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[Now accepting new clients.  Book your free consultation today → ](/work-with-me)

[![Sharon Meyers Therapy logo](/assets/logo-sanddollar-B1yhAvCA.png)Sharon Meyers Therapy LCSW #106887 ](/)

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![An empty office chair beside a window in morning light](/assets/imposter-syndrome-DOu6mU1B.jpg)

Therapy for

# Imposter Syndrome 

You are objectively good at what you do, and you are waiting to be exposed. Those two facts have coexisted for years, and no promotion, degree, or compliment has resolved the tension.

That is the defining feature of imposter syndrome: it is immune to evidence.

## Competence That Never Feels Earned 

Every success gets explained away. The right timing, a generous reviewer, a lucky break, a low bar. Failures, meanwhile, count double and confirm what you suspected all along.

Underneath is usually a fixed idea of what a real professional, parent, or expert feels like from the inside, calm, certain, fluent, and the assumption that everyone else has it. They do not. You are comparing your interior to their performance.

In session we slow down the accounting. Where did you learn that worth must be proven fresh every day, and who taught you that yours in particular was on probation.

## The Fear of Being Found Out 

Imposter syndrome comes with a low-grade, constant vigilance. You over-prepare so no one can catch you out. You avoid questions you cannot answer, projects you might fail publicly, and rooms where you feel like the least qualified person.

The vigilance works, in a narrow sense. It is also exhausting, and it quietly caps your life, because the only completely safe move is to stay where you are already proven.

Many people do not notice the cost until we map it: the roles declined, the rates not raised, the ideas kept in drafts.

## Why More Evidence Does Not Settle It 

If proof could fix this, it would be fixed. The feeling is not a miscalculation. It is a belief doing a job, usually humility learned early, or belonging that felt conditional, or being the first in your family to do any of this.

So instead of arguing with the feeling, we change your relationship to it. Acceptance and Commitment Therapy helps you notice the fraud story without obeying it, and take the meeting, the rate, the risk anyway.

Confidence tends to follow action. It almost never precedes it.

## Related Reading

-   [Perfectionism Read more → ](/therapy-for/perfectionism)
-   [Self-Esteem Read more → ](/therapy-for/self-esteem)
-   [High-Functioning Anxiety Read more → ](/therapy-for/high-functioning-anxiety)

Sharon Meyers is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker offering telehealth sessions to adults located anywhere in California.

In Case of Emergency

This website is for informational purposes only. This practice is not a crisis service. If you are experiencing a mental health emergency, please do not wait for a reply.

-   Call [911](tel:911) or go to your nearest emergency room if you are in immediate danger.
-   Call or text [988](tel:988) to reach the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline, available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
-   Text HOME to [741741](sms:741741) to reach the Crisis Text Line.

## You are not a fraud. You are a person who was never given permission to belong. 

Schedule a free consultation to talk it through.

[Schedule a Free Consultation](/begin-here)

### Sharon Meyers Therapy

LCSW #106887  
Online therapy throughout California  
Office located in Berkeley, CA

Quick Links

-   [Home](/)
-   [About](/about)
-   [Specialties](/specialties)
-   [FAQ](/faq)
-   [Blog](/blog)
-   [Contact](/begin-here)
-   [Therapy For](/therapy-for)
-   [Online Therapy](/online-therapy)
-   [Guides](/guides)

Contact

-   [(415) 335-7446](tel:4153357446)
-   [sharon@sharonmeyerstherapy.com](mailto:sharon@sharonmeyerstherapy.com)

[Psychology Today](https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/therapists/sharon-meyers-berkeley-ca/1080260)

**In case of emergency:** call or text [988](tel:988) or go to your nearest emergency room. This website is for informational purposes only.

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