Speaking & Workshops
Clarity does not come from doing more.
It emerges when inner coherence is restored.
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.
It opens a space for reflection.
What is explored
is not how to do more,
but how clarity, balance, and engagement
can be sustained over time—
without self-erasure.
The central premise is simple:
Balance is not a one-time achievement.
It is an ongoing orientation—
shaped by how responsibility is carried
and how inner limits are recognized.
Through reflection rather than instruction,
the talk invites a different way of relating to work—
where pressure can be met without collapse,
and continuity can be sustained
without losing oneself.
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.
“Deeply personal and powerful insight into stress and recovery.”
“A much-needed conversation about mental health in academia.”
“Respectful, open, and grounded in real understanding.”
“Brings clarity to balance, limits, and sustainable ways of working.”
“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
“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, PhD, Assoc. Prof.
“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, PhD, Research Group Leader