You built your platform by being yourself, or at least, that’s how it started.

Sharing your world, your thoughts, your creativity felt easy once. Natural.

But somewhere along the way, being seen started feeling like being evaluated.

Now you wonder:

“Who am I showing up as?”
“What version of me do people want?”
“What if I say the wrong thing?”

Every post, every story, every caption becomes a small performance, not because you’re fake, but because you’re trying to stay safe.

As a therapist for influencers and visible creatives, I work with people navigating the unique pressure of living in public — managing perception, rejection, and authenticity in an always-on world.

When Visibility Feels Like Exposure

Visibility changes your nervous system. It teaches your body to stay alert, scanning for criticism, misinterpretation, or disappointment.

You might find yourself:

Replaying comments or messages long after logging off
Holding back opinions to avoid backlash
Feeling disconnected from your real self
Wondering if you’re likeable, or just “performing” likability
Unable to stop checking and feeling addicted to social media

This isn’t vanity, it’s vulnerability fatigue.

Being perceived by many people, all the time, creates a low-level survival response: What if I’m rejected by them? What if I lose belonging?

The Nervous System Side of Judgment and Rejection

Your brain doesn’t separate online judgment from real-life threat.

To your body, a harsh comment or a drop in engagement can feel like being ostracised from your tribe.

That’s why no amount of “just ignore it” works.

You’re not overreacting, your nervous system is responding exactly how it was designed to: keeping you safe from social exclusion.

Therapy helps you regulate those responses, so visibility stops feeling like exposure and starts feeling like expression again.

Who Do I Show Up As?

Influencers often tell me,

“I don’t even know who I am anymore”

That’s the heart of visibility work.

It’s not about managing your audience, it’s about reclaiming your internal audience.

The quiet, steady voice inside you that says, “This is who I really am.”

In therapy, we explore:

How to be seen without self-erasure
How to rebuild safety after public criticism or “cancel fear”
How to separate your identity from your online identity
How to regulate your system after exposure or overstimulation
How to feel belonging without performance

The Real You Doesn’t Need an Algorithm

You don’t have to keep performing confidence or relatability.

You can learn to inhabit your real self, the one that existed before metrics and management.

When your nervous system feels safe again, authenticity stops being a strategy and becomes a state of being.

You don’t have to decide who to show up as, you just show up.