Career & Work Support
with Erik Giles, LCSW (he/him)
Therapy for professionals, managers, executives, and other adults dealing with work stress, burnout, job decisions, identity, and what comes next.
Work takes up more of life than people like to admit. Sometimes the problem is obvious: you hate your job, feel burned out, dread Monday morning, or know you need to make a change. Other times it is harder to name. On paper, the role may look stable or successful, but something about it no longer fits. You may feel trapped between security and honesty, or you may know exactly what you want and still feel frozen by the consequences.
I work with professionals, managers, executives, and other adults who want therapy from someone who actually understands the work world from the inside. Before becoming a therapist, I spent more than 25 years in corporate environments across different industries and roles. I know what it is like to move from one level to another, to manage staff, sit through strategy meetings, deal with performance reviews, survive an audit, plan a budget, change jobs, get stuck in a search, and wonder whether the version of success you built still fits the person you are now.
This work is not just about what job to take. It is about identity, pressure, decision-making, and how work can quietly take over your sense of self. Therapy can help you think more clearly, move toward what you actually want, and stop organizing your whole life around avoiding the thing you do not like.
Why Work Problems Are Rarely Just About Work
A lot of the time people come in saying they have a work problem, but the deeper issue is not just the job itself. It is the way work has fused with identity. Who are you when the title changes? Who are you when your role no longer reflects your values? Who are you if you are successful at work but disconnected as a partner, parent, or person outside the office?
Work can become the most socially rewarded part of your life, which makes it very hard to question. It can also become the place where anxiety, perfectionism, fear of failure, and people-pleasing hide in plain sight. That is one reason work therapy is so useful. It lets us look beyond the logistics and ask what the job is doing inside the rest of your life.
Is the Problem the Decision, or Living with the Decision?
One of the first things I listen for is whether you are trying to make a decision or whether you have already made it and are struggling to live with it. Those are not the same problem. Sometimes you really do need to sort through options. Other times you already know you need to leave, stay, step back, take the role, or reject it, and the harder part is accepting the fallout.
That is where people often get stuck. They tell themselves they do not know what to do when the real issue is that they know what they want but do not yet feel ready to own the cost. Therapy helps us separate those two problems so you can stop circling and start moving.
I Understand Leadership Pressure, Transitions, and Isolation
I work especially well with people moving between roles, questioning a next step, or carrying the loneliness that can come with leadership. A lot of senior professionals have people around them all day and still feel like nobody really has their back. A lot of junior professionals feel overwhelmed because the working world seems built on unwritten rules nobody ever taught them.
I understand both ends of that range. I have worked with people in first jobs, managers becoming directors, directors becoming senior leaders, and executives trying to stay grounded while carrying pressure nobody else quite sees. That lived experience changes the therapy. I am not responding to work issues abstractly. I know what that world sounds like, feels like, and does to people over time.
This Is Not Career Coaching
There are people who do excellent career coaching, resume work, and job-search consulting. This is not that. We can absolutely talk through your search, your positioning, or the practical side of how to think about a move, but the deeper work here is therapeutic. We are looking at fear, identity, values, paralysis, burnout, and the patterns that keep you from moving toward what you actually want.
That also means I am not going to hide behind therapeutic vagueness if I see something clearly. If it sounds like you are in the wrong role, if your values do not fit the culture, or if you are trying to force yourself into a path that has never really fit, I will say so. You do not have to take my advice. But I am not going to sit silently just because the topic involves work.
What I Help Clients Work On
- Burnout, dread, and chronic work stress
- Job changes, career transitions, and fear of leaving
- Leadership pressure and the isolation of senior roles
- Performance reviews, negative feedback, and impostor syndrome
- Unemployment, job search stress, and starting over
- Work identity and overinvestment in achievement
- Balancing ambition with partnership, parenting, and the rest of life
- Making peace with a difficult but necessary career decision
How This Work Connects
You may also be interested in:
✔ Decisions & Transitions
✔ Men’s Issues
✔ Financial Challenge Issues
Looking for another therapist who works with work stress and career issues? You may also be a good fit with Jacob Nathan, LSW.
Frequently Asked Questions About Career & Work Support
Is work really something to bring to therapy?
Absolutely. Work affects identity, relationships, routine, finances, stress level, and the way you see yourself. When work is off, it usually shows up everywhere else too. That makes it a very real therapy issue.
Can you help if I do not know whether I need a new job or a whole new direction?
Yes. That is one of the most common reasons people come in. Sometimes the issue is the job itself. Sometimes it is the role. Sometimes it is burnout, fear, or identity. Part of the work is figuring out what problem you are actually trying to solve.
Will you tell me what to do about my career?
I am not here to make the decision for you, but I am willing to tell you what I see. If a pattern seems obvious, if a role sounds like a mismatch, or if you are avoiding something you already know, I will say it. You still make the final decision.
Is this career coaching?
No. This is therapy. We can absolutely talk about practical work questions, but the deeper focus is on identity, values, fear, burnout, stress, and how to make decisions you can live with.