We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Kalli Kronmiller. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Kalli below.

Kalli, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Looking back at internships and apprenticeships can be interesting, because there is so much variety in people’s experiences – and often those experiences inform our own leadership style. Do you have an interesting story from that stage of your career that you can share with us?

My first therapy intern experience took place at Housing Families in Malden, MA where I learned to provide counseling and therapy for children and families facing homelessness. As a new therapist with no experience outside of class role plays, with very little understanding in supporting an issue as complex as homelessness, I felt overwhelmed and under prepared. Additionally I was dealing with personal struggles of having just moved across the country leaving everyone and everything familiar behind, and living in an uncomfortable roommate situation that created constant anxiety and unrest. My supervisor, Barbara Schwartz, worked with me in a way I had never experienced until then. For months I showed up to do the job in tears, not knowing how to face the very scary reality of being someone’s therapist. My own problems often consumed me to a point I didn’t know I could sit with someone else and theirs’. Barbara had unmatched skills of validating my experience, my fears, and my feelings in a way that made me feel understood like I never had before, while being very realistic about the non-negotiable expectation of showing up in my role as a therapist to support the clients I had been assigned. I had wanted her to give me permission to “call off” therapy on my stressful days … and instead, she validated how hard things were and how scary it felt in a way that allowed my emotions to settle just long enough to get in and learn how to be in the therapist seat until I had done the work of the day. Prior to this, my own emotional experience was overwhelming enough that I often times cancelled plans or had to avoid life just for the sake of getting through my own emotional storm. Barbara introduced me to the magic of validating feelings (cause that’s really what feelings need) and still facing the realities of what life was asking of me. Feeling so seen and understood by her as demonstrated by her ability to validate my experience and feelings was a gift like nothing I had ever experienced. It was true attunement, one of the most basic of human needs (which most humans don’t have met). To have that support backing up the expectation to carry on taught me an invaluable lesson in being able to show up and do the work while still getting my need for attunement met. I will forever say, “Everybody needs a Barbara in their life.”

Kalli, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I opened my private practice Expressive Arts Therapy Utah, Inc. in 2017 where I have worked in my role as a clinical mental health counselor, an expressive arts therapist, a yoga teacher, and a trauma specialist certified in somatic therapies with both individuals and groups to support people in healing and improving mental and emotional health and well being. I have since expanded and now also have a coaching business, Expressive Arts & Embodied Coaching, wherein I am able to work with and support individuals worldwide to restore connection to Self through being more fully present and embodied, key factors in any lasting healing journey. Although therapy and coaching look a bit different in practice, both options support clients in living more fully as their most authentic selves with greater regulation of their nervous system, compassion for self and others, and access to peace and empowerment. Today I’m working virtually and in person in both my private therapy practice and my coaching practice. My work as a therapist at Expressive Arts Therapy Utah allows me to support people in the local community and state in addressing and healing trauma and addressing and improving mental health issues. Through my role as a coach at Expressive Arts and Embodied Coaching I support clients near and far through individual and group work to improve life through embodied awareness and nervous system regulation. It’s a privilege to journey alongside others in this intricate, beautiful work. Because of my eclectic approach and methods as well as my client centered philosophy, clients working with me have a huge variety of choices to draw from that go beyond talking and access the brain and body in the ways needed for healing. Included in what I use to support clients are Expressive Arts Therapies; Psychodrama; Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing (EMDR); Sandtray Therapy; Theraplay; Embodied Attachment; Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT); Trauma Sensitive Yoga; Restorative Partner Yoga; Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT); Exposure Response Prevention (ERP); Mindfulness & Self-Compassion; Acceptance Commitment Therapy; Cognitive Behavioral Therapy; Brene Brown’s Shame Resilience; and Somatic Psychology. I currently am working with adults who find these modalities supportive in the process of working through life’s challenges.

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

When I completed graduate school in Boston and moved to Utah, something that set me apart in the therapy market is my training as an expressive arts therapist. The training I received at Lesley University of using the arts in therapy in an intermodal way in which you transfer between visual art, music, movement/yoga, and drama is a unique and powerful way to support clients in accessing right brain and creative solutions and working through mental health issues. This unique therapeutic approach has set my business apart for individuals seeking alternatives to talk-only therapy and has been key in connecting me to a broader base of clients.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

While still working for a group private practice prior to opening my own practice, into starting my business and after, I experienced extremely high anxiety related to being a therapist. Daily, from the time I woke up until my last client walked out the door I was in a constant state of facing my own fears and worries that told me I didn’t know enough and I was ill equipped to be a therapist. Year after year I enrolled in as many trainings and continuing education opportunities as I could, constantly training and trying to beat the imposter syndrome that plagued me. In grad school I’d always heard that it takes about five years to feel like you know what you’re doing as a therapist. I began my private practice just a few years after becoming a therapist so I did not have those five years under my belt to reassure me that I was doing the job well enough. With time (and those continual trainings) I noted my anxiety lessening, and as predicted, around the five year mark I did begin to feel like I had a better handle on things and my anxiety around being a therapist. I’m almost through my official sixth year as a therapist, and my anxiety has slowly eased for the most part … and there are still many days in a month that I have to apply the very tools I’m using with clients to sort through and move through my own fears and feelings. I was asked to share a story from my journey that illustrates my resilience. So I share this to illustrate that the very real dread of doing a thing daily, and yet doing it and learning to do it, and learning to feel confident in doing it really is a journey. It takes time and practice and a load of self compassion. And for me, that’s resilience at its best.

Contact Info:

• Website: http://www.expressiveartstherapyutah.com/
• Instagram: @expressiveartstherapyutah
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/expressiveartstherapyutah
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kalli-kronmiller-90285662/