What if the challenges you’re facing as a leader aren’t about something you’re doing wrong, but about what you’re being asked to carry?
Authentic Leaders Group—
A Different Way to Grow as a Therapist and Leader
Next cohort starting May 1, 2026!
Authentic Leaders Group is for therapists and mental health leaders who sense that what’s needed now isn’t just more tools, but also more clarity about what they and their teams are experiencing internally, relationally, and systemically.
Authentic Leaders helps you gain perspective and greater awareness so you are able to enact your leadership from a place of grounded wisdom.
Authentic leadership for a complex and rapidly changing world.
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Authentic leadership for a complex and rapidly changing world. •
What Makes Authentic Leaders Different?
Being a leader is a transformative journey that can be deeply rewarding but also filled with unique challenges. Many therapists find themselves in leadership positions because of their exceptional therapeutic skills; yet leading, supervising, or managing others requires a whole new set of competencies we aren’t taught in grad school.
The core shift we work with in Authentic Leaders is simple and practical: shifting from being a therapist to leading effectively requires not just new tools, but a broader way of thinking and the ability to use those tools and updated mindset when it matters.
Instead of getting swept up in stress, self-criticism, or urgency, you’ll learn how to slow things down enough to see what’s shaping your reactions in real time—whether that’s a tense staff conversation, a financial decision, or the feeling that everything rests on you.
When you can name what’s impacting you, such as your nervous system, your leadership role, long-standing patterns, workplace dynamics, and broader pressures in the mental health field, you have more options for how you respond.
Authentic Leaders Group helps you strengthen the tools you already possess so they’re available when you need them most.
2026 Session Dates
(Click the plus signs to view dates)
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All live sessions will be held on Fridays from 10am-11:30am CT (Chicago time):
May 1
June 5
July 10
Aug 7
Sept 11
October 12
November 6
December 4 -
All live integration sessions will be held on Tuesdays from 12-1pm CT (Chicago time.)
June 16
July 21
Aug 18
Sept 22
Oct 13
Nov 17
Throughout the 8-month program, we will explore an array of valuable topics, providing tools and paradigm-shifting frameworks for mental health leadership.
Integrity: Being a model for others with generosity and healthy boundaries.
The Right Use of Power™: Understanding how to use power ethically and effectively as well as guiding others to recognize their own personal power.
Effective Communication: Mastering the art of clear, direct, and empathetic communication.
Resolving Conflict: Developing strategies for resolving conflicts constructively and with integrity.
Building Trust with Your Team: Creating relationships built on trust and collaboration.
Shame/self-compassion: The role that shame takes within an organization and the compassionate tools to support shame-resilience in self and staff.
Qualities of Integral Leadership: Exploring the cutting-edge concepts in modern leadership.
Who is Authentic Leaders Group For?
Authentic Leaders Group is a good fit if you are:
A therapist, supervisor, practice owner, or clinical leader
Thoughtful, values-driven, and often carrying more than you want to
Feeling the strain of leadership, change, or ethical complexity
Less interested in “expert answers” and more interested in finding clarity and inner wisdom
Ready to examine your inner life and the systems you work within
Limited to 10 participants.
What’s included?
One 90-minute meeting per month
Over eight hours of asynchronous, didactic psychoeducation
Six hours of support/integration sessions
A private virtual community space to connect with others
Unlimited Marco Polo exchanges with Sarah
A validated Enneagram assessment and debrief session ($190 value)
Discounts on one to one sessions at $150/hour ($300/hr value)
One year subscription to Group Practice (R)evolution ($444 value)
CEUs available for Illinois social workers and counselors for $10/CE hour.
At $87.50 per month, this rate is for those who are from countries whose currency value is significantly lower than the USD and/or those who frequently struggle to meet basic needs or are facing temporary financial crisis.
At $112.50 per month, this rate is for those who are from countries whose currency value is similar to the USD and/or those who are mostly able to meet basic needs and have some discretionary income.
Investment
At $125 per month, this rate is for those whose are from countries whose currency value is higher than the USD and/or can comfortably meet their basic needs and have significant discretionary income.
The Shift We’re Practicing Together
Many therapists and leaders are overwhelmed by the changing landscape of mental health:
“This is just how the field is now.”
“I should be handling this better.”
“I don’t know how to lead without overfunctioning.”
“Something feels off, but I can’t name it.”
In this group, those experiences are what we look at together and find new ways of building resilience and framing our current challenges as a collective.
Over time, participants begin to:
Recognize what belongs to them and what belongs to the system
Notice how power, responsibility, and care often get tangled and confused
Respond instead of react
Lead without abandoning themselves
Stay grounded even when conditions are imperfect
This is developmental work, but it’s also deeply practical.
Leading with the head and the heart
At Head/Heart Business Therapy, we support individual, group, and organizational change by helping therapists and leaders understand what’s shaping them from the inside out.
We believe effective care depends not only on clinical expertise, but on the ability to see how inner experience, professional roles, and larger systems influence how we work. As the mental health field evolves, this kind of awareness supports leadership that is grounded, ethical, and sustainable.
About your facilitator
Sarah Buino, LCSW, CADC, RDDP, NMT is a speaker, educator, consultant, and therapist, and the founder of Head/Heart Therapy and Head/Heart Business Therapy.
For more than a decade, Sarah has worked with individuals, groups, and organizations on issues including professional sustainability, shame resilience, ethical use of power, anti-racism in healthcare, and healing developmental trauma. She founded Head/Heart Therapy in 2014, which grew into a well-regarded group practice serving clients in Chicago and beyond.
Today, Sarah focuses her work at the group and organizational level, supporting therapists and mental health leaders as they navigate complexity, change, and responsibility. She integrates clinical expertise with real-world business experience to help helping professionals lead with clarity, integrity, and sustainability.