SystemsCheck™: 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.

SystemsCheck™: The Human Operating System for Ambition & Burnout is a health podcast hosted by Unknown Host, with 0 episodes on record and a Required Pod Score of 80.

Unknown Host hosts SystemsCheck™: The Human Operating System for Ambition & Burnout, a health show with 0 episodes published.

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  SystemsCheck™: The Human Operating System for Ambition & Burnout

  Dr. Eric Williams on Burnout Doesn't Stay at the Office — It Comes Home

  Sep 27, 202656 min

  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 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 Keynote Speaking — Burnout, sustainable performance, and team culture. Organizational Consulting — S.Y.S.T.E.M.S. Framework™ for leadership teams.

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  SystemsCheck™: The Human Operating System for Ambition & Burnout

  Megan Rees, LPC on Burnout Hits Differently When Your Brain Is Running a Different OS

  Sep 27, 202651 min

  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 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 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 Keynote Speaking — Burnout, disability & work and sustainable team culture Organizational Consulting — S.Y.S.T.E.M.S. Framework™ for leadership teams.

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  SystemsCheck™: The Human Operating System for Ambition & Burnout

  Alyssa Carter, LPC, CCTP on Building Systems Your Brain Will Actually Use

  Jul 29, 20261h 16m

  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 Web: www.strlancaster.com | www.stepstorecovery.com LinkedIn: Alyssa Carter Upcoming: Presenting on chronic illness and suicidality at the Mental Health America conference, September 13 (in-person).

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  SystemsCheck™: The Human Operating System for Ambition & Burnout

  Destiny Davis, LPC, CRC on Your System Isn't Broken — It's Just Data

  Jul 1, 202653 min

  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.

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  SystemsCheck™: The Human Operating System for Ambition & Burnout

  Brigid Carney, LPC on When "Handle It" Becomes the Problem

  Jul 1, 20261h 29m

  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

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