About Simon - The Burnt Out Lawyer

Former lawyer.
Burnout survivor.
I found my way back.
Let me help you find yours.

You know you can't keep pushing through when your body finally says enough. I've been there. I didn't know what was driving my burnout and I crashed. Through my recovery, I came to understand what actually drives burnout, and how to work with those drivers, alongside training your body to handle stress better and build real resilience.

Simon Fogarty, burnout recovery and resilience coach, Wellington New Zealand Simon Fogarty · Wellington, NZ

From the bathroom floor to resilience coach.

Like so many professionals, I spent long hours at my desk trying to meet the unrelenting demands of my clients. I was a litigation lawyer. The pressure was constant, the stakes were high, and stopping simply wasn't an option. Or so I believed. Some of that pressure was simply workload. Some of it was something else: arguing positions I didn't always believe in, telling myself it was just the job. It cost more than I let myself notice at the time.

I was constantly tense. My mind was always overloaded. Panic attacks became a regular feature of my life. I was convinced it was all mental, that I could think my way out of it. The truth? My body was keeping me in a constant state of stress that no amount of thinking could fix.

One day I found myself lying on the slate tiles of the office bathroom, just trying to feel something, even if was only the cold floor. That was my wake-up call.

Something had to change. I gave up working as a lawyer and took a break. Not because I wanted to, but because I had no choice. It sounds like a cliche, but I was burnt out.

I took up Iyengar yoga and later became a yoga teacher. I started paying attention to my body in a way I never had before. I worked with my psychologist and took medication. And I kept looking for tools that could support me.

Then, on a yoga retreat, I read James Nestor's book Breath. It didn't explain why I'd burned out. What it gave me was something else: enough physiological stability to finally think clearly again, instead of just surviving each day. I'd been breathing shallow, fast, and through my mouth for years, and that pattern alone had kept my nervous system locked in a low-level emergency long after any specific stressor had passed.

Learning to breathe properly strengthened my connection with my body, revitalised my health, and calmed my mind enough that I could finally look at what had actually happened to me, not just how burnt out I felt, but why. It was one piece of the puzzle, and it turned out to be the piece that let me go looking for the others.

Breathing isn't just about relaxing, it's about changing your physiology enough to think straight again.

That clarity sent me looking into why burnout happens in the first place, which is where I found the work of Christina Maslach and Michael Leiter: six workplace conditions, workload, control, reward, community, fairness, and values, that actually drive it. I trained as an Oxygen Advantage Certified Functional Breathing Instructor and went deeper into the physiology too. I started helping others because I knew what I'd found wasn't just useful for me. It was the thing most burnt-out professionals had never been told, on either side, the causes or the physiology.

Understand the causes. Retrain your body. Build resilience that lasts.

I know what it's like to sit across from someone, a coach, a therapist, or a GP, and feel like they understand the concept of burnout but not the reality of it. The way it creeps up on you. The way you minimise it. The way you keep performing long after you should have stopped, because stopping feels like failure.

I've been that person. Which means when you tell me what's happening for you, I'm not just listening with professional empathy. I've lived it.

What I do with you has two parts, because both mattered for me and both matter for the people I work with. The first is understanding what's actually driving your burnout, the workload, the lack of control, the values conflict, whatever the real conditions are, not just naming "stress" in the abstract. The second is retraining your nervous system directly, through your breathing, so your body can actually recover instead of running on empty while you work out what to do about the first part.

My goal is to equip you with tools that you can use for the rest of your life, and clarity about what's actually going on.

Breathwork is physiology. When you change how you breathe, you fundamentally change how your nervous system functions. That changes how you sleep, how you handle pressure, how quickly you recover from stress. These are real, measurable shifts, and we use your BOLT score so you have proof, not just a feeling, that things are changing. Most people start noticing them within the first week, and some after just one session.

Breathing won't resolve a genuinely unsustainable job on its own. But if you've tried everything else and nothing has stuck, it can be the anchor that gives your body enough stability for the other work, understanding the causes, making decisions, therapy, whatever you need, to actually take hold. A simple example: it's hard to meditate effectively if poor breathing has left you with CO2 intolerance that makes stillness feel like suffocating. Fix that first, and everything else gets easier.

What it's actually like.

A lot of people come to me having already tried therapy, medication, meditation apps, and various other interventions. Some of those things have helped. Some haven't. No one treatment works for everyone.

What's usually missing is a clear picture of what's actually driving things, and a body that's able to recover once that picture is clear. So we work on both. We name the real conditions behind your burnout, not just 'stress' in general, and work through what you can actually do about them, whether that's a conversation you need to have, a boundary you need to set, or a bigger decision about the role itself. Alongside that, we retrain your nervous system directly through your breathing, so your body can actually carry through whatever you decide.

Your body finally starts working for you, instead of running the show from underneath everything else.

What you'll find

A safe space, no judgement

Whether you arrive exhausted, sceptical, or somewhere in between, you'll be met with patience and without judgement. There's no right way to show up.

What you'll get

Practical tools, not theory

Every session moves you forward on both fronts: clarity about what's driving your burnout, and evidence-based techniques to use every day. The real progress happens because of consistent practice on both.

What you'll leave with

Skills that are yours forever

The goal is independence. I want you to have a set of tools that you can take with you and use for the rest of your life.

Qualifications and experience.

Simon Fogarty is a Wellington-based burnout recovery and resilience coach, Oxygen Advantage Functional Breathing Instructor, and former litigation lawyer. Admitted to the bar in 1996 and practising litigation from 1997, he experienced burnout first-hand before retraining as a breathwork coach. He has been teaching yoga since 2017 and breathwork since 2024. His background spans functional breathing science, yoga, psychology, law, and history.

Oxygen Advantage Functional Breathing Instructor

The world's leading evidence-based breathwork methodology, developed by Patrick McKeown. Grounded in physiology, not wellness trends.

Oxygen Advantage Certified Breathing for Females

Specialist certification in how breathing intersects with hormonal health, perimenopause, and menopause. Issued by the Oxygen Advantage programme.

Certified Iyengar Yoga Teacher

Issued by the Ramamani Iyengar Memorial Yoga Institute (RIMYI). A precision-based tradition with deep roots in breath awareness and nervous system regulation. Teaching since 2017.

Former Litigation Lawyer

Admitted to the bar in 1996 and practising litigation from 1997. Years of high-pressure legal work gave a firsthand understanding of professional burnout and what it costs.

A Graduate Diploma in Psychology and BA in History inform how Simon understands human resilience, behaviour change, and the stories we tell ourselves about our own limits.

Ready to find your way back?

Whether you're in the thick of burnout or just starting to notice the warning signs, the best time to reach out is now.

Book a session Start with The 5-Minute Anxiety Breathing Practice
Nothing on this site constitutes or should be taken as medical advice. Always consult a healthcare professional for personalised guidance and treatment of any medical condition. © 2026 Simon Fogarty trading as The Burnt Out Lawyer.