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

Jacqueline, 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?

Nine months into my 3,000 clinical hours, I found myself working at a community addiction clinic, seeing clients who were fighting every day to free themselves from heroin. I was showing up five days a week, from 6 a.m. to 2 p.m., seeing eight clients a day. I believed deeply in the work, but the pace was brutal. I was pouring everything I had into my clients and the work, and forgot about pacing myself.

One morning, during my weekly supervision hour, I broke down. The exhaustion hit me like a wave I didn’t see coming. I tearfully told my supervisor, “I can’t do this. I’m burnt out.”

She listened with the calm presence of someone who’d seen this moment many times before. Then she said something I’ll never forget.

She said, “This work and this process is a rite of passage. You’re not just clocking hours. You’re being shaped into a therapist, a healer, a grounded presence in your community. This is how you learn what you’re made of. This is where you begin to build your role—not just in your career, but in your own life.”

It was one of those moments where everything shifted. I suddenly understood that this grueling stretch of work was more than a test of endurance. It was a sacred crossing. I was being initiated into a lifelong practice of holding others—and learning how to hold myself, too.

That day, I didn’t just get a pep talk. I got a reframe that carried me the rest of the way to licensure. And to this day, I carry that lesson with me—especially when I’m supervising newer clinicians, watching them find their way through the fire of their own 3,000-hour journey.

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?

Before I became a therapist, I worked as a holistic nutritionist in private practice. I loved helping people reconnect with their bodies and make choices that supported their well-being. But over time, I began to sense that something was missing—so many of my clients were carrying emotional pain, trauma, or inner conflict that food alone couldn’t reach. I realized that healing the body without also tending to the heart and mind wasn’t enough. That realization sparked a deeper calling in me to support people at a more emotional and psychological level.

During that time, I had the unique opportunity to work with Byron Katie as her event and registration coordinator. I spent five years immersed in her world of inquiry and self-realization while attending graduate school at Antioch University in Santa Barbara. That chapter of my life taught me so much about the nature of thought, suffering, and the human capacity for change. It also solidified my passion for working with people in a more integrative, therapeutic way. It helped me understand that healing trauma and our past is so much more than just the mind and our thoughts and we must include the spirit and the body as part of this process.

Now, as a Licensed Marriage & Family Therapist and Psychedelic-Assisted Psychotherapist, I draw on everything I’ve learned along the way—nutrition, mindfulness, somatic practices, Jungian psychology and clinical training—to help my clients reconnect with themselves and create meaningful change in their lives. My work is deeply rooted in compassion, nervous system awareness, and the belief that healing happens when we feel safe enough to tell the truth about our experience in the presence of a safe person.

I specialize in women’s mental health and wellness, helping women who are struggling with anxiety, low self-worth, relationship challenges, and life transitions reconnect with their inner strength, clarity, and confidence so they can live more authentically and feel at peace in themselves.

In addition to individual therapy, I offer group programs, workshops, and retreats that weave together mindfulness, psychology, somatic practices, and creative expression. A central focus of these offerings is healing the feminine—reclaiming the wisdom, strength, and softness that many women have learned to suppress or disconnect from. We explore the Heroine’s Journey, a powerful framework that speaks to the unique psychological and spiritual path of women—one that involves shedding external expectations, healing inner divides, and returning home to the self with deeper wisdom and wholeness. Through this lens, we also engage with the Sacred Feminine, inviting women to reconnect with intuition, embodiment, compassion, and inner authority. These experiences are designed to support nervous system regulation, self-compassion, and a felt sense of empowerment—so women can step into their life with more ease, purpose, and presence, rooted in who they truly are.

Putting training and knowledge aside, what else do you think really matters in terms of succeeding in your field?

Beyond degrees, certifications, and clinical hours, what I believe is most essential for succeeding in this field is a deep heart investment and a genuine soul connection to the work. Being a therapist is not just a profession—it’s a calling. It asks something of you. It asks you to show up fully, to witness suffering without trying to fix it, to hold space for the messy, beautiful, painful, and transformative moments in another person’s life. And that kind of presence can’t be faked. It has to come from the inside—from your own lived experience, your own healing, and your willingness to continue doing your own work.

I believe that one of the most powerful tools we have as therapists is our own inner clarity and embodiment. Doing your personal work—your therapy, your healing, your self-reflection—is not optional. It’s foundational. Not just during training, but as an ongoing, lifelong commitment. This work will surface your edges, your wounds, your projections, your limits—and when you meet those with curiosity and care, you become a more trustworthy and attuned presence for others. Your ability to sit with someone else’s pain grows as you learn to sit with your own.

The reality of being a therapist is that it’s not glamorous. It can be exhausting, tender, and invisible work. You carry stories that aren’t yours, hold space when you feel empty, and keep showing up when no one’s watching. It takes dedication, humility, and a deep reverence for the human experience. It requires boundaries, self-care, ongoing supervision, and a support system. But for those of us who feel called to it, there is nothing more meaningful than walking beside someone on their path toward healing and wholeness.

It’s a sacred responsibility. And for me, it’s also an honor.

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

In 2020, in the midst of building my private practice, my father died. It was a profound and life-altering loss—one that shook me to my core. I was holding space for others in my role as a therapist while simultaneously navigating the waves of my own grief. It was messy, tender, and deeply human. I had to learn how to keep showing up—not from a place of performance, but from authenticity. Some days, just being present with my clients felt like a quiet act of resilience.

What surprised me most was how therapeutic it felt to continue seeing my clients through that time. Of course, I had my own strong support system—my own therapy, supervision, family, close friendships—but something about staying connected to my work, to others’ pain and healing, helped me move through my own. There was a sacred reciprocity in the process: I was witnessing loss, resilience, and repair in my clients while also navigating my own. Grief softened me, deepened me, and refined my understanding of what it means to be with another person in their suffering.

That season of my life changed me. I’ve become, in many ways, a grief expert—not just through study or clinical training, but through lived experience. I now carry that embodied wisdom into my work with clients. I understand how grief isn’t something to be “fixed” or rushed. It’s something to be honored, held, and integrated. It shows us what matters. It transforms us.

Looking back, I know now that my resilience didn’t come from pushing through or pretending I was okay—it came from staying close to myself, leaning on others, and allowing the truth of my experience to shape me into a more grounded and compassionate therapist.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://jacquelinerobertson.com/
• Instagram: jacqueline.s.robertson
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/journeytotheotherside
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jacqueline-robertson-3012595a/

Image Credits

Shannon Jayne (photography)