Episode 58 - What Happens When You Care Too Much? Dr. Siew-Fang Law & Hannes van Rensburg on Care, Boundaries & Healing

Have you ever cared so deeply for everyone else that you forgot to care for yourself?

In this episode of It’s a Mindset, I sit down with Dr. Siew-Fang Law and Hannes van Rensburg, co-founders of Bento Box of Care, to explore what happens when giving and caring come at the expense of our own wellbeing.

Siew-Fang brings over 25 years of experience in leadership, psychology, and coaching, helping leaders heal from burnout, trauma, and compassion fatigue. Hannes has nearly four decades of experience in safety, environment, and risk management, and together they’ve created Bento Box of Care to support people and organisations in building a true culture of care.

For me, this conversation was such a reminder that women especially are often conditioned to keep pouring into others, until we’re running on empty. It also opened my eyes to how much our bodies try to tell us about stress, burnout, and compassion fatigue, if only we stop long enough to listen.

Key Episode Takeaways

• What compassion fatigue really looks like — and why it’s more common than we think.
• How women are conditioned to care for others, often at the expense of themselves.
• The impact of unacknowledged “small traumas” and the lack of mental health support in many workplaces.
• Why listening to your body’s symptoms matters when it comes to stress, burnout, and care.

About the Guests

Dr Siew-Fang Law is the CEO and co-founder of Bento Box of Care. She builds leadership models drawing on her professional training in social psychology and peace psychology, and over 25 years of leadership and governance experience in higher education and nonprofit sectors. She provides coaching, therapy and organisational training to help leaders heal from compassion fatigue, burnout and trauma as well as build a culture of care for the organisation. Her coaching approaches include Root-Cause Therapy, Trauma-Informed Coaching-Therapy, Mediation, Conflict Resolution, Diversity and Inclusion.

Hannes van Rensburg has 37 years of experience in Health, Safety, Environment, Community, Risk Management, and Charity, caring for teams in various industries. He has worked for the Dow Chemical Company and BHP. In 2021, he founded JANSZ Leadership Excellence, co-create programs to develop authentic safety leaders. In 2024 Hannes co-found Bento Box of Care Pty Ltd with Dr. Siew-Fang Law to co-create a Culture of Care in organisations through the Power of Care.

Show Resources:

Check out the Bento Box of Care website - HERE

Connect with Dr Siew-Fang on LinkedIn - HERE

Connect Hannes on LinkedIn - HERE

Follow Emma, the Podcast Host on Instagram - HERE

Learn more about Emma's 1:1 coaching - HERE

Check out Emma's book, Worthy & Wealthy - HERE

If you LOVED this episode, please share it with someone who needs the reminder to put themselves back on the list — and tag us @emmalagerlow.

Yours in Compassion & Care, Emma. X.