On Managing Anxiety Without Burning Out

Washington, DC is filled with high-performers who are driven, intelligent, and capable. Most care deeply about careers. Yet behind the accomplishments and polished appearances, many silently struggle with persistent anxiety, stress, and an undercurrent of severe burnout.

If that sounds like you, you’re not alone and you’re not broken. In fact, the traits that help you succeed (perfectionism, emotional control, hyper-responsibility) can also fuel your anxiety and relational disconnection. My perspective is that healing doesn’t mean giving up your edge. It means learning how to feel more grounded and connected, and how to have more agency in your life.

The Hidden Cost of High Achievement

High-functioning anxiety often hides in plain sight. You might look composed and successful, but inside it can feel like:

• Constant overthinking or analysis paralysis

• A relentless internal critic (“I should be doing more”)

• Difficulty relaxing even on weekends or vacations

• Sleep issues, tension, or physical symptoms and/or autoimmune disorders

• A sense of disconnection from yourself and/or others

Over time, this creates a cycle. You push harder to feel “in control,” but end up feeling more depleted, resentful, or numb.

Why Coping Strategies Stop Working

Many clients I work with have already tried all the “fixes”: productivity hacks, meditation apps, spa treatments. They’re smart and self-aware but nothing seems to change at a deeper level.

This is because anxiety does not live only in the brain. It lives in the body, in long-standing relational patterns, and in stories we have absorbed about who we need to be in order to be “enough.”

Trying to think your way out of anxiety often reinforces the loop. What is needed is a more integrated, body-mind approach that creates real, sustainable change.

Self-care is not about pedicures and bubble baths. It is about defining our own values, identifying our needs, and making often-difficult decisions to prioritize these needs. It usually requires the hard work of setting boundaries with other people in our lives, whether at work or at home.

A Different Approach: Body, Mind, and Relational Healing

In my work with clients, I combine body-based awareness, psychodynamic insight, and group therapy to address anxiety.

Body-focused Psychotherapy

Anxiety often shows up as a nervous system response, through sensations such as shallow breathing, tight chest, tense jaw. Body-based interventions like Sensorimotor Psychotherapy help us notice and regulate these patterns in real time without needing to explain or analyze everything. This can be a powerful way to bring your body out of survival mode.

Psychodynamic Therapy

Many high achievers internalize beliefs and unconscious survival patterns early in life such as “I have to be perfect to be loved,” or “I’m only valuable when I’m productive.” Psychodynamic work helps us connect the past with the present to uncover and gently shift these patterns and beliefs. This insight can help create space and agency between a stimulus and our automatic response.

Group Therapy

Often, the roots of burnout can be found in how you hold or do not hold onto your own needs vis a vis other people. So, one way to find relief is to practice identifying and asserting your needs in relationships. Group therapy provides a supportive space for this work.

You do not have to do more to be enough. You get to show up just as you are and that’s where healing begins.

What Real Change Looks Like

Clients I work with often say things like:

• “I finally sleep through the night.”

• “I’m not walking on eggshells in my relationships anymore.”

• “I can set boundaries without feeling like I’m doing something wrong.”

• “I actually feel like myself again.”

Healing does not mean becoming someone new. It means becoming more of yourself.

Your Next Step:

If you are feeling exhausted by anxiety, pressure, or a sense of disconnection, you’re not alone, and you don’t have to figure it out by yourself.

I offer individual and group therapy in Washington, DC for high-achieving, globally-minded professionals who are ready to live with more clarity, freedom, and connection.

Book a free 15-minute consultation to explore whether we’re a good fit.

You have done the hard part of holding it together. Now it is time to let someone hold space for you.