Speaking & Workshops

Balance is not an achievement, but a condition for clarity

From Burnout to Balance: Reflections on Sustaining a Career Over Time

 
 

This talk draws on lived experience of burnout and reorientation within academic and professional leadership. Rather than offering strategies for optimization, it reflects on the conditions under which balance, clarity, and engagement can be sustained over time.

The central premise is simple: balance is not a one-time achievement, but an ongoing orientation shaped by how responsibility is carried and limits are recognized.

Through reflection rather than instruction, the talk explores how sustained responsibility and pressure can be met without self-erasure, and how a different relationship to work can support both depth and continuity over the long term.

burnout and balance at VS
Workshop on Balance for Academics

A Reflective Workshop on Academic Life

This half-day workshop offers a reflective space for academics carrying sustained responsibility. It is designed for small groups, with a maximum of 20 participants, allowing for depth, presence, and careful exchange.

Rather than focusing on techniques or performance, the workshop invites shared inquiry into how academic life is lived and carried over time. Attention is given to the often unspoken pressures that shape everyday work within demanding research environments.

Through guided reflection and conversation, participants are invited to slow down, listen, and articulate what matters in their own working lives. The aim is not to arrive at solutions, but to support orientation toward forms of academic life that can endure without self-erasure.

Testimonials
Designer
“Karin gave a deeply personal and powerful insight into her experience with severe stress and recovery. Her talk clearly resonated with the participants, who left with practical ideas for creating a healthier balance between work and private life.
For me, two points stood out in particular: the brain’s need for recovery, just like an athlete requires rest after performance, and the importance of defining one’s ‘non-negotiables’ and core values as a personal compass.
I truly hope many more will have the opportunity to experience Karin’s talk and workshop – it comes highly recommended!
Kristoffer Szilas, PhD, Researcher at the Natural History Museum of Denmark
“Thank you for contributing to the much-needed conversation about mental health in academia. It was inspiring to hear your journey and the way you’ve worked through your two burnouts. Your openness made the topic feel very real and important.”
Christina Gravert, Assoc. Prof. PhD
“I really appreciated your delivery — respectful, open, and compassionate, with a clear sense that you understand the academic constraints. At the same time, it’s evident that you are passionate and ambitious about your academic field.”
Elizabeth Neilson, Research Group Leader PhD