Burnout vs Depression: A Hong Kong Psychologist's Guide to Getting the Distinction Right By John Corbett | Psychologist | Hong Kong There is a conversation I have more often than almost any other in my practice. Someone arrives having been running on empty for longer than they can precisely identify. The work has lost its meaning. The mornings are heavy. The things that used to replenish them no longer do. Sleep is disrupted. Concentration is unreliable. The people closest to

The Benefits of Quality Sleep That Most Hong Kong Professionals Have Stopped Expecting By John Corbett | Psychologist | Hong Kong I want to ask you something before we go any further. Not about your sleep schedule. Not about your screen time or your caffeine intake or whether you've tried the breathing exercise. Just this: When did you last wake up feeling genuinely ready for the day? Not functional. Not resigned to it. Not already planning the first coffee before your feet h

By John Corbett | Psychologist | Hong Kong Here is a question that sounds simple until you try to answer it honestly. Who are you when the work isn't in the room? Not what do you do. Not what have you achieved. Not what are you building or managing or responsible for. But who are you — the specific person, with particular qualities and preferences and ways of being in the world — when none of that professional context is present. For many of the people I work with in Hong Kon

By John Corbett | Psychologist | Hong Kong There is a word that comes up constantly in conversations about mental health, wellbeing, and professional performance. It appears in corporate wellness programmes, in meditation apps, in the advice given after someone mentions they're struggling. The word is calm. Calm down. Stay calm. Find your calm. The prescription is so familiar that it has become almost reflexive — the default response to stress, to difficulty, to anything that

By John Corbett | Psychologist | Hong Kong Let me start with what therapy is not. It is not lying on a couch talking about your childhood while someone with a notepad nods slowly and says very little. It is not something you do when you've had a breakdown. It is not a confession. It is not a sign that you cannot cope. It is not reserved for people with clinical diagnoses, serious mental illness, or lives that have come apart. It is not — and this matters particularly for the

By John Corbett | Psychologist | Hong Kong The deal closes. The wire transfer clears. The lawyers send their final invoices. The announcement goes out — the LinkedIn post, the press release, the congratulatory messages from people you haven't spoken to in years. Your phone doesn't stop for 48 hours. And then it does. And in the quiet that follows, something happens that almost nobody warned you about. You feel terrible. Not grateful. Not relieved. Not the version of yourself

By John Corbett | Psychologist | Hong Kong You sleep. You wake up tired. You take the holiday. You come back tired. You have the good weekend — no work, decent sleep, time with people you care about — and by Sunday evening you feel, more or less, the same as you did on Friday. Not restored. Not ready. Just... resumed. And you tell yourself what most people in this situation tell themselves. That you need more sleep. That you're getting older. That the workload is genuinely he

By John Corbett | Psychologist | Hong Kong There is a quote I return to often. It comes from a founder, captured in a peer-reviewed study on entrepreneurial loneliness, and it describes something I hear versions of constantly in my practice: "It doesn't have anything to do with your social life. It's that you can't confide in others at your company what problems you're experiencing. You are the leader. You must show confidence and appear to know what you're doing even if you