When Caring for Everyone Becomes Too Much

A 12-Week Live Online Therapeutic Group

For people who are always there for others — and rarely make space for themselves.

Caring for other people can be one of the most meaningful parts of our lives. But when caring gradually becomes a responsibility to hold everything together, anticipate everyone’s needs and remain constantly available, there may be very little space left for you.

When Caring for Everyone Becomes Too Much is a therapeutic group for people who are accustomed to supporting, helping, organising or carrying others — often while ignoring their own exhaustion, needs and emotional limits.

The aim is not to become less caring. It is to discover how to care for others without continually disappearing from your own life.

When Caring Becomes Overwhelming

You may recognise yourself if you often:

  • feel responsible for other people’s wellbeing

  • find it difficult to say no when someone needs you

  • put your own needs aside because someone else “needs you more”

  • feel guilty when you rest or prioritise yourself

  • become exhausted from constantly being available

  • struggle to ask for help even when you need it

  • feel uncomfortable receiving care instead of giving it

  • take responsibility for problems that are not entirely yours

  • worry that setting boundaries will disappoint or hurt others

  • feel resentment and then feel guilty for feeling it

  • have very little time or emotional energy left for yourself

  • feel that people rely on you but rarely ask how you are

Sometimes the person everyone depends on becomes the person no one realises is exhausted.

What We Will Explore

Across the 12-week therapeutic cycle, we will explore:

The role of being “the one who takes care of everything”
Understanding how this role may have developed and why it can become so difficult to step away from it.

Care versus over-responsibility
Exploring where healthy care ends and taking responsibility for another person’s emotions, choices or life begins.

The guilt of putting yourself first
Understanding why rest, boundaries and making space for your own needs can sometimes trigger guilt or anxiety.

Difficulty asking for help
Exploring beliefs about vulnerability, independence and what it means to need support yourself.

Burnout & emotional exhaustion
Recognising the emotional and physical cost of continually giving without sufficient recovery.

Boundaries without withdrawal
Learning that having boundaries does not require becoming cold, distant or uncaring.

Resentment, anger & hidden needs
Understanding what irritation and resentment may be communicating when your own needs have repeatedly been pushed aside.

Receiving as well as giving
Creating greater balance between supporting others and allowing yourself to be supported.

In Positive Psychotherapy

Positive Psychotherapy recognises that qualities such as care, responsibility, loyalty, helpfulness and reliability can be important personal capacities.

Yet even valuable capacities can become unbalanced.

Someone who has learned to be highly responsible may gradually begin carrying responsibilities that belong to other people. Someone who values care may find it almost impossible to disappoint anyone. Someone who is always dependable may struggle to admit that they are tired.

Therapeutic work is therefore not about removing these strengths.

It is about restoring balance — so that care includes care for yourself, responsibility includes recognising what is not yours to carry, and connection does not require constant self-sacrifice.

What This Group Can Help You Develop

The group can support you in developing:

  • healthier emotional and practical boundaries

  • greater awareness of over-responsibility

  • reduced guilt around rest and self-care

  • greater ability to recognise and communicate your own needs

  • increased comfort asking for and receiving support

  • awareness of patterns of self-sacrifice

  • healthier ways of managing responsibility

  • greater balance between caring for others and caring for yourself

Group Details

12 Weekly Sessions
Wednesdays | 19:00–20:30
90 minutes per session
Live Online
4 November 2026 – 10 February 2027

New participants join at the beginning of the 12-week therapeutic cycle, allowing the group to develop continuity, trust and a consistent therapeutic space.

Session Dates

November 2026

4 November
11 November
18 November
25 November

December 2026

2 December
9 December
16 December

Christmas & New Year Break

No sessions on:
23 December 2026
30 December 2026
6 January 2027

January 2027

13 January
20 January
27 January

February 2027

3 February
10 February

Fees & Payment Options

Fees & Payment Options

Pay Per Session
€30 per 90-minute session

Monthly Prepayment
€25 per session when all scheduled sessions for that month are paid in advance.

The monthly prepayment option applies only when all sessions scheduled within that calendar month are paid together in advance.

Joining the Group

If you would like to participate, please complete the registration form below.