Wednesday, November 11 12:00 – 1:00 PM EST
Presenter: Dr. Karla Steingraber, Psy.D.
Description:
High-achieving individuals—including professionals, students, and competitive athletes—may present with anxiety, exhaustion, sleep disturbance, depressed mood, or a persistent sense of inadequacy despite substantial objective success. This presentation examines how adaptive striving can become rigid perfectionism, contingent self-worth, chronic stress, and burnout.
Drawing on cognitive-behavioral and psychodynamic perspectives, the presentation distinguishes healthy high standards from perfectionistic concerns, emphasizing evidence that perfectionistic concerns are associated with psychological distress and burnout (Hill & Curran, 2016). A psychodynamic formulation adds attention to the developmental and relational meanings of achievement, including internalized expectations, shame, self-criticism, identity, and the ways achievement may become a means of regulating self-esteem.
These issues are particularly salient for athletes, whose identities and self-evaluations may become closely tied to performance outcomes. The presentation will examine fear of failure, overcontrol, difficulty recovering, and the tendency to interpret performance setbacks as evidence of personal inadequacy.
Evidence-based interventions will include cognitive restructuring, behavioral experiments, exposure to imperfection, values-based work, psychological flexibility, and strategies for developing sustainable performance and diversified sources of self-worth. The presentation will also address the clinical paradox of inadvertently helping high achievers become more efficient at overfunctioning.
Clinicians will be encouraged to integrate empirical evidence, clinical expertise, and individual client characteristics while considering contextual contributors to burnout.
CE Information
1 hour of CE
Cost
SCP Member: FREE
Non-member: $40
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