Anna Katharina Schaffner, PhD

Anna Katharina Schaffner is a burnout and executive coach and a writer. She is a Certified Professional Co-Active Coach (CPCC) and also holds qualifications in Clinical Hypnotherapy & Mind Body Health, ACT (Acceptance and Commitment Therapy), and mBIT coaching.

In her previous life, she used to be a Professor of Cultural History at the University of Kent. She is the author of Exhausted: An A-Z for the Weary (Profile, 2024), Exhaustion: A History (Columbia University Press, 2016), and The Art of Self-Improvement: Ten Timeless Truths (Yale University Press, 2021).

She is an introvert who loves people. In her spare time, she plays the piano and does kickboxing. She lives with my daughter, partner, and two Siberian cats in a quaint English cathedral town.

Her writing has appeared in the Times Literary Supplement, the Guardian, the LA Review of Books, Psychology Today, Positive Psychology, AEON, and PSYCHE. Her research has been discussed in national and international media, including on BBC Radio 4 and WBUR, as well as in Vogue, the Atlantic, the Financial Times, National Geographic, Philosophie Magazine, Psychologies, the TLS, and the New Republic.