Build Your Work and Life on Your Own Terms
I help smart women rethink their careers and create ways of working that fit who they are.
Get my newsletter “Rethinking Work” in your inbox
Weekly: Smart, practical ideas about women, careers, work design, neurodiversity, and what comes next.
As Seen In
Sound familiar?
You’re very good at what you do. And yet…
The career that once made sense doesn’t fit anymore.
- You’re successful on paper but increasingly disconnected from the work.
- You keep wondering whether this is really how you want to spend the next 10 or 20 years.
- You want more autonomy, flexibility, creativity, or meaning — but you’re not sure what that would look like.
- You have ideas for something different, but don’t know which ones are worth pursuing.
- You keep trying to make yourself fit a way of working that doesn’t seem designed for how you actually function.
- You’re considering a career change, consulting, entrepreneurship, or a completely different kind of professional life.
- Or maybe you’re simply thinking: There has to be another way to do this.
The question isn’t simply, What’s wrong with my job?
It’s:
What kind of work would actually fit me?
A Different Approach:
There’s a better way to think about work.
For decades, we’ve been taught to think about careers in roughly the same way:
Get the education. Get the job. Work your way up. Adapt to the organization. Keep going.
But people aren’t interchangeable. We differ in how we think, communicate, focus, collaborate, solve problems, manage energy, build relationships, and define success.
And our lives change. What worked while you were building your career may not work when what you really want is more autonomy, creativity, flexibility, meaning, or simply a life outside of work. The goal isn’t to become better at fitting yourself into the wrong shape. It’s to create a better fit between the person, the work, and the life.
There isn’t one right way to build a career
Your next move might be:
A better role
Finding work that uses your strengths and fits the way you actually work.
A career change
Taking what you’ve learned and building a new professional direction around it.
Independent work
Consulting, freelancing, or creating a portfolio career with more autonomy.
Entrepreneurship
Turning your expertise, ideas, or experience into something of your own. A different kind of organization
Finding a workplace whose culture, expectations, and way of working are a better match.
A new chapter inside your current career Sometimes the answer isn’t starting over. It’s redesigning what you’re already doing.
Ready to imagine a different way?
Start here:
Get my “From Exhausted to Empowered” newsletter in your inbox.
Weekly, no fluff. A summary of what I’m actually seeing in my practice, the psychology behind why toxic systems keep winning, and real ways women can find or build work on their own terms.
Hi, I’m Dr. Susan
Clinical psychologist and career coach for smart, experienced women who are exhausted from fitting into toxic, inauthentic work cultures
I’ve spent my career studying why women stay in systems that don’t work for them — and what it actually takes to leave.
My doctoral research looked at what shapes women’s career choices. In the 30 years since, I’ve lived several versions of the answer myself: built a private practice, sold it, went back to being an employee, hated it, and built again.
Somewhere in there I stopped believing there’s one right way out, and started believing the goal is just out — freelance, consulting, a company that actually gets it, or something entirely your own.
I make more money now than I ever did as an employee, set my own hours, and haven’t asked permission for a vacation day in years. That’s what I want for you — whichever door you walk through to get there.
When you’re ready for more
The newsletter is one door in. When you want more focused 1:1 support, there’s consulting available too.