3 Highly Recommended Los Angeles Entrepreneur & Business Owner Therapists
Building a business shouldn't require you to abandon yourself in the process. At Therapy on Fig, our Los Angeles therapists understand the internal negotiation between achievement and authenticity, offering depth-oriented therapy that helps entrepreneurs create sustainable success without constant self-sacrifice.
Who we work with
Therapy on Fig is designed for entrepreneurs and business owners who want to thrive without sacrificing their well-being. You might resonate if you are:
Startup founders or small business owners navigating rapid growth, team dynamics, and decision-making stress
High-achieving professionals feeling the tension between ambition and personal fulfillment
Creative entrepreneurs or freelancers struggling with self-doubt, imposter syndrome, or chronic burnout
Introverted, highly sensitive, or neurodivergent business leaders seeking strategies that honor your natural wiring
BIPOC or multicultural entrepreneurs navigating predominantly white professional spaces while honoring their values and identity
Anyone seeking alignment between success and personal integrity, wanting to lead sustainably without sacrificing rest, relationships, or joy
If this resonates, we’d be honored to support you.
Meet your therapists for entrepreneurs
Sharon Yu, LMFT
As a therapist, mother, and practice founder, Sharon understands the internal negotiation that comes with building a business firsthand: the tension between growth and sustainability, ambition and alignment, achieving external markers of success while honoring who you actually are.
Sharon specializes in supporting fellow entrepreneurs and business owners using an Internal Family Systems lens, one that honors all parts of you—including and especially those that may be working too hard or are not being heard.
Offers therapy for business owners: ✓
Credentials: Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist
Clientele: Adults & couples
Location: Los Angeles, CA 90042
Virtual therapy: Yes, in addition to in-person
Janelle Malak, AMFT
As someone who became a parent and changed careers in her late 30s, Janelle understands what it feels like to question whether you're "behind" and navigate new parts of your identity, all while building something that matters to you.
Janelle specializes in working with neurodivergent, highly sensitive, and empathic freelancers who find themselves in highly competitive environments. She’s here to validate the particular exhaustion of thriving in spaces that weren't designed for your natural wiring and help you honor the parts of you that need rest, depth, and authenticity.
Offers therapy for business owners: ✓
Credentials: Associate Marriage and Family Therapist
Clientele: Adults & couples
Location: Los Angeles, CA 90042
Virtual therapy: Yes, in addition to in-person
Grace Chan, AMFT
As a fellow entrepreneur who has built her own creative ventures—including a social media following, podcast, and plans to continue growing her business endeavors—Grace has intimate knowledge of both the challenges and excitement that business owners face.
Grace also understands the exhaustion that can come from constantly bridging multiple worlds, whether that's between family expectations and personal ambitions, or between the visionary parts of you and the parts that crave stability and rest. In your work together, you’ll learn how to hold and integrate these oppositions to build a fulfilling life and business.
Offers therapy for business owners: ✓
Credentials: Associate Marriage and Family Therapist
Clientele: Teens, adults, couples, & families
Location: Los Angeles, CA 90042
Virtual therapy: Yes, in addition to in-person
How entrepreneur therapy can help
Address the isolation & relational complexity of leadership
Building and running a business often means holding space for others' growth, anxieties, and needs while having fewer spaces to process your own. You might find yourself navigating difficult team dynamics, questioning your decisions as a leader, or feeling lonely in a role where vulnerability feels risky. Therapy helps you work through the relational challenges of authority and responsibility, so you can lead from a grounded place without abandoning your need for support and authentic connection.
Work through imposter syndrome & self-doubt
Difficult relational dynamics at work or unexpected challenges can trigger deep-seated insecurities, making you question your competence despite evidence of your capabilities. Rather than pushing these feelings aside or letting them consume you, therapy helps you understand the protective parts of yourself that hold these doubts, so you can move forward with both humility and confidence.
Create sustainable success that honors all your parts
As an introvert, highly sensitive person, or neurodivergent professional in a fast-paced, competitive industry, you've likely developed sophisticated masking strategies to survive and thrive. Therapy offers a space to explore the cost of these strategies and develop ways of being that honor your natural wiring while still allowing you to show up powerfully in your work.
Shift from achievement-based worth to values-based living
You've spent years orienting yourself toward external markers of success, but there's a growing awareness that these achievements don't necessarily translate to fulfillment. While your entrepreneurial spirit is an integral part of you, you also contain multitudes and likely have other values to be honored. Through therapy, you can examine these parts and begin aligning your daily choices with a vision of success that also includes rest, relationships, and personal integrity.
Common reasons why business owners and entrepreneurs seek therapy
Feeling stuck between staying in a role that offers stability and taking the leap to build something of your own, with anxiety and fear keeping you in a holding pattern
Experiencing success by conventional standards, yet feeling empty or disconnected from the work that once excited you
Cycling between periods of intense creative flow and productivity, followed by crashes into burnout or low motivation that feel increasingly difficult to recover from
Struggling with decision-making paralysis when every choice feels weighted with the pressure of getting it "right"
Finding yourself ruminating excessively about work relationships—replaying conversations, worrying about how you're perceived, or feeling the urge to either retreat or overcompensate
Noticing that your drive for achievement is creating distance in your personal relationships or preventing you from building the intimate connections you crave
Wrestling with the internal conflict of wanting to honor your cultural or familial values around work and success while also carving out your own definition of what a meaningful career looks like
Experiencing imposter syndrome that intensifies with each new level of success, making it harder to internalize your accomplishments
Feeling alone in the specific challenges of being a biracial or multicultural entrepreneur navigating predominantly white professional spaces
What to expect from the therapy process
We begin with understanding your internal system
In our initial sessions, we'll explore the different parts of you that show up in your work and life—the driven achiever, the anxious protector, the part that craves rest, the one that fears failure. This isn't about pathologizing your experience, but rather understanding the wisdom each part brings.
We identify what's blocking authentic alignment
Together, we'll examine the internal conflicts (as well as the external systems) that keep you from living and working in ways that feel sustainable and true to who you are. This might involve exploring family-of-origin messages about success, cultural expectations, or past experiences that shaped your relationship with achievement.
We work toward integration and choice
As you develop a clearer relationship with your internal system, you'll find yourself making decisions from a place of self-trust rather than fear or obligation. Entrepreneurs tend to worry that therapy will eliminate their ambition, but we often see how this process allows them to channel it—along with their other strengths—in sustainable ways.
We adjust as your needs evolve
Our work together is collaborative and responsive to where you are. Some sessions may be more tactical and problem-solving focused, while others go deeper into the "whys" behind your patterns. We typically meet weekly to establish momentum, then adjust frequency as you develop more internal resources.
FAQs about entrepreneur counseling
-
Both are valuable yet distinct offerings. While coaching often focuses on achieving specific external goals and building skills, therapy addresses the internal landscape—the beliefs, protective patterns, and unprocessed experiences that shape how you show up in your work. We explore not just what you want to achieve, but why you want it, what might be in the way, and how to pursue it in a manner that honors your whole self.
-
We primarily use Internal Family Systems (IFS), a trauma-informed, experiential model that recognizes you're not broken or deficient—you're a complex system of parts developed for good reasons. Rather than imposing solutions, we work from a non-pathological lens that trusts your innate wisdom. The approach is tailored to your unique wiring, whether you're neurodivergent, highly sensitive, or navigating multiple cultural identities.
-
Yes, absolutely. What we discuss in therapy is protected by confidentiality laws. I will not share information about our work together without your written consent, except in specific situations required by law (such as imminent risk of harm). This confidentiality creates the safety needed to explore vulnerable parts of your experience without fear of professional or personal repercussions.
-
I understand the demands on your time. We offer 50-minute sessions with flexible scheduling, including some weekend availability. Many entrepreneurs find that the clarity and reduced internal noise they gain from therapy actually creates more capacity in their schedule. We can also adjust session frequency—some clients benefit from weekly sessions initially, then taper to biweekly or monthly as they develop more internal resources.
-
You might resonate with our approach if you're seeking more than symptom management—if you want to understand yourself at a deeper level and create sustainable success that doesn't require constant self-abandonment. Here’s why our entrepreneurial clients choose us.
Our therapists bring lived experience as business owners and entrepreneurs, understanding firsthand what it means to build something from the ground up. From founding a practice to launching creative ventures to navigating major career shifts, we know the complexities of managing growth, team dynamics, and the ongoing internal negotiation about pace, alignment, and what sustainable success actually looks like for you.
All therapists are trained in or highly informed by Internal Family Systems (IFS), an experiential, trauma-informed approach that's fundamentally different from traditional talk therapy or quick-fix solutions.
Seasoned therapists in their second careers who bring lived experience as parents, partners, and professionals who've navigated major life transitions and career shifts themselves.
A BIPOC, neurodivergent, and highly sensitive team offering culturally attuned, identity-affirming care for entrepreneurs navigating multiple worlds.
Flexible scheduling, including weekend availability for in-person sessions, recognizing that traditional weekday hours don't always align with entrepreneurial schedules.
Both in-network insurance options (Cigna, Aetna) and private pay with superbill support for out-of-network reimbursement.
The best way to determine if we’re a fit is by reaching out so we can discuss your situation and needs directly.