Please Note: What I’m about to share with you CAN help you unlock your self-confidence, management potential, and leadership skills, successfully balance the demands of your personal and professional lives, overcome any feelings of anxiety, stress, and overwhelm, and thrive in your executive career …
Discover All of the Passion, Success, Purpose, and Joy a Fulfilling Executive Career Can Provide!
From the Desk of Karen Rose, LPCC
Does any of this sound familiar?
Your professional achievements have been rewarded with a promotion, but you’ve had few opportunities to manage people (if any) and you feel out of your depth, unprepared, or even like an impostor in your new role. What if you could figure out exactly what you need to know and do to feel comfortable and confident managing and motivating others, getting people into performance improvement plans, and handling or even firing difficult employees?
The intense stress, pressure, and time demands of your executive career are taking their toll on your personal life – problems you don’t want to discuss with anyone at the office. What if you knew exactly what you want to achieve and could create a plan to make it happen – whether that’s re-organizing your schedule, delegating and outsourcing more responsibilities, taking time off to re-evaluate your priorities, going to work for yourself, or even a semi-retirement? How would it feel to know that you CAN find a way to manage your anxiety and stress, nurture your personal relationships, and improve your work-life balance in a way that’s comfortable for you?
You’re happy with your current success, but can’t shake the feeling that you’re not thriving in your executive role, or that you’re not happy with the trajectory your career is taking, or that you’re “missing something” that is somehow out of your control. What if you could identify and get clear about why you’re feeling uncertain, anxious, or unfulfilled and come up with a plan to reclaim control of your professional and personal life and address and resolve those issues once and for all?
Whether you’re looking to…
- Better delegate responsibilities and manage interpersonal office conflicts in ways that create opportunity and growth;
- Gain the skills you need to feel confident in your leadership position;
- Reduce feelings of anxiety, stress and overwhelm, so you can feel more satisfied;
- Create more flexibility and a greater balance between your professional and personal lives;
- Identify your priorities and better understand your career options;
- Move from a life of success to one of significance; or
- Figure out what you want to do with the rest of your life…
I’ve got GREAT news for you –
You Are In The Right Place, Right Now!
Welcome to Career Therapy!
My name is Karen Rose, and in addition to being a career counselor, executive coach, and licensed psychotherapist, I’ve supervised career counselors at John F. Kennedy University’s Career Center and San Francisco State University’s Career Counseling and Development Center and have been “quietly” transforming the career coaching and career counseling landscape in the San Francisco Bay Area over the course of the last three decades.
I don’t say any of this to brag. On the contrary… I’ve been where you are.
I’ve struggled. I’ve experienced the difficulties of managing other people. I’ve hit rock bottom. I’ve thrown thousands upon thousands of dollars on coaching schemes and self-improvement systems that haven’t paid off. I’ve had trouble maintaining a work-life balance that allows me to enjoy my success. And more!
I’ve experienced what felt like utter failure, and I’ve fought back from it on more than one occasion. And I’ve experienced ultimate success. If I can do it, so can you.
To be perfectly clear… What I’m sharing with you today doesn’t just come from my professional experience providing career counseling, executive coaching, and psychotherapy services to clients for the better part of three decades. Nor does it come from attending countless programs, workshops, and seminars on career counseling, executive coaching, and professional development. I speak to you as someone who’s been there.
As a woman who was born without sight, I realized early on that the world isn’t “made” for any one of us.
We each have to discover our own passions and joys, understand our own strengths and weaknesses, and then create our own ways of thinking and getting things done. And it is with pride and joy that I’ve been able to do precisely this… not just in my own life, but by helping countless career counseling and coaching clients over the past 30 years figure out how to do the exact same thing for themselves!
Let me assure you that your past does NOT define you.
When you feel unsatisfied, stuck, or overwhelmed in your career, it’s easy to look around and believe that everyone else is happily moving forward and managing their executive and managerial roles with confidence, grace, and personal satisfaction.
But, according to a Gallup poll, two-thirds of American employees are not engaged at work. And even though job and career satisfaction is typically higher for executives, countless managers and executives are unhappy or dissatisfied in their careers, but feel pressures – both internal and external – to remain in their current positions with their current firms.
The fact is, almost everyone faces career challenges, doubts, and re-assessments from time to time. And even the most experienced, dedicated and accomplished professionals feel uncertain, unfulfilled, or stuck at some point in their professional lives.
Yet, you CAN change your career and your life story at any time.
Anyone, no matter where they are, has the power to meet seemingly insurmountable odds to transform their dreams into reality.
I know… Because I’ve helped countless people do precisely this.
Are you ready to re-evaluate and reclaim both your career AND your life and achieve the greatness you know, deep down, exists inside of you?!?
Yes, I’m Ready to Get Started!
I’m here to show you HOW you can do it, without compromising your values as you continue on your path to success.
If you’ve been wondering why you still don’t feel satisfied, even with all you’ve achieved – or why you haven’t been able to create the fulfilling and thriving professional life you know is possible somewhere deep down inside you – Career Therapy can help you understand what’s giving you pause or holding you back, and then help you adapt, transition and feel confident as you move forward towards making sure your executive role is as rewarding and fulfilling as it can be.
We’ll use the same concrete, strategic, and efficient career counseling, executive coaching, and psychotherapy techniques I’ve developed and used over the past three decades to help countless individuals, so that you can learn and implement the skills necessary to find or create the thriving executive career that best fits YOU!
It is possible, no matter how much you feel frustrated, stressed out, or that you’re faking your way through it, or simply spinning your wheels. For example…
Case Study – “Stan”
Stan thought he had “made it.”
After starting out as a software developer at a financial services firm, he was promoted to the role of senior software developer, and had finally been promoted to the role of software development manager. This was his dream come true… until he started feeling stuck in a nightmare instead.
Stan was bright, creative, and passionate, but he simply didn’t know how to manage others effectively. Yes, he’d worked with other developers all his life, and even led small teams on projects in the past. But he shied away from being authoritative and typically played the role of “Mr. Nice Guy” whenever he needed people to do something.
Unfortunately, when that didn’t work, he often did whatever it was himself, and his people-pleasing tendencies were now causing him to work more and more hours instead of delegating tasks to others, as well as lose the respect of those he was managing. And there was one programmer under him in particular who seemed to take pleasure in challenging Stan’s authority whenever he could.
Stan didn’t know what to do. He definitely didn’t want to discuss the problem with his superiors, as he was afraid they’d think they made the wrong decision in promoting him.
Stan came to me not just because he needed an executive coach, but because he felt he really needed someone who specialized in professional relationship issues.
After several sessions together, it became clear that Stan was, as is so often the case, bringing his personal relationships into the office. Specifically, Stan had always had an antagonistic relationship with his over-bearing father. His father had always treated Stan like a personal servant as much as a child, and this had led to Stan’s never wanting to be seen as the same type of oppressive authority figure that his father had been to him.
Once Stan acknowledged this issue, and discovered that the need to always please his father was what had led him to subconsciously always try to please others, Stan and I worked together towards helping him cope with and overcome these codependent traits and become more assertive.
It took a few months in all, but Stan was able to learn specific tools and skills that he started implementing immediately. Slowly but surely, he became more and more confident at delegating tasks and leading others. And when that “problem programmer” noticed that Stan was no longer backing down, he quickly stopped questioning his authority at every turn.
As Stan said toward the end of our work together, “Thank you so, so much, Karen! This position was what I always wanted, but I was afraid I was going to have to come up with some reason to resign. When I came to see you, I felt like a fake and a failure. Now, I feel ready to continue climbing the corporate ladder all the way to top!”
Or, consider another client of mine…
Case Study – “Kathleen”
Kathleen is a human resources manager at a big tech company… She might not still be so today, if she hadn’t come to me.
As Kathleen said when she first came to see me a couple of years ago, “It’s not that I’m unhappy in my career. Actually, I feel kind of silly even talking about this… a lot of people would be envious of the success I’ve enjoyed. But, I just don’t feel like I’m doing all I can or should be doing. ‘Something’s missing,’ and I don’t know what it is. Maybe I need to change careers?”
After several sessions together, it became clear that Kathleen was definitely in the right profession. She loved her job and the people she worked with, but she felt like she should be doing more with her life.
Kathleen was unmarried, and most if not all of her friends were colleagues. While she did spend time with these friends outside of the office, conversations invariably turned towards or revolved around work. Kathleen was bored. But she wasn’t bored with her career, she was unsatisfied because her career was all she really had.
So, Kathleen and I explored her interests and passions, which included nature and travle, and decided she should join one or MeetUp.com groups revolving around these interests, which she promptly did.
While she doesn’t get together with her colleagues outside of work as often as she used to, that’s because she’s become heavily involved with a couple of nature conservancy groups in her area, and is even dating a man she met in one of them!
As Kathleen wrote to me after our work together had ended, “Thanks again, Karen, for everything. I realize I probably could’ve done most of what we did together on my own, but I didn’t. And that’s the point. I really needed someone to talk with, that I could share precisely how I felt with, and I couldn’t do that with the people at work. So, thank you for being there for me. And, if I ever need another ‘reality check’ again, I’ll definitely give you a call. You and I are both worth every penny!”
And, then there’s…
Case Study – “David”
David was a marketing executive at a biotech company who came to Career Therapy feeling burnt out. He had loved his job for close to 20 years and done incredibly well, but said his passion was gone and he felt like he was now just “punching the clock.” To make matters worse, that clock was often consuming 50 hours or more of his weeks (not to mention the time he spent commuting to and from the office), and he felt his relationship with his wife and three children was practically non-existent.
David desperately wanted to make a change, but wasn’t sure he could afford to do so and still support his family in the manner they were used to. Nor was he sure how supportive his wife or children would be of his desires to quit his job.
David and I initially worked together to identify what brought the most meaning and joy to his life, and it soon became clear that, outside of his family, David loved music more than anything else. He even spent his teen and college years building guitars! So, David and I came up with a plan that allowed him to start his own business making and selling guitars online while slowly winding down his career at the biotech firm. We also worked together to make sure he openly communicated his needs and desires to his family, and they ended up being more supportive than David could have imagined.
Two years later, David is no longer working in biotech, but has put his previous marketing expertise to work and built a successful online business. He’s only making half as much as he used to, but his business is continuing to grow… And, best of all, David is in love with life again. He has the time he wanted to spend with his family, and has recently put together a band and just performed in public for the first time in 20 years!
One thing each of these three had in common – as do most of the people who come to me for help – is that, while they may believe their issue is about their relationships with their co-workers or family members, or how much time and energy they need to devote to their careers, or how much money they need to support themselves, the underlying problem is almost always our core beliefs about what is necessary or possible.
Accordingly, a large part of the work I do with clients is helping them shake themselves free of the limiting beliefs that are holding them back.
What limiting beliefs are you holding on to?
- Do you feel uncomfortable in your role as an executive, as if you’re just “faking it until you hopefully make it?”
- Do you feel like you haven’t seen your spouse or children for years, but you can’t “afford” to spend time with them AND take care of them, too?
- Do you feel anxious, stressed, overwhelmed, or on the verge of burning out and wondering what it really means to be “successful?”
- Do you really want to go back to school, or be an artist, or run your own business, or _________, but feel you’re too old, or it’s too late, or your family won’t support your decision, or you can’t make any money doing the things you love most?
Well, let me tell you… You can!
You can learn the skills you need to feel comfortable, confident, and thrive in your role as an executive. You can spend time with your family AND support them. It’s never too late to go back to school, or start a business or a new career, or to invest more time and energy in your personal interests and passions. You can even make money doing whatever it is you love to do (I’ve even helped people find or create careers as artists, musicians, and video game testers).
The problem is, most people aren’t even aware of the limiting beliefs they have… And, even if they DID know about them, they wouldn’t know how to change them.
It’s not your fault if success doesn’t feel like you thought it would, or if you’ve achieved the career of your dreams only to find out it isn’t, or if you’re still not sure exactly what that career looks like, or that you know what it looks and feels like and still haven’t achieved it. In fact, all of us feel this way at one point or another.
We all find ourselves wondering what our dreams are, what we truly want from our careers and from our lives. And once we know what we really want, we then take our first steps towards creating that professional life often to find that we’re met with obstacles and challenges.
The main difference between those who go on to realize their dreams and those who don’t is the ones who succeed are willing to ask for and accept support and guidance to help them along the way.
Career Therapy Can Help!
Are you ready to get started?
Yes, I’m Ready to Get Started!
No matter what’s holding you back, I know first hand that you CAN make a great living doing something other people believe is impossible.
I’ve done just that.
And I spend my professional life helping people just like you do the same… think outside the box when it comes to what’s possible and what one can do to make a great living and a great life!
I’ve helped new managers learn to feel comfortable, confident, and empowered in their new roles. I’ve helped executives who were burnt out find their true callings. I’ve helped people go back to school well after the age of 30 and even 40 (even med school and law school), as well as start new careers in these professions well into their 40s and 50s. And, I’ve helped people start new businesses in their 50s and 60s…
There are all kinds of shortcuts people don’t know about when it comes to fast-tracking their success. There are university extension courses designed to get people into grad school in under a year, there are management intensives that can help people develop leadership skills in a matter of weeks, and there is no shortage of online resources to help you start and run your own business, to name but a few.
I can help you with all of these things. But, the biggest hurdle to your success is you.
To be perfectly honest, none of the strategies, tools, and techniques I can help you with are likely to make much of a difference or lead to your success if you don’t move past whatever’s been holding you back from the inside.
This is why, no matter what specific career building, professional development, or executive coaching services a client needs, I’ve found it’s almost always necessary to employ some type of cognitive behavioral tools and techniques with my clients to help them understand their core beliefs around what’s possible when it comes to making money, making a living, and making a life.
This is what makes Career Therapy unique!
Most people facing career issues seek the professional assistance of a career counselor or executive career coach, which is great. I know. I am one.
The problem is that, while a career counselor or executive coach can help you develop all of the leadership and management skills required to succeed in your role, they’re not trained to help you with the myriad emotional and psychological issues that people in positions such as yours often face.
Executive coaches can help you manage your time and delegate responsibility, but they typically aren’t able to help you with the anxiety, stress, depression, and deeper relationship issues that many of us either have in our present careers or that come up for us around the idea of making a major life change.
This is when professional counseling and psychotherapy can be vital. Only licensed mental health professionals are truly equipped to help you through these types of emotional and psychological stumbling blocks, as well as teach you how to overcome them. Again, I know. I am one.
However, most mental health professionals are not equipped to actually help you with your career. They can’t help you learn to manage people more effectively or motivate employees, or how best to manage your time and delegate responsibilities, or create a business plan if you decide to “go it alone.”
As someone rather unique in this field, I’ve been fortunate enough to help clients with all of these things … both as a career counselor and executive coach and as a licensed marriage and family therapist. And, I created Career Therapy to bridge the gap between career counseling, career coaching, and psychotherapy!
As I said, the biggest problem I see in my career counseling and career coaching business is that people’s beliefs about what they can and can’t do – people’s beliefs about what’s possible – get in the way of them achieving both their professional and personal goals.
My career counseling and executive coaching practice almost inevitably leads to some form of professional counseling and psychotherapy work to help my clients see the limitations they’re unnecessarily creating and the obstacles they’re putting in their own way, as well as how to overcome them… And, they do learn to overcome them… And you, too, can learn to overcome your own self-created doubts, limitations, and roadblocks to your success!
Are you ready to get started?
Yes, I’m Ready to Get Started!
Still not sure if Career Therapy is right for you?
It can be exciting to think about how much better you’ll feel once you know you’re in the RIGHT career for YOU. But getting there takes work, dedication, focus and a willingness to explore your own behaviors and motivations… I get it.
I know it’s not easy. Heck, if it was easy, you would have already done it.
You need to stop listening to that loud voice inside of you that keeps telling you why you can’t do it and that what you want isn’t possible.
Instead, you need to quiet yourself (try it right now!)… Quiet yourself and listen to that softer voice that knows deep down inside that you CAN do anything. You just have to be willing to take the risk and put in the effort necessary.
What goals do you keep putting off? What do you want to achieve in the months ahead? Who do you see yourself becoming in the years ahead?
You have an opportunity to take action and create a truly successful and fulfilling career and the life you dream about…
But if you don’t get started now, then when?
So, let’s make today the day that completely changes your career AND life.
Amazing things happen when we are clear and we take control of our careers, our lives, and our happiness with no apologies.
I want you to be able to bring your best and brightest self to the world and do work that you truly enjoy. That’s why I created Career Therapy. The support, care, and professional counseling and coaching I provide are unlike anything you’ve ever experienced before.
Every day there are people just like you who are turning their careers around or redefining them entirely. They’re living the life they were meant to live, and they’re having fun and feeling amazing doing it.
- Imagine being an executive rock star because you’re finally in your element; surrounded by projects and people that inspire you and make you want to give your best.
- Imagine getting that next promotion, and the next, because you finally have the clarity, inspiration, motivation, mental focus, and drive to pursue your career goals.
- Imagine bumping into an old colleague and telling them how happy and fulfilled you are in your career.
- Imagine loving the work that you do and having it energize and inspire you.
- Imagine having the time and energy to play with your kids, exercise, spend time with friends and loved ones, or devote more time to that hobby you’ve always wanted to explore.
- Imagine being able to do this, again and again, every time you need a career reset.
Imagine all of this and more… because it’s possible. It’s a decision you make, and I’m ready to stand by you every step of the way.
So, if that’s the life you want to live, Career Therapy is for you. I’m here for you.
If you’re ready to experience all of the passion, confidence, satisfaction, success, purpose, and joy your career can provide, click the button below to get started and schedule your first appointment.
Or, if you have any questions, I invite you to contact me at (510) 486-1188 or schedule a free initial phone consultation.
I look forward to your free initial telephone consult. Call me, Karen Rose, at (510) 486-1188 or schedule a free initial phone consultation, today. If you wait, or delay, then another day will have been wasted on your path to passion, purpose, meaning, and the total joy of ACHIEVEMENT!
Yes, I’m Ready to Get Started!
P.S. Remember, few things in life define us more than our careers. Our professional lives can be the source of our anxiety, depression, lack of purpose and meaning, and our angst, or our careers can be a source of passion, purpose, meaning, and joy. The decision about what your career means to you is entirely up to you… Really, the decision about your career is entirely up to you.
I’ve been helping clients overcome career challenges for three decades, and I know that I can help you, too. But, you need to take the first step to take control of your career and create true satisfaction and success.
So, what are you waiting for?!? You can keep feeling stuck… keep doing the same things that aren’t working… or, you can try something new, and take back control of your career and your life, today! Are you ready? Good. Then, I’ll look forward to seeing you on the other side…
Yes, I’m Ready to Get Started, Now!