You hit every deadline, answer every email, and still lie awake replaying the one thing you could have done better. For a lot of Type A New Yorkers, the drive that helped build your career quietly eats away at mood, stamina level, and sometimes your professional achievement.
At The Midtown Practice, we help high achievers find relief from their unrelenting inner critic without asking you to lower your standards.
Who we work with
Our clients tend to be accomplished, self-aware, and privately exhausted. Many have never told anyone how much pressure they feel. You may recognize yourself in one of these:
- The law firm associate or finance analyst whose perfectionism and anxiety have outlasted the billable hours
- The founder or executive whose stress has stopped responding to more discipline
- The physician, resident, or healthcare worker running on empty in a system that rewards it
- The perfectionist who can’t stop revising, delegating, or apologizing
- The people pleaser who says yes reflexively and resents it later
- The creative or public-facing professional whose identity is fused to the work
- The young professional navigating adulthood, dating, and a first real apartment all at once
If any of that lands, you’re in the right place. We’re here to offer compassionate, evidence-based support to help you find true fulfillment and heal from burnout.
Meet our therapists for high achievers
Ariella Dagi, MD
I’m a psychiatrist and a psychotherapist, so you won’t have to split your care between two people or tell your story twice.
We’ll collaborate on your care, so we’ll decide together whether medication makes sense for your situation. My therapy style is both warm and candid, so I won’t shy away from speaking hard truths, but it will never be without compassion.
Before medicine, I lectured at MIT’s Sloan School, and that academic background helps me deeply understand my overachieving clients’ struggles.
- Credentials: Psychiatrist, Medical Doctor #294698
- Specialty Areas: Depression, anxiety, panic, OCD, relationships, self-image, life transitions, loss
- Availability: Virtual and in-person in New York
Danielle Esposito, LCSW
After almost twenty years of doing this, what I’ve found most impactful for my clients is the therapeutic relationship itself.
People change when they feel genuinely understood rather than evaluated—which is often a new experience for someone used to being measured and judged.
With high achievers, we often use this space to build trust that you can still be valued even when you aren’t producing. I also sit with many clients weighing career against family building, from first considering it through fertility, pregnancy, and postpartum.
- Credentials: Licensed Clinical Social Worker #082757
- Specialty Areas: Trauma, depression, anxiety, relationship issues, self-esteem, grief, life transitions
- Availability: Virtual and in-person in New York
Eve Josephson, LCSW
I spent the first part of my career in human resources, and I kept noticing the same thing: the highest performers were often the ones quietly struggling.
I found my passion for creating an emotionally supportive environment in that role, and that’s what inspired me to pursue my Master’s in Social Work at New York University.
Now, I use those same interpersonal skills to help my Type A clients get clear about what “feeling better” actually means to them, then take real steps toward lasting change.
- Credentials: Licensed Clinical Social Worker #102208
- Specialty Areas: Anxiety, depression, work/life balance
- Availability: Virtual and in-person in New York
Azat Oganesian, LCSW
People often come to me because something has reached a boiling point. They notice that they have a shorter fuse than usual, they’re panicking before presentations at work, or they’re leaning on ways of coping that aren’t truly serving them.
Together, we’ll build more effective tools you can use right away, and we’ll also take our time understanding where patterns of over-achieving began. What matters most to me is making sure that this feels like a room where you can say anything at all.
- Credentials: Licensed Clinical Social Worker #087559
- Specialty Areas: Anger management, depression, panic, anxiety, stress management, problem solving, trauma
- Availability: Virtual and in-person in New York
Jackie Siegal, LCSW
Before I became a therapist, I earned an MBA and spent years in corporate America, so when you describe the office politics, the ladder, or the dread before a performance review, know that I’ve lived it.
I try to bring some humor to the understandably serious work that is therapy, along with a practical approach to problem-solving.
I combine my lived experience with a blended psychodynamic and cognitive behavioral approach that both digs into old patterns while giving you tangible tools.
- Credentials: Licensed Clinical Social Worker
- Specialty Areas: Trauma, depression, anxiety, substance abuse, grief, relationship and family issues, career challenges
- Availability: Virtual and in-person in New York
Shira Lee Silver, LCSW-R
I recognize each person as a unique individual, which is why my approach to therapy isn’t rigid or prescriptive. I tailor our sessions to your specific needs and goals, creating customized treatment plans that are never one-size-fits-all.
Most of the people I work with are in their twenties and thirties, when career, identity, and relationships all seem to demand an answer at once.
My extensive training in ACT keeps us on a question high achievers rarely get asked: what would a richer, more fulfilling life—not just a more productive one—look like?
- Credentials: Licensed Clinical Social Worker #084692
- Specialty Areas: Depression, anxiety, panic, relationship issues, family conflict, grief, trauma, career challenges
- Availability: Virtual and in-person in New York
Cliff Sobel, MHC-LP
Before becoming a therapist, I ran an e-learning company as CEO and launched several startups, so I understand the world of high achievers from the inside out.
That history lets me move between roles as you need them—therapist for the anxiety and the strain it puts on your relationships, executive coach for the obstacle in front of your career.
My clients range from first-year analysts to CEOs, and the people I work with appreciate the lived experience I bring alongside my therapeutic training.
- Credentials: Mental Health Counselor – Limited Permit
- Specialty Areas: Anxiety, depression, stress, “gray divorce,” career challenges
- Availability: Virtual and in-person in New York
Jared Sossin, MHC-LP, NCC
A lot of what looks like ambition externally turns out to be a very effective way of avoiding something, and I have specialized training in precisely that—including ERP for OCD, where perfectionism and reassurance-seeking tend to live.
Sometimes I’ll gently challenge you to notice a contradiction you’ve been working around for years. Other times we’ll laugh, or sit in a silence that says plenty. I also bring a decade of meditation practice to this work.
- Credentials: Mental Health Counselor – Limited Permit
- Specialty Areas: Anxiety, depression, stress, OCD, ADHD, autism spectrum disorder, trauma, substance and behavioral addictions
- Availability: Virtual and in-person in New York
How therapy can help high achievers
Separating your worth from your output
When achievement becomes the only source of self-esteem, no sense of accomplishment lasts long. Therapy helps you build a more solid sense of identity so a bad quarter, a rejected pitch, or a mediocre review doesn’t feel like evidence about who you are as a person.
Understanding the anxiety underneath the drive
Type A patterns often run on fear: of falling behind, being found out, or disappointing someone. We work to identify what’s actually driving the engine. Many clients find that when their fear lessens, their ambition stays—it just costs far less to maintain.
Setting boundaries that actually hold
Pleasing people is a skill that gets rewarded until it doesn’t. Together we practice saying no, delegating without guilt, and tolerating the discomfort that follows. These are learnable behaviors, not fixed personality traits, and most clients see change faster than they expect.
Loosening the grip of perfectionism
Perfectionism promises safety and delivers paralysis. Approaches like ACT and ERP help you act on what matters without waiting for certainty or a flawless plan. The goal isn’t to stop caring about quality, but rather to create flexibility.
Our process
1. Connect
Schedule a complimentary 15-minute consultation with our highly trained Clinical Coordinator, Alli Malamut, by either:
- Call or text us at: 332-262-7077
- Email us at: info@midtownpractice.com
- Or complete the form below
2. Get matched
In order to find you an ideal fitting clinician or therapist, our Clinical Coordinator will want to learn more about you. Specifically, it would be helpful to hear about your concerns, personal preferences, and any relevant logistical matters (for example, in-person or video sessions? best time or day to meet?)
3. Check the fit
Connect with the clinician or therapist you are matched with to ask questions, share history, and make sure you feel comfortable about moving forward. If so, book your first session. If it does not feel right, circle back with us.
Schedule time to meet with your new clinician or therapist and work towards living a more fulfilling life! Over the years, we’ve found our thoughtful matching process is the surest way to find you an ideal clinician or therapist and achieve the best outcome for you.
FAQs about therapy for high achievers
Each session is your space to discuss whatever feels most pressing. We tend to notice many common themes with our high-achieving clients, including:
- Performance anxiety, imposter feelings, and fear of being found out
- Career direction, ambivalence, and what happens after the next promotion
- Relationships, dating, and commitment
- Family expectations and the pressure to keep succeeding
- Sleep, focus, and the physical symptoms of chronic stress
- What you actually want, separate from what you’re supposed to want
This isn’t meant to be an exhaustive list. If you identify as a high-achiever, perfectionist, or Type A, we’re here to support you.
Being “high-functioning” itself isn’t a mental health condition, but our overachieving clients often have similar struggles. We frequently treat:
- Generalized anxiety, social anxiety, and panic
- Depression that presents as flatness or apathy rather than sadness
- Obsessive-compulsive symptoms and perfectionism
- Burnout, chronic stress, and sleep disruption
- ADHD, especially when it surfaces as coping strategies stop working
- Disordered eating and overexercise
- Substance use as a way to power down at night
While these experiences can feel highly overwhelming, all are treatable. We offer both psychotherapy and psychopharmacology (medication) when appropriate.
Sometimes. For some people, relentless achievement began as a way to earn safety, approval, or attention in an environment where those weren’t guaranteed. That isn’t true for everyone, and ambition isn’t inherently a symptom. Several of our clinicians have specialized trauma training if that’s relevant to your experience.
There isn’t just one “best” type of therapy for high achievers, which is why we offer many. Acceptance and Commitment Therapy and CBT tend to resonate with results-oriented clients, ERP is the standard for OCD and perfectionism-driven rituals, and psychodynamic work is often what finally explains a long-standing pattern. Your clinician will tailor the approach to you.
Start working with a therapist for high achievers in NYC today
