Holding Everything: A Therapy Group for Nonprofit Leaders

When the mission doesn't stay at work.

You care deeply about your work. That may also be part of what makes it so difficult to put down.

Nonprofit leadership can mean carrying responsibility for staff, programs, funding, community needs, organizational crises, and a mission that matters deeply to you. Even after the workday ends, your mind may still be solving problems, anticipating what comes next, or wondering whether you’ve done enough.

Holding Everything is an 8-week virtual psychotherapy group designed for nonprofit executives and leaders in Pennsylvania and New Jersey who are navigating burnout, overwhelm, ongoing responsibility, and the challenge of finding balance between meaningful work and the rest of life.

This is not another leadership seminar focused on productivity.

Instead, this group offers space to explore what it means when being the person everyone relies on begins to take a personal toll.

Virtual Burnout Therapy for Nonprofit Leaders in Pennsylvania & New Jersey

Mission-driven work can create a particular kind of burnout, where professional responsibility, personal values, relationships, and identity become difficult to separate. Holding Everything provides virtual group therapy for nonprofit leaders located in Pennsylvania and New Jersey who want support navigating these pressures without being asked to care less about the work that matters to them.

Does This Sound Familiar?

Maybe you spend your days supporting everyone else and aren’t sure where your needs fit in.

You might recognize thoughts like:

• “Everyone needs something from me.”

• “I technically stopped working hours ago, but my brain didn’t.”

• “I tell my staff to take time off, but I feel guilty when I do.”

• “The mission matters too much for me just to stop caring.”

• “I’m exhausted, but there’s always one more thing that needs me.”

• “I’m not even sure what I enjoy anymore when I’m not being productive.”

Burnout in nonprofit leadership isn’t always as simple as working too many hours. Responsibility, relationships, identity, values, emotional labor, organizational pressure, and your sense of purpose can become deeply intertwined.

Holding Everything offers a supportive space to begin untangling these complex experiences together.

Therapy Built Around the Whole Person

Leadership doesn’t affect only your work life.

It can show up in your body, relationships, emotions, thoughts, sense of purpose, and ability to imagine who you are beyond what others need from you.

Holding Everything is grounded in Ascension Point’s whole-person framework, exploring six interconnected areas of well-being that make up the Ascension Atlas.

EVERYONE NEEDS SOMETHING FROM YOU

We’ll explore boundaries, relationships, people-pleasing, isolation, asking for support, and what happens when leadership follows you into relationships outside of work.

YOU'RE RUNNING ON EMPTY

We’ll look at how chronic responsibility can show up through exhaustion, tension, stress activation, difficulty resting, and feeling disconnected from what your body is asking for.

We’ll explore emotional labor, guilt, anxiety, compassion fatigue, emotional boundaries, and the pressure to remain regulated when everyone else is looking to you.

YOU HOLD EVERYONE ELSE'S STRESS

The Ascension Atlas

WANTING TO BECOME MORE THAN WHAT'S NEEDED OF YOU

We’ll make room for curiosity, play, growth, possibility, and parts of yourself that may have been pushed aside while you’ve been focused on keeping everything else moving.

THE MISSION MEANS EVERYTHING

We’ll explore values, meaning, responsibility, moral distress, self-sacrifice, and the complicated question of how to care deeply about a mission without allowing it to consume you.

We’ll look at rumination, decision fatigue, perfectionism, cognitive overload, and the never-ending mental list that can make truly disengaging from work feel impossible.

YOUR BRAIN NEVER CLOCKS OUT

The goal is to build awareness of how they interact and create more space for intentional choices, not to achieve perfect balance across all six domains.

The 8-Week Journey

Small Group. Real Conversation.

Holding Everything is intentionally limited to 6-8 nonprofit leaders per cohort. Capping the number of participants at 8 allows for more meaningful conversation, deeper connection, reflection, and individualized participation.

Monday Evening Cohort

Mondays | 6:30-8:00 PM

Begins November 2, 2026

Friday Morning Cohort

Fridays | 7:00-8:30 AM

Begins November 6, 2026

Choose Your 2026 Q4 Cohort

Both cohorts meet virtually through Sessions Health for eight weekly 90-minute sessions. Participants must be physically located in Pennsylvania or New Jersey during therapy.

6-8 participants per cohort

Cost & Enrollment

Group Psychotherapy | Private Pay Only

*An intake must be scheduled and completed as a prerequisite for enrollment

Required Pre-Group Intake | $100

All prospective group members complete an individual clinical intake before enrollment. This process offers an opportunity to discuss your experiences, your goals for therapy, readiness for group participation, safety and support needs, confidentiality, and any professional relationships that might affect your comfort in the group.

*Completion of the intake does not guarantee placement in the group.

Optional 15-Minute Consultation | $20

Not sure whether you’re ready for the intake? You are welcome to schedule a brief consultation to ask questions, learn more about Holding Everything, and explore whether the group feels like a good fit for you.

*The consultation is optional and does not guarantee admission.

$65 per session

8 weekly sessions | $520 group fee

Options to pay upfront, per session, or every two weeks.

Meet Your Facilitator

Carson Eckard, MS, LPC, NCC

Licensed Professional Counselor in Pennsylvania & New Jersey

As a nonprofit founder and clinician with firsthand experience in mission-driven work, I blend evidence-informed therapy with creative and practical approaches to addressing burnout and cultivating sustainable leadership.

My approach to therapy is warm, interactive, and collaborative. I believe meaningful clinical work happens through conversation, creativity, reflection, experimentation, humor, and experiences that help us see common patterns in new ways.

I created Holding Everything in response to a tension I see throughout mission-driven work. The same qualities that foster deep commitment to an organization and community can also make it difficult to recognize when you have carried enough.

This group offers space to examine that relationship without asking you to care less about what matters most to you.

I blend meaningful conversation with creative, interactive therapy to help you understand what you’re carrying, experiment with new ways forward, and make more room for yourself beyond the work.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is this executive coaching?

No. Holding Everything is group psychotherapy, facilitated by a Licensed Professional Counselor. The focus is mental health, well-being, patterns of coping and relating, and the psychological impact of chronic responsibility and mission-driven leadership.

Do I have to be an Executive Director or CEO?

No. The group is designed for people carrying significant leadership responsibility within nonprofit organizations. This may include executive directors, CEOs, founders, senior leaders, program directors, and others whose roles involve substantial organizational or mission-related responsibility.

What if I know someone in the group?

Nonprofit communities can be surprisingly small.

You may know another participant professionally, share funders, work with the same community organizations, sit on connected boards, or discover other professional relationships.

We'll discuss potential conflicts and overlapping relationships during the pre-group screening process. When relevant, we will consider whether any relationship could affect either person’s privacy, comfort, or ability to participate fully.

Confidentiality is especially important in group psychotherapy. We review expectations around privacy and participation with all members before the group begins.

Can my organization pay for the group?

Yes. An organization may pay the private-pay fee for a participant. Participation remains psychotherapy, and organizational payment does not make the organization a participant in treatment. Any information that may be associated with third-party payment will be discussed before enrollment.

Can I participate while traveling?

Because psychotherapy is regulated in part by where the client is physically located, participants must be in a jurisdiction where the facilitator is authorized to provide psychotherapy at the time of each session. For the 2026 Q4 cohorts, the group is currently available to participants located in Pennsylvania and New Jersey.

Is the group confidential?

Group members will agree to expectations around protecting one another’s privacy, and we will discuss confidentiality extensively during intake and group orientation. However, unlike the therapist’s professional confidentiality obligations, a therapist cannot provide the same legal guarantee regarding another group member’s behavior. Additional information about confidentiality, its limitations, and applicable exceptions will be reviewed during the intake and informed-consent process.

What if the group isn't right for me?

That’s part of why the pre-group intake exists. If Holding Everything doesn’t seem clinically appropriate, the intake gives you a chance to discuss other options or resources instead of placing you in a group that isn’t a good fit.

Is this only for people who are already burned out?

No. You don’t need to wait until you’ve reached complete exhaustion to benefit from therapy. The group may also be appropriate if you’re noticing increasing stress, difficulty disconnecting, emotional exhaustion, boundary challenges, or concern that your current relationship with work isn’t sustainable.

You don't have to stop caring to stop carrying everything.

Your commitment to your work may be an important part of who you are.

Therapy can help you explore how to care deeply without requiring you to carry everything alone or detach yourself from the mission.

Interested in Holding Everything? Choose the next step that feels right for you.

Holding Everything is a private-pay virtual psychotherapy group offered through Ascension Point Behavioral Health.

Ascension Point Behavioral Health

Your journey, lifted.

hello@ascensionpointbh.com

(267) 291.4540

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Please note that all content on this website is not to be interpreted as therapeutic advice or a replacement for seeking professional support.