What Is Founder Therapy? (And Why Every Founder Eventually Needs It)
Running a business can look great from the outside.
But the reality? It’s relentless.
There’s the pressure to keep the team paid, the investors calm, and the growth charts heading in the right direction — even when you’re running on fumes. The weight doesn’t turn off at 5 p.m., and the thoughts don’t stop when your head hits the pillow.
Founder Therapy exists for that part of the journey — the part most people don’t talk about.
It’s a 1:1 client-led process to understand what’s really driving you as a founder: the fear that keeps you overworking, the anger that slips out under stress, or the shame that shows up when things don’t go to plan.
It’s not coaching, consulting, or clinical therapy.
It’s a confidential process designed for founders who want to see themselves clearly, understand how their emotions impact their leadership & perform better.
Why Founders Need More Than Executive Coaching
Consulting and coaching both have their place. A consultant brings expertise — they analyse, advise, and design solutions. A coach or mentor helps you perform, set goals, and stay accountable.
Founder Therapy is not coaching or consulting.
It’s not about being taught or guided by an expert. It’s a space where the direction comes from you. The process is client-led — centred on reflection, awareness, and understanding the emotions that sit underneath how you lead.
There’s no advice, no playbook, no frameworks. Just honest conversation that helps you see yourself and your decisions more clearly.
Because sometimes, what unlocks the next step in your leadership isn’t a new idea — it’s a new level of self-awareness.
What Exactly Is Founder Therapy?
Founder Therapy is a process for founders and leaders who want to understand how their emotions — fear, anger, and shame — shape their decisions, relationships, and business outcomes.
It’s not about fixing you. It’s about seeing what’s there — the patterns and reactions that once helped you survive but might now be getting in the way.
The sessions are simple. We talk. You bring what’s happening for you, whether it’s tension with your co-founder, burnout creeping in, difficult conversations or decisions you are avoiding, the voice that says you should have it all figured out by now.
My job isn’t to give advice. It’s to help you notice what’s going on, and better understand it. That awareness becomes the foundation for how you lead.
The Psychology Behind Founder Therapy
This work is built on emotional intelligence — being able to recognise what you’re feeling, why it’s there, and how it shapes your behaviour.
Most founders are driven by three core emotional forces that quietly shape how they operate:
Fear — shows up as control, overthinking, or hesitation to confront what feels uncertain.
Anger — can turn into impatience, frustration, or resentment when things or people don’t move fast enough.
Shame — hides behind perfectionism, comparison, or that constant sense of not enough — the quiet voice that questions your worth or credibility, even when you’re doing well.
These emotions aren’t bad; they’re signals. But when they go unnoticed, they end up running the show.
Founder Therapy helps you spot them in real time — in meetings, decisions, and relationships — so you can lead from awareness instead of reactivity.
What Problems Does Founder Therapy Help With?
Here’s what usually brings people in:
Struggling to delegate or trust others
Feeling burnt out or emotionally drained
Avoiding hard conversations — or blowing up in them
Comparing yourself to others and feeling like you’re behind
Being so tied to the business that you’ve lost perspective
Feeling disconnected from purpose or motivation
You don’t need another productivity hack. You need space to understand what’s happening beneath the surface — so you can lead with more clarity and less noise.
How Founder Therapy Works
It starts with a short introductory call — just to see if it feels like a fit. If it does, we meet for 60-minute sessions online - once per fortnight.
There’s no workbook, no performance metric, no agenda. Just time and space to make sense of what’s going on for you now and how it impacts your leadership, and therefore impacts your business’ growth.
The process is confidential and designed for functional, growth-minded founders — not for those in crisis or needing clinical support.
It’s not about looking backward; it’s about understanding what’s happening now and how that shapes where you’re heading next.
The Outcomes of Founder Therapy
Founders often describe the shift as “getting their head back above water.”
You can expect to:
Feel calmer and clearer under pressure
Make decisions from awareness, not fear
Communicate more effectively with your team or co-founders
Recover a sense of energy and focus
Reconnect with why you started all this in the first place
These changes aren’t abstract. They show up in the everyday moments — in how you react to stress, lead your people, and carry yourself through uncertainty. This leads to better business outcomes too. You don’t just do yourself a service, you are helping to improve your business when you participate in Founder Therapy.
Founder Therapy vs Traditional Therapy
Traditional therapy can generally focus on how the past has lead to your current situation - and how you can change your functioning from these maladaptive historic patterns.
Founder Therapy focuses on the here and now — how you lead, decide, and relate in the here and now.
It’s not about diagnosis or treatment. It’s about developing the emotional awareness to lead better.
Getting Started with Founder Therapy
If you’re curious, start with an introductory call.
It’s a relaxed chat to see if this approach feels right for you and to go over how sessions work — pricing, format, and frequency.
Schedule an introductory call →
Every founder hits a point where more effort stops working. What helps next isn’t a new strategy — it’s understanding yourself.
That’s the work of Founder Therapy.
