We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Kelly Smedley a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Kelly, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. How’s you first get into your field – what was your first job in this field?

I received my bachelors degree in nursing back in 1999. I knew I wanted to focus on the field of mental health and, despite everyone’s recommendations that I should work a year on a medical surgical unit to build my skills, I ignored them and got a job at a child and adolescent psychiatric hospital in Pittsburgh, PA. I have never regretted my decision to jump right into the psych nursing world.
At the time I was excited to get hands on experience. The hospital focused on children and teens with significant mental health issues including psychosis, Bipolar disorder, suicidal ideation, etc. I was either charge or med nurse and then promoted to evening supervisor. Many kids had challenging behaviors and required a lot of interventions. It was a great first job for me with amazing coworkers who became like family. I learned so much and feel like it was a wonderful way to gain experience in the field.

Kelly, 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 have always had a passion for not only mental health but also for moms (I loved my labor and delivery clinical in undergrad!). After experiencing postpartum anxiety and depression after the birth of my first child and again during my second pregnancy I realized there was a huge need for awareness, education, and treatment for moms during this vulnerable time in their lives. No one noticed how much I was struggling at the time. Fast forward to 2013 when I experienced the absolute worst day of my life. My perfectly healthy three month old son died in his sleep at daycare from SIDS. The trauma and pain was unimaginable but, through my healing, it lit a fire in me to make helping moms and families my priority and passion. After working for years in hospital systems doing therapy, management, research, and crisis work I decided to start a practice devoted to caring for moms and their unique needs.

I started Waypoint Counseling & Maternal Wellness in January 2020 with a mission to provide quality, specialized care to moms of all stages of motherhood. I also wanted to provide a healthy environment for providers – where their work/life balance was valued so they could be at their best when treating clients. All of our providers have training and experience in perinatal mental health as well as grief and loss. We help moms through infertility, loss, pregnancy, postpartum, preschool years, middle school, and beyond. We know motherhood never gets a break. We help moms who have experienced birth trauma (and other traumas), moms who struggle with anxiety or confidence, moms who struggle in their relationships, even moms who are grappling with perimenopause and menopause. We also see some dads as well as they also need help!

It is an honor working alongside a team of 23 providers consisting of therapists and nurse practitioners as well as 4 admin staff who share the same passion as I do. We serve clients not only in the Triangle area with our offices in Raleigh and Durham, but also across the state via telehealth. We have served thousands of moms and women since we opened our doors – it has been an honor to walk with these clients on their individual journeys and help them reach their goals.

How do you keep your team’s morale high?

Managing a team is very rewarding but can also be challenging. It’s important to be transparent with decision making as well as communicate clearly and effectively. Having an open door policy and listening to ideas and concerns has helped our practice grow and flourish. It’s important to me that the team feels autonomous and not micromanaged which can mean letting go of control (and I like control!).

In our field of mental health our providers can often feel the weight of what our clients may be experiencing. We hear all sorts of hard things and feel a sense of responsibility to help our clients as much as we can. Keeping boundaries for ourselves as well as having opportunities for team building and fun helps prevent burnout. Our team has weekly meetings where we sometimes talk about cases, sometimes just chit chat. Sometimes we laugh, sometimes we cry. It’s important we are real and authentic with one another. I also make it clear when I hire people that I don’t tolerate drama. :) Our team tries to get together outside of work every few months to do fun things like bowling, escape rooms, happy hours, etc. We really enjoy each other and are like family.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

As mentioned before, I have had the horrible experience of losing a child. It is a pain I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy. Wondering why an innocent child was just taken from us still is among the many painful questions I have. I am thankful I work in the mental health field because I think that certainly helped in my healing process because I knew tools that would aid in my grief.

I tell people that experiencing the sudden loss of my infant son fundamentally changed me. I used to be anxious and worry a lot. I was insecure in many ways and was a huge people pleaser. I now have a confidence I never had before because I know that nothing can be worse than losing a child. So things that used to bother me or I would fret about don’t really matter. I know that I can get through any challenge handed to me because I survived losing a child. It’s hard to describe how freeing that is but I definitely don’t waste precious mental energy on worrying about “what-ifs” anymore. I don’t compare myself to others. I am confident in my decisions and myself and realize I will make mistakes and that’s okay. I don’t sweat the small stuff because it’s ALL small stuff.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.waypointcounselingnc.com
• Instagram: waypointcounselingnc
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/waypointcounselingnc
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/waypoint-counseling-maternal-wellness-pllc/