Therapy for Work and Career Stress
Something about work is not working.
People do not always come to therapy saying, “I have a mental health disorder.” Sometimes they say, “I know what I need to do, and I’m still not doing it.” Or, “I don’t know if I need a different job or if I’m just going to have the same problem somewhere else.”
You may be doing well by every visible measure and still dread Monday. You may be falling behind and hiding how far. Or you may have several reasonable options and spend so much time trying to choose correctly that nothing changes.
I work with the psychological and behavioral side of work: what happens under pressure, what you avoid, what you keep trying, and how the pattern affects the rest of your life.
Dennard McInnis, LCSW-S, LCDC · McInnis Mental Health
In person in Austin | Telehealth in Texas, Arizona, Florida, and Nevada
Work stress is not always about working too much.
Sometimes you are carrying an unsustainable workload. Sometimes you can barely make yourself begin. Both deserve a closer look.
You may spend hours perfecting something nobody has asked you to perfect, then avoid the conversation that would actually move your work forward. You may resent being responsible for everyone while continuing to volunteer for more. A mistake may leave you so ashamed that you stop opening the messages that would help you address it.
The problem can also be boredom, lack of direction, or money that makes a job feel impossible to leave. Ambition can pull you toward a promotion while the responsibility that comes with it makes you hesitate. Criticism, conflict, and the possibility of failure can take up more room than the work itself.
Therapy for work stress starts by getting specific about which of these problems is happening. “I need to work harder” may not describe it accurately.
When the problem isn’t really “work”
A person who cannot tolerate disappointing a boss may also struggle to disappoint a partner. Someone who manages everyone’s emotions at work may do the same thing at home. The setting changes; the expectation may not.
You can understand perfectly well that avoiding an email for three weeks is making things worse and still feel unable to answer it. You can want a different career and keep waiting for certainty that no decision can provide. If being competent has become the condition for feeling okay about yourself, an ordinary mistake may feel like proof that you are a fraud.
Sometimes the important question is what happens when you encounter criticism, uncertainty, responsibility, or a loss of control.
That does not mean every work problem is secretly psychological. A job can be bad. A boss can be unreasonable. The workload can be unsustainable. Leaving can be the appropriate answer. Understanding your reactions should not require explaining away the conditions you are reacting to.
We need to determine which problem we are actually dealing with.
Observation before interpretation.
“I’m failing” is a conclusion. “I missed two deadlines and have not told my supervisor” gives us something to examine.
The McInnis Method moves from what is happening to what you expect, how you protect yourself, and what that protection does to your present life. In work and career stress, that can sound like this:
Reality
What is actually happening? What was said, assigned, completed, or left undone?
Threat
What are you predicting will happen? What do you expect if you make a mistake, disappoint someone, set a limit, are evaluated, or make a decision?
Protection
What are you doing to prevent or manage that outcome? Examples may include checking, delaying, overworking, staying quiet, avoiding, or taking over.
Function
What does that protection do for you in the short term? It may reduce anxiety, postpone conflict, preserve control, or keep you from being evaluated.
Cost
What is the protection costing you? What is getting worse while you're trying to protect yourself?
Capacity
What can you handle now? Do we need a smaller step?
Action
What can you do next that gives us new evidence? The goal is not action for its own sake. It is a workable action that lets us learn something about the outcome you expect.
We are not collecting explanations indefinitely. The next question is what you will do differently and what happens when you do it.
Learn how the McInnis Method works →What this looks like in therapy
Bring me an actual moment.
If you tell me, “My job is destroying me,” I am likely to want an actual week.
What happened Monday? What happens when you open your email? Which interaction with your boss are you replaying? What task are you avoiding, what are you doing instead, and what happens immediately after you avoid it? What happens at home that night?
For example, putting off a reply may lower your anxiety for an hour. By evening, the unanswered message may have become evidence in your mind that you cannot handle the job. You may then spend the night rehearsing the conversation rather than having it.
We slow the sequence down. What happened? What did you expect would happen? What did you do next? Then we figure out what you can do differently.
This is individual psychotherapy, not productivity coaching. The purpose is to understand the pattern well enough to change it, including the parts that a better calendar will not solve.
You may not need more insight.
You may already know why disappointing people feels dangerous. Another explanation may add very little. Saying no to one manageable request, then observing what actually happens, may tell you something the explanation cannot.
If you fear rejection, applying for a position may provide new information. If a task feels overwhelming, beginning one defined part before you feel ready may let you discover what you can do. If you fear making the wrong career decision, more analysis can eventually become another way not to decide.
None of this means forcing yourself through something just to prove you can. Saying no in a workplace that punishes it carries a different risk from saying no where you have never tested the expectation. Capacity, circumstances, and consequences matter.
The experiment should be small enough to attempt and meaningful enough to learn from. We look at what happened afterward, including what was harder than expected, and adjust from there.
Sometimes you do not need another explanation. You need new evidence.
Separate the event from the verdict.
For many men, work becomes tied to competence, independence, providing, respect, and being useful. Being needed can become part of how you see yourself. So can being capable, staying in control, and not falling behind. None of that describes every man, but it can turn a problem at work into a judgment about who you are.
A bad review becomes “I’m failing.” Losing a job becomes “I’m useless.” Earning less than expected becomes “I’m behind.” Not knowing what career you want becomes “Something is wrong with me.”
Those events can have serious practical consequences. They still do not establish every conclusion you draw about yourself.
We can look at the review, the loss, the financial pressure, or the uncertainty without accepting a verdict about your entire worth. Observation before interpretation applies to what you tell yourself too.
Work problems can become relationship problems.
Work anxiety can follow you home long after there is anything useful you can do about it. Burnout may show up as irritability. Shame may become withdrawal. Career uncertainty can turn into repeated requests for reassurance that never quite settle the question.
Financial pressure can create conflict. Feeling powerless at work may lead to attempts to regain control elsewhere. Resentment can leave less attention and patience for a partner or children. Hiding missed deadlines, job concerns, or avoided decisions can create secrecy and mistrust.
These connections are worth examining rather than assuming. Work may be contributing to a relationship problem without explaining all of it. And an explanation does not erase responsibility for what you do when you get home.
We can look at both parts of the day: what happened at work and what happened in the conversation that night.
When should you leave?
“Do I need to leave this job?” is a question we can examine. I cannot answer it responsibly from the fact that you feel miserable or from the fact that the job looks good on paper.
We need to separate several questions:
- What is objectively happening at work, and what could realistically change?
- What have you actually tried, and what happened when you tried it?
- What are you afraid will happen if you stay? What are you afraid will happen if you leave?
- What are the financial and relationship realities of each option?
- Are you staying because it is the best current option, or because leaving creates uncertainty?
- Are you leaving because the job is untenable, or because leaving offers immediate relief from something you may encounter again elsewhere?
Sometimes leaving is the right answer. Sometimes the job can work if something changes. And sometimes you have to make the decision without knowing for sure how it will turn out.
You may not get certainty. I want you to understand why you're making the decision and be prepared to deal with what comes next. Practical constraints still matter.
You can bring the problem before you know what to call it.
This work may fit if you are dealing with pressure or burnout, performance anxiety or avoidance, workplace conflict or difficulty setting limits. You may be responsible for other people and unsure how to carry that responsibility without carrying everything.
Job loss, a career transition, or a decision you keep postponing may be what brings you in. Or you may still be employed and outwardly successful while fear of failure, professional shame, or uncertainty is shaping more of your life than you want.
You do not need a polished explanation. Feeling stuck despite knowing what needs to change is something we can examine.
I work with men, young adults, and older teen boys where developmentally appropriate, including the pressure around early work experiences and decisions about what comes next.
I am a therapist. I do not provide recruiting, resume writing, vocational testing, career placement, or employment law advice. We can work on the anxiety, avoidance, conflict, and decisions involved without treating therapy as one of those services.
Work happens inside real organizations.
My clinical work dates to 2010, with earlier experience in human services. That work has included juvenile justice, substance use treatment, psychiatric and emergency mental health, hospital social work, clinical supervision, quality assurance and utilization management, and private practice.
I have worked in systems with hierarchy, competing expectations, pressure, and real consequences. That experience informs how I look at work. Your response is part of the picture; the organization you are responding to is part of it too.
About Dennard McInnis →You may not need someone to tell you to work harder.
You may need to understand why the strategy you are using keeps producing the same result.
We can look at what is actually happening, what you are protecting yourself from, what the protection is costing you, and what you can do next.
The free 15 minute consultation is a chance to describe what brings you in, ask questions, and get a sense of how I work.
Schedule a free consultationIn-person therapy in Austin
Telehealth in Texas, Arizona, Florida, and Nevada