Lived Experiences of Work Overload among Psychologists Working in Rehabilitation Centres: An Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis

Abstract

Psychologists working in rehabilitation centres routinely manage clinical, administrative, and multidisciplinary responsibilities within constrained organisational structures, yet little is known about how these professionals themselves experience the resulting work overload, as distinct from its downstream consequences such as burnout. This study explored how psychologists working in rehabilitation centres in Pakistan experience and make sense of work overload. An Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) design was used to capture the idiographic and interpretative dimensions of this experience. Ten qualified psychologists working across rehabilitation-centre settings took part in individual semi-structured interviews, which were transcribed verbatim and analysed case by case before cross-case synthesis. Four superordinate themes were identified: living under a continuously expanding workload; the emotional and professional cost of being overloaded; negotiating multiple and competing professional roles; and managing overload within limited organisational resources. Across cases, work overload was experienced not as a fixed quantity of work but as a cumulative, relational mismatch between professional demands and the time, resources, and psychological capacity available to meet them, with direct implications for participants' sense of professional competence and for the quality of the therapeutic relationships central to their work. The findings support organisational responses to overload — including manageable caseloads, protected supervision and documentation time, and structured multidisciplinary coordination — over an exclusive reliance on individual resilience-building, and carry particular relevance for workforce planning in resource-constrained mental health systems.