Executive Therapy caters to the idiomatic needs of C-suite executives or C-suite leaders. These individuals typically have high-stress roles and this specialized approach recognizes that pressures of leadership can uniquely impact one’s functionality and seeks to offer TARGETed support. The modality delves deep into the intersection between professional challenges and personal well-being.
Executive Therapy offers a safe space to confront and resolve deep-seated issues leading to profound personal healing. These may come from childhood messages that shape self-perception or adult lived experiences that leave you doubting your abilities. Working with a therapist can help untangle the nexus of experiences and emotions they bring.
The Distinctive Challenges Faced by C-suite Executives
Executives navigate an intricate landscape of responsibilities warranting high-functionality and risk-taking. Consistent use of the brain to meet the needs could leave these individuals feeling compromised. Contributing factors include:
- The onus of making decisions that impact the entire organization and the life of many
- Being on top of the hierarchy making it lonely without social engagement for problem-solving
- The overwhelming demands that impact time and self-care, lowering levels of mindfulness and ultimately leading to burnout
- Unconscious development of perfectionism and imposter syndrome that result in decision-paralysis, unrealistic standards of self and ultimately self-doubt
Leadership brings its own set of perils. High-achieving professionals, bare challenges that are unequivocally more demanding and the weight of the decision-making often leads to burnout slowly bleeding into their personal wellbeing. A 2019 Study by UC Berkley (Freeman, M.A., Staudenmaier, P.J., Zisser, M.R. et al., 2019) was testament to this where it found 72% of entrepreneurs to be with mental health challenges. Studies have further elaborated that sub-threshold psychiatric temperaments may influence entrepreneurs’ affect, cognition, energy, motivation, circadian rhythms, activity levels, self-concept, creativity, and interpersonal behaviors in ways that influence business outcomes. In this situations embarking on an Executive Therapy journey will support C-Suite leaders need to navigate the complexities of their roles with confidence and resilience.
“Courage doesn’t happen when you have all the answers. It happens when you are ready to face the questions you have been avoiding your whole life.”
― Shannon L. Alder
10 Reasons why Executive Therapy
1. Maximizing Potential through improved Work Ethic and Productivity
2. Aligning personal values with professional objectives and creating a roadmap to success and away from trust and equity deficit
3. Untangling complex human emotions and harmonizing your worlds
4. Development of an integrative identity that strengthens decision making
5. Engaging in deep transformative work that promotes wellbeing and personal resolution of early year influences and/or traumas
6. Combat negative/maladaptive behaviors and replace them with healthy, productive strategies
7. Uncover blind spots through enhanced self-awareness
8. Building insights and strategies to tackle herculean situations with ease
9. Work-life balance that fosters healing and positive relationships
10. Develop the skills necessary to identify mental health red flags throughout the organization and build a sustainable workplace culture
Quantum Change through Executive Therapy
A holistic approach to Executive Therapy curated by Dr Sharanya Anil Bajaj is employed to enable Quantum Change through Individualized integrative therapies. It synergizes strategies from difference therapeutic approaches based on the distinct needs of each client. Through this integration Quantum Change is achieved through a more flexible and inclusive approach than any singular practice of psychotherapy. The blending of approach will be dependent on the individual’s mental, physical, and emotional health. Clients have a voice and agency within the therapeutic dyad and in bringing meaning to their healing process.
Modalities used within Quantum Change include (but not limited to):
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy: trains clients to stop avoiding, denying, and struggling with their inner emotions. Instead, the focus is to accept that these profound feelings are congruent to certain situations. Taking committed action for personal growth is the core belief through cognitive diffusion, acceptance, being present, self as a construct, and value building
Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT): combines cognitive and behavior aspects to assist clients identify negative thoughts, behaviors, and beliefs. These are structured and reframed to more positive experiences. CBT has proven to be an effective treatment for bipolar disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), anxiety, and depression.
Dialectical Behavior therapy (DBT): incorporates aspects of CBT to help clients live in the moment, cope with stress, improve communication skills, and regulate emotions. DBT builds on tolerance, acceptance and sustainability in order to positively change a client’s behavior.
Existential therapy: explores mental health challenges from a philosophical perspective, encouraging clients to recognize their capacity for success. It focuses on free will, self-determination, and the search for meaning—often centering on the individual rather than on their symptoms.
Humanistic therapy: promotes the importance of being the best version of your true self and to bring fulfilment through authenticity. It believes that each individual views the world through their own lenses and perceptions built from their lived experiences. Further these views impact their choices and thereby everyday actions.
Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy: focusses on helping to control thoughts & feelings, rather than being controlled by them. It is a modified form of cognitive therapy that incorporates mindfulness practices that include present moment awareness, meditation, and breathing exercises.
Person Centred Therapy: aims to seek & tackle one’s own natural self-healing process. Also known as Rogerian therapy or client-based therapy, it employs a non-authoritative approach that allows clients to take lead in their sessions by which they discover their own solutions.
Psychodynamic therapy: is based on psychoanalysis. It targets the psychological roots of emotional pain through self-examination, open-ended questions, and free association. The focus is to alleviate mental health symptoms while helping clients live healthier lives.
“Psychotherapy isn’t a twentieth-century artifice imposed on nature, but the reinstatement of a natural healing process.”
― Patricia Love
Quantum Change 