EMDR for Workplace Stress & Trauma
Online Across Tennessee, Florida, and Washington D.C.
Mental Health Support for Black Women Who Are Tired of Letting That Job Stress Them Out
Does this sound familiar?
It’s 6 AM, and you’re already up, tending to everyone else’s needs—prepping lunches, answering last-minute texts, and mentally preparing for the day ahead. You glance at your laptop on the table, the reminder of a workday that already feels like a mountain you can’t climb.
By 8:30 AM, you’re in the car outside your office building, gripping the steering wheel. For a moment, you just sit there, staring at the concrete walls that feel more like a prison than a workplace. You whisper to yourself, “I just need to make it through today.” But you’ve been saying that every day for months, maybe years.
At lunchtime, you’re not recharged—you’re drained. The thought crosses your mind to drive off and not come back. Maybe you dream of pulling into a parking lot somewhere quiet, turning off your phone, and just being.
When you finally make it home, you’re exhausted. But instead of resting, the demands continue: dinner needs to be made, emails need responses, and your family needs your support. Your body aches for stillness, but your mind won’t let you pause.
The weekend comes, but it’s no sanctuary. Saturdays blur into a long list of errands, commitments, and catching up on the work you couldn’t finish during the week. Sundays bring the looming dread of Monday. By the time Sunday night rolls around, you feel like you never even stopped working.
You’ve tried everything: vacations, taking PTO, even practicing “self-care.” But the relief is temporary—just a brief reprieve before the stress comes roaring back, louder than ever.
And then, there’s the dream. A quiet but persistent voice inside you whispers: “There has to be something more than this.” But the doubts are always there, too. “If I leave, how will we make it? Who’s going to pay this mortgage? What about everyone depending on me?”
Yet deep down, the desire is there: to be free from this cycle. To reclaim your time, your energy, your joy. To finally create a life that feels like yours—not one dictated by the expectations of others.
You clocked out. Your mind didn't.
Maybe the problem started at work, but somewhere along the way, work started following you home.
You're making dinner and thinking about that email. Lying in bed replaying what you should've said in that meeting. Venting about your coworkers again. Getting irritated with people who didn't even do anything because you used up all your patience between 9 and 5.
By the time you get home, you don't want to talk. You don't want to make another decision. You don't want anybody asking you for a damn thing.
You just need enough time to recover so you can wake up and do it all over again tomorrow.
And that's when “I hate my job” starts becoming something bigger.
You're exhausted. Your body stays tense. Your relationships are getting whatever energy you have left. You're questioning yourself more than you used to. And even when you're technically off, some part of you is still at work.
Your body came home.
Your nervous system is still on the clock.
And now you're trying to figure out:
Do I need better boundaries? Do I need to change the way I work? Is this burnout? Is this workplace trauma? Or do I need to get the hell out of there?
You don't have to figure that out by yourself.
Therapy gives us space to understand what's happening, what this job is costing you, and what needs to change so work can stop taking over the rest of your life.
How therapy can help when work is wearing you down
Imagine not spending Sunday night dreading Monday morning.
Not replaying meetings in your head. Not checking Teams or email after hours. Not needing the entire weekend just to recover enough to go back. Not wondering whether you’re burned out, being dramatic, need better boundaries, or really do need to quit that job.
Therapy gives you somewhere to figure that shit out.
Together, we can look at what’s happening at work, how it’s affecting you outside of work, and what you actually need to feel like yourself again.
Your day-to-day life: We work on getting you out of constant survival mode. That might mean learning to regulate your nervous system, setting boundaries around work, making room for actual recovery, and paying attention to what your body has been trying to tell you.
Your relationships: When work stops getting the best of you, the people you love don't have to keep getting what's left. We look at how overfunctioning, people-pleasing, caregiving, and carrying too damn much may be following you from work into the rest of your life.
Your confidence and self-trust: Toxic workplaces, burnout, and workplace trauma can have you questioning yourself. Am I the problem? Am I overreacting? Should I be able to handle this? Therapy can help you separate who you are from what you've experienced and rebuild trust in your own judgment.
Your relationship with work: We get curious about the beliefs that have kept you overworking, overperforming, proving, enduring, or staying longer than you wanted to. Because sometimes the answer is a boundary. Sometimes it's a different way of working. And sometimes, it really is time to go.
Therapy isn't about me telling you to quit your job.
It's about helping you understand what this job is costing you, recover from what you've experienced, and make decisions about your work and your life from a place of clarity, self-trust, and choice instead of exhaustion, guilt, or fear.
Because the goal isn't just to survive work.
The goal is to have a life that work doesn't consume.
Therapy with me is where you will be able to
Unpack the Strong Black Woman stereotype that keeps you tied to jobs that harm you.
Regulate your nervous system so you can recover from chronic overwork.
Heal from the damage and trauma of a toxic work environment
Align with your values, not just your job title.
If and when you are ready we can build your job exit strategy—explore taking more PTO, discuss short term disability or FMLA, or role play your resignation as discuss your next steps.
Therapy for Workplace Stress & Trauma can help you if you are:
Considering leaving your job for the sake of your own mental health
Ready to identify and unlearn the patterns that keep you stuck
Heal from your toxic work environment
Build boundaries that honor your body and mental health
Create a future rooted in values alignment, not exhaustion
Sometimes, it’s more than burnout. Sometimes, what happened to you at work was traumatic.
Being constantly criticized. Targeted. Micromanaged. Bullied. Discriminated against. Retaliated against. Expected to carry everybody else while receiving little support yourself.
Maybe you left the job, but your body didn’t get the memo.
Now you’re anxious before meetings. Second-guessing emails before you hit send. Bracing yourself when your supervisor asks to talk. Over-explaining. Over-performing. Trying to read the room before the room has even given you anything to read.
And maybe you keep telling yourself, “It’s just a job.”
But your nervous system is saying otherwise.
Workplace trauma can change the way you experience work, yourself, and even safety. And sometimes quitting the job gets you out of the environment, but it doesn’t automatically undo what happened to you there.
You deserve support figuring out what needs to change, what needs to heal, and whether it’s time to stay, set some boundaries, make an exit plan, or get the hell on.
Q: How do I know if I really need to quit for my mental health?
A: That’s exactly what therapy can help you discern. We’ll explore every option—like PTO, FMLA, short-term disability, or restructuring your workload—while also looking at whether leaving is the healthiest choice.
Q: What if I can’t afford to quit right now?
A: Therapy can help you regulate your nervous system, so you are able to create Walk-Away Plan that includes saving, preparing, and creating strategies to protect your mental health while you transition. You don’t have to stay stuck forever, and you don’t have to figure it out alone.
Q:I feel like quitting means I failed. What if I can’t handle the guilt?
A: That belief is part of the Strong Black Woman stereotype—that you must carry it all, no matter the cost. Quitting is not failure—it’s wisdom. In therapy, we’ll work through the guilt, dismantle those harmful narratives, and help you see that choosing yourself is a form of success.
My Areas of Expertise Include:
Chronic burnout and nervous-system exhaustion
When rest doesn’t touch the fatigue and your body never fully powers down.Career trauma & workplace harm
Toxic environments, hostile supervision, discrimination, retaliation, moral injury, and psychological unsafety at work.Identity-based overwork
When your worth becomes tied to performance, productivity, or being “the strong one.”Hyper-responsibility & overfunctioning
Feeling unable to stop, delegate, or rest without guilt.Perfectionism rooted in survival
Not just “high standards,” but fear-driven performance.Workplace-triggered anxiety & panic
Sunday scaries, emails causing physical reactions, chronic dread.Decision paralysis around leaving toxic jobs
Wanting out, but feeling frozen by fear, loyalty, finances, or guilt.Grief after burnout or career loss
Mourning the identity, ambition, or version of yourself that work took from you.Unlearning the Strong Black Woman survival role at work
Especially how it shows up in leadership, caregiving professions, and academia.
If your job is costing you your sleep, your peace, and your sense of self—you’re in the right place.
Helping you leave burnout and exhaustion behind to create a life of clarity, peace, and purpose—without sacrificing the stability you’ve worked so hard for.
How EMDR Supports Workplace Stress & Trauma
Workplace trauma doesn’t just live in your thoughts—it lives in your nervous system. That’s why talk therapy alone often isn’t enough for burnout, career trauma, and identity-level exhaustion.
I use EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing)
EMDR Methods Page as a primary tool in this work because it helps your brain and body finally process what they’ve been holding in survival mode. Chronic stress, unsafe work environments, and long-term over-functioning can train your nervous system to stay on high alert—even when you’re no longer in danger. EMDR helps your brain refile those experiences so your body can stop reacting like it’s still under threat.
In work-related intensives, EMDR allows us to:
Process career trauma and workplace harm
Release the survival-driven need to over-perform
Unhook worth from productivity
Calm the chronic fear tied to rest, boundaries, or leaving
Restore a felt sense of safety around work and decision-making
This is how we move beyond just coping with work stress—and into actual nervous-system recovery.