Imposter Syndrome and Perfectionism with Melissa Chureau

Bite-Sized Balance Podcast with Wendy McCallum

Melissa Chureau is a purpose and mindset coach, lawyer, and podcaster. She helps women move beyond imposterism and perfectionism to create space in the mind, and uncover our true, integrated selves. As a lawyer for 20 years, she has witnessed many people who work and live out of alignment with their values and purpose—often because they don’t know their worth, regardless of their successes. Many feel like imposters waiting to get exposed, and afraid that who they really are isn’t enough. As a person with over 22 years in recovery from alcohol use disorder and a life-long ADHD-er, Melissa is all too familiar with what the experience of imposterism can do. After years of living behind the mask of imposterism, she now lives authentically and regularly shares her story to destigmatize both alcohol use disorder and ADHD. She leads meditation and mindfulness practices, leads workshops on overcoming imposterism and destigmatizing addiction and neurodivergence, offering hope and resilience tools to everyone who might want them.

In this episode, Melissa shares her story of alcohol-use disorder, ADHD, and imposterism. Wendy and Melissa discuss imposter syndrome, which groups are at a higher risk, why we need to stop pathologizing it (hint: it’s not our fault!), how it shows up in humans, the connection to perfectionism, how societal systems exacerbate it, ways organizations can better support persons and mitigate against imposterism, what steps individuals feeling like imposters can take, and how are self-acceptance and self-love are the antidotes to imposterism.

More about Melissa and her podcast: www.thefullymindful.com