Tech Executives

Therapy for Tech
Executives.

Diana Chu is a licensed therapist for tech executives, startup founders, and venture-backed CEOs in California and Florida. Secure video only. $500 per 50-minute session. Licensed in both states, not registered.

An empty office at night, a lit tower in the distance through the windows and a patch of warm light on the floor
Who This Is For

Senior People in Tech Who Are Still Performing.

I work with CTOs, VPs of engineering, heads of product, general managers, founders at every stage, and partners at venture firms. The common thread is not the title. It is that the person is still delivering, often visibly well, while something underneath has stopped working. Sleep is short. Irritability is out of proportion. The body does not feel good and no scan or supplement explains why. The company is doing fine and you are not.

Tech has a particular version of this. Reorgs and layoffs land on people who have to run them and then absorb them. Equity ties your net worth to a number you cannot control. A board or a founder above you can end your role in a single meeting. Vesting cliffs make leaving feel impossible for years at a time. Public visibility, on LinkedIn or in the press, means every stumble has an audience. None of this is treated as clinical in most therapy offices, and it should be.

If you are the founder rather than the executive, the founder hub goes deeper on ownership, identity, and the co-founder relationship. If burnout is the presenting problem, the executive burnout page covers how it looks in senior leaders who never stop functioning.

What Comes Up

The Patterns That Bring Tech Leaders In.

Each of these has its own page on the site. They rarely arrive one at a time.

High-Functioning Anxiety

Constant mental rehearsal, over-preparation, an inability to enjoy a win before scanning for the next threat. Output stays high while the cost climbs. High-functioning anxiety in executives.

Hypervigilance at 2am

The nervous system learned that scanning for problems is the job, and it does not stop when you close the laptop. You are awake at 2am with a racing heart and a tight chest, working a problem that can wait until morning. By day the body runs on adrenaline and caffeine and never quite settles. Why founders don't sleep.

Burnout That Looks Like Success

Full calendar, strong reviews, and nothing feels like anything. Wins do not register, and somewhere along the way you stopped celebrating them. The hidden cost of high performance.

Decision Fatigue

Forty consequential calls before noon and no capacity left for the ones that matter at home. Decision fatigue in executives.

Imposter Dynamics After Promotion

The bigger the role, the louder the sense that someone will find out. It gets worse with each success. Imposter syndrome in executives.

Identity After an Exit or Layoff

The company was the self. Now it is gone, sold, or someone else's, and the question of who you are without it is not abstract. Founder identity after exit.

How the Work Goes

Direct, Clinical, and Built Around Your Calendar.

Sessions are 50 minutes by secure video, weekly or every other week. The free consultation needs no paperwork. If we decide to work together, there is a short intake form to complete before the first session. The first session itself is a conversation about what is happening now and what you want to be different, and it usually gets somewhere real inside the first twenty minutes. What a first session actually looks like.

The approach is relational and experiential. Drama therapy and psychodynamic work reach the patterns underneath, the ones that predate the current role and keep choosing it. I am Gottman-trained for couples work and a Registered Drama Therapist.

Everything is confidential. The practice is cash-pay and out of network, so no claim goes to an insurer and nothing reaches a benefits administrator. Your employer is never contacted. Video sessions mean no waiting room and no office to be seen walking into.

About Diana

Licensed in Both States. Familiar with the Industry.

Diana Chu is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist in California (LMFT #105546) and Florida (LMFT TPMF785) and a Registered Drama Therapist (RDT #659). She facilitates Interpersonal Dynamics at Stanford Graduate School of Business, the course MBA students call Touchy-Feely, which means she spends part of every year watching how ambitious people relate under pressure. Before private practice she advised mental health tech startups.

The practice is based in San Francisco and sees clients across California, from the Bay Area and Silicon Valley to Los Angeles and San Diego, and across Florida, from Miami to Tampa, Orlando, and Jacksonville. Tech executives who split time between the two states can keep the same therapist without any change in paperwork.

Learn More About Diana
Common Questions

Frequently Asked by Tech Executives.

Yes. Most of my practice is founders, and executives who did not start the company are a smaller part of it: CTOs, VPs of engineering, heads of product, general managers, and partners at venture firms. The pressures overlap with founder pressures but are not identical. An executive answers to a founder or a board without the founder's ownership, and that gap shows up in sessions constantly.
Licensed. I hold a full Florida Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist licence (TPMF785) issued by the Florida Department of Health, in addition to my California licence (LMFT #105546). Many out-of-state therapists see Florida clients under a telehealth registration, which is a different status. A licence means I am accountable to the Florida board directly.
$500 per 50-minute individual session and $530 per 50-minute couples session. No sliding scale. I am out of network with all insurers and provide a superbill on request for PPO plans with out-of-network mental health benefits. The 20-minute consultation is free.
Yes, as long as you are physically in California or Florida at the time of each session. The licence follows where the client is sitting, not where the therapist is. Executives who split time between the Bay Area and South Florida are a normal part of my practice, and no paperwork changes when you move between the two states.
Therapy. Sessions are clinical work with a licensed therapist, covered by confidentiality law and clinical ethics. I also facilitate Interpersonal Dynamics at Stanford Graduate School of Business, so leadership questions are not out of bounds, but the frame is treatment, not performance coaching. If what you need is coaching, I will say so in the consultation. Coaching vs therapy, compared.
Get Started

Twenty minutes to see if this fits.

Book a free consultation. We talk about what is happening and whether working together makes sense. No forms until you decide to start.

No commitment required  ·  Secure video only  ·  California & Florida

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