For CEOs, lawyers, hedge fund managers, and senior leaders in California, New York, and Illinois
You’ve built a life for yourself that other people envy. And you worked hard to do it. You used to enjoy the work you do. You wouldn’t have gotten this far if you hadn’t. But lately work has been a drag. And it’s spilling over into the rest of your life.
The “Sunday scaries” aren’t just on Sundays anymore. You dread going into the office. Work feels like an obligation when it used to feel like a passion. You’re second-guessing your decisions and waking up with anxiety, going over and over what you could have done differently. Maybe your work success hasn’t been impacted yet. But if things keep going this way, it will be.
That’s burnout. It sneaks up on you, catching you off guard when your career is going better than ever. It doesn’t mean you have to change careers. But it does mean that something has to change.
Am I Burned Out?
High achievers rarely describe themselves as “burned out.” More often, they’ll describe low energy, feeling “off,” or numb. You might be burned out if you say things like:
Work used to be my passion. But now it’s just a job.
I’m snapping at people and I don’t know why.
I can’t think clearly at work the way I used to.
I’ve achieved everything I wanted, and now I feel empty.
I know I need to slow down. But I don’t know how.
Executive burnout isn’t weakness or failure. It doesn’t mean you need to quit your job and move to Hawaii. But it is a sign that you can’t keep pushing the way you always have been.
You can’t just will your way out of it.
You’re a great problem solver. That’s part of how you’ve been so successful. You think about what needs to change and make the changes to get to where you need to be. You tried solving burnout on your own. Exercise. Meditation. Self-help books. But it’s not working.
Fixing your burnout isn’t another problem to cross off your list. That just makes it stick around longer. Burnout demands a new way of showing up in your work life. That requires us to look at the situations and experiences that led to burnout in the first place. And to work through the resistance to changing patterns that once felt so safe but are now bringing you down.
Burnout is a call to ask deeper questions about who you really are, what you want, and why you want it.
Therapy can help.
How Therapy Helps With Burnout
Time off work can help burnout, but it doesn’t last. That’s why a week after a fantastic vacation, you’re right back where you started. So unless you can go on vacation every other week, you’re going to need a new strategy.
In therapy, we go beyond putting a band-aid on burnout (15 minutes of mindfulness a day is not going to fix it!) and search for the beliefs and patterns that got you here in the first place. We’ll figure out why you’re doing what you do and why it’s leading to burnout. And we’ll help you do something different.
I use Brainspotting and EMDR, two brain-based approaches that help you reach what talk alone can’t. Many high achievers already understand their problems. They’ve thought about them over and over. But thinking isn’t enough. These therapeutic approaches help you actually feel different.
Therapy for burnout can help you:
But I Can’t…
Quit My Job.
You don’t have to! Many of my clients have no interest in quitting their jobs. They’re looking to enjoy their jobs again. Or they’re looking to have a better balance between their work and their personal lives. They’re looking to feel they’re performing their best, at work and at home. Sometimes, therapy leads to a career change. More often, it leads to reconnecting with why you loved your work in the first place.
Find Time for Therapy.
I hear this a lot. If you’re already burned out and overwhelmed at work, taking an hour (50 minutes to be exact) out of your week can feel unmanageable. But if that one hour a week can make you perform more optimally in your working hours, it could be a net gain of time. I offer sessions exclusively online so you don’t have to include travel time in your busy life.
And if weekly feels too slow for you, I offer Brainspotting intensives, which are focused, multi-hour work over the span of a few days.
Questions about fees, insurance, or online therapy? See my FAQ.
You don’t have to keep running on empty.
Get back to enjoying the great life you built for yourself.