Take Back Control
and enjoy life again
Therapy for High-Achieving Overthinkers
Helping thoughtful professionals in demanding careers find calm, confidence, and self-trust in work, love, and life.
Serving clients in New York, New Jersey, and Chicago.
Offering weekly therapy and EMDR intensives for
anxiety, stress, trauma, and life transitions.
Welcome
You’ve worked hard to build your success. You’re the one people count on – steady, thoughtful, and capable. But lately, it’s harder to turn off.
You’re not weak for feeling this way. You’ve learned to function in environments that reward control and composure.
Therapy can help you rebuild safety inside yourself so your confidence no longer depends on external approval or perfect outcomes.
When Overthinking Becomes Exhausting
You replay conversations in your mind, trying to figure out what you said or how it landed. You second-guess your decisions, whether they are big or small, until you’re mentally drained.
Even positive feedback doesn’t always quiet the worry. Your body stays tense, your thoughts keep looping, and rest never feels fully earned.
Why Doing More Stops Working
Many high-achievers cope by doing more and planning harder. Yet no matter how much you accomplish, it never feels like enough. As a result, rest never feels fully restorative, and even small moments of quiet can feel uncomfortable.
Sometimes the stress comes from a major life change such as a new role, a shifting relationship, or memories from the past resurfacing. Other times, it’s the ongoing pressure of high expectations and unclear feedback that keeps your nervous system in overdrive.
You may have tried mindfulness, journaling, or even therapy before. These can help you cope in the moment, but something deeper still feels stuck. You’re not broken. Your mind and body have simply learned to stay on alert.
Therapy can help you understand and calm this pattern so you can move through your days with more clarity, ease, and trust in yourself.
When Success Still Feels Like "Not Enough"
Even the most capable professionals get caught in cycles of overthinking and self-doubt.
On the outside, you may look confident and accomplished; inside, you question your worth and replay moments, wondering if you’ve missed something.
This quiet pressure to prove yourself again and again is often called imposter syndrome—and it can be exhausting.
These patterns don’t mean you’re a fraud. They’re learned survival strategies that once kept you safe, but now hold you back.
Therapy for anxiety and stress can help you understand where these patterns began and shift them with compassion.
As you begin to trust your own expertise, it becomes easier to take up space, share your ideas with confidence, and step into leadership or entrepreneurial roles.
Many clients find that as they feel more grounded in themselves, opportunities for growth and recognition at work follow naturally.
Explore how high-achievers can overcome imposter syndrome here.
Learning to quiet that inner pressure is not about lowering your standards. It’s about healing the patterns that keep your nervous system in constant overdrive.
That’s the work we do together in therapy: helping your body and mind find balance, so calm and confidence feel sustainable, not fragile.
How EMDR Therapy for Anxiety and Stress
Works to Calm the Mind and Body
Many of my clients are intelligent, capable professionals who have spent years relying on logic, planning, and achievement to feel safe. On the outside, they’re successful. Inside, they often feel tense, uncertain, or always “on.”
Therapy offers a space to slow down and understand what’s driving that pressure. Together, we bring curiosity and compassion to the patterns that once helped you cope but now keep you stuck.
In our work, you’ll begin to:
✔ Understand how your experiences (past or present) shape the way you respond to stress and self-doubt.
✔ Heal emotional wounds that keep your nervous system in constant overdrive.
✔ Rebuild self-trust so your confidence no longer depends on external approval or perfect performance.
✔ Create new ways of relating to yourself that feel grounded, balanced, and real.
You don’t need a crisis to begin this work. Many people come to therapy not because everything is falling apart, but because they’re ready for life to feel more aligned.
As you begin to reconnect with the parts of yourself that have been working too hard for too long, calm becomes less fleeting, confidence feels more natural, and rest finally feels earned.
Whether you’re managing ongoing anxiety, moving through a major life transition, or healing from trauma, therapy can help you build steadier confidence, clearer boundaries, and a deeper sense of ease in your daily life.
When you’ve spent years pushing through stress, slowing down can feel uncomfortable at first. But it’s in that slowing that change begins.
Therapy helps you learn to move through challenges without losing yourself, to meet pressure with steadiness instead of self-criticism.
WHY THERAPY?
It’s about understanding what’s underneath the pressure and finding steadier ways to respond. You’ve probably told yourself things like:
“I should be able to handle this.”
“I just need to push through.”
“Other people have it harder; I should be fine.”
But deep down, you know it’s not just stress. It’s the constant hum of pressure, the replaying of conversations, the never-ending mental checklist that won’t quiet down, even when you’re off the clock.
Therapy isn’t about fixing you. It’s about helping you understand what’s driving that inner pressure and finding steadier ways to meet life’s demands.
In our work together, therapy becomes a space to:
✔ Slow your mind and body enough to hear your own voice again.
✔ Understand why certain environments, people, or expectations trigger anxiety or self-doubt.
✔ Reconnect with your values so decisions feel more grounded and less reactive.
✔ Build the self-trust to lead, love, and live without constant second-guessing.
A Space to Finally Exhale
Even the most capable professionals need space to process, especially those who’ve built their success on composure.
You’re used to leading, not leaning.
Here, you can finally exhale.
Therapy can help you find clarity, confidence and relief
Right now, life might feel like an endless cycle of stress, self-doubt, and uncertainty.
But therapy can help you interrupt that cycle and build steadier confidence from within.
Through EMDR therapy for anxiety and stress, you can calm emotional overwhelm and create lasting change:
✔ Feel more confident in yourself and your decisions.
✔ Move through transitions with greater clarity and purpose.
✔ Heal from past wounds that keep you stuck.
✔ Break free from anxiety, perfectionism, and burnout.
✔ Step into this next chapter of life feeling grounded and empowered.
The best results come when you’re ready to invest in yourself.
If you’re open to insight and motivated to grow, therapy can help you reconnect with who you are and create a life that feels more authentic and free.
Once you’ve decided to begin, therapy becomes a steady place to pause, reflect, and grow at a pace that feels right for you.
Here’s what that process looks like in practice.
WHAT DOES THERAPY WITH ME LOOK LIKE?
My clients are bright, capable professionals who are used to solving problems on their own.
In therapy, we slow things down so you can understand yourself, not as a project to perfect, but as a person to reconnect with.
Here’s what our work together often looks like:
✔ We explore what’s weighing on you and the beliefs or memories that drive your anxiety or overthinking.
✔ We work gently with both insight and the body, helping you understand how your nervous system reacts to stress and how to calm it.
✔ We build tools for steadier confidence and focus, so you can respond to challenges without spiraling or shutting down.
My approach blends insight-oriented therapy and EMDR, a trauma-informed method that helps the mind and body process stress on a deeper level.
For clients seeking faster progress, I also offer EMDR intensives, extended sessions that allow for deeper breakthroughs while maintaining support and integration.
Therapy with me isn’t about pushing harder.
It’s about creating enough safety inside yourself to stop running on overdrive and begin living with more clarity and calm.
You’ll notice small shifts first such as sleeping more deeply, speaking up more easily, feeling less reactive to stress.
Over time, those moments add up to a steadier sense of self-trust and confidence.
How EMDR Therapy for Anxiety and stress Can Help You Heal
Many of my clients have struggled with persistent anxiety, trauma, or perfectionism, even after years of talk therapy. EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) helps you work through the deeper roots of these struggles.
With EMDR, you can:
✔ Process painful experiences that still affect you today.
✔ Reduce emotional triggers and automatic stress responses.
✔ Replace negative beliefs with healthier, more supportive ones.
For clients who want faster progress, I offer EMDR Intensives. These are extended sessions that allow us to go deeper in a shorter period of time, while still providing the support you need to integrate the work.
Meet Dorlee Michaeli, LCSW |
Therapy
for Anxiety, Trauma and High-Achieving professionals
Hello, I'm Dorlee. I'm Here to Help.
I’m a licensed psychotherapist who helps high-achieving professionals find calm, clarity, and confidence from the inside out.
Before becoming a therapist, I spent a decade in the corporate world, where success often came with constant pressure and perfectionism. That experience shaped my understanding of what it’s like to appear composed while feeling anything but calm inside.
Now, I help clients slow down the overthinking, heal old wounds, and reconnect with the self-trust they’ve lost along the way.
Ultimately, therapy helps you feel calm and confident from the inside out, not because everything is perfect, but because you finally feel safe being yourself.
My work is grounded in both advanced psychoanalytic training and EMDR therapy for anxiety and stress, a research-supported approach for trauma and chronic tension.
Whether you’re navigating a demanding career, recovering from emotional overwhelm, or simply ready to stop living in survival mode, therapy can help you feel more grounded and present in your work, your relationships, and your own skin.
I offer online therapy for adults across New York, New Jersey, and Illinois, with limited in-person sessions in Chicago.
Together, we’ll create a path that feels less pressured and more aligned with who you truly are.
You Don't Have to Carry This Alone.
If you are ready to stop overthinking and start feeling more grounded, confident, and at peace, I would be honored to support you.
Take the first step today with a free 30-minute consultation.
Do You Want To...
You do not have to feel overwhelmed all the time.
Anxiety therapy can help you calm your mind, ease constant stress, and feel more confident in daily life.
Together, we will look at the patterns that keep you stuck and find new ways to create balance and relief.
Your past experiences may still shape how you feel and respond today.
Trauma therapy gives you space to process what happened, release the weight of old wounds, and build healthier ways of relating to yourself and others.
Healing is possible, even if it feels far away right now.
Change can feel both exciting and unsettling.
Whether you are facing a career shift, a relationship change, or a major life adjustment, therapy can help you find clarity and confidence as you step into the next chapter of your life.
Sign Up for the Newsletter
Join my newsletter for gentle tools and insights created for high-achievers who want less stress and more calm.
You will receive practical tips for easing anxiety, navigating transitions, and caring for yourself while still showing up fully in your life.
Reflections From Clients and Colleagues
Over the years, I have received kind words from clients, supervisors, and professional peers.
Their reflections speak to the care, thoughtfulness, and dedication I bring to my work.
“Dorlee is a sincerely thoughtful, wise, and generous counselor. A rare gem of a human. Anyone who is on the verge of wanted or unwanted changes and willing to develop their self awareness will find great healing and joy in their work with Dorlee.
I recommend her with my whole heart.”
— KS, 31
“Dorlee is amazing! She is very thoughtful and makes me feel heard during my sessions with her. I started meeting with her last fall and she has helped me get through some very difficult moments in my life—loss in the family, career transition, relationship issues.
She’s helped me change my mindset and given me lifelong tools to manage stress and anxiety.”
— CC, 27
“Dorlee has been a huge help to me over the past 3 years. She is patient, non-judgemental, and honest. She is very good at helping process trauma at your own pace in a safe manner. She is great at both offering practical advice, or listening to you vent after a rough week. We’ve been meeting remotely for over a year now, and I’ve found her methods to be just as effective as in-person.
Highly recommend!”
— ZM, 30
“Dorlee is a warm, intuitive, and compassionate clinician whose work with trauma is impressive. She creates a space where clients feel safe, seen, and understood while gently allowing healing using EMDR and psychoanalytic healing.
She’s terrific!”
— Joanne Mackie, LMHC
“Dorlee’s compassionate and grounded presence fosters a safe and supportive environment for individuals navigating the challenges of anxiety and trauma. Her thoughtful approach helps clients feel genuinely seen, heard and understood. Drawing from her own rich and diverse life experiences, Dorlee brings a deep level of insight and empathy to her work.
Whether supporting high-functioning professionals navigating career pressures or young adults facing transitional life phases, she demonstrates a nuanced understanding of each client’s unique journey.”
— Judy Wang, CPC, LCPC
“I highly recommend Dorlee.
She is compassionate, warm, and insightful, helping clients heal emotional wounds, rewire old patterns, and develop lasting confidence. A great fit for high-achieving individuals.”
— Kristin Zeising, PsyD, CST
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