Therapy for Palo Alto Founders
and Silicon Valley Executives.
Private telehealth sessions for leaders operating at the center of the venture ecosystem. A therapist who understands what happens at the intersection of Stanford, Sand Hill Road, and the expectation that you should already be building something consequential.
The Pressure at the Center of the Map.
Palo Alto has a specific intensity that San Francisco doesn't. You live five minutes from the firm that funded your round. You went to Stanford, and so did the person you are trying to hire, and the person you are trying to hire away from them. The casual dinner on Ramona Street is also a reputational event. There is almost no remove. The social capital of the valley moves through your neighbors, your kids' schools, and the people sitting at the next table at Coupa.
The pressure here is quieter than San Francisco's, which makes it harder to name. The aggression is more understated. The wealth is older. The consensus is that you should already be at a certain altitude. You went to the right school, you have the right network, your parents were in medicine or tech or biotech. Getting funded is not a badge at this altitude. Getting big enough to matter is the real threshold. Falling short reads as something about you, not about the market.
This is the particular psychology I work with. The founder who has done everything "right" and is quietly wondering why they feel terrible. The executive whose equity package does not make up for the tightness in their chest every Sunday night. The Stanford-trained leader who is starting to suspect that the set of internal metrics they have been running on for twenty years is not sustainable. For more on what this pattern looks like clinically, see the hidden cost of high performance.
Leaders at the Center of Silicon Valley.
From Series A founders on University Avenue to Stanford-credentialed C-suite leaders, the work is built around the psychology of people operating in the valley's core.
Early-Stage Founders Raising Near Sand Hill Road
The specific stress of running a pre-seed or Series A process when the firm is a fifteen-minute walk away. Fundraising anxiety that does not stop when the round closes.
Stanford GSB Alumni in Leadership Roles
The shared context is useful here. I serve as an Interpersonal Dynamics Facilitator at the GSB and work with alumni who are navigating roles that look nothing like what the program trained them to expect.
C-Suite Executives at Valley-Based Companies
The loneliness at the top of a mature tech organization, the political complexity of public companies, and the pressure to perform with no peer group that fully understands. More on leadership loneliness.
Post-IPO Founders in the Quiet Period
The unexpected disorientation that follows a liquidity event. The identity shift no one prepared you for. The identity crisis after the exit.
VCs and Investment Professionals
The psychological cost of deploying capital under real uncertainty, sitting on boards, and carrying the weight of the fund's decisions while being expected to be the steady voice in the room.
Dual-Career Couples in High-Growth Companies
When both partners are operating at full capacity, the relationship absorbs the cost. Therapy for Bay Area couples who want ambition and intimacy to coexist.
Discretion, Time, and the 101.
Anyone who has tried to cross the peninsula at 5pm knows what a cross-town appointment actually costs. Telehealth removes that friction entirely. Sessions happen from wherever you are: your home office in Los Altos, a quiet room between board meetings, a spare hour between pitches on Sand Hill.
Discretion matters in this part of the valley more than almost anywhere else. The density of founders, partners, and executives in a five-mile radius means shared waiting rooms carry real reputational risk. Telehealth means no chance encounters, no office visit on your calendar, no possibility that someone you are negotiating with will see you in the lobby. All sessions use a HIPAA-compliant video platform. Visit the services page for full details.
A Therapist With Stanford Context.
Diana Chu is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (LMFT #105546) and Registered Drama Therapist (RDT #659), licensed in California. She holds a Master of Arts in Counseling Psychology from the California Institute of Integral Studies and serves as an Interpersonal Dynamics Facilitator at Stanford University Graduate School of Business.
The Stanford affiliation matters for Palo Alto clients. The GSB work gives her direct experience with how high-achieving people relate under pressure, and she shares an implicit vocabulary with anyone who has been through the program. But the practice is not an extension of that role. It is a private therapy practice built specifically around the psychology of founders and executives.
Learn More About Diana →Your first session starts with a conversation.
Book a free 20-minute consultation. We'll talk through what you're looking for and whether working together is the right fit.
No commitment required · Telehealth only · California & Florida