Therapy for Perfectionism in Burlington

You are so much more than what you accomplish, even if it doesn’t quite feel like that yet.

Does this sound familiar?

  • You’re constantly striving for flawlessness in your work, relationships, or personal endeavors
  • Your high standards are pushing you to overwork, procrastinate or obsess over tasks and projects, making it difficult to live a fulfilling, balanced life
  • You feel “not good enough”, despite your various accomplishments
  • Your brain fixates on the mistakes you’ve made, giving little to no attention to your areas of strength

  • Self-criticism and fear of failure is becoming overwhelming and making it difficult to complete tasks in a timely and effective way

What is Perfectionism Anyways?

Perfectionism is characterized by a relentless pursuit to strive towards high standards which are often unobtainable.

This pursuit also involves significant concern about making mistakes, preoccupation with “doing better” and attempts to avoid failure at all costs. Ironically, the constant desire to attain perfectionism and avoid failure often makes us feel worse about ourselves and rarely provides the feeling of satisfaction after experiencing success. Perfectionism might also present as high anxiety, difficulty accepting feedback from others, procrastination, overworking, rigid thinking, self-criticism and self doubt.

The cycle is exhausting, isn’t it?

Perfectionism is often seen as an admirable quality in our current world, which can be a barrier to getting support or considering therapy. I’m not here to tell you that having high standards is “bad” or “wrong”, but they might become a struggle when they get in the way of accomplishing your goals, feeling good about your performance and living a balanced life.

There is a way to be that ambitious, high achieving person that you are, without all of the constant stress, anxiety and negative self talk that comes along with perfectionism.

How Can Therapy Help?

Therapy for perfectionism can help you:

  • Develop a renewed confidence in your own abilities

  • Learn how to set and maintain boundaries, both personally and professionally

  • Change unhelpful thought patterns about performance, high standards and failure

  • Address low self-worth and self criticism

  • Feel better able to trust yourself, your intuition and your abilities

  • Find balance between your personal and professional goals and your wellbeing

  • Actually feel a sense of pride and satisfaction surrounding your accomplishments

My approach to therapy for perfectionism involves getting to the root of what’s causing these patterns and addressing the underlying factors.

For some people, perfectionism is the result of childhood experiences where they learned that their worth as a person was directly related to how well they performed and how others viewed them. For others, these patterns developed later in life as a way to cope with high stress situations, trauma, low self-worth or anxiety. Since perfectionism can result from so many different factors, therapy looks different for each person.

Tailoring therapy to your unique needs, circumstances and experiences means that you’ll get an individualized approach that focuses on your goals, and what you need to achieve them. 

Let’s get started