Specialized confidential therapy in California for law firm partners navigating burnout, anxiety, and the relentless pressures of BigLaw—from a therapist who understands the unique demands of partnership.
The Quick Takeaway
Confidential therapy for law firm partners in California provides complete privacy outside firm EAPs and insurance systems. Private-pay therapy means no records that partners, associates, or clients could ever access—protecting both your reputation and your recovery.
Licensed Clinical Psychologist, Cerevity
Confidential Mental Health Support for Law Firm Partners
Complete Guide for California Legal Professionals
Last Updated: January 2026
He called from his car in the parking garage after midnight, not wanting anyone at the firm to overhear. Equity partner at a prestigious AmLaw 100 firm, billing 2,400 hours annually for over a decade. Corner office had finally arrived—along with crippling anxiety, a marriage on life support, drinking habit that had quietly escalated from “networking” to necessity. “I can’t use the firm’s EAP. What if someone finds out? What if it gets back to the management committee? I’ve spent twenty years building this career. I can’t risk it all because I need help.” His fear wasn’t paranoia—it was rational calculus of someone who understands how competitive dynamics actually work at elite law firms.
Here’s what actually works, and what most advice gets wrong.
Table of Contents
– The Mental Health Crisis in Law
– Why Law Firm Partners Avoid Getting Help
– How Private-Pay Therapy Protects Your Career
– Common Challenges We Address
– Evidence-Based Treatment Approaches
– How Much Does Confidential Therapy for Partners Cost?
– What the Research Shows
– Frequently Asked Questions
– Get Started with Confidential Support
The Mental Health Crisis in Law
What the Research Reveals About Legal Professionals
The legal profession faces a mental health crisis that has persisted for decades—and despite increased awareness, the numbers remain alarming:
📊 Depression and Anxiety
Nearly 69% of lawyers report experiencing anxiety and 33% report depression, according to 2025 surveys. These rates far exceed the general population and have remained stubbornly high despite wellness initiatives.
🍷 Problematic Drinking
Over 21% of attorneys qualify as “problem drinkers”—nearly double the rate among other professionals with similar education levels. Among younger attorneys, the rate climbs to over 32%.
🔥 Burnout Epidemic
More than 50% of lawyers report feeling burned out, with many experiencing symptoms so severe they’ve considered leaving the profession entirely. Litigation practice areas show even higher rates.
💔 Suicidal Ideation
Over 11% of attorneys report having had suicidal thoughts within the past year—nearly double previous estimates. Lifetime rates of suicidal ideation among lawyers exceed 33%.
⚖️ Disciplinary Connection
Between 40-70% of attorney disciplinary proceedings and malpractice claims involve substance abuse, depression, or both—showing the direct professional cost of untreated mental health issues.
🚪 Career Detrimental
A significant proportion of attorneys report their time in the legal profession has been detrimental to their mental health, caused increased substance use, or led them to contemplate leaving law entirely.
The landmark 2016 ABA/Hazelden Betty Ford study found that attorneys experience problematic drinking at rates significantly higher than other populations, with the strongest association among those in private practice and law firm settings—exactly where competitive pressures are greatest.1
Why Law Firm Partners Avoid Getting Help
The Barriers That Keep Partners Suffering in Silence
Law firm partners face unique obstacles to seeking mental health support that go beyond typical professional concerns:
🏢 Firm EAP Concerns
Even though EAPs are supposed to be confidential, many partners worry about who might have access to utilization data. In a partnership structure, fellow partners are essentially co-owners—and the lines between HR, management, and peer relationships blur in ways that make true confidentiality feel impossible.
💼 Competitive Dynamics
Partnership is inherently competitive. Origination credit, compensation, and leadership positions are constantly contested. Any perceived weakness—including mental health struggles—can become a liability in this environment. Partners know their competitors are always watching.
📋 Insurance Record Fears
Using health insurance for therapy creates a permanent record with a diagnosis code. Partners worry about this information surfacing during lateral moves, partnership votes at new firms, or when applying for life insurance, disability coverage, or judicial appointments.
🎭 Client Perception
Partners are the face of the firm to clients. Many fear that any hint of mental health struggles could undermine client confidence, especially in high-stakes matters where clients expect unshakeable composure and judgment.
🏛️ Bar Admission History
Many attorneys were conditioned from law school to hide mental health issues due to character and fitness concerns. Even though they’re long past bar admission, that early fear of disclosure often persists throughout their careers.
⏰ Time Scarcity
Between client demands, business development, firm administration, and billable hour expectations, partners often feel they literally don’t have time for therapy. Taking an hour away from the office—and being seen leaving—feels impossible.
The Partner's Spouse or Family
If you’re the spouse, partner, or family member of a law firm partner who’s struggling:
👀 You See What They Hide
The person who commands courtrooms and boardrooms comes home exhausted, irritable, and unreachable. You see the late-night drinking, the 3 AM emails, and the Sunday afternoon anxiety about Monday.
🚫 Hitting a Wall
When you suggest therapy, you’re met with defensiveness about career risks, dismissal of the severity, or promises to “handle it” that never materialize. Their fears about confidentiality feel impenetrable.
💡 A Path Forward
Private-pay therapy addresses their legitimate concerns about confidentiality. Sharing this resource may open a door they thought didn’t exist—help that’s truly outside any system that could affect their career.
👨👩👧👦 The Family Impact
Their burnout doesn’t stay at the office. Children grow up with an absent parent. Marriages strain under the weight of a career that demands everything. The family pays the price for untreated distress.
🤝 Supporting Recovery
When your partner finally gets help, you may be invited into the process. Your patience and support can be transformative—and couples work can help rebuild the connection that years of BigLaw have eroded.
How Private-Pay Therapy Protects Your Career
Complete Confidentiality Outside All Firm Systems
Private-pay therapy provides multiple layers of protection that firm EAPs and insurance-based care simply cannot offer:
🚫 No EAP Connection
Your treatment exists completely outside your firm’s employee assistance program. No utilization data, no reports, no possibility of anyone at the firm knowing you’re receiving care.
📋 No Insurance Records
No claims filed, no diagnosis transmitted to databases, no mental health record that could surface during lateral moves, judicial nominations, or insurance applications.
🔒 No Required Diagnosis
Without insurance requirements, therapy can proceed without assigning a formal diagnosis to your permanent record. Treatment focuses on your needs, not billing codes.
Why Online Therapy Works for Law Firm Partners
Online private-pay therapy eliminates the practical barriers that make traditional therapy impossible for most partners:
Sessions happen from wherever you have privacy—your home office, your car, a hotel room during travel, or anywhere else that works. There’s no risk of being seen entering a therapist’s building, no chance of running into a colleague or opposing counsel in a waiting room.
Scheduling accommodates the reality of law firm life. Early morning sessions before the day explodes, evening appointments after things calm down, or weekend times when you can actually focus. When a deal or trial demands flexibility, we can reschedule without the typical constraints of in-person practice.
Travel doesn’t interrupt your care. Whether you’re at a client site, attending a conference, or handling matters in another city, therapy continues seamlessly. This consistency is crucial for making real progress rather than starting over every time your schedule disrupts a local therapist relationship.
The video format also creates psychological safety that some partners find valuable. There’s something about being in your own space that makes it easier to be vulnerable—you’re not performing in someone else’s office, and the slight distance can paradoxically help you go deeper.
California’s Lawyer Assistance Program (LAP) is confidential by law under Business and Professions Code section 6234. However, many partners still prefer completely private arrangements outside any bar-affiliated system—and private-pay therapy provides exactly that.2
Your Career Deserves Excellence—So Does Your Mental Health
Join California law firm partners who’ve stopped sacrificing wellbeing for success.
Confidential • Private-Pay • Outside All Firm Systems
Common Challenges We Address
🔥 Partner-Level Burnout
The pattern: You achieved partnership and discovered the demands only intensified. Now you’re managing a practice, developing business, mentoring associates, serving on committees—and still expected to bill at high levels. The exhaustion feels permanent, and you’ve forgotten what genuine energy feels like.
What we address: Strategic recovery from chronic depletion, sustainable boundary-setting that works within firm culture, reconnection with the aspects of practice that originally drew you to law, and decision-making about your career’s future direction.
🍷 Drinking That’s Become Concerning
The pattern: What started as networking drinks became nightly unwinding, then escalated to something you’re quietly worried about. You’re functional—bills get done, clients are served—but you know you’re running on compensatory strategies and it’s getting harder to maintain.
What we address: Non-judgmental exploration of your relationship with alcohol, evidence-based approaches to moderation or abstinence based on your goals, addressing the underlying stress and anxiety that drinking has been managing, and building sustainable coping strategies.
😰 High-Functioning Anxiety
The pattern: From the outside, your anxiety looks like high performance—meticulous preparation, constant vigilance, relentless drive. From the inside, it’s exhausting hypervigilance, catastrophic thinking about matters, and physical symptoms you’ve learned to hide. Your success has been built on anxiety, but it’s becoming unsustainable.
What we address: Breaking the link between anxiety and performance, developing genuine confidence that doesn’t require constant worry, managing physical symptoms, and building a more sustainable relationship with high-stakes work.
💔 Work-Life Conflict
The pattern: You’ve missed too many milestones, your spouse feels like a stranger, your children are growing up without you. The guilt compounds the stress, and you’re increasingly wondering whether the partnership was worth what it’s cost your personal life.
What we address: Values clarification about what actually matters to you, practical strategies for boundary-setting that work in your firm culture, rebuilding relationships that have eroded, and couples work when partners are ready to repair together.
🎭 Imposter Syndrome at the Top
The pattern: Despite objective success, you live with persistent fear of being “found out.” Every high-profile matter brings terror alongside excitement. Praise feels undeserved, and you’re convinced colleagues would think differently if they knew the “real” you. The constant performance is exhausting.
What we address: Challenging the cognitive distortions that drive imposter feelings, building authentic confidence grounded in your actual competence, reducing the gap between your internal experience and external presentation, and finding sustainable ways to lead without the exhausting performance.
🔄 Career Transition Questions
The pattern: You’re questioning whether to stay on the partnership track, move in-house, join a different firm, or leave law entirely. The identity questions are as overwhelming as the practical considerations. After building your entire adult life around being a BigLaw partner, who are you if you’re not that?
What we address: Clarifying your values and priorities separate from external expectations, exploring options without the pressure of immediate decisions, processing grief about paths not taken, and developing confidence to make changes—or peace with staying—based on your authentic desires.
Evidence-Based Treatment Approaches
We draw from multiple research-supported approaches tailored to the unique needs of legal professionals:
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
The gold standard for anxiety and depression, CBT appeals to analytically-minded attorneys who appreciate structured, evidence-based approaches. We identify and challenge the thought patterns driving distress while building practical coping skills that work under pressure.
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)
Particularly effective for burnout and values-based struggles, ACT helps partners develop psychological flexibility—the ability to pursue what matters while carrying difficult emotions rather than being controlled by them. This approach is especially powerful for high-achievers questioning their path.
Motivational Interviewing for Substance Concerns
A collaborative, non-confrontational approach to exploring your relationship with alcohol or other substances. Rather than labeling or prescribing, we help you clarify your own concerns and motivation, then support whatever changes you determine are right for you.
Legal Profession-Specific Understanding
Beyond therapeutic modalities, effective therapy for law firm partners requires deep understanding of firm economics, partnership dynamics, billable hour pressures, client relationships, and the unique identity challenges of being a BigLaw attorney. We won’t waste time explaining what your world is like.
Harvard Law School’s research on lawyer wellbeing confirms that untreated mental health issues generate significant costs for firms including disciplinary actions, absenteeism, presenteeism, and high attrition—making treatment both a personal and business imperative.3
How Much Does Confidential Therapy for Partners Cost?
Investment in Your Career and Wellbeing
At Cerevity, private-pay therapy sessions are competitively priced for California’s market. The investment includes:
– Licensed clinical psychologist specializing in high-achieving professionals
– Evidence-based approaches proven effective for attorney burnout, anxiety, and substance concerns
– Flexible online scheduling including early mornings, evenings, and weekends
– Complete privacy outside firm EAPs, insurance systems, and bar-affiliated programs
– Deep understanding of BigLaw culture, partnership dynamics, and competitive pressures
– Outcome tracking and progress measurement
The Cost of Not Getting Help
Consider what’s at stake when partner-level distress goes unaddressed:
⚖️ Disciplinary Risk
Between 40-70% of attorney disciplinary proceedings involve untreated mental health or substance issues. The very outcome you fear from getting help becomes more likely when you avoid treatment.
📉 Performance Deterioration
Chronic stress and substance use impair the cognitive functions you depend on—working memory, decision-making, attention, processing speed. You may be “functional,” but you’re not performing at your capacity.
💔 Relationship Destruction
Divorce rates among attorneys are high, and untreated burnout and substance issues accelerate relationship deterioration. The partnership you built costs you the marriage you wanted to enjoy it with.
🚪 Leaving Law Entirely
Many partners reach a breaking point where they exit the profession entirely—not because they wanted to, but because untreated issues made continuing impossible. Early intervention preserves career options.
What the Research Shows
The evidence on attorney mental health has been building for decades—and despite increased awareness, the crisis persists:
**Substance use disorders are epidemic:** The landmark ABA/Hazelden Betty Ford study found that 21% of attorneys qualify as problem drinkers by clinical standards—nearly double the rate among other professionals with similar education. When asked more specific questions about drinking patterns, the number climbs to over 36%. Attorneys in private practice and firm settings show the highest rates.
**The problem starts early:** Almost half of attorneys with drinking problems report that their issues began within the first 15 years of practice, including during law school. The culture of the profession—with alcohol-centered networking, high stress, and competitive pressure—creates conditions where problematic drinking develops and escalates.
**Treatment barriers are real but addressable:** The primary obstacles attorneys cite for not seeking help are reluctance to admit they have a problem (50.6%) and concerns about privacy and confidentiality (44.2%). Private-pay therapy directly addresses the confidentiality barrier, removing one of the biggest obstacles to care.
**Treatment works:** When attorneys do access appropriate treatment, outcomes are excellent. The challenge is getting people into treatment before their issues create professional consequences—which requires options that protect privacy completely.
“Seeking help will put you in the best possible position for success. Getting treatment shows you have control over your issues, are self-aware enough to know when you need assistance, and have a plan for addressing challenges.”
Frequently Asked Questions
Private-pay therapy operates completely outside your firm’s systems. No EAP, no insurance claims, no diagnosis on any record, no utilization data that anyone at your firm could ever access. Your therapy is a private arrangement between you and your therapist, protected by California’s psychotherapist-patient privilege. Even if you trust your firm’s stated EAP confidentiality, private-pay eliminates any possibility of information surfacing through administrative channels, data breaches, or changes in firm policy.
Absolutely. You don’t need to have hit bottom or fit a specific definition to benefit from exploring your relationship with alcohol. We use a non-judgmental, collaborative approach that helps you clarify your own concerns and goals—whether that’s moderation, abstinence, or simply understanding what’s driving the behavior. Many partners find that addressing the underlying stress, anxiety, or emotional needs that drinking has been managing is the key to lasting change.
At CEREVITY, standard 50-minute sessions are $175, extended 90-minute sessions are $300, and 3-hour intensive sessions are $525. We’re private-pay only, which ensures complete confidentiality with no EAP involvement or insurance records. For partners at major firms, this represents a modest investment relative to the career and personal costs of untreated burnout, anxiety, or substance issues.
Yes. CEREVITY provides 100% online therapy for legal professionals throughout California via secure video. Whether you’re in Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Diego, Silicon Valley, or anywhere in the state, you can access specialized support. Sessions happen from wherever you have privacy—your home office, a hotel room during travel, or anywhere else that works. No risk of being seen in a waiting room.
We offer early morning, evening, and weekend appointments specifically to accommodate demanding professional schedules. Online format eliminates commute time—a 50-minute session takes 50 minutes, not two hours. When deals or trials create schedule chaos, we work with you to reschedule flexibly. Many partners find that making time for therapy actually improves their efficiency and capacity, making the time investment worthwhile.
Yes. CEREVITY therapists specialize in high-achieving professionals including attorneys and understand firm economics, partnership dynamics, billable hour pressures, origination credit competition, and the unique identity challenges of BigLaw life. We won’t suggest you “just take a vacation” or dismiss your concerns about confidentiality. Our approach is designed specifically for legal professionals who need support from someone who gets it.
Ready for Confidential Support Outside Your Firm's Systems?
If you’re a law firm partner in California struggling with burnout, anxiety, substance concerns, or the relentless pressures of BigLaw, you don’t have to choose between getting help and protecting your career.
CEREVITY provides specialized, private-pay therapy that understands both the unique demands of partnership and your legitimate concerns about confidentiality—with flexible scheduling, complete privacy, and evidence-based approaches that fit the most demanding professional lives.
Available by appointment 7 days a week, 8 AM to 8 PM (PST)
About Trevor Grossman, PhD
Dr. Trevor Grossman is a licensed clinical psychologist at CEREVITY, a boutique concierge therapy practice serving high-achieving professionals throughout California. With specialized training in executive psychology and entrepreneurial mental health, Dr. Grossman brings deep expertise in the unique challenges facing attorneys, executives, physicians, and other accomplished professionals.
His work focuses on helping clients navigate high-stakes careers, optimize performance, and maintain psychological wellness amid demanding professional lives. Dr. Grossman’s approach combines evidence-based therapeutic techniques with an understanding of the discrete, flexible care that busy professionals require.
References
1. Krill, P. R., Johnson, R., & Albert, L. (2016). The Prevalence of Substance Use and Other Mental Health Concerns Among American Attorneys. Journal of Addiction Medicine, 10(1), 46-52.
2. California Lawyers Association. (2022). Wellness Strategies for Mental Health Issues Among Attorneys and Legal Professionals. Retrieved from https://calawyers.org/
3. Harvard Law School Center on the Legal Profession. (2023). Capitalizing on Healthy Lawyers. Retrieved from https://clp.law.harvard.edu/
4. American Bar Association. (2017). The Path to Lawyer Well-Being: Practical Recommendations for Positive Change. National Task Force on Lawyer Well-Being.
⚠️ Crisis Resources
If you are experiencing a mental health crisis or having thoughts of suicide, please reach out immediately:
988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline: Call or text 988
Crisis Text Line: Text HOME to 741741
California Lawyer Assistance Program: 1-877-LAP-4-HELP (877-527-4435)
