We recently connected with Megan Monger and have shared our conversation below.

Megan, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. We love heartwarming stories – do you have a heartwarming story from your career to share?

As a marriage and family therapist trainee, I specialized in working with children from low income families. I had worked with an adolescent male child for about a year. He had struggled with feeling depressed for a few years. During therapy, I was able to explore with him using art, play, and talk therapy. He had a difficult time having hope for the future and talking about his feelings. However, we were able to get to a point in therapy where I was able to ask him if he wanted to be happy and what that would look like to him. A light bulb went off for him and you could see his expression change. In therapy, we call these moments “golden nuggets”. He was able to realize that it’s scary to be happy sometimes because the feeling of disappointment can be so heavy. The fear of being hurt and disappointed is what kept him stuck. After this, we were able to work through that barrier. Children’s ability to be adaptative, resilient, and reflective will always amaze me. It is an incredible privilege to be able to sit with my client’s in these moments and be able to witness their most vulnerable parts.

Megan, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

My name is Megan Monger and I am a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and Perinatal Mental Health Specialist. I am the owner of Sail Away Therapy and provide telehealth therapy to individuals and couples in California and Florida. I also offer concierge therapy in home and telehealth intensives for navigating challenges of new and expecting parents and for parenting big behaviors.

I have a passion for working with women struggling with infertility; NICU parents; pregnancy and infant grief and loss; Postpartum/Perinatal Anxiety and Depression; adults going through life transitions; and parenting. I am a collaborative therapist and believe that my client’s are the experts of their own lives just as much as I am an expert in Psychology. It is important to me to help best support my client’s in navigating their current roles and stressors. I love helping my client’s learn how to embody and live a life where they are most aligned with their core authentic self.

For as long as I can remember, I’ve always wanted to help people. In my undergrad years, I was working on going into the medical field. I have a broad background in work experiences including nannying, elderly care, hospital worker, and more. After I graduated with my bachelor’s degree, I decided to make a transition into becoming a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist in order to help people with their mental and emotional health. I have always worked with children in different roles and decided to work with them during my training as an LMFT. I loved working with children and families. However, I also saw a big gap in care. As a nanny, working as a nursing assistant in the hospital, and as a therapist, I saw the lack of support in maternal mental health. It is a time of tremendous changes, stressors, and societal pressures in which we need a community of support.

I’m very proud to be a therapist. It truly feels like a blessing that people allow me to sit with them during some of their hardest moments and are willing to allow me to see who they truly are. I want my client’s to get the most out of therapy so I am both supportive and provide gentle challenges. Together, my clients and I will work on helping them to live the life that they have been wanting.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

As a LMFT, we have to gain 3,000 direct client hours before we can apply to take our licensing exam. The period before you are licensed, you are considered an Associate Marriage and Family Therapist. During this period, we often work at different types of environments. I worked in a county clinic, which included working with very high intensity crisis clients from low socioeconomic backgrounds. The environment was extremely stressful, low pay, and lacked resources. Unfortunately, many county clinics are understaffed and underfunded. As a new therapist, I wanted to always do my best and work hard for both my clients and the job. I felt like I had to sacrifice self care and healthy boundaries in order to keep my job and do well at it. However, this led to me becoming burnout and resentful of the workplace. It felt like my life had become all about the job and I had to give up some of myself for it. When I quit, I remember apologizing to my manager for leaving them short staffed and she said, “It’s ok. It’s just a job at the end of the day.” This was shocking to me in the moment because I had sacrificed so much for this job. It felt like a lot of pressure was put on us as employees and it did not feel like just a job that we could easily leave at the office. I am grateful that she told me this though because it reminded me of the healthy boundaries that I need to set, no matter what the outside pressures are. Since then, I have learned how to prioritize work/life balance and healthy boundaries in the work environment. It was a great reminder that our life consists of so many great things and that our career isn’t our main identity.

Training and knowledge matter of course, but beyond that what do you think matters most in terms of succeeding in your field?

The three words that stand out to me are: Community, Consistency, and Creativity. Community because as a solo operating therapist, it is imperative to have other therapists and adjunct professionals for support, advice, and bouncing around new ideas. There is no set way of how to have a thriving private practice and it includes a lot of business aspects that we don’t learn in school. Having your own business can be stressful at times and I am incredibly grateful to my networking community for being so supportive. Consistency matters because you have to be on top of so many different things including finances, legal aspects, marketing, networking, providing therapy, coming up with alternative streams of business, etc. Consistency with showing up for your business is just as important as in any relationship. Lastly, I chose creativity because there are always new and innovative ways to create new business streams, marketing, social media, and ways to interact in the community. The field of therapy is always growing and evolving so it is important to be able to be creative and never stop learning.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.sailawaytherapy.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/the.wanderlust.mft/?hl=en
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/megan-monger-mindfulmft/

Image Credits

Photos by Kory Price and Destiny Contreras