Root Center Community Forum - Breaking Free From Burnout: More Than Just Stress

April 20th, 2026

Our Community Forum was a success! Burnout: More than Just Stress, was a wonderful, insightful, and at times even funny conversation about occupational and personal burnout, shifting legislature, personal coping strategies, systemic changes, the effect of burnout in children, and so much more!


The Root Center is proud to offer free events like this as part of our Advanced Recovery Institute (ARI). The ARI is committed to research and training to elevate clinical care. It is our hope that by organizing these forums that we will help expand our understanding and awareness of topics that impact our communities.


Special thanks to all of our panelists for your insight and expertise:

Samantha Alzate LCSW, - Owner of Mindful Transformations

Brent Heineman, MD/MPH - Psychiatry Intern at theUniversity of Connecticut School of Medicine

Christian Damiana - Public Policy Manager at Mental Health Connecticut, Inc.

Dr. Cassandra Holinka, PsyD - Clinical Psychologist & Assistant Professor of Psychiatry

Jay Lasser, M.D - Founder of The Center for Work Stress Reduction

Kristine Olson, M.D., M.S. - Chief Wellness Officer for Yale New Haven Health

Additional thanks to our audiences for your thought provoking questions! We hope you learned something, and are able to walk away feeling a little more able to handle burnout.


Keep an eye out for the recording of the whole forum, coming soon!

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