Protect Your Energy by Setting Boundaries
Oct 23, 2025
Lately, I’ve been hearing a common theme from health and wellbeing practitioners, and I’ve felt it too – exhaustion!
You pour your heart into your clients, family, friends, and everything in between. You want to help, to hold space, to do your best, but before long, your own energy fades. Your business starts to feel like something you squeeze in between everything else, and your time no longer feels like your own.
If this sounds familiar, you’re not alone. And more importantly, it doesn’t have to be this way.
Setting boundaries isn’t about being strict or unfriendly. It’s about creating a sustainable rhythm in your life and business. One that honours your time, protects your wellbeing, and respects the value of the work you do.
This isn’t something I learned overnight. In my early days working as a practitioner, I said yes to everything and everyone. I would fit client sessions in at times that didn’t really work for me and never fully switched off.
But over time, I realised that boundaries aren’t barriers, they’re foundations. And once you start putting them in place, things shift. You feel calmer, clearer, and more in control. You enjoy your work and life again and feel like you can breathe.
Here are four key boundary areas I’ve seen make the biggest difference for my clients, and how they might help you too.
1. Prioritising Time for Your Business (Even When Life Feels Full)
Many practitioners run their business around the edges of everything else - between school pickups, family responsibilities, or caring for others. But when your business always comes last, it’s almost impossible for it to grow.
Setting boundaries here means giving your business dedicated time and attention, even if it’s just a few focused hours.
For me, my daily routine has been a game-changer. My dogs know that mornings are work time. They settle down after breakfast and know their walk and playtime come after midday. I finish work around the same time as my husband, so we can enjoy our evenings together. Of course, there are exceptions, but most days, this rhythm helps me stay grounded and productive.
What would it look like to carve out protected time for your business, and honour it the way you would a client session?
2. Protecting Your Boundaries from Friends and Family (Kindly)
This one’s tricky, especially when the people around you don’t always see your work as a ‘proper’ job. Friends might call during work hours. Family might expect you to run errands or be available. It’s easy to fall into the trap of always saying yes, especially if you’re used to putting others first.
But when you don’t honour your own boundaries, it’s hard for others to.
The key is gentle consistency. Let your loved ones know when you're working and ask for their support. You don’t have to be rigid, but you do need to be clear. When you respect your own time, you model that respect to others.
If my dogs can get it, so can your humans!
3. Client Boundaries
Client boundaries can be one of the hardest to hold, especially when you care deeply about the people you support. It’s easy to offer a little extra time, reply to messages out of hours, or blur the lines around what’s included in a session.
But over time, these small things can drain your energy and muddy the waters of your working relationship.
One of my clients was regularly receiving long messages from people between sessions, asking for advice that took lots of time and thought. It became overwhelming, taking hours from her time with her family. So, she introduced a new policy: quick questions that take under five minutes were fine; anything more would be charged or addressed in their next session. The result? Clients became more independent, respected her time, and the quality of their work together improved.
A clear client agreement helps enormously here. It sets expectations upfront -availability, communication, and what's included, and gives both you and your clients clarity and confidence.
4. Clarity Around Your Offers, Pricing, and Scope
Many practitioners overdeliver by default. A little extra time, a bonus session here, an undercharged price there - it all adds up. It comes from a place of kindness, but over time, it can lead to resentment, burnout, or feeling undervalued.
Being clear on what you offer, what it includes, and what it costs isn’t cold or transactional; it’s respectful of you and your clients.
It helps you feel confident in your value, and it helps your clients feel secure in what to expect. If you find this hard, start small. Publish your packages. Stick to your session times. Say no kindly but clearly when something isn’t included. The more consistent you are, the easier it gets.
Final Thoughts: Boundaries Are a Gift
Setting boundaries isn’t about shutting people out. It’s about creating the space you need to thrive as a practitioner, as a professional, and as a person. Having these in place protects your energy and time.
Since moving to Suffolk and simplifying my life, reinstating boundaries has brought clarity, calm, and renewed energy to both my home and my business. I finish most days feeling content rather than depleted. I have time and space to enjoy the life I’m creating, not just keep up with it.
If you’ve been feeling stretched too thin, start with one boundary. Revisit one you’ve let slide. Say yes to your own needs, just as much as you say yes to others.
Because when you protect your energy, you have more to give.
When you respect your business, others will too.
And when your days feel spacious and intentional, everything changes.
