Mental Health Check: Why Therapy Is a Power Move, Not a Weakness

In early 2020, Ashley B. Jones left her corporate job to become an entrepreneur. But a year later, her business, an intuitive coaching program, was struggling to gain traction. She was pitching potential partners and collaborators but getting rejected left and right. No one seemed interested. Plus, there was a global pandemic to contend with. “I was crashing out because I had never experienced that level of consistent rejection before,” Jones said. “It felt like the world was giving me a ‘sure, Jan’ eye-roll.”

Jones began to wonder if she’d made the right move. “The idea of working in corporate America again made me feel like I was going to crawl out of my skin,” she said. After a while, the pressure to stick to her business plan—build a unique product, position herself within the market, and make her work profitable—felt like it was taking a toll on her mental health. She decided to talk to a professional.

In a culture that values self-reliance and grit, therapy can sometimes be seen as a weakness. “I was deeply worried that if it got out that I was in therapy, it would be evidence that I was really struggling and not the thriving, ‘boss babe’ entrepreneur I wanted to be seen as,” Jones said. 

Patricia Zurita Ona, PsyD, a clinical psychologist, said these fears are typical. “Many ambitious women internalize the idea that seeking therapy signals weakness or an inability to cope,” she said, “which clashes with the ‘Superwoman’ ideal: always excelling, never showing vulnerability, and handling everything flawlessly.” 

These pressures underscore the unique challenges women face in the entrepreneurial world, including higher rates of imposter syndrome, rumination, and burnout than men, said Zurita Ona. And while therapy can help, many entrepreneurs are reluctant to seek it out, not only because of what others might think, but because asking for help might feel like a sign that their business is failing. But like Jones, more female founders are beginning to view therapy in a different light: not as a last resort, but a powerful tool in their entrepreneurial arsenal. 

Put simply, therapy can be good for business.

Entrepreneurship isn't just crunching numbers and interpreting data. It calls for grit, determination, passion, and willpower—traits that are deeply influenced by a person's emotional state. It might be useful, then, to reframe therapy as "emotional strength training.” And there are a handful of ways this kind of training can benefit your bottom line.

Therapy can boost your confidence.

Jones said that before she entered therapy in 2021, she had trouble setting firm boundaries in her business. She made decisions out of fear, undercut her rates, and spent hours editing five-sentence emails to make sure they struck the right balance of friendly yet assertive. “In essence, I felt like I was being walked all over all the time,” she said. But in therapy (specifically a form of therapy called Internal Family Systems), Jones learned that her fear and anxiety over upsetting others was a self-protection mechanism. This realization allowed her to be more compassionate with herself, which then gave her the confidence to make well-rounded decisions with her business. “I swear, it feels like my entire relationship with myself changed when I stopped viewing myself as the enemy but rather as hurt parts that just wanted to be loved, have fun, and be accepted,” she said. “Now, I feel so much calmer and clearer when it comes to deciding which new opportunities to invest time, energy, and money in and which to put on ice until I'm ready to give them my all.”

Therapy can make you more flexible.

In the ever-changing and often chaotic world of entrepreneurship, psychological flexibility is crucial, said Zurita Ona. Psychological flexibility is defined as a person’s “ability to cope with, accept, and adjust to difficult situations,” and it’s associated with a handful of beneficial outcomes, like better decision-making, innovation, and resilience. “Think of it as the ability to stay present, open, and committed to your values, even when things get uncomfortable,” Zurita Ona said. By contrast, leaders who lack this trait are often rigid or impulsive. They might avoid difficult situations, which can undermine their performance and erode trust among teams. “Leaders who can manage their internal experiences without getting entangled in them are better equipped to adapt to change, foster psychological safety, and maintain strong relationships with their teams,” Zurita Ona added.

Therapy can strengthen your intuition.

"If I've learned anything in entrepreneurship, it's that there are infinite ways to get to your end goal,” Jones said. “Not only that, but everyone has advice on how you can get there, and no one else's end goal is exactly the same as yours.”

It can be hard to cut through this noise and listen to your gut, especially when you’re out of tune with yourself. Jones said that therapy helped with this because it gave her the confidence to trust her judgment and make herself a priority. “Since I now have the capacity to listen to myself and know what makes me feel safe and excited, I know that the decisions I'm making are the right ones for me,” she said.

Therapy can make it easier to take risks.

Entrepreneurs need to be comfortable with a certain amount of risk, but mental health struggles can make it hard to take those risks strategically. Therapy can help with this, too. Because therapy helps build resilience and cognitive flexibility, one of its downstream effects is that it can give a person the confidence and willingness to take risks. With cognitive flexibility comes greater comfort with uncertainty, for example, and with confidence and resilience comes a willingness to step outside of your comfort zone.

It’s easy to think of therapy as a last resort. But so often in life, mental wellness and professional flourishing go hand-in-hand, complementing each other in ways that might not seem obvious at first glance. After all, your business relies on one very crucial resource to function well—you.