🎙️ From Burnout to Balance – Lexi Reid on Healing and Reinventing Your STEM Career
What happens when the career you worked so hard for starts to affect your well-being?
This week on Beyond the Thesis with Papa PhD, I speak with Lexi Reid, a former plant biologist and regulatory affairs specialist who transitioned into wellness coaching after experiencing academic and professional burnout. Lexi now supports high-achieving women in STEM through her MIND + ART + WELLNESS program – a unique offering that blends neuroscience, mindfulness, and creative practices to help analytical minds manage stress and reconnect with themselves.
In this conversation, Lexi shares her journey through academia, government, and the medtech industry, and how she rebuilt her life and career around intentional well-being and inner clarity. We discuss what burnout can look like for scientists, how creativity became a lifeline, and what sustainable success looks like beyond the lab.
🔍 In this episode
What academic burnout really feels like
The power of creativity and mindfulness for analytical minds
Advice for high-achievers navigating career uncertainty
- How the MIND+ART+WELLNESS framework supports women in STEM
🎯 Whether you’re questioning your path or seeking more balance, this episode offers both validation and a roadmap forward.
📱🎧Tune in now!
See the resources section below for Lexi’s links!
This episode’s resources:
Thank you, Lexi Reid!
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You might also like the following episodes:
Lucia Juarez – Finish your PhD Faster and Happier
Özgun Ünver – stopping Burnout in its Tracks
Gertrude Nonterah – Keeping Balance in Graduate School
Sylvie Lahaie – Navigating Stress in Graduate School With Neuroscience