For the stage where the company stops being an extension of you and starts being something you lead.
An executive coach for founders works on the problems that are specific to having built the thing you now run: identity fused with the company, co-founder relationships that never had a manager in them, the shift from doing the work to setting direction, and the particular isolation of being accountable to a board you assembled yourself.
At Meridian that coach is Dr. Stephanie Collier, a board-certified psychiatrist and Harvard Medical School faculty member. Clinical training matters here more than in most coaching, because founder distress is routinely misread as a performance problem when it is closer to burnout, chronic anxiety or depression. Engagements run three to twelve months by secure video nationwide, or in person in Boston.
Duke University Psychiatry Residency · Brigham and Women's Hospital Consultation-Liaison Fellowship · Harvard Medical School Faculty · McLean Hospital Director of Education, Division of Geriatric Psychiatry · Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health MPH · Certified Executive Coach
Related reading: when the founder's identity and the company's identity fuse, and how to choose an executive coach.
The Founder role carries pressures that traditional coaching cannot fully address. Dr. Collier's psychiatry residency at Duke University and consultation-liaison fellowship at Brigham and Women's Hospital equipped her to understand the cognitive, emotional, and behavioral dimensions of executive leadership at the highest level.
As Harvard Medical School faculty and Director of Education for the Division of Geriatric Psychiatry at McLean Hospital, she brings the latest research in behavioral science to every coaching engagement, ensuring Founders receive evidence-based support for their unique challenges.
A comprehensive approach to leadership that begins where most coaching ends: with an honest assessment of the whole person. This is clinical-grade coaching for executives who understand that sustainable performance requires more than ambition.
Learn More →The chief executive inhabits a peculiar solitude. The higher you rise, the fewer people can tell you the truth. This coaching engagement creates a space where clarity, candor, and clinical insight replace the isolation of the top job.
Learn More →Every significant career transition involves a kind of identity reconstruction. The skills that earned the promotion are rarely the ones the new role demands. This coaching helps leaders navigate that passage with intention and self-awareness.
Learn More →Burnout is not a failure of willpower. It is a predictable consequence of sustained demand without adequate recovery, often invisible until it is advanced. Dr. Collier's clinical training allows her to identify burnout at stages most coaches and even most executives cannot yet name.
Learn More →The free 2-minute assessment pinpoints the coaching approach that fits your situation.