Wintering as a Practice Owner: Why Slowing Down Is a Strategy, Not a Setback

Wintering is one of those concepts that feels poetic and practical all at once — a season of intentional slowing, softening, and turning inward. For therapists and practice owners, it’s an idea we deeply understand in theory… yet often struggle to embrace in practice.

If you’re anything like me, you might already feel a little restless even reading the word slowing. My nervous system jumps to all the ways rest could go wrong:

What if everything piles up? What if I miss out on opportunities? What if clients need me and I’m not available? What if my quiet season sets me back?

I get it — truly. I’ve lived that tug-of-war between the desire to rest and the fear of what rest might cost. And yet, wintering is exactly what allows us to keep going, keep leading, and keep building sustainable practices that don’t drain us dry.

Today I want to explore wintering through a business lens and a human lens — and share a couple of stories from my own experience of trying to slow down (and sometimes failing spectacularly).

Why Wintering Matters for Therapists and Practice Owners

In nature, winter isn’t a mistake or a disruption. It’s a required part of the growth cycle. Trees pull their energy inward. Plants stop producing. Animals shift their patterns so they can survive and renew.

But in business — and especially in private practice — we’re often taught to do the opposite: Be consistent. Stay visible. Keep the momentum going. Don’t lose your edge.

The truth is: humans aren’t meant to be in endless summer. We can’t produce nonstop. We can’t always be “on.” And when we try, the cost is usually high: burnout, irritability, resentment, decision fatigue, emotional exhaustion, or that creeping sense of losing yourself in the machine of your own business.

Wintering isn’t a collapse. It’s prevention.
It’s how we stay well.
It’s how we lead with clarity rather than reactivity.
It’s how we avoid burnout instead of recovering from it.

A Story: When Slowing Down Feels Scarier Than Staying Busy

Let me tell you something I don’t always admit out loud: I struggle to rest.
Not in the “I worked hard and now I’m taking a well-earned break” kind of way. I mean I genuinely struggle to slow down, mentally and physically.

Maybe you’ve felt this too — the moment you even consider stepping back, your mind jumps in with its list of warnings:

• If you slow down now, next week will be twice as heavy.

• Everyone else will get ahead while you’re resting.

• That one client who finally reached out after months? They’ll go somewhere else.

• There’s so much to do — taking a break is irresponsible.

For me, rest sometimes feels like an open invitation for chaos to start forming tiny piles in every corner of my life and business.

And if I’m honest, part of the fear is also rooted in responsibility. As practice owners and leaders, people depend on us — clients, associates, admin teams, our families, even our own sense of identity. When you carry that much, slowing down can feel like you’re failing someone, somewhere.

But here’s what wintering has taught me: If I don’t intentionally create a pause, life will eventually force one. And forced rest rarely feels calm, aligned, or spacious. It feels like burnout.

The Unexpected Thing That Happens When I Rest

Here’s another thing I’ve learned about myself… and it’s both a blessing and a little bit of a curse.

Every time I actually manage to slow down — even something small like a massage or a midday break — the ideas start pouring in.

My brain suddenly becomes this creative fire hose:

• New workshop concepts

• A different marketing angle

• Tweaks to my systems

• Program improvements

• A totally new offer I definitely don’t have time for but somehow feels urgent

• And on it goes…

It’s a perk because these ideas are usually good — sometimes really good. But it’s a pest because following through on them usually means I’ve just interrupted the very rest I was trying to give myself.

If this sounds familiar, here’s what I now recommend (and what I’m still learning to do consistently): Keep a notebook nearby when you’re resting. Write the ideas down. Capture them, and then go back to your pause.

That way your brain gets to empty itself, your creativity gets honoured, and your rest isn’t hijacked by your next big thing.

It sounds simple. It’s not. But it helps.

Wintering Isn’t Laziness — It’s Leadership

I know that for many practice owners, wintering feels emotionally risky. Productivity is quantifiable. Rest is nebulous. Growth is visible. Wintering is inward.

But here’s the thing every mature business eventually learns: Scaling requires seasons.

Wintering is strategic because:

1. Clarity grows in quiet seasons.

When you stop filling every moment, your mind starts offering you solutions, insights, and ideas you would never have heard in the noise (hello, massage epiphanies).

2. Your team needs a rested leader.

Overextended leaders make reactive decisions. Present leaders make grounded ones.

3. Your capacity determines your sustainability.

You can have all the systems in the world, but if your personal bandwidth is gone, nothing moves forward.

4. Winter always ends.

Rest doesn’t mean stopping your business. It just means shifting your pace and focus for a season so you can enter spring with energy, direction, and purpose.

A Moment of Forced Wintering

I’ve also learned the hard way what happens when I skip the natural winter and keep pushing.

There was a season when I was running full clinical hours, coaching, running programs, supporting my team, building out new systems, writing content… all while trying to be a whole human in my personal life.

The truth? I crashed.

Not dramatically, not all at once — but slowly, in small ways:
Losing focus.
Feeling snappy.
Struggling to decide simple things.
Feeling like nothing I was doing was “enough.”
Forgetting important details.
Feeling detached from my work.

My body decided for me: You’re wintering now. It wasn’t restorative; it was survival.

That season taught me something I will not forget: Wintering by choice is empowering. Wintering by necessity is exhausting.

So What Does Wintering Look Like in Your Business?

Wintering doesn’t have to mean disappearing or shutting everything down. It can be intentional, structured, and incredibly supportive. Here are a few ways practice owners can winter without destabilizing their business:

1. Reduce output, not presence.

Maybe you’re still seeing clients, but you drop to lighter caseload weeks.
Maybe your content slows down, but you stay engaged with your community.
Maybe your marketing becomes gentler, more reflective, less pushy.

2. Strengthen systems instead of adding new projects.

Wintering is a great time to refine what already exists rather than build something new.

3. Focus on the back-end of the business.

Sometimes winter is less about stillness and more about quiet organization: cleaning up financials, reviewing policies, streamlining workflows, updating templates.

4. Protect your energy with tighter boundaries.

• Say no more often.

• Shorten your days.

• Extend your breaks.

• Give yourself permission to pause without explanation.

5. Take CEO time seriously.

Planning, reflecting, dreaming — they all count as work. And they require slowness.

Wintering Helps You Avoid Burnout — Not Repair It

Many people don’t winter until they have no choice. But the power of wintering is in its preventative nature.

When you intentionally build slow seasons into your business:

• You avoid emotional and physical collapse.

• You increase your creativity and problem-solving ability.

• You make smarter decisions because you’re not operating from urgency.

• You strengthen your leadership presence.

• You recharge enough to enter your next growth season with actual enthusiasm instead of dread.

Think of wintering like tending soil — the quieter the season, the richer the growth that follows.

If You Struggle to Slow Down… You’re Not Alone

So many therapists and practice owners feel this friction. Your brain might be saying:

• I don’t have time to rest.

• Things will fall apart.

• There will be more work waiting for me.

• Rest means losing momentum.

• Clients will suffer.

But what if slowing down isn’t the problem…What if never slowing down is?

What if rest isn’t a risk…What if it’s essential?

And what if wintering doesn’t make things pile up…What if it makes the truly important things rise to the surface?

Your Leadership Challenge

As you reflect on your own rhythms, here’s a gentle challenge to carry with you this week:

Where do you need to winter — intentionally, purposefully, and without apology — so you can show up as the leader your business needs for the long game?

Not someday. Not when you burn out.

Now.

Let this be the season you choose winter, rather than wait for it to be chosen for you.