Evidence-based insights on burnout, high achievement, and sustainable ambition.
As Seen In & Trusted By:
See Dr. Paula in action:
video clip from a recent keynote presentation on success without burnout.
Speaking Topics
Click "read more" to view details. All talks are tailored to audience, format, and organizational goals.
For Corporate, Wellness, and Leadership Organizations:
Toxic Striving: The Moving Target of Achievement Culture
This talk will change the way you think about success and teach you how to pursue goals without burning out.
You Are Not a Machine: Reclaiming Meaning in a Metrics-Driven World
Audiences learn to recognize and break free from productivity culture's obsession with optimizing every moment, to instead live a satisfying and sustainable life.
For Jewish Organizations & Mission-Driven Communities
The Never-Ending To-Do List: Living Your Values without Burning Out
For many Jewish adults, values like service, community and achievement are deeply meaningful. Yet, they can easily become laced with guilt, self-sacrifice, and the pressure to overfunction. In this engaging and practical talk, Dr. Paula helps audiences distinguish between performative and values-driven leadership, offering tools for contributing meaningfully to their communities without losing themselves in the process.
Sustainable Ambition: Staying Balanced in a Stressful and Uncertain World
When you care deeply about the work you do, it can be meaningful, but also easy to burn out. When the world around you feels shaky, it can be difficult to stay engaged in ways that are fulfilling and not depleting. This training will not eliminate your stress, but it will transform your relationship to stress so that it does not erode your well-being. You will learn psychological tools for setting boundaries and tolerating uncertainty, so you can stay connected to the priorities that matter most. This training is designed for staff and leaders in mission-driven environments.
Speaking Formats:
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Keynotes
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Lunch & Learns
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Retreats (1/2 or full day)
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Leadership Development
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Workshops
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Panel Facilitation
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Community Gatherings
Recent & Upcoming Speaking Engagements:
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Jewish Working Women's Network (keynote in Detroit, MI)
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Federation Staff Lunch & Learn (workshop in Detroit, MI)
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Professional Continuing Education Training (workshop in New Orleans, LA)
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Regional Shabbaton (keynote in Tulsa, OK)
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JMoms Young Parents Event (Tulsa, OK)
Contact to discuss rates and availability.
Dr. Paula Freedman-Diamond is a licensed clinical psychologist, speaker, and the author of Toxic Striving: Escaping the Stress and Burnout of Hustle and Diet Culture
Dr. Paula specializes in helping high-achievers, overthinkers, and mission-driven leaders untangle their self-worth from productivity, appearance and performance. Growing up in a
Holocaust survivor family deeply engaged in Jewish communal life, her academic and clinical work has explored how legacy, cultural values, and temperament shape identity and ambition.
Dr. Paula helps audiences uncover limiting beliefs and challenge productivity-driven definitions of success. Known for her down-to-earth and non-jargony style, she translates evidence-based psychology into practical tools for preventing burnout and striving for a version of success that is fulfilling, not depleting.
Her expertise has been featured in The New York Times, Reebok, Yahoo, Parade, and more. She writes for Psychology Today and is a consultant for companies including Bark Technologies and A Sweat Life. She is also the author of The Addiction Recovery Workbook and founder of the Chicago-based group psychology practice HumanKind Psychological Services.
Dr. Paula enjoys bringing her expertise to women's leadership groups, nonprofit organizations, mental health professionals, networking groups, and community organizations across the country.
About Dr. Paula
The Big Idea Here: Toxic Striving
In Toxic Striving, Dr. Paula Freedman-Diamond challenges the cultural belief that more effort, discipline and self-optimizing will eventually lead to feeling “good enough.”
Drawing from over a decade of clinical work and cultural observation, she blends powerful storytelling with psychologically grounded, evidence-based insights to reveal how perfectionism, people-pleasing, and hustle culture destroy our wellbeing and keep us chasing moving targets. Toxic Striving offers a practical path forward, to a life well lived on your own terms.
Many of Dr. Paula’s talks expand on the core ideas in Toxic Striving, tailored for engaging conversations with live audiences.