Professional life · Individual therapy · Chicago
Therapy for startup founders in Chicago
Building something new can involve frequent changes, uncertainty, and a strong personal investment in the outcome. It may feel hard to admit that the pace or responsibility is affecting you.
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What you may be noticing
- Feeling unable to step away
- Mood tied closely to business developments
- Pressure to appear certain when you are not
Your experience may look different. These examples are starting points for a conversation.
How we can work on this
We can consider how the founder role interacts with anxiety, identity, and self-expectations. Therapy can help you examine what is sustainable and how to make room for support while living with uncertainty.
I am Sam Rustum, LCPC. My work is collaborative: we will discuss your priorities, choose a starting point, and check whether our approach is useful to you.
When uncertainty occupies every available hour
A change in the business may shift your mood before you have had time to think about it. You might move quickly from confidence to fear, then feel responsible for presenting certainty to everyone else. We can make room to discuss the parts of that experience you keep off the agenda.
For example, we could look at what happens after an uncertain conversation with an investor, colleague, or potential customer. What do you predict next? What would the outcome seem to mean about you? Do you become more controlling, stop sleeping well, or withdraw from people outside the business?
We can explore those reactions and the meaning of the founder role in your life. A practical experiment may involve deciding when to revisit a worry, naming a need to someone you trust, or protecting one commitment outside work. The point is to examine what happens when you respond differently. We can also discuss loneliness, changes in relationships, and the question of who you are when the business is still unresolved.
Questions you may be asking
Can I talk about doubts I do not share with my team?
Yes. Therapy can be a place to understand those doubts and their effect on you. We can discuss your emotional experience without including proprietary information or details that others have entrusted to you.
What if I feel guilty doing anything outside the startup?
We can examine what stepping away seems to risk and how you decide when you have done enough. That helps us identify a boundary or expectation worth exploring in a realistic way.
Does therapy mean changing my ambition?
We can explore what ambition means to you and how you want it to fit with relationships, health, and other priorities. Your goals guide the work; we do not need to assume a particular career decision.
A place to begin
Let’s make room for what you need.
A free 15-minute consultation gives us a chance to talk about what is difficult, answer your questions, and consider whether working together fits what you need.