Therapy for high achievers, startup founders & entrepreneurs — in San Francisco & online across California.
Building something of your own can be one of the most meaningful things you ever do and one of the most consuming. We help founders, entrepreneurs, and high achievers separate their worth from their metrics, without losing the drive that got them here.
Recognize This as a Founder or High Achiever?
Maybe work has quietly become the only place you feel like you matter. Maybe rest feels like falling behind, and slowing down brings up guilt instead of relief. Maybe you're succeeding by every external measure and still feel like you're one bad quarter away from being found out. If your sense of self and your business (or career) have become hard to tell apart, that's worth looking at.
How This Pressure Can Show Up
Working constantly and calling it passion — until it's just exhaustion with a better story
Panic when metrics dip — a bad week feels like a referendum on your worth
Imposter syndrome despite real success — waiting to be "found out"
Difficulty delegating or trusting others — because it's easier to just do it yourself
Guilt when you're not producing — rest, hobbies, and relationships take a back seat
Isolation at the top — fewer people to be honest with about how hard it actually is
A cycle of grit and burnout — pushing through until you crash, then repeating it
What We Work With
Founder and executive burnout
Imposter syndrome
Perfectionism and fear of failure
Identity fused with your career or company
Decision fatigue and chronic overwhelm
Anxiety tied to funding, metrics, or growth pressure
Work-life integration, not just "balance"
High-achieving South Asian and immigrant professionals navigating added family or cultural expectations
How We Approach High Achievers & Founders
Most performance coaching or generic therapy treats the symptoms — better time management, more discipline, another productivity system. Those can help, but they rarely touch why your worth got tied to your output in the first place.
At Spiral Up Therapy, we work with approaches that go deeper — and pair them with practical tools you can use right away.
Psychodynamic & Attachment-Informed Therapy
This is where we start: understanding your story, including your childhood experiences and what you learned early on about earning love, safety, or approval through achievement. For many high achievers, the drive to perform was adaptive once — it's worth understanding before you try to override it.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
CBT gives us concrete tools to work with the perfectionistic and catastrophic thinking that fuels the cycle — catching the thought that one setback means failure, and building a more accurate read on what's actually happening.
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)
This is often the anchor of our work together. ACT helps you get clear on your values as a founder and as a person — not just the metrics — so your decisions, including how you build your company and your life, come from what actually matters to you.
Self-Compassion Practice
Part of this work is learning to be an adult to yourself — steady and caring enough to rest without guilt, and to treat a setback as information instead of proof that you're failing.
Your therapist draws from these based on what you actually need — there's no one-size-fits-all protocol here.
Meet the Team
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Manali Deolalkar
Licensed Therapist
Individual Therapy - 250$/session
Couples Therapy - 290$/session
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Melanie Lei
Licensed Therapist
Individual Therapy - 200$/session
Couples Therapy - 250$/session
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Meghna Das
Licensed Therapist
Individual Therapy - 150$/session
Couples Therapy - 175$/session
What Sets Us Apart
Culturally Sensitive Therapy
South Asian Therapy
Immigrant Therapy
Inclusive Therapy
Frequently Asked Questions
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ACT is often the strongest starting point — it helps you clarify your values and stay grounded amid pressure. We pair it with CBT for perfectionistic thinking and psychodynamic work when the drive to achieve is rooted in longer-standing patterns.
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Most clients start weekly and see meaningful shifts within a few months, though this varies by person. We check in on progress and adjust together.
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Yes — online anywhere in California, plus in-person sessions in San Francisco.
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We're out-of-network. Most clients pay directly and use a superbill for reimbursement — ask us about this during your consultation.
You Belong Here 🌟
Whether you’re the first in your family to seek therapy, or you’ve been on this journey for a while, we’re here to walk alongside you. Think of us as a mix of thought partners, compassionate guides, and cheerleaders—here to help you rewrite the story you want to live. Your culture, your struggles, and your dreams all matter—and we’re honored to hold space for them.