Therapy for High-Achieving Adults & Athletes | Austin, TX — Brian Dunn, M.S., LPC-Associate, NCC, CSCS

What If Working Harder Isn’t What You Need?

You may be used to pushing through, solving problems, setting high standards, and finding a way forward. Those qualities may have helped you accomplish a lot.

But anxiety, overthinking, perfectionism, burnout, self-doubt, the inner critic, relationship patterns, or the feeling that something just isn’t working don’t always respond to more effort.

The problem may not be how hard you’re working. It may be where that effort is going.

I provide integrative, whole-person therapy for high-achieving adults and athletes who want to understand what’s getting in the way, process what may be driving it, and find another way forward.

In-person therapy in Austin, Texas | Online throughout Texas

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When the Things That Usually Work Aren’t Working

Maybe you’re the person other people see as capable.

You work hard. You take responsibility. You prepare. You solve problems. You keep moving. When something isn’t working, your instinct may be to do more—work harder, train harder, think it through, optimize, control, or chase the next goal.

And often, those strategies work.

But you can accomplish the goal and still feel unsettled. Success may not quiet the inner critic. Your mind may keep running long after the day is over. Rest can feel uncomfortable. Familiar patterns can keep showing up in relationships. You may even understand why you respond a certain way and still find yourself responding that way.

Sometimes the issue isn’t a lack of effort. The effort may simply not be reaching what actually needs attention.

Therapy gives us an opportunity to look beyond what’s happening on the surface and investigate what may be contributing underneath it.

You don’t need less drive. You may need another way forward.

Integrative, Whole-Person Therapy

What you’re experiencing doesn’t happen in isolation.

Thoughts, emotions, physical experiences, relationships, identity, history, attachment patterns, and the demands of your current life can interact in ways that aren’t always obvious.

That can show up as anxiety, high-functioning anxiety, overthinking, perfectionism, chronic stress, burnout, imposter syndrome, self-doubt, difficulty switching off, focus or concentration problems, depression, relationship difficulties, physical symptoms or pain, trauma responses, or simply feeling stuck despite everything you’ve tried.

Rather than assuming that one symptom has one explanation, we’ll look at your experience as a whole.

Investigate rather than assume.

The goal isn’t to find something wrong with every part of your life. It’s to understand your experience well enough to determine where the work actually needs to happen.

Understanding Is Valuable. Sometimes There’s More Work to Do.

You may already understand a lot about yourself.

You may recognize the pattern, know where it started, or understand why you respond the way you do. You may have talked about it, read about it, changed your habits, worked on your mindset, or developed strategies that genuinely help.

But knowing why something happens doesn’t always change what happens when you’re in it.

I primarily use Emotional Transformation Therapy (ETT®), an experiential approach to psychotherapy that uses therapeutic connection and visual stimulation to work with emotional and physiological responses as they occur.

ETT can also help bring emotions, experiences, associations, or patterns into awareness that may not have been obvious beforehand. You don’t have to come into therapy already knowing exactly what’s underneath.

We can work with what emerges—helping you access, process, and integrate experiences in ways that go beyond simply talking about them.

Learn About Emotional Transformation Therapy

Therapy for Athletes

Athletes experience all of this too.

Pressure, anxiety, relationships, family, identity, confidence, self-talk, injury, pain, expectations, school or work, depression, trauma, and life outside of sport can all influence how an athlete feels, functions, and performs.

Sometimes the struggle becomes visible through performance. Sometimes sport is only one place where a larger pattern shows up. And sometimes what brings an athlete to therapy has very little to do with sport at all.

My background as an athlete and nearly two decades working in human performance gives me an understanding of the environment athletes operate within—while therapy remains focused on the whole person, not just the performer.

Explore Therapy for Athletes

About Brian

Brian Dunn, M.S., LPC-Associate
ETT® Complex Trauma Certified Therapist

My approach is shaped by my training as a therapist, my work with ETT, and nearly two decades in strength and conditioning and human performance.

Those experiences have taught me to look beyond a single symptom or explanation. The mind, emotions, body, relationships, experiences, and the ways we function in everyday life can influence one another. Therapy gives us the opportunity to understand those connections and determine where meaningful work can happen.

Learn More About Brian

Another Way Forward

Therapy isn’t about eliminating ambition, lowering your standards, or becoming someone who never experiences pressure, fear, sadness, uncertainty, or discomfort.

It’s about creating more room to experience what’s happening, process what needs attention, and develop greater capacity and range in how you respond.

A mistake doesn’t have to define you. The inner critic doesn’t always have to get the final word. Familiar relationship patterns don’t have to become the next relationship. And achievement doesn’t have to carry the entire burden of making you feel okay.