Therapist for Founders, Executives, & Entrepreneurs in LA & the Bay Area SF
Support for burnout, anxiety, leadership pressure, and the weight of building something that depends on you
We offer limited slots of in-person therapy for founders, executives, and entrepreneurs at our Los Angeles office, Pasadena office, and Highland Park offices, alongside virtual therapy using a HIPAA-compliant platform for clients who live in California, Washington, and some countries beyond the USA. Our in-person offices proudly serve Highland Park, Eagle Rock, Mount Washington, Pasadena, DTLA, Silverlake, Culver City, & West LA.
Teletherapy
Information
Young Asian woman
For leaders who carry everything, and are tired of carrying it alone.
You've built something people depend on. From the outside, it looks like success. Inside, it can feel like constant pressure, a mind that won't turn off, and a growing distance from the people and the parts of yourself that matter most.
And Oak and Stone Therapy in Los Angeles, Highland Park, Pasadena, and online across California, including San Francisco Bay Area and Silicon Valley, and online across Washington state, our therapists help founders, startup CEOs, executives, entrepreneurs, senior leadership like you understand what's driving you, recover from burnout, and lead from steadiness instead of survival to navigate the rollercoaster of emotions and situations through your journey.
What Our Founders, Executives, & Entrepreneurs Often Say
The Weight You Carry As a Leader
Leading means holding pressure most people never see: payroll, investors, your team, and decisions that can't wait. Over time, your nervous system stops standing down, and even good days feel like bracing for the next problem. For many of the founders, executives, and entrepreneurs we work with, the pressure runs deeper than work: family expectations, the fear of failing, and the habit of never showing struggle. Therapy helps you understand what's fueling the overdrive, so you can lead with clarity instead of running on adrenaline.
This often looks like:
Burnout: running on empty, only stopping when your body forces you to
Fear and money pressure: worrying about runway, payroll, or losing everything you've built
Anxiety: 3 a.m. worst-case scenario thinking and a body that's always on alert
Decision fatigue: second-guessing calls you used to make easily
Poor sleep: tired in a way rest doesn't fix
How Our Therapists Help:
We help you calm an overworked nervous system and recover from burnout without stepping away from what you've built. Sessions combine practical tools for stress, sleep, and decision-making with Brainspotting, a brain-body approach that releases the pressure talk alone can't reach. Early morning, evening, and online sessions fit around your schedule.
How Your Mind Works Under Pressure
The traits that built your success can also wear you down. A fast, creative, risk-taking mind thrives in a crisis but can struggle with focus and follow-through, and a harsh inner critic keeps you performing long after it stops helping. We help you work with how your mind is wired, and we offer adult ADHD assessments for many of our neurodivergent founders, executives, and entrepreneurs.
This often looks like:
ADHD: brilliant in a crisis, unfinished ideas, stuck on email and other “boring” tasks
Overwhelm: too many priorities and not enough follow-through
Imposter syndrome: waiting to be found out, even after real success
Perfectionism: every win just raises the bar
How Our Therapists Help:
We offer ADHD assessments, collaborate with psychologists and psychiatrists when appropriate, for our founders, executives, and entrepreneurs and ADHD therapy built around how your brain actually works, with structure that sticks, strategies for focus and follow-through, and less shame along the way. For perfectionism and imposter syndrome, we help you quiet the inner critic and build confidence that doesn't depend on the next win.
How You Cope, and What It Costs
When there's no room to feel, pressure finds an exit. Habits that start as relief can slowly become one more thing to manage, and constantly overriding your own needs can leave you disconnected from yourself. We approach these patterns without judgment, using talk therapy and body-based Brainspotting, alongside medical or recovery support when needed.
This often looks like:
Numbing: a drink to turn your brain off, endless scrolling, gaming, drugs, or porn
Risky escapes: gambling, impulsive spending, or overworking to avoid feeling
Disconnection: not knowing what you feel, only what needs to get done
Living on autopilot: present in every meeting, absent from your own life, losing sight of the vision of why you started your company
How Our Therapists Help:
We work with you, without judgment, to understand what you're escaping from, build insight about the patterns of your underlying pain and unhelpful coping mechanisms, and build healthier ways to decompress. Restoration Therapy provides a highly structured approach to the insight and experiential work to lay the foundation while Brainspotting helps reconnect you with your body and emotions. When needed, we coordinate with medical and recovery providers so you have full support. Everything you share stays confidential.
The higher you rise, the harder it is to be fully known. You carry hard decisions alone, and the pressure follows you home to the people who matter most. Therapy gives you a confidential place to be fully human, lead with compassion, and reconnect with your relationships. For our founders, executives, startup CEOs, and entrepreneurs, we also offer couples therapy for couples who run a company together or where one partner is a founder and the other is not, and co-founders therapy when the strain is shared tailored to the unique dynamics of entrepreneur life.
This often looks like:
Loneliness at the top: no one you can tell the whole truth to
Hard decisions: guilt after layoffs or letting people go
Leadership patterns: snapping at your team, struggling to delegate, needing control
Relationship strain: a partner who says you're there, but not really there; there’s a constant blurring of lines between work and personal life
Family distance: giving your best to work and your leftovers at home.
Leading and Loving
How Our Therapists Help:
Individual therapy gives you a confidential space to process hard decisions and grow as a leader. When the strain is shared, couples therapy helps you and your partner reconnect, and co-founder therapy helps business partners work through conflict and rebuild trust.
Who You Are Beyond the Work
For many high achievers, the drive started long before the company: love that felt earned, parents who sacrificed everything, or a family where struggling wasn't allowed. For children of immigrants, that pressure can carry generations. And sometimes, reaching the goal brings emptiness instead of relief. Therapy helps you keep your ambition without being run by it, and build a life with meaning beyond the next milestone.
This often looks like:
Family pressure: feeling like you can never fail or slow down
Constant proving: not knowing who you are if you're not achieving
Emptiness after success: having everything you wanted and feeling nothing
Identity loss: shaken after an exit, layoff, failed round, or stepping down
How Our Therapists help:
We help you understand the roots of your drive, heal the pressure you inherited, and build a sense of self that doesn't depend on achievement. Our work integrates the highly structured Restoration Therapy approach with somatic Brainspotting with an understanding of family, culture, and the experience of children of immigrants, so you can keep your ambition and still feel at peace.
Frequently Asked Questions
In-person therapy at our Highland office, with nearby offices in Pasadena and Los Angeles Office in Koreatown. Virtual therapy across California and Washington State.
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Yes. We see founders, executives, and entrepreneurs in person at our Pasadena, Highland Park, and Koreatown offices, and online across Los Angeles, including Downtown LA, the Westside, and Silicon Beach communities like Santa Monica, Venice, Playa Vista, and Culver City.
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Yes. Our Pasadena office serves founders, executives, and professionals from Pasadena's startup, tech, and research community, as well as South Pasadena, La Cañada Flintridge, San Marino, Altadena, and Glendale. Early morning and evening appointments are available, depending on therapist availability.
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Yes. We offer online therapy for founders, executives, and tech leaders across the Bay Area, including San Francisco, Palo Alto, Menlo Park, Mountain View, Sunnyvale, San Jose, the Peninsula, and the East Bay, including Oakland and Berkeley.
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Yes. Our online therapy is available to clients located anywhere in California, including Orange County, Irvine, San Diego, and Sacramento. Sessions are secure, HIPAA-compliant video appointments that fit around a demanding schedule.
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Yes. Many of our clients in Los Angeles meet in person when they can and switch to online sessions during busy or travel-heavy weeks, so therapy stays consistent even when your calendar isn't.
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We can meet online whenever you are located in California or Washington State. Because therapy licenses are state-based, sessions while you're traveling outside California depend on that state's rules, so we'll plan ahead with you to keep your care consistent. Some countries beyond the USA are also allowed, so please inquire during the consultation call.
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Executive coaching focuses on the future: goals, performance, leadership skills, and accountability. Therapy goes deeper, to the patterns, pressure, and history that drive burnout, anxiety, perfectionism, and strain in your relationships. Therapy is health care provided by licensed clinicians and is confidential under California law; coaching is not therapy and isn't a substitute for mental health treatment. Many leaders benefit from both at different times.
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Yes, through Indwell, our sister coaching venture. Indwell offers coaching for leaders who want to grow with clarity, purpose, and self-awareness without the clinical focus of therapy. If you're unsure which fits, a free consultation can help you decide. We don't provide therapy and coaching to the same person at the same time, so each stays focused on what you need.
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Yes. Through Indwell, our coaching sister venture, we offer coaching and workshops for leadership teams on topics like communication, burnout, and working through conflict. Your individual therapy stays completely separate and confidential, and the person who leads your team's work is never your own therapist.
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Yes. Depending on therapist availability, we offer early morning, evening, and weekend appointments, in person and online, so therapy can fit around a demanding schedule.
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Yes. Most of our founders, executives, and entrepreneurs, aren't looking to walk away from what they've built. Therapy helps you understand what's driving the burnout, set sustainable boundaries, and recover your energy and focus while you keep leading.
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Yes. When the strain is between co-founders, we offer co-founder therapy to help partners work through conflict, rebuild trust, and make decisions together. Learn more about co-founder therapy.
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Yes. We specialize in working with founder couples—whether both partners run a company together or one partner is a founder and the other is not. These relationships often carry unique pressures: blurred work‑life boundaries, decision‑making stress, leadership roles at home and at work, and the emotional load of building something that impacts both partners. We help couples navigate communication, conflict, power dynamics, and the relational strain that can come with entrepreneurship or running a business together.
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Yes. Many of our clients are Asian American founders, executives, entrepreneurs, and children of immigrants who carry family expectations, pressure to succeed, and a reluctance to show struggle. We understand these dynamics firsthand and work with leaders of every background.
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The following therapists work closely with founders, executives, and leaders in tech and creative industries:
Hatty J. Lee, LMFT #83772, founder and clinical director of Oak and Stone Therapy
Elizabeth Rhee, LMFT #122155, clinical supervisor
Hanna Byeon, LMFT CA#126398 & WA #LF61325898, clinical supervisor (sees founders, executives, and entrepreneurs in California and Washington state)
Michelle Park, registered Associate MFT #165227 who works under supervision
Kate Han, Registered Associate MFT 158365 who works under supervision
Samuel Kim, LMFT #141541
During your free consultation, we'll match you with the therapist who best fits your goals and schedule.