Therapy Approaches
Therapy works best when it is tailored to the person, concern, and goals.
I am Dr. Joe Rustum, a licensed clinical psychologist and executive coach based in Nashville, Tennessee. My approach to therapy is direct, thoughtful, and practical. I work with high achievers, professionals, leaders, business owners, couples, parents, and high-responsibility adults dealing with anxiety, burnout, perfectionism, career stress, relationship strain, leadership pressure, identity questions, and the private cost of carrying responsibility.
There is no single therapy approach that fits every person or every concern. My work draws from several evidence-informed therapy approaches depending on what you are dealing with and what kind of help would be most useful.
Therapy approaches I use
You can learn more about each approach here:
I tailor therapy to the person in front of me. The goal is to understand what is actually happening and use an approach that fits what you are dealing with.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy focuses on the relationship between thoughts, emotions, behaviors, and patterns of response. It can be useful for anxiety, perfectionism, self-criticism, avoidance, burnout, and career stress.
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy helps clients relate differently to difficult thoughts, emotions, uncertainty, and discomfort. It can be useful for high achievers who feel stuck trying to control, solve, or eliminate every uncomfortable internal experience.
Psychodynamic Therapy
Psychodynamic therapy focuses on deeper patterns in how you relate to yourself, others, work, success, conflict, intimacy, and responsibility. It can help you understand not only what you are doing, but why those patterns make emotional sense.
Existential Therapy
Existential therapy focuses on meaning, identity, responsibility, freedom, limits, values, and the kind of life you are trying to build. It can be especially relevant for successful adults who have reached important goals but still feel restless, trapped, disconnected, or uncertain about what comes next.
Gottman Method Couples Therapy
Gottman Method Couples Therapy is a structured approach to helping couples understand and change patterns of conflict, emotional distance, disconnection, and failed repair. I use Gottman-informed couples work with couples dealing with communication problems, resentment, intimacy concerns, parenting stress, and work-life strain.
Exposure and Response Prevention Therapy
Exposure and Response Prevention Therapy, often called ERP, is commonly used for obsessive-compulsive disorder and anxiety-related concerns. ERP helps people gradually face feared thoughts, situations, sensations, or uncertainties while reducing reassurance-seeking, checking, avoidance, compulsions, and mental rituals.
Motivational Interviewing
Motivational Interviewing is a collaborative approach that helps clients explore ambivalence, clarify motivation, and make changes without shame, pressure, or defensiveness. It can be useful when part of you wants change and another part feels stuck, uncertain, resistant, or afraid of what change would cost.
Trauma-Informed Therapy
Trauma-informed therapy recognizes that past experiences can shape the way you respond to stress, relationships, authority, conflict, vulnerability, safety, and responsibility. This approach helps therapy move at a pace that respects the nervous system, the client’s history, and the protective patterns that may have developed over time.
Attachment-Based Therapy
Attachment-based therapy focuses on how early and important relationships shape the way you connect, depend on others, handle conflict, seek reassurance, protect yourself, and experience closeness. It can help with relationship anxiety, emotional distance, trust, vulnerability, fear of rejection, and repeated relational patterns.
Person-Centered Therapy
Person-centered therapy emphasizes empathy, respect, honesty, and the importance of being understood without performance. For many high-achieving adults, therapy can be one of the few places where you do not have to impress anyone, manage an image, or prove your competence.
Integrative therapy tailored to you
Most therapy does not fit neatly into one approach.
A client dealing with anxiety and perfectionism may benefit from CBT, ACT, psychodynamic therapy, and ERP-informed work. A couple dealing with emotional distance may need structured relationship work, attachment-based understanding, and practical communication changes. A leader dealing with burnout may need direct problem-solving, deeper reflection, values work, and a better understanding of the patterns that keep them overextended.
I tailor therapy based on the person in front of me.
The goal is to understand what is actually happening and use an approach that fits what you are dealing with.
Therapy in Nashville and online
I provide therapy in Nashville, Murfreesboro, and online.
I provide online therapy to clients in Tennessee and New York. I am also authorized through PSYPACT to provide online therapy in 40+ states.
People I Work With
I provide private therapy and coaching for high achievers, professionals, leaders, business owners, couples, parents, and high-responsibility adults in Nashville, Murfreesboro, and online.
I work with clients including:
The specific role may differ, but the patterns often overlap: pressure, responsibility, anxiety, burnout, perfectionism, relationship strain, leadership stress, privacy, and the expectation that you should be able to keep going.
Schedule a free phone consultation
Phone: (615) 266-6772
Email: Joe@joerustum.com
Address: 762 East Argyle Avenue, Nashville, TN 37203
Online therapy: Available in over 40 states through PSYPACT