen to accept.
As for how psychedelics actually address those underlying feelings, below is a list of potential benefits of trying psychedelics for career burnout.
Psychedelics increase connectivity between brain regions that don’t typically communicate, facilitating new thought processes and creative insights. For career burnout, this enhanced creativity can manifest as:
One 2011 study, published in the Journal of Psychopharmacology, showed that high doses of psilocybin (30mg/70kg) resulted in increased feelings of openness that stayed above baseline for a year after the initial dose. Openness, along with other personality traits potentially affected by psychedelics, is crucial to navigating career transitions or reimagining your relationship with work.
Career burnout is often accompanied by brutal self-criticism: berating yourself for not being more resilient, for failing to maintain passion, for even considering leaving something you worked so hard to achieve. This internal criticism reinforces entrapment.
Psychedelic experiences can generate self-compassion, allowing you to see yourself with kindness and forgive yourself for choices made from limited awareness. Research, such as the aforementioned 2011 study, demonstrates that psilocybin experiences can reduce self-critical thought and enhance self-compassion, effects that persist long after the acute experience.
This self-compassion is essential for career transformation. It allows you to acknowledge that your burnout isn’t a personal failure, but a signal of misalignment, to make different choices without shame about past ones, and to extend the same grace to yourself.
Career burnout can feel paralyzing due to the fear of financial instability, professional failure, judgment, or discovering you’ve wasted years pursuing the wrong path. And it’s these fears that keep people both trapped in their job and unhappy with their current situation. Psychedelic experiences can help you overcome these fears and instead provoke feelings of possibility. Many professionals describe emerging from psychedelic experiences with:
“Set and setting” is a common term in the psychedelic community, referring to a person’s mindset (set) and the physical surroundings during the experience (setting). You’ll also hear and read about “integration”, which describes the process of carrying your realizations from your psychedelic experience into the real world.
These three aspects of the experience are crucial because your mindset, physical space, and post-ceremony work have a significant impact on your results. Below is a little bit more information about each.
The “set”, aka your mindset and intentions going into a psychedelic experience, has a powerful impact on your emergence from the experience. Whatever your reasons for taking psychedelics, it’s crucial to clarify your intentions beforehand. If you sign up with a retreat company, like Beckley Retreats, the facilitators should guide you through this process. One way they solidify your set is by asking specific questions for you to revisit during the ceremony. For career burnout, those questions may look like this:
You can never fully control the experience of a psychedelic journey, but setting your intentions can orient your consciousness toward the topics you want to explore. At Beckley Retreats, the preparation phase involves in-depth work on clarifying intentions, ensuring the experience is tailored to your specific needs and questions.
“Setting”—the physical, social, and ceremonial environment—is equally crucial. Career professionals rarely have the luxury of extended, uninterrupted time for deep introspection. The retreat context provides:
Where you are and who you’re with also impact the kind of experience you have. It’s not often that high-powered professionals have the space and time to think deeply about things other than work. For that reason, Beckley Retreats creates an atmosphere of:
This curated space enables career-related insights to emerge without the constant pull of work demands or the need to maintain a professional persona. You can be vulnerable and exploratory in ways that daily professional life rarely permits.
The psychedelic experience opens doors, but integration work determines whether you walk through them. This is where Beckley Retreats’ methodology becomes essential. Integration for career burnout involves:
Really, the ceremony is the beginning of your psychedelic experience. The real transformation occurs through sustained integration work, such as journaling about insights, discussing them with coaches or therapists, experimenting with minor changes, and gradually building toward more significant ones.
Beckley’s integration framework recognizes that profound insights must be metabolized over time to become lasting change. A realization during the experience that “I need to leave this career” might translate over months of integration into understanding precisely what elements to leave versus preserve, developing a financial runway, exploring alternative paths, building skills for transition, and eventually making strategic shifts with confidence rather than impulsivity.
Psychedelic experiences aren’t for everyone or every situation. Consider whether this approach aligns with your needs:
The difference between transformative (and safe) psychedelic experiences and merely interesting ones often comes down to the quality of facilitation and integration support. This is why the retreat model, particularly as practiced by organizations like Beckley Retreats, offers significant advantages over unstructured or underground experiences. Professional guidance provides:
For professionals accustomed to excellence and expert guidance in other domains, approaching something as significant as career transformation with the same level of professional support simply makes sense.
Psychedelics quiet mental noise and dissolve rigid beliefs about what you “should” do, helping you reconnect with your values and passions. They don’t create purpose but clear the blocks that obscure it. Integration work then turns those insights into action.
Is it safe to use psychedelics for career-related issues?When done in structured, well-screened retreats with trained facilitators and integration support, psychedelics are generally safe for most people. Safety depends on proper medical screening, context, and aftercare. Working with reputable organizations like Beckley Retreats ensures professional oversight throughout the process.
What kind of professional changes can result from a psychedelic experience?Outcomes vary: some people pivot their careers entirely, others refine their role, or simply change how they approach work. Many report clearer priorities, improved boundaries, and a renewed sense of meaning in their careers. The most lasting changes unfold gradually through integration.
How does a Beckley Retreat specifically support career burnout recovery?Beckley Retreats combines medical screening, guided psilocybin sessions, and structured integration to address burnout holistically. Participants clarify intentions, process insights with trained facilitators, and receive ongoing coaching and community support. The focus is on turning insights into lasting, practical change.
Can psychedelics help with stress in my current job, even if I don’t want to change careers?Yes. Psychedelics can shift your mindset, ease perfectionism, improve emotional regulation, and strengthen boundaries. Many find their work more sustainable and fulfilling when they approach it with renewed perspective and compassion.