Balm in the Burnout, Episode 10

What Cancer Taught Me About Burnout with Talaya Dendy

Show Notes:
Welcome back to Balm in the Burnout, the podcast for humans navigating personal and systemic burnout in demanding, under-resourced, or misunderstood roles. In this episode, host Megan Hadley speaks with Talaya Dendy—cancer doula, patient advocate, speaker, and creator of the podcast Navigating Cancer TOGETHER—about what illness teaches us about burnout, identity, care, and the systems we’re forced to move through.

Talaya brings a perspective we haven’t yet explored on the podcast: the emotional labor of serious illness, survivorship, systemic harm, and the burnout of being both the “strong one” and the support system when you're the one in need of care.

In This Episode:

• Talaya’s cancer diagnosis and what it revealed about identity, isolation, and navigating healthcare.
• The role of a cancer doula and why emotional care is just as necessary as medical treatment.
• Burnout as it shows up in illness and long-term caregiving—and the signs we tend to ignore.
• Examples of the body’s warning signals: fatigue, irritability, shutdown, brain fog, and emotional exhaustion.
• How systemic harm, mistrust, and erasure impact clinical trials, treatment, and health outcomes.
• Integrative health practices (e.g., tai chi, journaling, meditation) and why they matter alongside Western medicine.
• Being an introverted leader and advocate, and finding power in quiet influence.
• The importance of stillness, glimmers, and realistic self-care when rest feels impossible.
• Shifting from “I have to be strong” to “I deserve support, too.”

Key Takeaways:

• Illness exposes what’s broken—not just physically, but systemically.
• Burnout can live in the body long before the mind acknowledges it.
• Caregivers, patients, and survivors deserve emotional support—not just logistics and treatment plans.
• Rest, advocacy, and community are not luxuries; they’re survival tools.

Connect with Talaya:

• Community Forum Waitlist:
  https://www.ontheotherside.life/forum-waitlist
  
  
• Website: https://www.ontheotherside.life
  
  
• Podcast: Navigating Cancer TOGETHER
  https://podcast.ausha.co/navigatingcancertogether/
  
  
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/talayadendy/
  
  

Follow her work, access support resources, and stay connected to upcoming programming, including her private online community for patients, caregivers, and survivors.

Support the Show:

Balm in the Burnout is listener-supported. You can contribute to the community scholarship or leave a tip on Venmo @HHW-LLC to help others access subsidized services.

Connect with Host Megan Hadley:

Learn more about burnout prevention and resiliency support through Harvest Health & Wellbeing. https://hhwellb.com

If this episode resonated:

Subscribe, share it with someone who needs to feel less alone, and leave a review—it helps these conversations reach the people who need them most.