Years ago, I felt like there was something wrong with my career path.

In 2014, I was a tenured professor of psychology and I was knee-deep in burnout.

My workplace felt toxic, I was chairing a gazillion dissertations, and felt pulled at between my job and my family.

My career just didn’t feel like my own.

One day, I had the radical thought, “I could quit this job.” Quitting a tenured job is basically unheard of. I was being groomed for leadership positions at the university, but I was going down a path that I knew wasn’t right. I had millions of deep talks with my husband until I finally quit. It wasn’t easy, but looking back, that was what needed to happen career-wise and life-wise for me.

Since then, I’ve been able to make a career transition and design my working life to fit who I am, rather than trying to mold myself into something that never quite fit well.

Guiding hundreds of people through important career moments like this inspired me to open my own private practice, Work-Life Directions, in 2016. And as a licensed psychologist who’s studied and worked at the intersections of career and personal challenges for more than 25 years, I’ve learned that career is always personal.

You are still “you” at your job, so you bring all your strengths and insecurities to work with you. We all do. But that’s why traditional career counseling isn’t as impactful as it could be. That approach can treat your career like it’s something that exists completely outside of the stress we feel communicating with our managers, the fears we have of failure, or even feelings of being an imposter.

Those concerns are part of your working life, so shouldn’t they play an important role in reshaping your career from here? That’s the work I really love to do. I know you can better navigate your career if you can explore all aspects of it, especially the internal issues that come with feeling stuck on a path.

So that’s what I specialize in: mental health-inclusive career counseling. Because I want you to have the practical tools to improve your resume or apply for a new job, but I know that in order to do those things, you’ll also need to process the feelings that underlie those very steps.

No matter what’s going on at work right now, I believe that you deserve to have your career feel like your own. Your feelings are worth exploring. And though the journey may take time, I’m here to walk with you and help you plan your way forward, when you’re ready.

LaRae