When achievement is still working, but the cost is no longer hidden.
This work is for professionals whose competence is real, yet whose usual ways of managing pressure, identity, and responsibility have stopped bringing relief.
- You are still meeting demands, but rest no longer restores you.
- The pace that helped you succeed now leaves little room for your relationships or inner life.
- You want a confidential place to understand the pattern beneath performance, not another system for performing better.
Care that is clear before you begin.
$225 per 50-minute individual session.
Secure video sessions are available throughout California. In-person appointments are available in Fair Oaks.
This is a private-pay practice. A monthly superbill is available for possible out-of-network reimbursement.
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A quiet next step
A brief 15-minute consultation can help you decide whether this is the right kind of conversation for where you are.
Schedule a consultationThe Weight Beneath the Performance
You have spent your career mastering the art of performance. You know how to push through, how to optimize, and how to deliver results when the pressure is highest. It has served you well.
But lately, something has shifted. The strategies that once worked, the longer hours, the tighter control, the relentless forward motion, are no longer enough. You may be experiencing a persistent, low-grade anxiety that no amount of productivity can quiet. Perhaps your relationships feel strained, or you find yourself reacting to small things with an intensity that surprises you. Perhaps you are simply exhausted in a way that sleep does not fix.
This is not a failure of discipline. It is a signal from your deeper story.
The exhaustion you feel is not a character flaw. It is the cost of carrying a fragmented story while maintaining a flawless performance.
Most therapy treats what you feel. Life Telling Processing™ works on the story underneath it. As the developer of LTP, I have found that the most persistent struggles high achievers carry are not primarily psychological. They are narrative.
They are the result of archetypal injuries that were formed long before the corner office, the board seat, or the successful exit.
Through Life Telling Processing™ (LTP), we do not just manage your symptoms. We explore the deeper story. We identify the specific archetypal wounds that are driving your survival programs. And we begin the couragepath of integration, gathering the fragmented pieces and building the mosaic of a life that is not just successful, but whole.
Individual therapy is available by secure video throughout California, with in-person appointments available in Fair Oaks. Life Telling Therapy is a private-pay practice, and a superbill can be provided for clients who use out-of-network benefits.
View fees and practical details →How Life Telling Processing™ Approaches This Work
High achievers bring a particular kind of intelligence to the therapy room. They are analytical, pattern-seeking, and accustomed to solving problems. LTP honors that intelligence while inviting it to go deeper than analysis can reach.
We begin by establishing safety, not the safety of a comfortable office, but the neurological safety that allows the Prefrontal Cortex to come back online after years of operating in a chronic stress response. For many high achievers, this alone is a revelation: the discovery that the body has been carrying what the mind has been managing.
From that foundation, we map the archetypal injuries that are driving the performance. The Sovereign wound, the deep conviction that worth must be earned through achievement. The Warrior wound, the relentless inner critic that turns strength against the self. The Uninitiated One, the part of you that never received the blessing that would have made the striving feel like enough.
Then comes the narrative work: gathering the fragments, naming the patterns, and beginning the slow, courageous process of building a story that is not defined by what you have accomplished, but by who you are becoming.
You are a high-achieving professional who has built a successful career but feels privately exhausted or empty
You find yourself reacting to stress with anxiety, anger, or withdrawal that feels disproportionate
Your relationships, at home or at work, are suffering under the weight of your performance
You have tried traditional therapy and found it too surface-level or not rigorous enough
You want a confidential space where your professional identity is understood, not pathologized
You are ready to move beyond symptom management and explore the deeper story
Courage engaged... new brain pathways happening... I am present for myself in ways I never thought possible.
The most dangerous wound in leadership is not the one you are aware of. It is the one you have adapted around so thoroughly that it no longer feels like a wound. It feels like your personality. It feels like your leadership style.
The restlessness that high achievers carry is not a character flaw. It is the Sovereign wound: the wound to the capacity for self-blessing that drives the success trap from beneath.
High achievers are often exhausted not by weakness but by the relentless demands of their own strength. The Warrior wound is one of the most common and least recognized injuries in the lives of those who have built everything by fighting for it.
You have built the career, the reputation, and the life that everyone around you admires. So why does it feel so hollow? The answer lies not in your character, but in your neurology.
Survival programs kept you alive. But they were never meant to be permanent. Life Telling Processing™ describes the arc from surviving to thriving, from fragmented story to integrated life.
One of the most common questions I hear from people considering therapy is a simple one: what will we actually do? Here is a plain-language guide to the arc of the work.
Is therapy for high achievers different from regular therapy?
Yes. High-achieving men often find that conventional therapy feels too slow, too focused on symptom management, or disconnected from the actual texture of their lives. Life Telling Processing is designed specifically for men who are accustomed to complexity and depth. The work is rigorous, structured, and oriented toward the story underneath the struggle — not just the presenting problem.
Do I need to be in crisis to start therapy?
No. Many of the men I work with are not in acute crisis. They are high-functioning, professionally successful, and quietly carrying something that their usual strategies have not resolved. The threshold for beginning is simply the recognition that something important is not being addressed — not a requirement that everything has fallen apart.
How long does therapy for high achievers typically take?
The arc of the work varies significantly depending on what you bring and what you are working toward. Some men engage in focused work over three to six months around a specific threshold or transition. Others find that the depth of the work calls for a longer arc — a year or more of sustained engagement. We will discuss this in our initial consultation and revisit it as the work unfolds.
What does therapy for high-achieving professionals cost?
A 50-minute individual therapy session is $225. Life Telling Therapy is a private-pay practice, and a superbill can be provided for clients who use out-of-network benefits. The Fees page includes practical details and Good Faith Estimate information.
How does a superbill work for out-of-network benefits?
After a session, a superbill can be provided for you to submit to your insurer for possible out-of-network reimbursement. Reimbursement depends on your individual plan, so it is wise to contact your insurer directly about out-of-network mental health benefits before beginning therapy.