In this episode of Systems Check™, Naina Rana sits down with Ingrid Johnston, LMFT, MDFT, a marriage and family therapist specializing in chronic pain, couples conflict, and the intersection of nervous system health and relationships.

Together, they explore what happens when chronic pain becomes the “third thing” in a relationship—an organizing force that can quietly shape communication, intimacy, routines, conflict, caregiving, and emotional connection.

Learn more about Ingrid Johnston, LMFT, MDFT: Ingrid Johnston Therapy

https://www.ingridjohnstontherapy.com/

This episode is for educational and informational purposes and is not a substitute for individualized medical or mental health care.

In this episode of Systems Check, host Naina Rana speaks with Heather Laing, founder and CEO of Complex Caregiver Solutions and a 20-year corporate HR executive. Heather opens up about navigating her own crisis—managing a major companywide reduction in force on the exact same day her 7-year-old son was admitted to a pediatric psychiatric unit.

Key Takeaways

The Invisible Workforce Crisis: Roughly 26.2% of U.S. children now have special healthcare needs, leaving 8–12% of the workforce acting as complex caregivers—often quietly burning out without disclosing their challenges to HR.

Why Standard Benefits Fail: Basic EAPs (typically capped at 3–6 sessions) and standard backup childcare networks are not designed to support families navigating pediatric psychiatric crises, severe ADHD, or autism accommodations.

The Cost of "Quiet Resignation": Caregivers rarely leave with dramatic exits; they experience presenteeism (losing 5–9 hours of productivity per week) before quietly resigning. A 5,000-person company can lose between $6.5M and $12.5M annually to caregiver-driven attrition.

Driving Systemic Change: Solving caregiver burnout requires systemic corporate evolution across four pillars: benefits design, clear policies, empathetic manager training, and robust ERG support.

Website: complexcaregiversolutions.com

Email: [email protected]

Chronic illness, burnout, and neurodivergence don't just affect your body — they hijack executive function: planning, task initiation, working memory, and attention regulation. In this episode, licensed professional counselor and certified clinical trauma professional Alyssa Carter joins Naina Rana to break down why "just push through it" fails high-achieving, chronically overloaded brains — and what actually works instead. They cover spoon theory as an energy-budgeting framework, the calendar-and-to-do-list combo that cuts decision fatigue, where AI tools genuinely reduce cognitive load versus where they add noise, how to build inclusive trainings and workplaces, and why middle managers with chronic illness are running on empty with nowhere to refill. If you've built the perfect productivity system and still can't stick to it, this episode is your reframe.

Alyssa Carter, MA, LPC, NCC, CCTP Therapist (She/Her)

STR Behavioral Health – Lancaster 610 Community Way, Lancaster, PA 17603 Email: [email protected] Web: www.strlancaster.com | www.stepstorecovery.com LinkedIn: Alyssa Carter

Upcoming: Presenting on chronic illness and suicidality at the Mental Health America conference, September 13 (in-person).

There's a version of burnout that nobody talks about — the kind that happens when you're already managing a body that doesn't follow the standard schedule. Destiny Davis, licensed professional counselor and certified rehabilitation counselor, built her entire practice around the people navigating chronic illness alongside high-performing careers. In this conversation, we talk about crip time, values versus goals, ADHD in women, and the one mindset shift that changes everything: your system breaking is not a verdict. It's data.

Visit: https://www.thechronicillnesstherapist.com/destiny-davis

In-person sessions in Atlanta: 1249 Hartford Ave SW, Atlanta GA 30310

Virtual therapy available throughout: Georgia | Florida | Colorado

What happens when "I can handle it" becomes the reason you're burning out?

In this episode of SystemsCheck, Naina talks with Brigid Carney, LPC—first responder therapist, former health insurance executive, and PhD candidate in first responder mental health—about the hidden costs of the mission-first mindset.

Together, they explore why firefighters, police officers, paramedics, and other high performers struggle to ask for help, how burnout impacts identity, and what it takes to build sustainable resilience in high-pressure careers.

If you've ever felt like your value comes from being the person who always has it together, this conversation is for you.

Linkedin: Brigid Carney PhD ABD, MS, LPC, NCC, MBA, LSSMBB, PMP

There's a version of burnout that hides inside competence. As a licensed clinical social worker and former tech startup insider, I developed the SYSTEMS Framework™ — a 7-part burnout prevention model built from lived experience and clinical practice. This episode breaks down every component and how to actually implement it in your daily life.

Instagram: @Peakworks_Counseling_Center

Website: peakworkscounseling.com

Facebook: Peakworks Counseling Center

Tiktok: @peakworkscounseling

Linkedin: Naina Rana

If you've ever looked up at the end of a workday and wondered what you actually accomplished — this episode is for you. Dr. Mickey Fitch-Collins, human skills facilitator at Learnit and former professional bass fisherman turned leadership expert, joins Systems Check to talk about why the middle layer of most organizations is quietly breaking — and what actually fixes it.

Mickey hosts the Learnit Lounge Podcast, where she covers the shifts facing learning and development professionals — from data-driven training to the power and pitfalls of AI.

Learn more about her: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mickeyfitchcollins/

Charity O'Reilly is a trauma therapist, practice owner, and author who specializes in complex PTSD. But what makes her the right guest for this show isn't just her clinical credentials — it's that she burned out badly, rebuilt on her own terms, and now helps other high performers stop recreating the same cycles they thought they'd escaped. We're talking about the version of burnout nobody talks about: the one you build yourself, with the best intentions.

Learn more about her work at https://charityoreilly.com and her blog https://charityoreilly.com/blog/

What does it really cost to build and maintain the systems that keep public health infrastructure running—and what does that reveal about sustainable performance?

In this episode, Nischal Rana, an integrations engineer for the State of Connecticut, breaks down burnout in DevOps culture. We explore the go-go grind mentality that gets normalized from day one, why optimizing for your best days is a fast track to burning out by 35, the communication skills no computer science program teaches you, and why building strong relationships will outlast even the most specialized technical skills.

Raw, honest, and from someone who’s lived it on the inside.

Elizabeth Morrison — licensed counselor and neuro inclusive systems designer — breaks down why high-performing tech professionals burn out silently. We get into the structural conditions tech environments accidentally engineer against their own people, what functional depletion looks like before anyone quits, and the one thing any leader can do this week to start building a system that actually holds. This isn't a wellness conversation. It's an operations one.

https://www.creativesolutionscoaching.com/