The Tree That Gives Too Much

Imagine a tree that offers shade, fruit, and shelter until its roots begin to wither. Without nourishment, even the strongest tree cannot keep giving. This mirrors the reality for many carers—whether supporting loved ones at home or working in roles such as nursing, therapy, or social work. I know this landscape well, having cared professionally and within my own family.

The statistics highlight the strain: Census 2021 recorded 5.8 million unpaid carers in the UK, with one in four reporting poor health. The 2025 GP Patient Survey found that 72% of carers have physical or mental health conditions, 74% feel stressed or anxious, and 40% experience depression. (CareUK) Professional carers face similar challenges; WHO/Europe’s 2022 report linked anxiety, depression, and burnout to a growing healthcare workforce crisis.

Now more than ever, carers need to honour their caring nature while developing resilience from the roots up.

The Caregiver Archetype: Understanding Your Nature

Many people drawn to caring roles embody what Jungian psychology calls the Caregiver archetype—compassionate, supportive, and motivated to help others. This is a gift, yet it also carries a shadow. Caregivers can struggle with boundaries, find it hard to step back, and may neglect their own needs. I’ve experienced this in both professional settings and family life; I know how easily self-care slips to the bottom of the list.

Understanding this archetype can help those in caring roles to see that self-care isn’t selfish—it sustains the compassion that defines who they are. Like a tree, carers need strong, nourished roots to continue giving.

So how do we do this? I believe it’s through four distinct channels: physical grounding, emotional expression, energetic protection and building a strong ecosystem.

Physical Grounding

Your body is the foundation of everything you offer yet when giving all to others we so often neglect our own physical needs—skipping meals, losing sleep, and rarely moving with mindful intention. Grounding can reconnect you to your body and signals safety to your nervous system, helping lower stress levels.

Simple micro-practices such as those below can make real meaningful difference:

• Sit or stand with both feet flat on the ground. Take a slow breath in for 4 seconds, feel the weight of your feet pressing into the floor (you an imagine your feet growing roots if you like), then exhale for 6 seconds.
  Repeat 3–5 times.
• Close your eyes for 5 minutes (you can be anywhere) and do a quick body scan – imagine a light flowing slowly from the top of your head through every part of your body lighting you up until it comes out of the tips of your toes. Note each part of your body as it glows.
• Build in short outdoor breaks—five to ten minutes, two or three times a day—to reset your system. If appropriate, take off your shoes and feel the ground beneath you. Reconnect with the natural world and let it support you.

Small grounding habits accumulate into significant physical resilience.

Emotional Outlets

As a Carer you may witness distress, decline, frustration, and sometimes loss. You may experience grief, anger, overwhelm, or guilt—yet you probably feel compelled to stay composed or ‘act fine’. By suppressing these emotions, you can create internal pressures that have a detrimental effect on both your physical and mental wellbeing. The following techniques can be helpful to avoid a pressure pop.

• Create space for your own emotional experience try spending (minimum) ten minutes free writing. Don’t think too hard just write and see what your subconscious has to tell you.
• Call a trusted friend who listens without judgement and tell them it’s hard right now.
• Simply acknowledge out loud: “This is difficult, and I am struggling.”

Ask yourself honestly: Who is caring for you?

Professional carers benefit from clinical supervision; home carers need equivalent emotional support, Carer groups, counselling, or coaching provide important outlets for processing the emotional load. In my own coaching practice, I act as both a supervisor and also help carers identify patterns, set boundaries, and reconnect with their own needs—steps that often bring profound relief.

Energetic Protection

Caring involves unconscious energetic exchange. Sitting with someone in distress or absorbing the atmosphere of a tense environment affects more than just your emotions—it influences your energetic state. Carers and empaths may carry others’ stress, worry, or sadness without realising it.

From a psychological perspective, we call this projection—taking on feelings that may not be yours. Staying aware of this dynamic allows you to release what you don’t need to carry.

Helpful techniques to address this include:

• Visualising a protective boundary around yourself before entering challenging situations.
• Literally shaking off tension after difficult interactions—just as animals do when resetting their nervous systems.
• Saying aloud: “This stress is not all mine, and I release what doesn’t belong to me”.
• Exploring energetic practices such as Reiki, which can support clearing and energetic rebalance.

Building Your Support Ecosystem

Trees rarely stand alone—they are connected through underground networks that share resources and maintain collective wellbeing. Those in caring roles need a similar ecosystem.

Your support network might include:

• Peer groups where you can speak openly,
• Regular supervision or coaching to help you reflect and regroup,
• Practitioners who support your emotional and energetic health.

We carers often resist receiving help, believing we should cope alone or that “others have it worse”. But allowing yourself to be supported is not indulgent—it is necessary.

Conclusion: Strong Roots Sustain Compassionate Giving

To meet the ongoing demands of a caring role, you need to build your own solid foundation. By practising physical grounding, allowing emotional expression, protecting your energy, and cultivating a support ecosystem, you create deep-rooted resilience that sustains you while you care for others.

Healthy roots grow strong carers—and strong carers can continue to do what they were born for whilst physically, emotionally and energetically well.

 

By Claudia De Silva

Claudia De Silva is the founder of Rooted – a wellness brand committed to bringing holistic and alternative therapy to a wider and more diverse community through education, engagement and opportunity.

Her vision for Rooted is that it replicates the tree system in the natural world where trees work as part of a community surviving by communicating and cooperating with each other to keep the health and resilience of the entire eco system. Claudia is a Reiki practitioner and ACCPH Accredited Coach with senior status which means she can supervise other coaches. She also holds a qualification in Equine Assisted Coaching and a Masters in Systems-Psychodynamics (unconscious dynamics in organisations).

Previously Claudia worked in HR and Operations and ran her own HR Consultancy – here she advised extensively to Board Level on restructuring, change and wellbeing in the workplace. Claudia has written for several industry magazines sharing insights on Psychological Safety in the Workplace, Founder Anxiety and Its Impacts and Conflict Resolution.

To contact Claudia please email on claudiadesilva2022@gmail.com or see website for more details www.claudiadesilvacoaching.co.uk