Therapy for Entrepreneurs in Decatur, GA

You can’t really explain it to people who haven’t done it. The 2 AM Slack messages from your future self. The decision fatigue by noon. The way a single bad sales call can level you for a day. The fact that you love this thing you built and it’s slowly eating you. Generic therapy for entrepreneurs often misses all of it — because most therapists have never been on the other side of the wire transfer that pays everyone’s rent.

I’m Anne Rice, LPC, and a meaningful portion of my practice is dedicated to founders, business owners, and self-employed professionals — the people running the thing instead of working at the thing. I get the math of it, the loneliness of it, and what it actually takes to stay healthy while doing it.

Research backs up what most founders already feel in their bodies. A widely-cited 2015 study by Dr. Michael Freeman at UCSF found that 72% of entrepreneurs reported mental health concerns and 49% had experienced one or more mental health conditions — substantially higher rates than the general population.

That’s not because there’s something wrong with you. It’s because entrepreneurship is genuinely harder on a nervous system than a regular job, and most of the standard “advice” doesn’t account for it:

• “Just set boundaries with work” — sure, but the work is your livelihood and your identity
• “Take a vacation” — and let the business run itself how, exactly?
• “Don’t take it personally” — when your name is literally on the door?

Founder-aware therapy starts somewhere different. It assumes you’re not going to stop building. It assumes the goal isn’t to make you less ambitious. It works on the actual problem: how to do this sustainably, without losing yourself, your relationships, or your health along the way.

You don’t have to be in crisis. Most of my entrepreneur clients are functioning — sometimes very visibly succeeding — and still know something needs to give. Common reasons people land in my office:

The kind that doesn’t go away after a long weekend. You’re tired in a way sleep doesn’t fix. You used to love this and now you can barely open your laptop. We work on what’s actually driving it, what recovery looks like for your nervous system, and how to build a business that doesn’t require you to keep paying this tax.

Cash flow, that email you sent, the hire you’re not sure about, the contract that hasn’t come back, what your competitor just announced. The brain doesn’t turn off. We work on the underlying anxiety patterns — not just the symptoms — so the spiral has somewhere to land.We have a fully stocked play therapy room with sand trays, figures, art supplies, and sensory tools — so kids can show us what’s going on instead of having to explain it.

Revenue is up, clients are happy, and you still feel like a fraud who’s about to be found out. Imposter syndrome in founders is its own animal, and it tends to resist the standard advice. We dig into where it actually comes from.

You can’t fully process the hard stuff with your team (they need you steady), your co-founder (they’re in it too), or sometimes even your partner (they didn’t sign up for the rollercoaster). My office is a place where you can be the full, complicated, occasionally panicked version of yourself.

Twelve decisions before breakfast. Saying yes to things you should say no to. Doing every job yourself because hiring is somehow harder than just doing it. We work on what’s underneath the over-functioning — and how to start trusting other people to hold parts of it.

When the business has a bad month, you’re not just stressed — you feel like you are a failure. When it has a good month, your whole sense of self lifts. That entanglement is exhausting and it’s also fixable.

The business is going well and your partner barely sees you. Your friends have stopped asking. You’re parenting on fumes. We can work on how the business is showing up at home and what needs to change.

The hardest people problems often aren’t about people — they’re about you, them, and the structure you’re operating in. We can untangle that.

I see entrepreneurs at every stage:

• Pre-launch founders — the W-2 escape plan, the fear, the “should I really do this”
• Early-stage founders — first hires, first big losses, the year nobody warned you about
• Established business owners — the version of “successful” that doesn’t feel as good as it was supposed to
• Solo and self-employed professionals — consultants, creatives, freelancers, agency-of-one
• Multi-business operators — when one business wasn’t enough and now you’re not sleeping

Learn More About Anne →

Sessions are warm and conversational. I’m not the silent-nodding kind of therapist, and I’m not going to make you fill out worksheets about your goals. We talk. I push back where I see something. I share my read of patterns. I’ll occasionally tell you a TV reference is more therapeutic than any clinical framework I learned in grad school.

We use a mix of approaches depending on what you actually need: mindfulness and acceptance work for the anxious mind that won’t stop running scenarios, cognitive work for the imposter-syndrome stories that don’t match reality, parts work for the inner critic that runs your business like a tyrant, and good old conversation for the loneliness that doesn’t have a clinical framework.

Bring your coffee. Bring your fidget. Bring your dog if she travels well. Sessions can be in-person at our Decatur office or virtual anywhere in Georgia or New York.

I run two businesses. I understand revenue, AR, hiring, payroll, contracts, and what it feels like when a client doesn’t pay on time. You won’t have to explain your P&L to me before we can talk about why you’re anxious.

A lot of therapy implicitly treats ambition as the problem. It’s not. The goal isn’t to make you small — it’s to make sustainable what you’re already building.

My clients describe me as warm but willing to call something out. If I see you avoiding the harder conversation, taking on responsibility that’s not yours, or telling yourself a story that isn’t matching reality — I’ll say so. Gently, but I’ll say so.

Founders worry about who knows what. We’re a private practice. There’s no parent company, no insurance panel pulling notes, no team Slack. What we discuss stays between us, full stop.

No. Most of my entrepreneur clients are doing relatively well externally and just know something internal needs work. Preventive therapy — the kind you do before the burnout breaks you — is some of the highest-leverage work I do.

No. I’m a therapist, not a business coach. What I can do is help you think more clearly about the decisions in front of you, get out of patterns that aren’t serving you, and stop running on the nervous-system equivalent of fumes. The business decisions are still yours.

My clients describe me as warm but willing to call something out. If I see you avoiding the harder conversation, taking on responsibility that’s not yours, or telling yourself a story that isn’t matching reality — I’ll say so. Gently, but I’ll say so.

Full confidentiality, with the standard legal exceptions every licensed therapist has (imminent harm to self or others, abuse of a minor or vulnerable adult, court order). I don’t post about clients, I don’t network with investors, I don’t share names. If you’re high-profile and want to talk through specific concerns before starting, we can do that on a free consult call.

Sessions are 50-60 minutes at $225. I’m out-of-network with insurance, but some clients can submit for reimbursement — check your out-of-network benefits here.

Yes. I’m licensed in Georgia (LPC) and New York (LMHC), so I can see virtual clients in either state. In-person sessions are at our Decatur, GA office.