You’ve worked hard to build a meaningful life and career in medicine - but somewhere along the way, the pressure, the pace and the responsibility took over.
You’re doing everything you can to stay on top of the workload, support your colleagues and be present for your loved ones. But the truth is you’re stretched too thin. This isn't sustainable.
 At work and at home, you’re the reliable one - smoothing stress, absorbing emotions, holding everything together. Now you’ve been masking, shape-shifting and coping for so long that “you” barely get a voice anymore. You still care deeply. You still want to make a difference.
But it's time to find a way of working and living that doesn’t cost you your wellbeing.
This is what happens when responsibility becomes your default.
Left unchecked, many doctors slide into burnout and face:
- decision fatigue
- emotional shutdown
- irritability and guilt
- persistent exhaustion
- a lack of personal efficacy
- feeling disconnected from family
- wondering if the only way out is to leave medicine
You need space, tools and support - not more on your plate.
What if 2026 is the year you stop contorting yourself to fit the system - and start to shape your work and life around who you actually are?
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For this year's theme, Permission to Thrive takes you on a gentle but powerful journey back to who you are - beneath the workload, the expectations, the guilt, and the years of performing a version of yourself the system demands.
 Featuring four live half-day Gatherings (9.30am–12.30pm on a weekday morning - fully claimable as study leave) and four gentle Permission to Pause evenings (8–9pm).
In 2026's "Being Season" you’ll learn how to:
âś… Rediscover who you are beneath the role
âś… Stop masking and start honouring your natural strengths
âś…Â Tend to your energy, rest and wellbeing
âś…Â Grow into a career that finally fits you
All within a calm, compassionate, neuroaffirmative community of doctors who get it.
This is not another wellbeing tick-box.
This is the relief of finally having permission to stop contorting yourself and start thriving as you.
So you can show up as yourself, and work in a way that doesn’t cost you - even in the high-stakes, high-pressure environment of medicine.
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JOIN PERMISSION TO THRIVE - DOORS CLOSE 4 FEB 2026Meet your guides
We’re three doctors who’ve lived the reality you’re living - the pressure, the responsibility, the emotional load, and the fear that one more thing might tip you over the edge.
We’ve each slid toward burnout in our own ways, and each of us has found tools that brought us back.
That’s why we do this work: no doctor should have to figure this out alone.
Dr Rachel Morris
Former GP, Executive Coach, host of You Are Not a Frog.
I know what it’s like to feel overwhelmed and one crisis away from not coping.
As a GP, I learned the hard way that protecting your headspace isn’t optional - it’s survival.
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Now I teach the tools I wish I’d had 20 years ago: simple, practical ways to stay well in a job that never stops.
Dr Caroline Walker
NHS Psychiatrist and Founder of The Joyful Doctor.
I burned out early in my career - hiding it behind a perfect mask until everything cracked. Getting help changed my life, and I’ve spent the last decade supporting doctors who feel alone, ashamed or at breaking point.
You don’t need fixing. You need understanding, safety and support.
Dr Sarah Coope
Former GP, accredited mediator and conflict resolution specialist.
I spent years caught between difficult patients and complex teams, absorbing stress that was never just mine. I learned that calm, honest conversations, with yourself and others, can change everything - and that boundaries are not selfish, they are kind.
Now I help doctors navigate the interpersonal pressures medical training never prepared us for.
A note on neurodiversity (because it matters)
Between us, we also share something else: all three of us are neurodivergent.
This isn’t the most important part of Permission to Thrive. But it does give this programme something extra.
We understand what it’s like to:
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work in systems not designed for your brain
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mask through pressure, then crash when you're meant to be relaxing
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carry the emotional load at work and home
-
struggle with executive fatigue
-
care deeply while trying to hold everything together
If you’re neurodivergent - diagnosed, exploring, or quietly wondering - this will feel like a safe place to land.
If you’re not, we hope you’ll be inspired to carve out your own path and embrace solutions and tools that actually work for you (instead of squeezing yourself into someone else’s template).
These tools and this support help every doctor.
What our neurodivergence really means is this:
“We’ve lived the intensity, the overwhelm, and the “just keep going” culture ourselves - and we’ve built PTT to meet doctors exactly where they are.”
The simple 3-step planÂ
A clear path through the overwhelm.
Join the Annual Programme
Get instant access to your CPD-supported journey and upcoming sessions.
Attend regular gatherings
Half-Day Gatherings + Permission to Pause Sessions give you steady, sustainable support.
Build a working life that fits you
Apply the tools, reset regularly, and create habits that last far beyond the year
When you join Permission to Thrive, you will
Stop shrinking yourself to cope.
You show up as the doctor - and the human - you actually are, without masking or shape-shifting.
Build a way of working that honours who you are.
You know what you need. You know how to ask for it. And you stop feeling guilty for having needs in the first place.
Craft a job that fits you - not the other way around.
You reshape workload, boundaries and expectations so work stops draining you and starts sustaining you.
Improve your relationships.
At work and at home. You’re more present. Less reactive. More anchored in who you are.
Become part of a community of doctors who truly get it.
No pressure. No judgement. Just people like you - learning, changing and supporting each other.
Remember who you are outside the role.
Your sense of self returns. Your confidence returns. Your life gets bigger again.
You feel like yourself again - present, grounded, human.Â
Pricing
Choose the option that works for you:
Annual Payment
ÂŁ347 inc VAT
Best value. Simple single study-budget claim. Renews annually.
JOIN PERMISSION TO THRIVE NOWQuarterly Payment
ÂŁ99 inc VAT per quarter
Flexible. Spread the cost across the year. Renews annually.
JOIN PERMISSION TO THRIVE NOW90-Day 100% Money-Back GuaranteeÂ
If you don’t feel our community is for you, we’ll refund your fee.Â
Try it with no risk.Â
BONUS:Â The Stressless Dashboard E-Book
Designed specifically for doctors, the Stress-Less Dashboard is a powerful self-audit tool that highlights early warning signs of burnout and points you towards high-impact changes. It helps you protect your energy, focus, and performance in a system that constantly demands more.
Why Permission to Thrive is different
Most wellbeing programmes offer generic advice. Permission to Thrive goes deeper - because medicine is different, and so are the people who work in it.
Designed by doctors, for doctors
Root-cause focus, not surface-level wellbeing
ND-aware and psychologically safe
Practical scripts, tools and templates
