I specialize in helping healthcare professionals and others in high stress jobs to recover from work-related issues of overwhelm, burnout, compassion fatigue, and traumatization, and to re-find their sense of passion, purpose, and meaning. I am especially experienced in doing this work with those with high anxiety, ADHD, and/or past trauma history.

I also enjoy working with people who are seeking therapy for help with non-work related issues (like relational disruption or loss, life transitions, and familial stress), including those who might benefit from having a therapist who understands the additional demands and challenges they face in their work environment.

My specialty treatment of professionals in high-stress careers is informed by training and relevant research and theory, and also by 20 years of experience working in a range of healthcare settings. In addition to providing direct services to patients in specialty mental health and primary care clinics, I have supervised and taught psychology externs, interns, and postdoctoral fellows, psychiatry residents, nurse practitioners, and social work interns, and have worked on a number of interdisciplinary clinical teams with physicians, nurses, and allied health practitioners.

Other specialty areas

  • ADHD-related issues with executive functioning, self-efficacy, confidence, self-regulation, and co-regulation
  • Anxiety-related problems of perfectionism, impostor syndrome, people-pleasing, and/or overfunctioning (being overresponsible and overcontrolling of self and others)
  • Occupational and social stress and trauma related to intersectionalities of gender, race, sexuality, class, neurotype, and chronic illness
  • Historical/intergenerational trauma
  • Life transitions
  • Consultation and supervision for licensed therapists and other healthcare providers

Populations of special interest

  • Adult ADHDers and those whose children or partners have ADHD
  • Adults who grew up in homes with active alcoholism, addiction, or other mental illness
  • Journalists, writers, artists, and other creative professionals
  • People with gender, racial, ethnic, or other identities that are underrepresented in their career fields
  • Individuals active in 12-step recovery programs and/or with long-term sobriety
  • Those who are the first generation of their families to attend college
  • White-identified individuals who want to unlearn/dismantle white supremacy culture and antiBlackness in themselves and in the communities and institutions in which they live and work

G. Dawn Lawhon, Ph.D. | Licensed Psychologist
CA Lic. 21968 | WI Lic. 5158-57 | PSYPACT E.Passport & APIT 17436 (participating states)

Required notice on Good Faith Estimates | Header photo: Maarten van den Heuvel