About Systems Check: The Human Operating System for Ambition & Burnout
SystemsCheck™ The show for high performers who look fine on paper — and know something's off underneath.
Hosted by Naina, LCSW — licensed therapist, former tech insider, and burnout specialist — Systems Check examines the human operating system behind leadership, ambition, and relationships. Through candid solo episodes and expert conversations, we explore how your nervous system, decision-making patterns, and relational dynamics quietly shape performance at work and at home. We look at burnout through the lens of chronic illness, couples and family systems, and substance and behavioral patterns — because high demand doesn't happen in a vacuum.
This isn't therapy. It's a strategic audit. New episodes every month. Subscribe wherever you listen.
Dr. Eric Williams on Burnout Doesn't Stay at the Office — It Comes Home
In this episode, Naina sits down with Dr. Eric Williams — licensed clinical mental health counselor supervisor, marriage and family therapist, associate professor at Walden University, 82nd Airborne veteran, and founder of Coastal Family Services and Coastal Family Media. They explore what happens when high-performance culture follows you home, how adopted truths quietly drive relationship strain, and why the way you communicate at work is actively working against you in your marriage. Dr. Williams also shares his four Rs framework — retreat, regulate, reflect, reconnect — a deceptively simple model for transitioning out of work mode before you cost the people you love the version of you they actually need.
Guest Resources Dr. Eric Williams — Coastal Family Services, PLLC coastalfamilymedia.com (http://coastalfamilymedia.com) Free quiz: Why We Fight Free bi-weekly community sessions — Fridays at 12:00 p.m.
Work With Me — Naina Rana, LCSW Peakworks Counseling Center — Private therapy for individuals and couples in Connecticut peakworkscounseling.com (http://peakworkscounseling.com)
Keynote Speaking — Burnout, sustainable performance, and team culture.
Organizational Consulting — S.Y.S.T.E.M.S. Framework™ for leadership teams.
28 Sept 2026
Megan Rees, LPC on Burnout Hits Differently When Your Brain Is Running a Different OS
In this episode, Naina sits down with Megan Rees — drama therapist, ADHD assessor, organizational consultant, and founder of her own therapy and coaching practice — to make the clinical case for why burnout in a neurodivergent brain is a different experience requiring a different response. They cover psychological safety beyond the poster on the wall, what undiagnosed ADHD actually looks like in a high-performing tech professional, and why doing a burnout workshop for a company that won't change anything is something Megan refuses to do. This one is for anyone who has spent years interpreting their own brain as a character flaw.
Megan Rees — meganelrees.com (http://meganelrees.com)
LinkedIn — Megan Rees
Instagram — @workshrink (consulting, coaching, and organizational content)
Amy Edmondson — researcher who coined psychological safety; original research conducted in hospital systems
Google's Project Aristotle — referenced in discussion of psychological safety as the common denominator in high-performing teams
Internal Family Systems (IFS) / Parts Work — referenced in relation to drama therapy techniques
Drama therapy — explained in episode; Megan's clinical training and modality
Guest Resources Megan Rees, MA, Drama Therapist | ADHD Assessor | Consultant meganelrees.com (http://meganelrees.com) LinkedIn: Megan Rees Instagram: @workshrink Services: Therapy (California), Coaching (worldwide), Executive Functioning Coaching, Organizational Consulting
Work With Me — Naina Rana, LCSW Peakworks Counseling Center — Private therapy for individuals and couples in Connecticut peakworkscounseling.com (http://peakworkscounseling.com)
Keynote Speaking — Burnout, disability & work and sustainable team culture
Organizational Consulting — S.Y.S.T.E.M.S. Framework™ for leadership teams.
31 Aug 2026
Ingrid Johnston, LMFT on When Chronic Pain Becomes the Third Thing in Your Relationship
In this episode of Systems Check™, Naina Rana sits down with Ingrid Johnston, LMFT, MDFT, a marriage and family therapist specializing in chronic pain, couples conflict, and the intersection of nervous system health and relationships.
Together, they explore what happens when chronic pain becomes the “third thing” in a relationship—an organizing force that can quietly shape communication, intimacy, routines, conflict, caregiving, and emotional connection.
Learn more about Ingrid Johnston, LMFT, MDFT: Ingrid Johnston Therapy
https://www.ingridjohnstontherapy.com/ (https://www.ingridjohnstontherapy.com/)
This episode is for educational and informational purposes and is not a substitute for individualized medical or mental health care.
31 Aug 2026
Heather Laing on The Second Full-Time Job Nobody at Work Knows You Have
In this episode of Systems Check, host Naina Rana speaks with Heather Laing, founder and CEO of Complex Caregiver Solutions and a 20-year corporate HR executive. Heather opens up about navigating her own crisis—managing a major companywide reduction in force on the exact same day her 7-year-old son was admitted to a pediatric psychiatric unit.
Key Takeaways
The Invisible Workforce Crisis: Roughly 26.2% of U.S. children now have special healthcare needs, leaving 8–12% of the workforce acting as complex caregivers—often quietly burning out without disclosing their challenges to HR.
Why Standard Benefits Fail: Basic EAPs (typically capped at 3–6 sessions) and standard backup childcare networks are not designed to support families navigating pediatric psychiatric crises, severe ADHD, or autism accommodations.
The Cost of "Quiet Resignation": Caregivers rarely leave with dramatic exits; they experience presenteeism (losing 5–9 hours of productivity per week) before quietly resigning. A 5,000-person company can lose between $6.5M and $12.5M annually to caregiver-driven attrition.
Driving Systemic Change: Solving caregiver burnout requires systemic corporate evolution across four pillars: benefits design, clear policies, empathetic manager training, and robust ERG support.
Website: complexcaregiversolutions.com (http://complexcaregiversolutions.com)
Email: heather@complexcaregiversolutions.com (mailto:heather@complexcaregiversolutions.com)
30 Jul 2026
Alyssa Carter, LPC, CCTP on Building Systems Your Brain Will Actually Use
Chronic illness, burnout, and neurodivergence don't just affect your body — they hijack executive function: planning, task initiation, working memory, and attention regulation. In this episode, licensed professional counselor and certified clinical trauma professional Alyssa Carter joins Naina Rana to break down why "just push through it" fails high-achieving, chronically overloaded brains — and what actually works instead. They cover spoon theory as an energy-budgeting framework, the calendar-and-to-do-list combo that cuts decision fatigue, where AI tools genuinely reduce cognitive load versus where they add noise, how to build inclusive trainings and workplaces, and why middle managers with chronic illness are running on empty with nowhere to refill. If you've built the perfect productivity system and still can't stick to it, this episode is your reframe.
Alyssa Carter, MA, LPC, NCC, CCTP Therapist (She/Her)
STR Behavioral Health – Lancaster 610 Community Way, Lancaster, PA 17603 Email: alyssa.carter@strlancaster.com (mailto:alyssa.carter@strlancaster.com) Web: www.strlancaster.com (http://www.strlancaster.com) | www.stepstorecovery.com (http://www.stepstorecovery.com) LinkedIn: Alyssa Carter
Upcoming: Presenting on chronic illness and suicidality at the Mental Health America conference, September 13 (in-person).
2 Jul 2026
Destiny Davis, LPC, CRC on Your System Isn't Broken — It's Just Data
There's a version of burnout that nobody talks about — the kind that happens when you're already managing a body that doesn't follow the standard schedule. Destiny Davis, licensed professional counselor and certified rehabilitation counselor, built her entire practice around the people navigating chronic illness alongside high-performing careers. In this conversation, we talk about crip time, values versus goals, ADHD in women, and the one mindset shift that changes everything: your system breaking is not a verdict. It's data.
2 Jul 2026
Brigid Carney, LPC on When "Handle It" Becomes the Problem
What happens when "I can handle it" becomes the reason you're burning out?
In this episode of SystemsCheck, Naina talks with Brigid Carney, LPC—first responder therapist, former health insurance executive, and PhD candidate in first responder mental health—about the hidden costs of the mission-first mindset.
Together, they explore why firefighters, police officers, paramedics, and other high performers struggle to ask for help, how burnout impacts identity, and what it takes to build sustainable resilience in high-pressure careers.
If you've ever felt like your value comes from being the person who always has it together, this conversation is for you.
Linkedin: Brigid Carney PhD ABD, MS, LPC, NCC, MBA, LSSMBB, PMP (https://www.linkedin.com/in/brigid-carney-phd-abd-ms-lpc-ncc-mba-lssmbb-pmp-15442611/)
2 Jul 2026
Naina on: Reclaiming Capacity in an Overclocked World™
There's a version of burnout that hides inside competence. As a licensed clinical social worker and former tech startup insider, I developed the SYSTEMS Framework™ — a 7-part burnout prevention model built from lived experience and clinical practice. This episode breaks down every component and how to actually implement it in your daily life.
Instagram: @Peakworks_Counseling_Center
Website: peakworkscounseling.com (http://peakworkscounseling.com)
Facebook: Peakworks Counseling Center
Tiktok: @peakworkscounseling
Linkedin: Naina Rana (https://www.linkedin.com/in/naina-rana-lcsw-ladc)
1 Jun 2026
Dr. Mickey Fitch-Collins on Burned Out in the Middle
If you've ever looked up at the end of a workday and wondered what you actually accomplished — this episode is for you. Dr. Mickey Fitch-Collins, human skills facilitator at Learnit and former professional bass fisherman turned leadership expert, joins Systems Check to talk about why the middle layer of most organizations is quietly breaking — and what actually fixes it.
Mickey hosts the Learnit Lounge Podcast, where she covers the shifts facing learning and development professionals — from data-driven training to the power and pitfalls of AI.
Learn more about her: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mickeyfitchcollins/ (https://www.linkedin.com/in/mickeyfitchcollins/)
1 Jun 2026
Charity O'Reilly on The Burnout You Build Yourself
Charity O'Reilly is a trauma therapist, practice owner, and author who specializes in complex PTSD. But what makes her the right guest for this show isn't just her clinical credentials — it's that she burned out badly, rebuilt on her own terms, and now helps other high performers stop recreating the same cycles they thought they'd escaped. We're talking about the version of burnout nobody talks about: the one you build yourself, with the best intentions.
Learn more about her work at https://charityoreilly.com (https://charityoreilly.com/) and her blog https://charityoreilly.com/blog/ (https://charityoreilly.com/blog/)
28 Apr 2026
Nischal Rana on Burnout: Stop Optimizing for Your Best Days
What does it really cost to build and maintain the systems that keep public health infrastructure running—and what does that reveal about sustainable performance?
In this episode, Nischal Rana, an integrations engineer for the State of Connecticut, breaks down burnout in DevOps culture. We explore the go-go grind mentality that gets normalized from day one, why optimizing for your best days is a fast track to burning out by 35, the communication skills no computer science program teaches you, and why building strong relationships will outlast even the most specialized technical skills.
Raw, honest, and from someone who’s lived it on the inside.
28 Apr 2026
Elizabeth Morrison, LPC on Why High Performers Burn Out Silently
Elizabeth Morrison — licensed counselor and neuro inclusive systems designer — breaks down why high-performing tech professionals burn out silently. We get into the structural conditions tech environments accidentally engineer against their own people, what functional depletion looks like before anyone quits, and the one thing any leader can do this week to start building a system that actually holds. This isn't a wellness conversation. It's an operations one.
28 Apr 2026
The Human Side of SaaS Sales — Mark Steinbach on Performing Without Burning Out
Selling high-stakes SaaS isn’t just about numbers—it’s about people, habits, and mindset. Mark Steinbach shares lessons from early sales missteps, key signals in complex deals, and mental routines that keep top performers sustainable. Discover how to navigate the pressures of high-stakes software sales without burning out and maintain peak performance in every deal.
31 Mar 2026
Kishan Kunver on Breaking the Urgency Cycle
High-pressure tech environments push high performers into constant urgency—and burnout. In this episode, Kishan Kunver shares how to break the burnout cycle, apply systems thinking to your personal performance, and implement practical strategies for sustainable productivity. Learn how to shift from reactive work to intentional, focused results and take control of your energy and time.
Kishan Kunver, an Endpoint Tech Analyst at Pratt & Whitney. Kishan specializes in enterprise IT, digital workplace services, and operational efficiency, with a focus on systems thinking to optimize performance without sacrificing well-being.
31 Mar 2026
Sarah LaFontaine, LMHC — When High Achievement Becomes a Trauma Response
In this episode, Naina sits down with Sarah LaFontaine, LMHC, to explore the deeper psychological roots of high achievement—especially when success is driven by unresolved trauma rather than true alignment.
Sarah LaFontaine, LMHC, is a speaker, therapist, and CEO working at the intersection of mental health, performance, and modern relationships. She is a speaker with MindfulHQ, a therapist at Rising Hope Counseling Services, and the founder of Mindful Matches, a mental health directory designed to connect individuals with the right support.
Learn more about her work at mindfulhq.com (http://mindfulhq.com) and rising-hope.co (http://rising-hope.co).
13 Mar 2026
Burnout Isn’t a Personal Failure — It’s a Systems Problem
In this opening episode of Systems Check, we explore why burnout isn’t a mindset problem—and what’s actually happening in your nervous system when chronic stress takes over. We’ll break down the realities high performers in tech and other demanding careers face, including emotional resilience, communication challenges, boundaries, anxiety, depression, and the pressure to keep functioning no matter the cost. Most importantly, we begin the conversation about how to move from self-blame to real repair.
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