Blank paper and a ceramic bowl on an oak desk overlooking warm hills

Individual Therapy

High-Functioning Burnout

You answer the messages, meet the deadline, and remember what everyone needs. Then a small decision leaves you staring at the wall. I work with clients whose lives look manageable from the outside but feel exhausting from within.

What It Feels Like

What Burnout Can Feel Like

You might finish a full workday and have nothing left for dinner, conversation, or choosing a show. Rest may feel uncomfortable because another unfinished task keeps coming to mind.
Sometimes overwhelm looks less like panic and more like stillness. You cannot start the email. You cancel something you wanted to do. I make room for that experience without calling it laziness.

Underneath

The Cost of Being Capable

Being capable can become a role you rarely get to leave. Perhaps you learned that being useful kept people close, or that needing less made life easier at home.

I stay curious about what keeps you pushing past your limits. Work expectations, money concerns, and family responsibilities can matter alongside the standards you hold for yourself. We do not have to treat a demanding workplace as a personal failing.

Our Work

Listening to Competing Needs

Using Internal Family Systems, or IFS, I may help you notice the part that keeps working and the part that wants to disappear under the covers. Neither needs a lecture.

Psychodynamic and narrative work can help us examine older expectations and the story that your worth depends on output. I also ask what your actual week can reasonably hold, including responsibilities you cannot simply put down.

In Session

Therapy Without Another Performance

You do not need a polished explanation. We might begin with yesterday afternoon, when you opened your laptop and felt stuck. I ask about thoughts, feelings, and physical cues.

Together, we can consider a smaller commitment, a clearer stopping point, or what makes asking for help difficult. I will not turn therapy into another assignment to perform well. We can notice the urge to impress me, too.

First Steps

Starting With This Week

I offer a free consultation to hear what has been happening and discuss whether working together feels suitable. You can bring questions, uncertainty, or a few examples from your week.

Individual sessions last 45 minutes. I offer online therapy for clients located in California, Arizona, and Missouri and in person in Manhattan Beach. My practice is private pay; see the Rates page for details.

Questions

Before We Begin

Do I have to stop working?

Not necessarily. I want to understand your circumstances before discussing changes, including what is financially and practically possible.

What if I cannot explain it?

You can start with feeling tired or frozen. I can ask questions rather than expect a complete account.

Can I use insurance?

I provide superbills for possible out-of-network reimbursement. Check your plan directly; reimbursement depends on your benefits and is not guaranteed.

Rates and Insurance