Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Briggitte Brown. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Hi Briggitte, thanks for joining us today. One of the most important things we can do as business owners is ensure that our customers feel appreciated. What’s something you’ve done or seen a business owner do to help a customer feel valued?

The best thing that I have ever done for myself was not quitting on myself, when healing became overwhelming, or I had felt that it was not was an option. During the hardest time in my life, when quitting my have been the only option I had; when the prognosis may have been grim; and when all I had going for myself was to quit…I pushed past that point and stood strong and I healed from stage 4 Classical Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. In 2025, doctor’s will finally be able to consider me cancer free, because it will be 5 years post cancer treatment, that I beat cancer. That physical healing journey, I did for myself, opened spaces within my spirit and soul, that has allowed me to get to a place of wholeness. I bring this essence of healing our spirit, soul and body to my group practice, when I am working with clients. Our staff and clients get the opportunity to see this gift of healing, manifested in physical form, and embodied within our mission and purpose. We are here to hold a safe space for healing. Our clients understand that we appreciate and value them. This sacred space for them to heal emotionally, opens the doors for them to be transformed from the hold of trauma, addiction or any other barrier that is keeping them from freedom in their spirit soul and body.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

Honestly, with the things I may have experienced growing up and carried throughout my life, would never have led me to believe that I could have made it to where I am today. I don’t yet consider myself to have reached huge levels of success yet, but you ask me how I got into this field of Mental health and why I decided to open up a group practice. The only thing I can think of was that I too was a client in need of healing from trauma. I too once needed the same non judgemental support that we provide in our practice. I needed a safe space to share with someone safe, about what happened to me. I had a social worker and other various beacons of light, throughout my path, who provided me support and lit my path to keep going and not quitting at those points of my life. When quitting felt like my only option. I am a first generation born in the United states. My parents migrated from the Dominican Republic when they were both in their teens. Leaving behind their own struggles of poverty, addiction, trauma, undiagnosed mental health issues and attempted to build a dream for their children, that never had in their own childhood. That responsibility to take what they imparted into me to the next level, they transferred to me, their first born, came with a weight, that at times was too heavy to carry.

I am now a Pastor Briggitte P. Brown. I am a Licensed Clinical Social Worker, and Owner of Spirit Soul and Body Clinical Services Center. I specialize in trauma therapy. I provide both clinical and spiritual support to clients. My passion is to support someone’s process, hold space for them, so they can overcome the struggles they face. I love working with individuals, couples, teens, and families, who have trauma, depression, anxiety, and life transition barriers in their life.

Supporting people through their process is personal for me because I was an at-risk teenage mom and have overcome many barriers myself. As a teen, I was connected to a community health center in Brooklyn, NY, where I had begun my own mental health services. I acknowledge that my Social Worker, Lorna Morris, was pivotal in helping me to find my voice and encouraging me to focus on school. My experience made me pursue a degree in social work. I wanted to do support at-risk youth and help clients work through their traumas.

I graduated high school in 1997, and decided to pursue a career in Social work. I am also a stage 4 Hodgkin’s Lymphoma cancer survivor. In January 2020 I was declared to have successfully treated the cancer that took hold of my body, after having completed 6 months of Chemotherapy. I utilized my faith in God, holistic practices of both Western and Eastern medicine modalities to heal from cancer. During my healing journey, I began to work on my Spirit, Soul and body and attained a holistic perspective, in order to achieve balance and inner healing. I depended on my strong faith in God, the love of her husband and 7 children, my essential oils, and a variety of physical modalities to heal. I learned to rewire my brain by using mind and body exercises like somatic movements and sound healing to calm my nervous system and attain balance. Tools that I still utilize today.

I am a firm believer that with both Prayer and Therapy, people can overcome their obstacles. I focus on the Spirit, Soul and Body of a person. I hold space for people to heal. As a stage 4 cancer overcomer I understand the sacredness of allowing people to feel safe, vulnerable and open, so they can release healing into their lives. Both my clinical/spiritual credentials allow me to help me to navigate clients on their own path. As an EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing) Certified therapist, I support clients in helping to alleviate the stresses and emotional traumas that may have clients stuck in their tracks. I facilitate inner child healing and use somatic therapy to help guide clients in their healing. I also use narrative therapy and strength based modules, in session to help clients to redefine their pain.
I am passionate about helping clients prioritize self-care to support their healing journey. Stress and helplessness keep us from taking care of ourselves. I am here to help you put self-care first on your list, and to learn new coping strategies to support your healing journey. When we achieve a level of freedom from our current struggles, our self-esteem and perspective rises, so that we can change our internal environment. I provide an atmosphere that allows you to receive your own healing.

In 2018, I birthed my private practice, Spirit Soul and Body Clinical Services Wellness Center in New Britain, CT. I am the CEO and my mission is to help staff and clients, to understand that when you focus on the Spirit, Soul and Body, you attain balance.

I am also an ordained Pastor. I serve alongside my husband, a Pastor of our church, Right Now Ministries, Inc. in New Britain, CT for the past 20 years. With both my clinical and spiritual credentials, I am able to help others navigate their own paths. I enjoy supporting couples in my practice, and bring a wealth of experience from my own marriage of 25 years.

In addition to my clinical and pastoral work, I am the Podcast host of “Authentically Healing Podcast” with Briggitte P. Brown, LCSW. This podcast is available on Spotify, Apple, IheartRadio, Amazon Music, Google Podcast, Anchor and on platforms where podcasts are heard. “I wanted to create this space to share my journey with others. My desire is to help people heal in community, from emotional distress, trauma and to help Release negative emotions from their bodies. This is a safe space, where your feelings can be validated. We all have our own separate journeys that we walk. and we all have the same basic need…To belong and be heard.”

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

I was a product of having been an at-risk youth and a teenage mom during my adolescent years. I battled with my own mental health issues and had even attempted suicide when I was 15 years old. I was a product of parents who didn’t have the language or tools to understand their own trauma and patterns, and it transferred to me to learn how to figure it out. I had to figure out and learn how to navigate myself out of the intergenerational trauma, that was not mine to carry, I had to learn how to dig myself out of my own patterns of addictions and risky behaviors, that had my father stuck to alcoholism and his family stuck into addiction to heavy drugs. I was committed to transform myself to something outside of what I grew up in. Don’t get me wrong, I love and core values that my dad instilled in me, during his early years and before the alcoholism and mental health barriers overtook him. He died at 55 years old, after being fully “checked out” with dementia for 10 years before that. He quit. At 45 years old, after he lost the last of his hard work; his bodega (grocery story), his soul died right there. My resilience was born, at the point where my dad quit. It was like it was my turn to figure out how to learn to live past that point. When all hell has rose against me, I remember my dad, and I commit to keep learning and growing past this point of my quit. Quitting is not an option. I am 45 years old now, the same age, by dad “checked out”. I battle the temptation to quit everyday. This is a true definition on what my daily commitment to live resilient looks like.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

Being totally transparent, the lesson I commit to unlearn everyday, is that I am an alcoholic and I can not drink or use any substances, because I have a generational pattern that will drag me down a path that will compromise all I worked hard for. That I also need to be mindful of mental health issues like depression and anxiety. I have to make self-care a daily lifelong personal practice for myself too. I have to slow down and realize how much of the generational cultural patterns of my family, live in my bloodline. Socially drinking is not an option for me. Socially using a substance, or even medicating myself to self sooth, can not be an option for me, because it’s an appetite that my body will always crave, due to my bloodline. Isolating and laying down too long, is not healthy for me. I have to push past quitting and that’s a daily practice. I have to unlearn the desire to pick up a glass of wine when I am stressed, overwhelmed or feeling emotional. I always had a “high tolerance” to alcohol and I knew I drank way too much, even when I was “having fun”. I have to watch my emotional patterns and make space to release my feelings in a productive way. That may be with a therapist, within my safe space of my relationships, or it may be sitting still to write it out in journaling and the other positive coping strategies I utilize. I had to notice in stillness, what was happening in my body, and grow in awareness of when in the day, month or year, these feelings and patterns were happening. It took Jesus and therapy, to help me navigate into unlearning the toxic patterns I was stuck in. I had to find the words and language to what the blockage was. The words my dad never found and died with them inside of his soul. I am committed everyday to finding time to slow down and to find my words, so that I can have a different outcome. I depend on my personal relationship with Christ to make time to sit in silence, read my word and journal the words that are downloaded to my spirit and soul. I live out that revelation everyday in my life, and how I show up for others. My backstory leads me to continue this healing journey, so that my kids can learn to find their words and take what I placed in them to greater lengths than where I started them at.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.briggittepbrown.com
• Other: my social media links are on my website ;-)

Image Credits

Teresa Hnat Studio LLC and Blaq Pearl Photography