We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Emily Bradshaw. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Emily below.
Emily, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. It’s always helpful to hear about times when someone’s had to take a risk – how did they think through the decision, why did they take the risk, and what ended up happening. We’d love to hear about a risk you’ve taken.
I believe that going to graduate school and deciding to become a therapist is one of the biggest risks I have taken in my life. Deciding to spend such a large amount of money on school studying for a career that I was unsure I would enjoy, or even be able to handle emotionally was something I worried about for a long time. Mental health has been relevant in my life for almost as long as I can remember. I saw my first therapist when I was 11 or 12 years old and I truly believe that was the first step of becoming a therapist myself, although of course I didn’t know that at the time. I struggled with depression and anxiety my entire adolescence and into young adulthood. Going to college was a huge deal, and I became the first person in my family to graduate with a Bachelor’s degree. During undergrad I spent a lot of time wondering what my next steps would be. When I started looking into graduate schools for mental health counseling I worried often, “how could I possibly help others when I’ve struggled so much myself?”, “How can I possibly hold other people’s stuff without taking that home with me?” The answers did not come until I was half way through graduate school starting my practicum and finally sitting in front of clients. It was then I began to realize that I was very much capable of helping others without losing myself. Since then, it’s been about 4 1/2 years and my confidence in my decision grows stronger every day. Helping others fuels me and gives me such strong purpose. The journey has not been easy and my career is not always easy, yet I absolutely believe this is where I am supposed to be. I am proud of myself for taking such a huge risk in my life and incredibly grateful to be where I’m at today.
Emily, 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?
I am a mental health therapist and I see mostly adults, sometimes adolescents. I see clients individually and also help co-facilitate an IOP (Intensive Outpatient Program) for people who need more than weekly outpatient therapy. The IOP is 10 hours of group therapy a week, with one hour of individual therapy as well. I mainly work with clients struggling with Depression, Anxiety, Bipolar Disorder, and Borderline Personality Disorder. The clients I see in my IOP program are in a season of their lives where they are very much struggling. Many are unable to work at the time, some come from an inpatient facility and some come to our IOP to hopefully prevent having to go to an inpatient facility. It is such an honor to spend so much time each week with my IOP clients and I learn so much from them. My number one goal for all of my clients is that they feel safe in the therapeutic setting, and then we can work on coping skills to help them feel better and function better. I am immensely proud of the group setting my co-facilitator and I have created and we often hear from our clients how supported they feel in the group. Our IOP is DBT (Dialectical Behavior Therapy) based and I consider myself a DBT therapist. In DBT we focus on the idea that two opposing things can be true at the same time, which I really appreciate. (Ex: I am exactly okay as I am in this moment AND I still want to continue to grow and improve in my life). I have seen how helpful DBT has been for others and I personally use the skills every day in my life.
If you could go back in time, do you think you would have chosen a different profession or specialty?
If I could go back, I would absolutely feel lucky and honored to end up in the same profession I am in now. I feel like the Universe absolutely placed me where I belong and I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else. My clients are incredible humans, I absolutely adore my boss and coworkers, and I feel fulfilled doing what I love. I wouldn’t want to be doing anything else.
Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?
I feel like I have had many moments of resilience in my life. Many times of “I don’t know how I will possibly get through this” and then somehow I do. I mentioned struggling with my mental health as an adolescent and I believe that it contributed to me dropping out of high school. There were many reasons I dropped out but my mental health was definitely one of them. I was 16 years old and honestly, dropping out both helped my mental health and probably made it worse at the same time. Although dropping out of high school doesn’t stop you from going to college, it definitely makes the process a little more difficult. I had absolutely no confidence in myself and really high anxiety when I made the decision to go to college. I fought many, many silent fights to get through each semester and wanted to quit so many different times. I think successfully making it through each semester increased both my confidence and resilience. Something I learned from both undergrad and graduate school is that balancing school and real life stuff is extremely difficult. I was also learning to be a mom during this time, which adds to it all. I’ve learned, with a lot of practice, to be grateful for all of the difficult times because I would not be doing what I love right now if it wasn’t for all of it. One of my biggest accomplishments is going from a “high school drop out” to someone with a Master’s Degree. I am so incredibly proud of myself.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.houstonpsychotherapists.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/houstonpsychotherapists/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/p/Houston-Psychotherapists-Inc-100057556355081/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@EmilyBradshaw-u2k
- Other: TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@emilya1202?is_from_webapp=1&sender_device=pc
Image Credits
Ashley Boyd Photography https://www.ashleyboydphotography.com/