Burnout Therapist Los Angeles
Virtually serving clients anywhere in California, Texas, and PSYPACT participating states (listed here)
You’ve worked so hard for so long, but burnout has made it so that you can’t enjoy the fruits of your labor. You're exhausted, unfulfilled, and your physical and mental health have suffered. However, you don’t have to keep living like this.
Therapy for burnout can help you stop being so hard on yourself, recover from burnout, and start enjoying the life you've worked so hard to build.
Does this sound like you?
You know you feel depleted, but you don’t know why. To everyone else, you might look really happy—you’ve accomplished so much and seemingly “have it made.” From the outside, you “should” be happy. But deep down, you’re secretly in the dumps.
When you’re alone after a long day, you might find yourself crying or struggling to fall asleep, despite being bone-tired. You feel like your day is never over: your thoughts are a racing blur of a replay of everything you did that day, feeling terrified you missed something or might find a mistake.
Despite all your successes, you doubt yourself. No matter how much you accomplish, it feels like there’s always more to go because the finish line just seems to keep moving.
You know you have really high expectations of yourself, and you also have high expectations of others. But sometimes, those expectations can cause trouble in the important relationships in your life—family members, friends, romantic partnerships, and kids.
People you care about might have shared that they’re afraid of disappointing you, and so they start to distance themselves, which leaves you feeling even more hurt and isolated. Your ambition has served you well in life, but it’s also becoming clear that those very impulses can push others away, leaving you feeling lonely and unwanted.
Despite having it all together at work, you feel like you’re failing at being present and emotionally available in your personal life. And deep down, you’re struggling to know who you are outside of your resume–but you can't figure out why.
What is burnout?
If you resonate with what I've just described, you might be experiencing burnout. The American Psychological Association defines burnout as "physical, emotional, or mental exhaustion accompanied by decreased motivation, lowered performance, and negative attitudes toward oneself and others."
Workplace burnout is one of the most common forms of burnout. In fact, the World Health Organization recognizes job burnout as an occupational hazard. Being exposed to stressful environments without self care or burnout prevention measures can take a toll.
How do I know if I'm experiencing burnout?
Burnout syndrome isn't a specific diagnosis like other mental health issues, though there can be overlap. Many people with burnout experience mental health concerns, including anxiety, depression, substance abuse, and even secondary traumatic stress.
Burnout looks different from person to person. However, there are many common warning signs. Some symptoms include emotional exhaustion, irritability, low energy, feeling bad about yourself, and even physical symptoms like stomach problems, headaches, and sleep problems.
Beyond the physical and emotional symptoms that you experience firsthand, burnout also takes a significant toll on your relationships. You may find it difficult to make time for and connect with your loved ones–even yourself.
While it might feel impossible to imagine a life that's not ruled by stress and overwhelm, it is possible.
Therapy can help you learn how to prioritize your emotional wellness, improve your relationship with yourself and others, and increase your meaning and purpose in life—even if it feels uncomfortable at first.
With the support of a burnout therapist, you can feel confident and empowered instead of depleted and mentally exhausted.
Meet Annia Raja, PhD: Providing burnout therapy in Los Angeles & beyond
My clients struggle like you do. Many work in high-stress professions that demand high performance. Despite being hardworking and laser-focused on reaching their goals, life still feels hard–even empty or meaningless at times.
I help high achieving go-getters struggling with burnout move towards more balance, healthier relationships, and a better sense of who they are outside of work without guilt or resentment.
Putting your own mental health first can feel uncomfortable, but it's so necessary. You deserve support.
My approach to therapy for burnout
I take an in-depth approach to addressing burnout in my private practice. Through years of clinical experience working with high achievers, I have found that the most effective way to address burnout is by reflecting on ongoing experiences and stressors that contribute to your current difficulties. This allows us to find patterns and create intentional shifts to bring you gain more peace and fulfillment from your life.
Together, we'll also process the difficult emotions that come along with burnout. Many high achievers experience guilt, shame, perfectionism, imposter syndrome, and feelings of insecurity that can cause relationship difficulties and make it hard to maintain a healthy balance and meaning in life.
I cultivate a warm, engaging online therapy space for all my clients. While I'm serious about your well-being, growth, and self care, I also believe that bringing lightness and imagination into our work together is essential to treat burnout.
I see therapy as a space where you can fully be yourself. While you may put on a front at work or with the people in your life, therapy is an environment where you can feel safe to be your most vulnerable, authentic self.
By tapping into your true needs, desires, values, and personal goals, we can help you create a more balanced, meaningful life outside of your career.
What we'll address in burnout therapy
We'll tailor your treatment to your own unique situation. However, there are many common themes that I explore when treating clients struggling with burnout. Here are a few examples about the kinds of burnout-related issues we can address together:
Emotional and mental health problems
Burnout can cause so many issues–and it can also be a symptom of deeply ingrained mental and emotional patterns.
Therapy for burnout can help with problems like feelings of depression, anxiety, perfectionism, low self esteem, loss of purpose, difficulty relaxing or finding time for self care, lack of hobbies, loneliness, difficulty being present, and using work to avoid uncomfortable feelings or other challenges in your personal life.
Loss of happiness and meaning in life
I believe that effective burnout treatment has two main pillars: finding meaning outside of work and cultivating inner happiness.
Oftentimes, high achievers get their entire sense of self from their career. This leads to overwork, overwhelm, and ultimately burnout.
Together, we'll do the deeper work to help you find passion and purpose in your personal life.
Relationship challenges
As a high achiever, you tend to put your career first. This leaves relationships on the back burner, which can cause problems over time.
In burnout therapy, we'll explore burnout-related relationship issues such as difficulty setting boundaries, people pleasing, marital or romantic conflict, and even dealing with difficult parents.
Problems in your professional life
While your ambition has helped you go far in your career, it can also lead to burnout if left unchecked.
Burnout can then cause professional impairment, leading to negative consequences at work such as overworking, paralyzing perfectionism, guilt about taking time off, codependent relationships with work and coworkers, loss of joy and meaning from work, enduring toxic work environments, imposter syndrome, and struggling with career transitions.
As a therapist for doctors, I also specialize in treating physician burnout.
FAQs about therapy for burnout
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There are many different kinds of mental health providers. All have slightly different education, training, and credentials. For example, a licensed clinical professional counselor typically has a master's degree in the mental health field. Clinical social workers have a master's degree in social work. Each individual professional has different experience through their own clinical practice.
As a clinical psychologist, I have a PhD doctorate degree in psychology and over a decade of experience in helping high-achieving professionals like you transform their relationships and find meaning beyond their career. I have extensive clinical experience working with high achievers from all sorts of backgrounds–healthcare, law, tech, finance, entrepreneurship, and activism spaces. I also have a particular subspecialty working in therapy with physicians struggling with burnout and other concerns. You can learn more about me here.
I’m licensed in both Texas and California. Providing online therapy helps me support professionals in cities across both states–in other words, I’m not only a burnout therapist in Los Angeles, Santa Monica, Beverly Hills, Westwood, Culver City, and West Hollywood. I’m also a burnout therapist in San Francisco, San Jose, Palo Alto, San Diego, Dallas, Austin, Houston, and more.
In fact, I can see you in my practice to address your burnout if you’re located anywhere in California or Texas!
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As a former management consultant and investment banking analyst, I know how difficult it can be to manage stress in an intense career. Confronting burnout and staying consistent with self care practices isn't easy, but it's entirely possible.
Those of us who identify as high achievers or perfectionists can often feel like working even harder is the answer to all our problems. It can feel unnatural to set boundaries around work. For many, it takes reaching a complete breaking point to realize it's time to make a change. But why wait for things to get that bad to seek help and support? I don’t want that for you.
Whether you've reached your edge or are interested in preventing burnout, therapy can help. I offer online therapy, which many busy professionals like you prefer. With virtual sessions, we cut out commute time to and from a counseling office. You can log on to the secure platform in an instant. In our work together, we will also find ways to help you manage the initial discomfort of taking time for yourself.
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There is no one formula for coping with burnout. It's important to find what works for you, which can take some trial and error. Self-help resources, such as TED Talks, books, podcasts, or other resources can be helpful options.
Establishing a self care routine can help you heal, too. Some common self care activities include eating a healthy diet, regular physical activity, getting enough sleep, and spending time outside.
However, it's also important to remember that “self care” alone isn't a cure for burnout. Rather, it's just one part of your recovery process.
Building both meaning and happiness can help you recover from burnout and find true fulfillment. When we prioritize one without paying attention to the other, we can often find ourselves feeling like something is missing. What do I mean by that?
Happiness without meaning can look like “quick dopamine hit” behaviors that feel good in the moment but can hurt us over the long term. Think things like routinely binging a box of chocolates in front of the TV or wine nights that turn into wine weeks.
On the other hand, seeking meaning in life without also attending to happiness can leave high-achieving go-getters feeling empty, depleted, and resentful. You may achieve great things in some parts of life (e.g., career, family or friendship, parenting, and other purpose-driven pursuits), but at the expense of joy and lasting fulfillment.
In-depth therapy provides you with the most personalized support in healing from burnout. Together, we'll explore the patterns that have contributed to your burnout, identify where and how to set boundaries, heal your relationships, and so much more.
Working with a therapist can help you address and prevent burnout
You deserve to feel worthy and purposeful in a way that isn’t defined by your accomplishments.
Being able to fully enjoy the life you’ve worked so hard for doesn’t have to be out of reach.
Our virtual therapy space can be a safe place for you to land amongst the ongoing stressors at work and in your personal life. I meet my clients with deep curiosity and compassion–I'm interested in getting to know the real you, beyond your achievements and career.
If you want to discover who you really are and feel secure in it, I’d love to help you get there. Contact me for a free consultation to get started. Together, we can reconnect you to your purpose and help you build a more fulfilling, well-rounded life.
Together, we can work in therapy to support you as you face issues such as ⟶
Difficulties finding time for yourself
Difficulties relaxing
Guilt about taking time off
Codependent relationship with work/coworkers
Low self-esteem
Depression
Anxiety
Perfectionism
Imposter syndrome
Being present in your personal life
Life and career transitions
Toxic work environments and relationships
Using work to avoid things in your personal life
Difficulties setting boundaries
Loneliness
Growing up with “tiger” parents
Boredom outside of work
Loss or lack of hobbies
Loss of joy and meaning from work
Loss of purpose
College to career transition
Activist burnout
Marital / romantic conflict
Coping with demanding workplaces
I maintain my licenses in California and Texas and also participate in PSYPACT, meaning that through online therapy, I am able to see clients based anywhere in California, Texas, or any of the following PSYPACT participating states:
Alabama
Arizona
Arkansas
Colorado
Connecticut
Delaware
District of Columbia
Georgia
Idaho
Illinois
Indiana
Kansas
Kentucky
Maine
Maryland
Michigan
Minnesota
Mississippi
Missouri
Nebraska
Nevada
New Hampshire
New Jersey
North Carolina
Ohio
Oklahoma
Pennsylvania
Rhode Island
South Carolina
South Dakota
Tennessee
Texas
Utah
Vermont
Virginia
Washington
West Virginia
Wisconsin
Wyoming