Therapy for High Achievers in NYC
For people who are excellent at getting things done and have forgotten how to stop.
You hit the goal, and the feeling lasts about a weekend. Then there’s the next deadline, the next standard, the next thing to prove. Rest feels like something you have to earn, and you rarely feel you’ve earned it. People rely on you; you don’t often rely on them.
Many of the people I work with are lawyers, professors, creatives and other professionals. Their jobs are very different. What they share is a habit of leading with competence and losing track of what they actually feel or want.
How it usually starts
Ambition is a strength. For many people it also became a way to feel safe or approved of early on, and that’s what makes it so hard to ease off. When your sense of worth is tied to performance, slowing down can feel genuinely risky, and admitting you’re struggling can feel like failing.
What we focus on
We work on separating who you are from how you’re performing. That often means softening perfectionism and harsh self-talk, catching burnout before it catches you, and getting clearer on what you care about beyond being good at things. It can also mean practicing letting people in, at work and at home.
What I see when clients stop running on pressure is that they become more relaxed and more confident. They start trusting themselves, and they don’t have to keep their guard up all the time.
A common worry is that therapy will dull your edge. In my experience it tends to do the opposite: people think more clearly and make better decisions when they’re not running on self-criticism.
Fitting it into a full schedule
Online sessions make it easier to fit therapy around a demanding week. I see clients in person in New York City and online across New York, New Jersey, Washington, DC and Connecticut. The first step is a free 15-minute call.
Related: Imposter Syndrome · Anxiety & Overthinking