Is work is draining the life out of you?
Picasso, Woman Ironing

Work Issues

Patient Vignettes

An exhausted C.E.O. in an ongoing state of emergency worked each day without plan or planned rest.

A middle manager worked nights and weekends on her own deliverables, unwilling to say No to continual interruption.

An anxious creative director worried there wasn’t time for all his projects. No one had created an office-wide flow chart. When he did, it became apparent that there wasn’t sufficient staffing for his responsibilities to be met; his boss was unwilling to spend the money for more help. Work was the issue, not his emotional state.

A professor dealing with chronic back pain was helped to harmonize his need for approval from his students with his vision of excellence for his teaching. Medication-free, his back now carries him without complaint.

With more and more energy committed to work, successful therapy can address:

• Your relations with people at work: (Do you enlist enough help from those below you in the hierarchy? Do power issues cloud your relations with bosses or with colleagues?)
• Rest is part of work: Does your inner boss insist on adequate rest for you as part of your work life?
• Managing Time: Do you get traction in time in all areas of your life?
• Clarifying your real job description: Are you trying to do the impossible?
• Risking vulnerability: Are work commitments an excuse for avoiding intimacy?
• Rediscovering passion: Has work obscured other interests that would feed you?
• Time or money: How much is enough?