The Burn In Model: A Model Made in Practice, Not Theory
by Rhiannon Crispe Most of us don’t need another model sitting on a shelf.
We need something that feels real. Something that reflects what actually happens in the chaos, complexity, and quiet moments of practice. The truth is, a lot of the models we were taught in university never really made it into the real world with us. Not because they weren’t valuable, but because they weren’t built for the emotional, cultural, and relational layers we navigate every day as therapists and humans. They often stay in the lecture theatre — abstract, clinical, hard to translate.
The Burn In Model is different.
It wasn’t created in theory and pushed into practice. It was built from practice — from lived experience. From burnout. From the real stories of therapists who were exhausted, questioning everything, and still showing up.
Over eight weeks, a group of occupational therapy professionals (OTPs) from around the world came together to create it, test it, challenge it, poke holes in it, and help bring it to life. These were therapists doing the work, living the burnout, and holding deep insight because of it. They brought their honesty, their therapy wisdom, their lived truths. They helped shape the language. They helped ground it in practice.
This model was co-created — not just in theory, but in action. Built by those who were tired of the “resilience” narrative and ready for something that actually reflects what it means to tend to ourselves while showing up for others.
Occasionally we wondered, who are we to create a model?
We weren’t theorists. We weren’t all academics. We were occupational therapists — working in the real world, holding the tension of deep care and growing misalignment. We felt the need for this model but we also questioned whether we were “qualified” to do so. Because models? Those come from research, textbooks, journals, university curricula… right?
That belief — that only a certain kind of person is allowed to create a “model” — is what keeps so many brilliant ideas unspoken. But it’s just not true. And when we started talking with others, we realised something important: the people who should be shaping models are the ones living the work, day in and day out. The ones feeling the pressure points. The ones navigating the real complexity and cost of care.
The Burn In Model didn’t come from the top down. It came from the inside out. From people paying attention to what matters. From therapists who stopped pretending everything was fine and started building something better — together.
“Ideas, you know, theories and models, they don’t descend from heaven. They’re made by ordinary people like you and me… and everybody has various spheres of experience that inform their view of the world and the phenomena that happen within it… There are lots of brilliant theorists out there in our profession, who, if they were just to sit down and put their ideas down on paper, they would be authors, thought leaders… people who could really make a contribution to advancing our ideas and our knowledge in this profession.”