Post-Holiday Blues or Something Deeper? How Therapy Can Help You Feel Like Yourself Again
The holidays are often painted as a time of joy, connection, and celebration. But for many, the weeks that follow can feel like an emotional crash landing. If you’re noticing feelings of sadness, burnout, or self-doubt creeping in after the decorations have been packed away, you’re not alone. But how do you know if it’s just the typical post-holiday blues or something deeper that’s holding you back?
Let’s explore what might be going on—and how therapy intensives can offer a path to relief, clarity, and renewal.
The Post-Holiday Slump: Why It Hits Hard
After the holiday season ends, many of us experience a dip in mood. Returning to the daily grind, financial stress from holiday spending, or even unfulfilled holiday expectations can leave us feeling drained and uninspired. For some, the downtime also creates space for reflection—bringing unresolved emotions or past pain bubbling to the surface.
This slump is often compounded by a New Year’s pressure to “get it together.” Social media fills up with people announcing their ambitious goals, while you might be struggling to even find the energy to do your laundry. It’s no wonder so many people feel overwhelmed during this time of year.
But for some, these feelings may be more than seasonal.
Is It Just the Blues, or Something More?
If you’re experiencing lingering sadness, irritability, or feelings of emptiness, it might be time to look a little deeper. Post-holiday blues usually fade within a few weeks, but if your struggles feel more persistent, there could be something else at play.
Take Ella, for example. Ella is a fictional character—a compilation of the many wonderful, hardworking, and creative clients I’ve had the honor to work with. After a whirlwind holiday season filled with social obligations and family dynamics, Ella feels drained. The initial relief of the holidays being over has quickly been replaced by a sense of emptiness and frustration.
Ella is a young professional in a demanding career, balancing tight deadlines and high expectations. She’s also a talented artist, but her creative spark has dimmed. Perfectionism paralyzes her—if it can’t be perfect, she feels like there’s no point in trying at all. She often finds herself avoiding important tasks and feels stuck in a loop of procrastination and guilt.
On the outside, Ella seems to have it together, but inside, she’s struggling. Negative self-talk plays on a loop: “Why can’t I get it together? I’m so lazy. I’m letting everyone down.” Her burnout comes in waves, and when it hits, she crashes hard. She feels overwhelmed, detached from her friends, and unsure of why she keeps repeating the same patterns.
This isn’t the first time Ella has felt this way after the holidays. But this year, something feels different—she’s starting to wonder if these cycles might have deeper roots.
Understanding the Deeper Patterns
For many people like Ella, these post-holiday feelings aren’t random—they’re rooted in deeper patterns shaped by past experiences. Maybe you grew up in an environment where your emotional needs weren’t met, leaving you unsure of how to prioritize yourself as an adult.
This history often shows up in the present through behaviors like:
Perfectionism: You work tirelessly to “prove yourself,” but it never feels like enough.
Avoidance: Instead of tackling your creative projects or goals, you scroll through your phone, feeling guilty for not doing more.
Risky behaviors or self-neglect: You might skip meals, overwork, or push through exhaustion, ignoring what your body truly needs.
Negative self-talk: The inner dialogue might sound like, “I’m such a failure” or “Why can’t I just get it together?”
These patterns can lead to burnout, leaving you cycling between overachievement and emotional collapse. If this sounds familiar, it’s worth exploring whether there’s unresolved trauma driving these tendencies—and how therapy can help.
Why the New Year Is the Perfect Time for Change
January can feel heavy, but it also offers a unique opportunity: the chance to reassess and reset. If the holidays brought up old wounds or illuminated patterns that aren’t serving you, this is your invitation to start addressing them.
The truth is, you don’t have to keep carrying the weight of perfectionism, self-doubt, or burnout into another year. Therapy, and particularly therapy intensives, can help you break free and start building the life you want—one with more creativity, balance, and self-compassion.
How Therapy Intensives Can Help You Break Through
Therapy intensives are designed for deep, focused work over a condensed period of time, making them especially effective for people who feel stuck in patterns of shame, avoidance, or burnout. In just a few days of intensive therapy, you can experience the kind of breakthrough that might take months in traditional weekly sessions.
As a therapist specializing in trauma recovery, I use a combination of EMDR, Internal Family Systems (IFS), and Sensorimotor Psychotherapy in my intensives. These modalities work powerfully together to help you process unresolved pain, reconnect with your inner self, and build the tools you need to move forward.
1. EMDR for Rewiring Unhelpful Beliefs
EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) helps untangle the roots of shame, fear, or self-doubt by targeting distressing memories and beliefs. If perfectionism or negative self-talk has a hold on you, EMDR can help you rewire those thought patterns, freeing you to see yourself in a more compassionate light.
Click here to learn more about EMDR.
2. IFS for Inner Healing
Internal Family Systems focuses on connecting with the different “parts” of yourself—the perfectionist, the avoider, the inner critic—and understanding what they need. For creatives feeling stuck, IFS can help you identify the protective mechanisms that might be holding you back and start building a more harmonious inner dialogue. For people-pleasures, you can better understand the parts of yourself that felt it was safer to say yes than to honor your needs.
Click here to learn more about IFS.
3. Sensorimotor Psychotherapy for Mind-Body Integration
Sensorimotor Psychotherapy emphasizes the connection between trauma and the body. If you’ve felt exhausted or disconnected from yourself lately, this approach can help you tune in to what your body is holding onto and release it in a gentle, healing way.
Click here to learn more about Sensorimotor Psychotherapy.
And in an intensive, these approaches can be used interchangeably—even within the same session—depending on what’s coming up for you in the moment. This flexibility allows for a truly personalized experience, helping you make meaningful progress quickly.
Click here to learn more about therapy intensives.
Takeaways
The post-holiday blues don’t have to define the start of your year. If you’ve been feeling stuck, burnt out, or uninspired, take a moment to reflect on what might be going on beneath the surface. Are perfectionism and negative self-talk weighing you down? Are you just feeling “blah” and know deep down it’s something more than just seasonal?
Therapy intensives offer an opportunity to go deeper, address these patterns, and create real, lasting change. Imagine stepping into the new year feeling lighter, more inspired, and fully yourself again. It’s possible, and it starts with reaching out.
If you’re ready to break free from old patterns and start living the life you truly want, let’s talk. This year doesn’t have to look like the last. Together, we can create something new.
Looking to connect with a therapist who specializes in brain-based and body-based therapies that provide faster healing and relief?
Take your first step towards healing from your past and experiencing deep, lasting change.
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About the author
Margot Lamson, LICSW, is a licensed psychotherapist offering in-person and virtual therapy in Washington, D.C. and Virginia. She is trained in multiple trauma-focused approaches, including EMDR, IFS, and Sensorimotor Psychotherapy to support clients seeking meaningful and lasting healing. Margot also provides intensives, combining evidence-based and holistic techniques, to help clients achieve significant progress and feel better faster in a focused, supportive setting.
