I take my role as a psychologist, Kemetic Yoga instructor, and fellow human being seriously. At the core of my work is a commitment to building something better—ways of living and working that allow people to contribute meaningfully without losing themselves in the process.
Over time, I’ve had to learn how to balance caring for others with caring for myself. That ongoing process continues to shape how I understand burnout, responsibility, and sustainable growth, not just professionally, but personally. The work I offer is grounded in that integration.
I feel fortunate to have a career where my personal and professional development inform each other. As I grow as a psychologist, I bring together lived experience, clinical training, and mentorship to support others in navigating complexity with more clarity and intention.
I earned my doctorate in Counseling Psychology in 2014 and have published academic work on race-related stress, identity, and mental health. I’ve worked with over 300 clients in individual and group settings, many of whom are high-achieving and navigating chronic stress and burnout—including athletes, advanced graduate and professional students, and individuals with immigration backgrounds.
In 2017, I completed Kemetic Yoga teacher training in Egypt, expanding my approach to stress, health, and embodiment. Since then, I’ve taught yoga within communities on the South Side of Chicago, integrating these practices into a broader framework of sustainable well-being.
I’ve experienced burnout in multiple phases of my life. Being a psychologist does not make me exempt from the very patterns I help others understand. At its worst, burnout contributed to a thyroid condition I still manage today.
I used the tools I was trained in. I did what I believed would help. Still, I found myself returning to the same cycle. I overextended, overidentified with responsibility, and pushed past my limits in ways that were both frustrating and discouraging.
Becoming a mother shifted how I saw everything. I began to reexamine the identities I carried as an Afro-German woman, an athlete, and the daughter of a drill sergeant. I also looked more closely at how deeply those identities were shaped by messages about performance, discipline, and worth. Untangling these patterns changed how I work, how I care for myself, and how I show up in my relationships, including with my son.
That process reshaped not only how I live, but also how I approach burnout in my work. I am not interested in quick fixes or surface-level strategies. I focus on helping people understand the deeper patterns that keep them stuck and supporting them in building ways of operating that are actually sustainable.
I am committed to this work because burnout is a life-draining way to move through the world. When people begin to step out of these patterns, it does not just change individual lives. It also shifts the environments we all live and work in.
Workshops, keynotes, and interactive sessions designed to help high-responsibility professionals understand burnout patterns and operate more sustainably without sacrificing impact.
I studied psychology at my undergraduate institution, Saint Augustine’s College (now Saint Augustine’s University) in Raleigh, North Carolina. I was fortunate that my undergraduate education included the fundamentals of Black psychology and a history of the racist and exclusionary roots of the discipline. This knowledge helps me regard the field in a realistic and nuanced way. My understanding of psychology continues to be informed by Black and African psychological perspectives including, but not limited to, scholars such as Na’im Akbar, Wade Nobles, and Janet Helms.
My graduate education continued this trend in understanding the breadth of psychology, as my academic adviser Dr. Shawn Utsey held dual appointments in Psychology and African American Studies. His scholarly perspective through film, story-telling and qualitative research remains a strong foundation for the way I think through cultural problems. It is only through his support that my thesis and dissertation were both qualitative in nature, as this was the appropriate methodology for my research questions. This is typically not supported in “traditional” psychology.
My own scholarship focuses on racial socialization, identity and prejudice. For a full list of my academic publications, please visit my Google Scholar profile. For more details on my work history, please refer to my LinkedIn profile.
My clinical training as a psychologist at Virginia Commonwealth University was greatly influenced by my clinical supervisors Dr. Leticia Flores for my work in individual therapy and Kristi Vera (LCSW) for group therapy. My experience with them helped me develop my foundation as a clinician I built upon in my internship and post doc at University of Illinois Chicago Counseling Center. Theorists who inform my clinical work include Harry Stack Sullivan and Irvin Yalom.
I completed two 200-hr Kemetic Yoga Trainings. Kemetic Yoga is based on ancient Egyptian philosophy and was developed by Yirsir Ra Hotep and Dr. Asar Hapi in the 1970’s. This style of yoga is informed by ancient Egyptian philosophy, Hatha Yoga, and Tai Chi. To learn more, click here.
Since completing my formal training, I have found intellectual homes and inspiration at the Kemetic Institute of Chicago, Haji Healing Salon, Kemetic Yoga Teacher Training through Yirsir Ra Hotep, The Womb Room, and Jade T. Perry.
You are the authority of your own healing, personal growth and development. Marketing teaches us to position service providers as ‘authorities’ in the field and I resist that notion. I have knowledge and expertise as a psychologist, and that comes with some inherent power. However, it is important that you always maintain your authority over yourself. Do not put me on a pedestal. That does not serve us.
Life is complex. There are very few things that fit neatly into boxes, quotes, and one-liners. Most of the things I share come with a “it depends.” It’s messy and doesn’t lend itself to the simplicity we are encouraged to put forth. However, I believe this nuance is more TRUE, and I love the truth more than I love success or being right.
I care deeply about my work. My boundaries around my time and what things about my personal life I choose to share are in service of my own wellbeing, and thereby also serve my work. Once again, the encouragement to share it all in an effort to connect on the Internet with strangers is something I resist. I believe our boundaries can be a way to connect in ways that don’t exploit. Thank you for respecting my boundaries.
Available as keynotes, conference breakouts, leadership retreats, and interactive workshops.
Sessions can stand alone or build on one another to address burnout at three levels: identity, culture, and daily practice.
High-achieving professionals often internalize a simple equation: effort equals worth. For many high-responsibility professionals, burnout is not just about workload. It is
about who they believe they must be.
In caregiving and leadership cultures, urgency becomes proof of commitment. Rest begins to feel suspect. Over time, productivity shifts from strategy to identity.
This session examines how those patterns form and how they are reinforced by workplace systems. It clarifies the psychological cost of chronic urgency and challenges the belief that depletion is the price of excellence.
Participants will:
● Identify identity patterns that increase burnout risk
● Understand how chronic stress impacts regulation and decision-making
● Reframe boundaries as strategic, not selfish
● Define performance in ways that are sustainable over time
Especially resonant for educators, healthcare professionals, and leaders responsible for both outcomes and people
Most professionals do not need more information about self-care. They need implementation that matches reality.
This session introduces micro self-care, brief regulation practices embedded directly
into the workday.
Not aspirational. Operational.
Participants learn how to integrate nervous system regulation into transitions, documentation, meetings, sessions, planning blocks, and high-stakes conversations. The focus is not on adding time, but on shifting how existing time is used.
Participants will:
● Practice short, evidence-informed regulation techniques
● Identify implementation barriers such as productivity pressure and all-or-nothing thinking
● Understand how small repetitions reshape stress patterns
● Create a personalized integration plan grounded in their specific environment
This session is particularly impactful in schools and healthcare settings where stepping away is rarely an option.
For many high-responsibility professionals, burnout is not just about workload. It is about who they believe they must be.
Early messages about excellence, resilience, and responsibility create powerful identities. Those identities drive success. They can also eliminate margin.
This session explores how achievement becomes fused with self-concept and why expanding identity beyond productivity is essential for sustainable leadership.
Participants will:
● Examine the origins of their high-achiever or over-responsible identity
● Recognize patterns of over-functioning that no longer serve them
● Reframe limits and vulnerability as markers of maturity
● Articulate a definition of excellence that allows for humanity
Resonant in healthcare systems, educational institutions, women’s leadership spaces, DEI initiatives, and executive retreats
Dr. Hubbard’s work is informed by research on burnout, stress physiology, decision fatigue, and resilience. At the same time, it is shaped by years of direct clinical work with physicians, educators, executives, graduate students, and high-achieving professionals navigating complex personal and cultural pressures. She believes rigorous science and lived experience are not in opposition. Personal narratives are data. Workplace realities matter. Culture shapes coping. Her sessions bridge research and real life — offering frameworks that are both theoretically sound and practically usable.
