In Conversation With Erin Stafford

 August 1, 2025

Erin Stafford is a best-selling author, award-winning speaker, Cambridge social psychologist, and burnout expert. 

Renowned for her best-selling book, The Type A Trap: Five Mindset Shifts to Beat Burnout and Transform Your Life, Erin has over 20 years of experience leveraging her Type A personality and collaborating with high-achieving individuals worldwide. She will be sharing tips and strategies to help massage therapists stay motivated, avoid burnout, and propel themselves toward success as the closing keynote speaker at the AMTA 2025 National Convention, August 21-23 in Dallas, TX. 

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Q: “With 52% of all workers feeling burned out and 69% saying they aren’t engaged …” Those are some eye-opening statistics. Massage therapists are at risk of burnout because of the physical demands of the profession. Is there one simple self-care tip you can offer that can help protect against burnout?

A: Anyone who spends the majority of their professional life servicing others physically—such as massage therapists, nurses, surgeons, to name a few—run huge risks for burnout. The possibility to just work from home is not an option. Intentionally scheduling in proactive rest is key for these people.

Proactive rest is rest that is scheduled into your day and week to prevent burnout from occurring in the first place as opposed to rest that is just used to recover from it. For example, if you have a day stacked with clients, can you start a little later the next day to sleep in and have a leisurely morning

Can you schedule 10 extra minutes in-between clients so you have time to eat, get outside for fresh air or just recharge for a few extra minutes? Can you set up a schedule so your kids can ride to soccer practice with someone else this week so you don’t have to rush out of work and straight into something else. These small adjustments all stack up to help to combat burnout.

Q: Can you share one quality that in your experience and interviews most high-achievers share?

A: Most high achievers live by the motto: “If I work hard, I win. If I don’t win, it’s because I didn’t work hard enough.” While this motto is great for making progress and getting ahead in your career, it can be debilitating in your personal life and lead to burnout.

It’s important for high achievers to realize that their worth is not determined by their achievements or productivity. It’s not about how many clients you can cram into one day or week. Yes, keeping your books full is important, but it can’t come at the cost of your physical and mental health.

In my experience, most high achievers have had to redefine what success looks like to them. Most of the time, it’s not just money and job title, like we’re led to believe. When people are truly happy, they see success as encompassing health, wealth, philanthropy, faith, freedom/flexibility, deep and meaningful relationships, and more.

Q: The idea of resilience is popular across many industries. How can people tap into resilience when they’re feeling overwhelmed or challenged?

A: Start smaller. You don’t have to boil the ocean all at once. So often we feel overwhelmed because we’re looking too far ahead. It feels so far away and like there are a million steps needed to get there.

Just start smaller. What’s the next right step? What’s the next right step after that? Resilience is built through action, and taking small steps is the key to getting started.

Q: Sometimes, the hardest part about taking advantage of an opportunity is actually seeing there is an opportunity. Can you share how people might find the opportunity they’re looking for, especially if they’re feeling stuck?

A: Who do you know that is already doing the thing you want to do? Reach out to them, connect with them, follow them on social media if you don’t actually know them. Success leaves clues.

What have they done to get where they are? What are they doing in their business or life? With social media it’s easier than ever to get an inside look at how people build their businesses and lives. And more often than you think, even incredibly successful, famous people are easy to access through direct messages on social media.

Reach out. And if you are completely stuck and don’t know where to start, follow your curiosity. What interests you? What are you curious about? Use the answers to those questions as guides.

Q: What is one thing you do for self-care that you find indispensable?

A: Focusing on sleep. It is the single most valuable thing you can do for yourself and it’s free. When you don’t get enough sleep or not enough good quality sleep, it’s like dominos. You don’t eat as well, don’t feel as good about yourself, can’t focus, tend to snap at people, and the list goes on.

Practicing good sleep hygiene is absolutely key for avoiding burnout and sustaining peak performance.