Virtual Therapy for Runners in New York
For performance anxiety, perfectionism, and burnout in runners who want a healthier relationship with training, rest, and themselves.
Running may be one of the places where you feel strongest, clearest, or most like yourself. But…
It may also be one of the places where pressure, self-criticism, and all-or-nothing thinking show up the most.
You may feel guilty on rest days, panic when training doesn’t go according to plan, or continue to push through fatigue, stress, or injury because slowing down feels like failure. You may know, logically, that rest matters, but still feel like you’re falling behind the moment you take it.
If running has become one of the places where anxiety, perfectionism, burnout, or self-worth are playing out, therapy for performance anxiety can help you build a steadier, less punishing relationship with running and with yourself.
What brings runners here?
Many of the runners I work with are high-achieving in multiple areas of life.
They may use running to cope, stay grounded, feel strong, or create structure in their lives. But over time, the same qualities that help them stay disciplined can start to create more pressure than freedom.
If this feels relatable, you might notice that:
You feel guilty taking rest days, even when you need them.
Missing a workout feels like a bigger deal than it should.
You’re scared of losing fitness if you pull back due to work, illness, or injury.
You try to make up missed runs or overcompensate when training goes off plan.
Your mood becomes overly dependent on how a run or workout went.
Injury feels not only frustrating, but identity-shaking.
You know how to push through discomfort, but not always how to listen when something feels off.
Running started as something grounding, but now it also feels like one more place to prove yourself.
The longer these patterns stay untouched, the more running can start to feel like one more source of pressure instead of support. Rest becomes more difficult, while setbacks feel like make-or-break events. Before long, training can start to carry more of your self-worth than it should.
How we’ll work
Practical therapy for performance anxiety, perfectionism, burnout, and rest-day guilt
Remember that this is therapy, not coaching. As such, we’ll work on the mental and emotional patterns shaping the way you train, recover, and relate to yourself. My approach is warm, practical, and grounded in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), and exposure-based behavioral work. You can learn more about these evidence-based modalities on the About Page.
Our plan
1. Understand the pattern.
We’ll identify how anxiety, performance pressure, perfectionism, burnout, and the fear of failure or of falling behind show up in your running and in other areas of your life.
2. Practice a different response.
We’ll work on small, realistic changes that help you stop automatically making and doing things based on emotions like fear, guilt, or shame. For example, if you tend to overcompensate in some way (e.g., running too fast, doing extra workouts, running extra mileage), we’ll work on addressing this issue.
3. Build a more sustainable relationship with running.
The goal is to make running support your life so that it feels more aligned with your values. We want running to feel more grounding and to become one aspect of a a fulfilling life (instead of something that is all-consuming).
What that can look like in therapy
Depending on what’s showing up for you, our work might include:
Catching the kinds of thoughts that make rest feel dangerous or make one missed run feel like a bigger deal than it needs to be.
Stepping out of the rigid rules that make it hard to tolerate missed runs, imperfect weeks, or changes to the plan.
Learning how to respond to guilt without automatically letting it run the show.
Reducing the urge to make up miles after a missed run.
Separating your self-worth from how training is going that week.
Building mental resilience for running in a way that is grounding and kind.
Making choices that reflect your values, your body, and the life you want.
We might practice things like:
Taking a true recovery day without compensating for it later.
Noticing thoughts like “I’m getting slower” without treating it like a fact.
Pausing before overcorrecting after an off week.
Learning how to build mental resilience for running without turning toughness into self-punishment.
If you’re already wondering how to recover from running burnout, therapy can help you understand what’s driving the cycle and how to respond differently before it costs you even more.
Why start now?
Many runners wait to get support because they’re still training, racing, or functioning well enough. But the problem doesn’t have to be a full breakdown for it to matter.
You don’t have to wait until injury, burnout, or constant pressure takes more of the joy out of running. Therapy can help you step in earlier and build something more sustainable.
If you keep treating guilt, rigidity, and self-pressure as normal parts of being disciplined, they’ll keep shaping your relationship with running in the background.
What change looks like
Early on
Rest days feel guilty instead of restorative.
Missed runs feel more threatening than they need to.
Training disruptions feel stressful and emotionally loaded.
Running helps, but it also brings pressure.
You’re hard on yourself when your body, schedule, or life gets in the way.
Running may be one of the main places where you feel in control, which makes setbacks hit harder.
Around six months in
✔️ You catch yourself earlier when your mind starts spiraling after an off run, missed workout, or disrupted week.
✔️ You feel less controlled by urgency around missed runs or imperfect weeks.
✔️ Rest begins to feel more possible and less like failure.
✔️ You can pause before overcompensating.
✔️ Your relationship with running starts to feel more flexible and less punishing.
✔️ You begin building mental strength in a way that is steadier and kinder.
Around a year in
→ You can care deeply about running without making it responsible for holding up your whole sense of self.
→ Training disruptions feel frustrating, but less identity-shaking.
→ You trust yourself more when deciding when to push and when to pull back.
→ You feel less driven by fear of losing fitness and more anchored in what actually matters to you.
→ Running gets to be one meaningful part of your life, not the place where all of your worth gets decided.
Group therapy for runners
I also offer a time-limited, skills-based therapy group for runners who want support with performance anxiety, perfectionism, running burnout, and rest-day guilt. This ACT-informed group focuses on practical tools for relating differently to pressure, self-criticism, training disruptions, and the urge to keep pushing.
If you’re interested in learning alongside a small group of runners who understand the emotional side of the sport, you can read more here.
Thoughtful, research-backed therapy for runners
Runners already tend to be disciplined and know how to push themselves.
Therapy can help with the part that runners tend to have a hard time with: listening, adjusting, and staying connected to themselves when things don’t go as planned.
In our work together, you’ll learn to better manage pressure, guilt, rigidity, fear of failure or of falling behind, and the feeling that you might not be as fast or as strong as your former self prior to injury or motherhood. The goal is to help you connect more to yourself as a runner and as a human.
This work is especially resonant for high-achieving women, including Asian American women, who have learned to measure themselves through discipline, achievement, and pushing through discomfort.
Therapy for runners FAQs
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This is therapy. I help with the mental and emotional patterns that show up in running (and in life outside of running), like anxiety, guilt from resting or taking days off, overtraining, self-criticism, burnout, and identity stress.
I don’t create training plans.
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No. I work best with runners who strongly relate to the pressure, perfectionism, and anxiety side of the experience, whether they are recreational, ambitious, or competitive.
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No. The goal is to help your discipline feel more flexible, more sustainable, and less tied to fear, guilt, or self-worth.
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No. My work is especially resonant for high-achieving Asian American women because of my lived and clinical understanding of cultural pressure, guilt, and achievement-based self-worth. I also work with runners with other backgrounds who strongly relate to these patterns.