We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Laura Gomez a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Laura, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. We love heartwarming stories – do you have a heartwarming story from your career to share?
(trigger warning: mental health and suicide) When I first graduated from college, I began working in behavioral health coaching with children and adolescent’s who were at risk of being placed in a psychiatric care facility, a foster home, or juvenile detention center. It was in this position that I found exactly what my calling was: to help others heal themselves emotionally, mentally, and spiritually. Most of my clients were suffering from severe anger problems, depression, anxiety, suicidal ideation, and/or impulsive and dangerous behaviors that put them at risk. When you work in this field, you don’t often forget clients but you often hold certain ones close your heart. This is one of those cases. Lina (name changed for privacy reasons) was one of my first clients. I was nervous and was doubting my abilities to help this kid. She had attempted suicide and had no motivation or interest in trying to get better. After weeks of persistent effort to get her to engage and participate in the interventions I thought could help, she found her light. She began creating more goals and found a HER reason to take care of herself. Although these results are the beauty of the cases I worked, Lina did something else for me that I will ever forget. She gave me the confidence and reassurance that I was doing things right and I was right where I needed to be. During one of our sessions, we were having what the kids call a “heart to heart” where I sat listening to her thoughts and concerns and she sat listening to my advice. She ended up in tears and these words I will never forget- “You changed my life and I never thought I could feel the way I do now. I don’t want to die anymore and I couldn’t have done it without you”.
To reiterate, these words were meaningful not because she was crediting me or recognizing me, but because I needed that reassurance that what I was doing was helpful. I was unsure if I truly had the skills and knowledge to guide my clients to success and healing. What I learned is that patience, compassion, and dedication are the most important elements of working in adolescent mental and behavioral health. If I want to help ANY kid, I need those three things. Trauma informed care, interventions, tools and resources, and personalization are extremely important too but a job like this cannot be done successfully without the willingness to feel defeated, a desire to help, and the motivation to keep trying.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
The best way to describe me and my career is to say that I am a health and wellness practitioner. I am very passionate about whole person health which includes physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual health. I studied psychology and health and human services in my undergraduate degree and then moved on to work in adolescent behavioral health. I am a firm believer in holistic medicine so when I became a yoga teacher, I knew I needed to further my knowledge in the field. I went on to complete a Master’s in Mind Body Medicine which also granted me the opportunity to become a certified Integrative Wellness Coach. I focus on emotional and spiritual healing through building introspection, resilience, compassion, and most importantly the freedom to self-express. I focus heavily on fostering perspective that leads you to peace and contentment. I use mindfulness techniques and behavioral tools to establish positive methods of healing. I am very proud of my career because it is unique to the my passions and my skills. I am very proud of the work I do, especially with children and adolescents. I am overjoyed by knowing that I can help children grow into resilient, mindful, and compassionate adults who then can evoke more positivity.
How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?
After being an essential worker through the entire pandemic, my mental health was suffering tremendously. I am prone to depressive episodes but this time I was filled with not only dread and lack of motivation, I was lost in a pit of anxiety and fear. I am a very self-aware human as that is one of my most helpful tools for healing. So I could tell exactly what was going on in my mind but my normal tools for healing just were not enough this time. I was in this horrible episode for about a year due to personal troubles added to the overbearing weight of a pandemic. I was doing mental and behavioral health coaching with the at-risk youth in my community and by June 2021, the company I worked for had been contracted to help staff a shelter set up for about 2,000+ unaccompanied and undocumented children who had just crossed the border. While this was one of the most meaningful and impactful experiences in my life, it was equally as heart breaking. On top of what I was already going through, my job became really troubling. I was forced to quit because the company was not accommodating to my health needs. This was extremely challenging for me because I loved the work I did and the families I did it for. However, I had to put my health first. I quit my job and began teaching yoga to support myself. My finances, of course, took a huge hit and I was barely able to pay my bills. I was not sure if I had made the right decision. I trusted intuition and I pushed forward. Looking for jobs, starting new projects (@regent_presents), and trying to build a coaching business. I quickly realized that self-promotion, marketing, and content creation are not my ~thing~. Finally, I found a job that fueled my energy and motivation. I found new tools for healing that helped me find the strength and love to clear my head of all the fear and suffering I was going through. I am once again very proud of the person I am and everything I am able to accomplish.
Other than training/knowledge, what do you think is most helpful for succeeding in your field?
I mentioned this before but the most important and helpful tools that you can bring to the field of wellness and human services are compassion, patience, and creativity. Resilience is also helpful but you need that to get through anything in life. Compassion, patience, and creativity will carry you far in this field because you are ready to help, you are ready to face challenges with grace, and you are able to personalize your work for each of your individual clients. It is imperative to keep your values and scope of practice in mind at all times because in these positions you will want to go beyond your limitations.
Contact Info:
- Website: solfullhealing.com
- Instagram: solfullhealing