How Therapy Works

For high-performing professionals, therapy isn’t about falling apart—it’s about clearing what’s in the way.

This is not traditional talk therapy.

At this level, therapy isn’t about giving advice, rehashing childhood endlessly, or sitting in emotional chaos.

It’s about creating a structured, confidential space where you can:

• Think clearly without being performative

• Feel safely without being overwhelmed

• Identify patterns without being pathologized

• Integrate the parts of you that are tired of staying compartmentalized

Therapy is the process of getting your internal system to work with you—not against you.

For high-achieving professionals, this isn’t new age—it’s necessary.

If you’re like many of our clients, you’ve already optimized your life:

✔ Business
✔ Career
✔ Income
✔ Discipline
✔ Control

But when something deeper is out of sync—when stress, numbness, or restlessness keeps leaking in—external success stops feeling like enough.

That’s when therapy begins to make sense.

What actually happens in therapy?

Every session is a structured conversation—with intention behind it.

We’ll work with:

• What’s conscious (the thoughts, worries, or situations you bring in)

• What’s unconscious (patterns you’re tired of repeating, even if you don’t fully understand them)

• How your nervous system reacts (the parts of you that freeze, shut down, rage, avoid, perform, or overwork)

• What success would actually look like if it felt sustainable

We’ll move at your pace. Strategically. Without fluff. And without turning you into someone you’re not.

Methods We Use

EMDR Therapy
This is not hypnosis. It’s a research-backed method used to reprocess stuck emotional material—like performance anxiety, shame, anger, trauma, or old identity structures that are no longer serving you.

Psychodynamic Therapy
This helps uncover the unconscious beliefs and emotional experiences that shape how you lead, relate, and react—so you can change them at the root, not just the surface.

Strategic Emotional Processing
This means helping you engage with your emotions not as weakness—but as data. Data that helps you move forward with more precision and less internal resistance.

This is not coaching.

Coaching focuses on goals.
Therapy focuses on why those goals keep slipping, stagnating, or coming at too high a cost.

Coaching helps you act.
Therapy helps you align—so your actions stop working against you.

This is work that goes beneath the strategy deck.
It helps you get your mind, body, and leadership all pointing in the same direction.

What You Leave With

• A mind that’s less fragmented

• A body that’s less reactive

• A nervous system that’s no longer in survival mode

• A clear path toward more effective leadership and more sustainable ambition

• A life that feels like it’s yours again

Still not sure?

What if I’m not used to talking about feelings—will this be uncomfortable?

It could be, especially at first. For many high-functioning professionals, emotions have been something to manage or move past, not explore. You may have never had the space—or the safety—to really slow down and examine what you’re feeling. Therapy offers that space. It doesn’t force anything. We go at a pace your system can handle. We’ll explore what’s underneath the surface in a way that feels respectful and manageable. The discomfort doesn’t mean something’s wrong. Often, it means you’re finally being honest.

I’m good at performing—how do I know therapy won’t just become another performance?

Many successful clients are expert performers—they’ve had to be. And yes, some therapists won’t catch that. Some might even reinforce it by staying surface-level or not challenging the persona. A good therapist, though, knows how to recognize performance as a protective part of you. We don’t pathologize it—we appreciate it. Performance is often a survival strategy. We give it room. But we also get curious: what’s underneath it? Using approaches like parts work, we help that performing part connect with other parts of you that may be quieter, but just as important.

What if I start crying and can’t stop?

That’s something a lot of people worry about. But the goal of therapy isn’t to break you open—it’s to help you build capacity. If it feels like you’re holding something big, we don’t force it. We create a structure where you can open things in small, tolerable doses. Over time, it gets easier to feel what’s there without getting overwhelmed. It’s not like floodgates being blown open—it’s more like gradually letting in the light through adjustable blinds.

I just feel numb—is that something therapy can help with?

Yes. And more importantly, we understand why you might be numb. Numbness is protective. It’s the body’s way of saying, “Let’s not feel that right now.” For many clients, that numbness kept them functioning when things were hard. Therapy doesn’t try to tear that down. We respect it. We work with it. One metaphor I use is that numbness can be like having a full SWAT team guarding the front door of your house. That might have been necessary once. But maybe now, you just need a neighborhood patrol car down the street. Same purpose—less intensity. As safety builds, numbness often softens on its own.

How fast does therapy work?

You’ll likely feel something shift within the first 6–8 weeks if we’re meeting weekly. Not because everything’s fixed—but because your system starts to trust that change is possible. You might notice something small, like reacting with more calm in a situation that would’ve triggered you. That’s often the first clue therapy is working. From there, it deepens. Some people stay for six months. Some stay for two years. The goal is real integration—not quick fixes.

What if I don’t know what’s wrong—I just know something’s off?

That’s more common than you think. Some people come in with clear memories. Others just have body sensations, irritability, or an overall sense of distance or discomfort. You don’t need to know what’s wrong to start. Curiosity plus a desire to grow is enough. We talk, we listen, and over time, patterns emerge—beliefs formed in childhood, protective strategies that used to work but don’t anymore. All of that comes up in the room naturally. You don’t have to bring clarity—you just have to bring yourself.

Will I have to relive painful memories?

Not in the way you may fear. Some people worry that therapy means revisiting every painful moment and feeling it all over again. But healing doesn’t require re-traumatization. The role of the therapist is to build a relationship with your system—your thoughts, your body, your memories, and your emotions—so you’re not alone in it. We use tools like EMDR and parts work to process memories in a way that’s contained and digestible. Your system will open up what it’s ready for, when it’s ready. We don’t pry things open. We follow what your body and psyche are already trying to heal. And that’s what makes this work powerful without being destabilizing.

Can I get something out of therapy even if I’m not totally sure I want to be here?

If you're on this page, something in you is probably curious—but curiosity alone isn’t enough. In my experience, the clients who benefit most have hit a point where they’re tired of their own patterns. They’re not just curious—they’re committed. You don’t need to be 100% sure, but you do need a part of you that’s ready to show up weekly and explore what’s going on. If that’s too much right now, it’s okay. But this work is for people who are ready to do it—not just talk about doing it.

What if I’m afraid this is going to change who I am?

Let’s talk to that fear. Most people have multiple parts of themselves that helped them survive—successful parts, cautious parts, people-pleasing parts, skeptical parts. Therapy doesn’t erase those parts—it helps them evolve. We make room for the fears that say, “If I change, will I still be sharp? Will I still be strong? Will I still be me?” And then we explore. Most people don’t lose themselves in therapy. They reconnect with themselves. They shift from being run by protective patterns to living from a more centered place. And they don’t regret it.

How do I know this isn’t going to be a waste of time?

That’s a reasonable fear. And to be honest, there are therapists out there who don’t listen well, or who make the work about themselves, or who just aren’t trained for deeper processing. That’s real. What you’re looking for is a therapist who sees you clearly, respects your intelligence, and can go beneath the surface without making you feel unsafe or exposed. If this page resonates with you, that’s a sign something here might be a fit. You won’t know for sure until you try—but therapy, like anything meaningful, requires an opening. You don’t need certainty. You just need a reason to walk through the door.

I’m scared I’ll fail at this too. Is that normal?

Very. Especially for people who have internalized the idea that their value comes from achievement. If you grew up believing your worth depended on being impressive, successful, or composed, then it makes sense that therapy might feel like a test. But it’s not. Therapy invites a different paradigm—where expressing what you feel is enough. Not performing. Not fixing. Just being honest. That shift can be uncomfortable at first. But it’s also freeing. Suddenly, things like creativity, connection, or even stillness start to feel fulfilling—because you’re not doing them to earn worth. You’re doing them because you’re human.

Why weekly therapy? Can’t I just come in when I feel like it?

Weekly therapy builds momentum. When we meet consistently, we’re able to track not just what’s happening in your life, but also the deeper patterns driving your experience. We’re not just talking about what happened—we’re exploring why it happened, and what beliefs or past experiences might be underneath. When sessions are spread too far apart, we often have to spend most of our time catching up. Weekly therapy lets us go deeper and stay connected. It also helps me stay attuned to your process—remembering the nuances, the relationships, and the tools that are working for you. Biweekly can work for some, but anything more spread out makes it harder to get traction.

Have other questions?

What clients say:

“Zack was a patient and caring guide through a difficult time.

He provided a therapeutic relationship that offered a balance of support and challenge, helping me build a stronger foundation from which to live my life.

Through EMDR I was also able to travel to the root of many beliefs that were stifling my growth — making core changes to how I see myself and my world — opening up more love in all directions.

I’m grateful.”

-AB