Programs · Stress & burnout · Recharge
Recharge
Managing stress and burnout with CBT
Burnout isn't weakness, and it isn't fixed by a spa day. It's a resources equation that's been running at a deficit: chronic demands outpacing real recovery. This program works the recovery side hard, the boundary side honestly, and the thought side that keeps you volunteering for the deficit. Ten minutes a session, forty-five seconds a day, and your own data showing the charge coming back.
Running on empty has a shape
- Drained by the day, and the evening doesn't put anything back.
- “Quick checks” after hours that reopen the whole work file in your head.
- Going through the motions — caring less, and noticing you care less.
- Quietly worried you're not as good at this as you used to be.
- Waiting for it to calm down after this sprint. And the one after that.
Your evenings drive the program
Not a course you watch — a loop you run. Recharge reads your evenings and adjusts your recovery plan, growing what works and shrinking what a hard week can't hold.
Measure
A forty-five-second evening check-in: stress, energy, what recovery actually happened, and whether a boundary held.
daily · 45 secLearn
Short sessions with Nina teach the method — recovery science, boundary experiments, the burnout thought set.
10 min · most daysAdjust
The weekly review reads your recovery–energy correlation and titrates your recovery dose. When a week collapses, blocks shrink to their ten-minute versions — never to zero.
weekly review↻ the loop runs weekly — five times
The number the program hunts for is yours: what a real break tonight does to your energy tomorrow morning. A typical finding looks like this — evenings with a real break followed by 6.1 next-morning energy against 4.2 without. Measured in your own data, not our theory.
Six weeks, one equation
Seventeen sessions and five weekly reviews. The first week is free — including your baseline stress and energy report.
Week 1The EquationDemands, recovery, and the deficit3 sessions
Week 2Recovery ScienceRest that actually recharges4 sessions
Week 3BoundariesWhere the workday ends4 sessions
Week 4The ThoughtsThe stories that keep you volunteering4 sessions
Week 5RebalanceCraft, body, pace4 sessions
Week 6Keep the ChargeA system that survives spikes3 sessions
Nina
Sleep, mood & the self cluster · guides 8 programs
The steady behavioral coach — patient, methodical, quietly optimistic. Nina is the clinician-scientist who convinces you to spend less time in bed and makes it feel reasonable, talking about your numbers like a friendly scientist, not an accountant.
“Hi, I'm Nina. If you're here, I'm guessing you've been running on less than you have — and you've been doing it long enough that it's started to feel like who you are.”
The published models, built into a working system
Recharge is original writing on an established evidence base: burnout as chronic demands outpacing recovery, presenting as exhaustion, cynicism, and inefficacy. Each week turns one strand of that research into tools you run against your own data.
- Effort-recovery modelMeijman & Mulder
- Recovery experiences — detachment, relaxation, mastery, controlSonnentag & Fritz
- Three-dimension burnout modelMaslach
- Cognitive restructuringBeck
- Job crafting within constraints
Honest about what an app can fix
A mood check at onboarding looks for the place burnout and depression overlap. Severe exhaustion together with hopelessness routes you to a warm recommendation — our depression program Lift, which shares this engine, plus clear guidance on getting a clinician in the loop — without locking you out of anything here. Any endorsement of self-harm thoughts routes immediately to crisis resources, which stay one tap away the whole way through.
This program is not medical advice, and it is not a substitute for fixing a genuinely impossible workload. Some of what's draining you is your workplace's to fix — we'll say so, and in week five we'll help you script that conversation instead of coaching you into accepting it.
Recharge, next to the field
| RechargeResiliens | Headspaceheadspace.com | Calmcalm.com | Meru Healthmeruhealth.com | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Price | $149 one-time (draft) — the program is yours | $12.99/mo or $69.99/yr | $69.99/yr ($14.99/mo; $399.99 lifetime) | Insurance / employer-covered; cost varies by plan |
| Structure | 6 weeks · 17 sessions + weekly reviews | Content library — meditations, sleep, focus, fitness — with daily recommendations; no fixed multi-week burnout protocol | On-demand library plus short 7- and 21-day mindfulness programs; no dosed multi-week stress protocol | Fixed 12-week program: daily self-paced lessons, up to four therapist video sessions, HRV biofeedback wearable |
| Personalization | Stress/energy diary → recovery-activity correlation + boundary-experiment log | Personalized content recommendations | Curated daily picks; content selection is user-driven | Licensed therapist tailors the program 1:1 |
| Human support | Self-guided · clinician-referral gates built in | Mental-health coaching offered as a separate paid service | Not published | Dedicated licensed therapist — video sessions plus unlimited in-app chat |
| Access | Self-serve, start today | Self-serve | Self-serve | Via health plans and employers; direct signup exists but coverage-dependent |
| Breadth | 24+ program catalog · bundle 2-3 related programs and save | Broad wellness: stress, sleep, focus, movement | Broad wellness: sleep, anxiety, stress, focus, music | Depression, anxiety, burnout in one program |
| Platforms | Web · iOS · Android | iOS · Android · Web | iOS · Android · Web | iOS · Android |
Sources: competitor pricing and program pages — every production value carries a source URL and access date, and unpublished facts are labeled "not published," never guessed.
Why we built it differently
- A dosed engine, not a content library. Your recovery plan is titrated weekly from your own forty-five-second check-ins — grow it when it sticks, shrink it when a week collapses, never to zero. A meditation library can't tell you what a real break did to Tuesday morning's energy. Recharge measures exactly that.
- The honest half. We say in the first minute that some of your burnout is your workplace's to fix, and we won't coach you into accepting an impossible load with a better attitude. Week five scripts the structural conversation; the crunch drill plans for real sprints instead of pretending they won't happen.
- Burnout rarely travels alone. The onboarding mood check catches the burnout–depression overlap and routes it warmly — Lift runs on the same engine, one catalog away, with clinician guidance where it's warranted. Not another platform to learn, and never a locked door.
Start free. Continue if it's working.
First week
- Onboarding + two full sessions
- Daily evening check-in
- Your baseline stress and energy report
Full program
- All six weeks of Recharge, yours to keep
- Every session, review, and exercise
- Web + Untangle app access
Working on more than one thing? Related programs bundle together — two or three at a discount. Bundles are announced at launch.
Before you start
Isn't burnout my employer's problem?
Partly — and we say so in the first minute, not the fine print. Burnout has organizational causes you don't control; this program works the half you do: real recovery, held boundaries, and the thoughts that keep you volunteering for the deficit. Week five scripts the structural conversation the other half needs.
How is this different from meditation apps?
A meditation library gives you content; Recharge runs an engine. Your evening check-in feeds a weekly review that measures what recovery actually does to your energy and adjusts your plan — grow, hold, or shrink. Relaxation is one of four recovery experiences in the program, not the whole product.
What if it's depression, not burnout?
The overlap is common and worth taking seriously, so we check at onboarding. Heavy exhaustion plus hopelessness gets a straight recommendation: Lift, our CBT depression program, runs on the same engine and works the mood side directly — and at that level, a clinician in the loop makes everything work better. That's a resourcing move, not a defeat.
How much time does it take?
Forty-five seconds each evening for the check-in, and about ten minutes for a session, two or three times a week. The recovery blocks are yours to schedule — and when a week collapses, they shrink to ten-minute versions rather than disappearing.
Be first to recharge
Recharge is launching soon on the web and in the Untangle app. Join the early-access list — we'll keep it to one email, because we know about inbox load.
One email when your program opens. No drip campaign.