You’re keeping up with your life. But you don’t always trust your drinking.
Alcohol Therapy for High-Achieving Professionals in NYC
Alcohol Therapy for Professionals • In-Person in Midtown Manhattan • Virtual in New York & New Jersey
SOUND LIKE YOU?
Most of the time, things are fine. Until they aren’t.
You get to work, meet your deadlines, and show up for the people who need you. You have responsibilities, hobbies, and friends. Most of the time, you feel in control.
Drinking is where things get confusing.
You might go days without it, or have a few drinks and nothing happens that worries you. But every so often, you drink more than you intended. A work happy hour turns into a whole night out. You wake up anxious about what you said or did, then get yourself together and go to work anyway.
Maybe you only drink on weekends, but you regularly lose parts of the night. Or you’ve started looking forward to that first drink earlier in the day than you’d like.
You know something isn’t working. But it’s hard to take that concern seriously when so much of your life is going well.
You don’t have to wait for that to change before getting help.
Does This Sound Familiar?
You're constantly thinking about food
You feel out of control around eating
You use food to cope with stress, anxiety, loneliness, or difficult emotions
You find yourself stuck in a binge/restrict cycle
You feel guilt or shame after eating
You hide parts of your eating from others
You feel disconnected from your body's cues
You're successful in most areas of your life, but food feels different
Signs Your Drinking May Be Affecting You
When you’re used to getting things done, being able to function can become the reason you tell yourself your drinking is fine. But getting through the next day doesn’t necessarily mean you feel okay about the night before.
You might:
Feel out of control around food
Think about food constantly
Eat to cope with stress, anxiety, loneliness, or difficult emotions
Feel intense guilt or shame after eating
Swing between restriction and bingeing
Hide food or eat in secret
Feel disconnected from your hunger and fullness cues
Struggle with all-or-nothing thinking around food and eating
You might:
Tell yourself you’ll have two drinks, then regularly have more.
Spend the last part of your workday thinking about when you can drink.
Rely on alcohol to stop thinking about work or finally relax.
Stay out longer than you intended at client dinners or work events.
Drink infrequently, but lose control or have gaps in your memory when you do.
You might also:
Get through a productive day and use that to dismiss your concerns.
Keep how much you drink private, even from people close to you.
Spend the morning checking messages and replaying conversations.
Have tension with a partner or friend about your drinking.
Make rules for the next time you drink, then struggle to follow them.
The fact that you are functioning does not mean your drinking isn’t affecting your life.
Why Is Drinking the One Thing You Can’t Seem to Manage?
Alcohol may have started as a way to unwind, connect with coworkers, or reward yourself after a long day. When you spend so much time making decisions and meeting expectations, having a drink can feel like the moment you finally get to stop.
Maybe work follows you home. You’re answering emails, thinking about tomorrow, or going over something you wish you’d handled differently. Drinking helps quiet that for a while.
Over time, you may find yourself depending on that relief more than you want to. Then the drinking creates its own stress: a night you can’t fully remember, a conversation you regret, or another morning spent frustrated with yourself.
“If I can manage everything else, why can’t I manage this?”
For someone who is used to being capable and disciplined, struggling to stick to a drinking limit can feel especially confusing. You may keep trying to solve it the way you solve other problems: make a plan, try harder, hold yourself accountable.
When that doesn’t work, it’s easy to take it personally.
In therapy, we’ll look at what alcohol is helping you manage, what happens when your plans change, and why the same pattern keeps coming back. If anxiety is part of that picture, we can work on that alongside your drinking.
How Alcohol Therapy Can Help
How Therapy Can Help With the Cycle
I tend to start by helping my clients understand their relationship with alcohol. We’ll talk about when you drink, what you hope it will do for you, and what concerns you about it.
We’ll also talk about what you want to change. You may have a clear goal, or you may only know that you’re tired of things going this way.
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We’ll look at the moments before you reach for a drink. Maybe you’ve had a difficult day, feel uncomfortable at a networking event, or don’t know how to settle down when you finally have time to yourself.
We’ll also look at what happens once you start drinking. Understanding where things shift can help us identify what you need in those moments.
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We’ll work on managing stress, coping with urges, and getting through uncomfortable feelings without automatically turning to alcohol.
That may mean finding a way to transition out of the workday, preparing for a dinner where everyone will be drinking, or practicing how to leave when you intended to. We’ll focus on situations that actually come up in your life.
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We’ll explore the thoughts that make it hard to change, including “I’m doing well at work, so how bad can it be?” or “I’ve earned this after the week I’ve had.”
We’ll also make room for what may be underneath the pattern: pressure to keep achieving, difficulty asking for help, relationship stress, or past experiences that shaped how you cope.
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I draw from Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), and psychodynamic therapy, depending on the client.
Some sessions may focus on a skill you can use that week to manage a craving or respond differently to stress. Others may involve understanding a pattern that has been part of your life for a long time. Together, we’ll figure out what is useful and adjust as we go.
What Would You Like to Feel Different?
Maybe you want to go to dinner without spending the next morning questioning yourself. Maybe you want to finish work and have something besides a drink to look forward to.
You may want alcohol to take up less of your attention. You may want to stop drinking altogether. Or you may want to be able to talk honestly about what’s happening without feeling like you have to explain why your life still looks fine.
We can start there.
Together, we can work toward:
Following through on changes you want to make around drinking.
Spending less time thinking about alcohol or recovering from it.
Having ways to unwind that don’t depend on drinking.
Feeling more prepared for work dinners, celebrations, and social pressure.
Being more honest with yourself and the people close to you.
Giving your relationships and interests more of your attention.
Feeling like yourself again.
FAQs
Have questions? We’ve got answers…
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Yes. Your career is one part of your life. You may be meeting expectations at work while drinking affects your relationships, mood, free time, or trust in yourself.
We’ll look at the whole picture, including how much effort it takes to keep everything going and what your drinking feels like to you.
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How often you drink is part of the picture. What happens when you drink matters, too.
If you regularly drink more than you intend to, lose memories of the night, or spend the next day anxious about what happened, those concerns are worth talking about—even if you don’t drink during the week.
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Yes. We can talk through the situations where drinking feels expected, whether that’s client dinners, team happy hours, networking, or travel.
We’ll look at what feels difficult about drinking less or declining a drink, and work on practical ways to handle those situations. You can bring in an upcoming event and we can think it through together.
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People often use that phrase to describe someone who keeps up with work and other responsibilities while struggling with alcohol.
You don’t have to use that label for yourself to come to therapy. We can start with what’s happening: how you drink, what worries you, and what you’ve tried to change.
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You don’t need to have stopped drinking or decided on a goal before reaching out.
We’ll talk honestly about how alcohol is affecting you, what you want to change, and whether your attempts to cut back are working. If you’re considering sobriety or want support with recovery, you can also learn more about alcohol recovery therapy.
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You can still talk with me about it. You may be wondering how alcohol affects your sleep, anxiety, relationships, or how you feel about yourself, without experiencing the situations described here.
My sober curious therapy page may be a helpful place to start.
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I offer in-person therapy in Midtown Manhattan and virtual therapy throughout New York and New Jersey.
Work with Kendall
You may be the person other people rely on. Admitting that you’re having a hard time with drinking can feel uncomfortable, especially when you think you should be able to figure it out yourself.
You can tell me about the night that scared you, the rules you keep breaking, or the reasons you’re still not sure anything needs to change. I want to understand what drinking is like for you, including what you enjoy about it and what you wish were different.
My goal is to help you understand your relationship with alcohol and work with you on what comes next.
You don’t have to wait until your drinking affects your career before taking seriously how it’s affecting you.