Burnout and boundaries
Look at who works late in a typical burnout story. It is seldom the Adult — the Adult counts hours and goes home. It is the Nurturing Parent who cannot leave a colleague struggling, the Adapted Child who cannot say no to a manager, and the Controlling Parent who whispers that rest is laziness. The person burns out at the intersection of three states, none of them able to stop.
A boundary, in this language, is not a wall; it is a sentence said from the Adult, early and once: “I can take this on Thursday, not today.” Practised small — one honest no a week — it rebuilds the gauge that burnout emptied. In sessions we find your specific intersection: which of your states overpays, and what contract would protect it.