Hi. I’m Dr. Melvin Varghese.
Clinical Psychologist. Successful Entrepreneur. Husband and Dad.
Your Ideas Move The World. But The Pressure Can Be Relentless As Your Business & Influence Grows. Let Me Help You Manage It Well.
Online Psychotherapy That Doesn't Put You In A Box.
Entrepreneurs with growing businesses and influence (online and offline) face unique pressures and challenges . Here’s a safe place to navigate through it from someone who understands.
Founder Depression
Entrepreneurs From Alcoholic And/Or Dysfunctional Families
CEO Stress
Founder Depression
Entrepreneurs From Alcoholic/Dysfunctional Families
CEO Stress
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Most entrepreneurs wonder whether “talking to a psychologist” will help.
As a fellow entrepreneur, I get it. We’re wired differently. We’re fiercely independent, problem solvers, and, worst case, used to locking in even if means ignoring our emotions. But the daily up’s and down’s of entrepreneur life can wreck havoc on our businesses, our health, and our relationships.
In fact, research says that the unique energy, motivation, and creativity that entrepreneurs possess actually make us more prone to strong emotional states. This can lead to impulsive business decisions, loneliness, and chronic feelings of emptiness despite outward success.
We’ll use effective and time-optimized psychotherapy including mindfulness to help you feel better as your business grows, learn to ride the up’s and down’s, separate business volatility from their self worth, and ultimately create a business that aligns with deeply-held values and one that you’ve always imagined.
Wait…I can meet you from my home office or coworking space?!
Short answer, yes. Longer answer, let’s be real. Between meetings with our team and product development sprints, time is limited. We meet online, via HIPAA-compliant, encrypted video. This way you can schedule our meetings into your day without wasting precious time on commutes, finding parking, sitting in a waiting room, etc. And of course, what we talk about stays between us.
Dr. Melvin, What’s The Process Like?
1. We'll touch base via phone or email.
Phones and emails are answered by Dr. Melvin’s Care Coordinator 9 AM-5 PM EST Monday Thru Friday. Calls and emails after hours are responded to first thing next business day.
2. You fill out a brief questionnaire to help me understand how I can help.
This includes some basic information about you, what you’re struggling with, and family history. This helps us have a springboard for our free consult.
3. We meet online for a free 20 minute consult.
Your Care Coordinator will send you links to our online consult.
We’ll also discuss fees ($250/50 minute hour that can be paid via credit card, through your HSA/FSA card, or we may be able to submit our session for out of network payment through insurance).
4. After our consult, we decide to work together or I can make referrals to other colleagues in the area.
My goal with our free consult is to get you the best help possible whether it’s me or a trusted colleague.
5. If we decide to work together, we'll schedule a regular time to meet.
Meeting weekly allows us to make the most gains in the shortest amount of time.
6. We'll constantly monitor progress and wrap up our time together.
For some clients, this is our final goodbye. For others, we do periodic checkins as other issues arise. We’ll do what makes sense for you.
About Me
Successful, humble, visionary, deep, nerdy, and brutally hard on themselves
These are a few of the ways that I describe the brave men and women I work with.
I’m very familiar with the “entrepreneur life” having bootstrapped an online business in 2015 that made a few dollars each month for several months, but steadily growing it into a 6-figure business with a 5 person remote team.
In the process, my blog at Selling The Couch has grown to over 14,000 monthly visitors, my online community to over 10,000 professionals, and my podcast is listened in 127 countries and nearing 1 million downloads.
I’ve also became sought out for interviews, keynotes, roundtables, and workshops on business, creativity, and entrepreneurship while becoming a first-time dad.
But it hasn’t been easy especially for an introvert like me. I’ve struggled with bouts of depression and anxiety even as my business grew and become a dad to a daughter who was also a NICU baby.
I love working with entrepreneurs with growing businesses and influence because I personally know the demons many of us fight against whether its the lingering pain of growing up in a dysfunctional home that creeps into our business, the daily toll of sleepless nights from deadlines, pivots, and creative bursts, or the struggle to balance our life’s work with relationships.
Please click the button below to learn more about me, the services I provide, and why I do this work.
Grateful you’re here.
~Melvin
“The fact of the matter is this: if you’re driven, an entrepreneur, a type-A personality, or a hundred other things, mood swings are part of your genetic hardwiring. It’s a blessing and a curse.” ~Tim Ferris
“It’s not a topic the start-up community understands well. After all, this is the very culture that turned the chestnut “pick yourself up by your bootstraps” into a much-celebrated verb.
Admitting you struggle with depression is like admitting you can’t reach your bootstraps. It’s assumed that successful people can just “shake it off.”
But that’s not how it works […] depression carries a stigma.
Most of the success stories we hear involve an entrepreneur who pushes himself beyond his physical and emotional limits. He’s unbalanced–but in a good way.
My own experience has made me realize that this imbalance is no way to live the start-up life, and, in fact, it’s detrimental to this kind of work.
The only way I survive the dark periods is by constantly renewing myself and my perspective. Starting over is part of the process of starting up. That’s something those in the entrepreneurial community should understand better than anyone else. ” ~Brad Feld (Foundry Group)