About Me
I'm Maryam Khodadoust, a licensed psychologist specializing in working with high achievers and perfectionists who are ready to transform relentless self-criticism into sustainable excellence.
If you're someone who sets impossibly high standards, struggles with the fear of not being "enough," or finds that your drive for perfection is creating more anxiety than achievement—you're in the right place.
My passion is helping accomplished young adults like you navigate the intersection of ambition and well-being. Together, we'll work to shift your perfectionism into healthy high standards that honor your values without compromising your mental health, relationships, or sense of purpose.
What We'll Work On Together:
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Redefining success beyond external validation and unrealistic expectations
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Challenging the inner critic that fuels imposter phenomenon and self-doubt
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Breaking cycles of procrastination, burnout, and all-or-nothing thinking
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Building self-compassion while maintaining your commitment to excellence
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Navigating identity, career, and purpose with clarity rather than anxiety
I believe that self-knowledge is the key to freedom and power. Through evidence-based practice, I help you identify and replace self-sabotaging beliefs, shed internalized messages of "never good enough," and create a life driven by authentic values rather than fear of failure.
I provide comprehensive individual therapy and also offer workshops on perfectionism, imposter phenomenon, burnout, procrastination, resilience, and cross-cultural communication—designed specifically for high-performing individuals and organizations.
You don't have to choose between excellence and peace. Let's work together to achieve both.
Specializing in Treating Perfectionism, Imposter Phenomenon, Burnout
and Procrastination
Perfectionism
A lot of perfectionists have no idea they are perfectionists. They associate perfectionism with overworking, overthinking, or being hyper-focused on a goal, a task, or an idea.
Although overworking, overthinking, and hyper-focusing are signs of perfectionism, so is avoidance, giving up quickly, and purposefully putting in a low effort on things that matter to you. Procrastination is another indicator.
Perfectionism is not a mental illness. However, being a perfectionist can leave you vulnerable to a host of mental health illnesses including anxiety, depression, eating disorders, body dysmorphia, and even suicidality.
Burnout
“Burnout” describes the feeling people have when they lack motivation or incentive.
People who are burnt out often say that they have nothing left. They have no energy or no desire to go to work or engage in other activities—even those things they used to love doing.
Where these individuals once felt a sense of curiosity and excitement, they now have feelings of dread. And these feelings do not go away, even after taking a weekend off or going on vacation.
Imposter Phenomenon
Imposter phenomenon is really about what happens when a person has impossible standards of intelligence or competence such that they rarely or ever meet their own standards. As a result, they attribute their success to luck, to timing, or to making an extraordinary effort to fool others into believing that they are more intelligent than they believe themselves to be.
Imposter phenomenon can express itself as discomfort in sharing thoughts or ideas. Sometimes people go to great lengths to avoid detection, which means never share their ideas, and they avoid—even sabotage—opportunities that come their way.
Procrastination
Procrastination is a conscious decision to delay or not complete a task you were planning to do. Instead, a procrastinator will do something of lesser importance despite the presence of negative consequences of not following through on the original task or goal.