Corporate executives obsessed with flawless performance often require intense schema therapy to dismantle maladaptive perfectionism, a brutal cognitive trap where a child's…

A closer look

Grinding 80 hours a week to become the youngest vice president at your firm isn't the flex you think it is; it’s usually just a trauma response in a fancy suit. Maladaptive perfectionism isn't about healthy ambition. It’s driven by an ingrained, early-childhood schema that dictates your worth as a human being is strictly transactional. Schema therapy has to painfully deconstruct the illusion that making a mistake will result in abandonment, revealing that extreme overachievers are often just terrified kids seeking validation.