Working Professionals
Therapy for Working Professionals in Santa Monica and Across California
The people I see in this category are almost never falling apart in any way their colleagues could detect. They are shipping the work, running the team, answering at eleven at night, and describing all of it in the consultation with the flat competence of someone reporting on a project that happens to be their life.
The presenting problem is rarely the actual problem. Somebody books because of sleep, or a temper that surfaced somewhere it should not have, or a Sunday dread that has crept forward to Saturday afternoon. Underneath is usually a much older arrangement in which being useful was the reliable route to being safe.
What Comes In
What high performance tends to be costing
Burnout, first, and not in the tired sense. The clinical version is a flattening — the work you cared about produces nothing, the wins register for about four minutes, and cynicism arrives as the only available form of self-protection. Rest does not fix it, which is why the vacation everyone recommended did not, and why people conclude something is wrong with them personally.
Anger, second, and it is the thing least likely to be said out loud in a first session. Snapping at a partner over something trivial, contempt for a colleague who has done nothing especially wrong, a flash of rage in traffic that frightened you. Anger in this population is very often exhaustion with nowhere legitimate to go.
Third, the fraudulence problem, which is not really about competence. You can hold both an accurate record of your achievements and a private conviction that the next thing will be the one that exposes you. Arguing with the conviction does not touch it, because it was never built out of evidence.
And underneath a surprising number of these: a childhood in which your value was measured by output, so slowing down does not feel restful, it feels dangerous.
In the Room
What we work on
The actual load
What you are carrying, what is genuinely yours, and what you have quietly absorbed because you were faster at it than the person whose job it was.
Recovery you will keep
Not a wellness program. Specific, small, defensible boundaries, plus the considerably harder work of tolerating how it feels when you hold one.
Why output equals worth
The older arrangement underneath the overwork. This is the piece that determines whether the change holds after the busy season ends.
Logistics
Built for a calendar that does not cooperate
Video sessions exist largely for people in this position. You can take an hour from a home office, a spare room, or a car in a parking structure between meetings, which is extremely common and requires no apology. A session you can keep for two years beats a session you love and cancel every third week.
In-person is available at the Santa Monica office if the change of room is part of what helps. Plenty of professionals want the physical separation from the place where they work, and that is a legitimate reason to make the drive.
Fees are three hundred dollars for a fifty-minute session and four hundred for the intake, out of network. Many PPO plans reimburse a portion of out-of-network care, and there is an estimator on the rates page to help you think about the likely number.
Honest Limits
What I will not tell you
That therapy will make you more productive. It might, and it is not the aim, and pursuing it that way tends to reproduce the exact arrangement that brought you here.
I also will not promise a timeline. Focused work on a specific pattern can be relatively short. The part about why your worth has been tied to output for thirty years is not, and I would rather say that at the start.
Where to Next
Related areas of the work
Free Consultation
Start with a conversation, not a commitment.
The first step is a free consultation call. We talk about what brings you here, what you have already tried, and whether working together makes sense. If I am not the right fit, I will say so and point you somewhere better.
- · You request a time on the form, and I confirm by email
- · Telehealth anywhere in California, or in person in Santa Monica
- · Private pay, with superbills for out-of-network reimbursement
- · 48 hours' notice for changes or cancellations
Or call the office at (213) 761-8555.