We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Alicia Patterson. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Alicia below.
Alicia, appreciate you joining us today. We’d love to hear the backstory of how you established your own practice.
I left graduate school at age 29 and knew two things : I needed much more experience in my field and I wanted to work for myself and have my own practice. I focused on these two needs and goals for years and made sure to satisfy them both. Right out of school I entered into some of the most challenging (and low paying) jobs the mental health field has to offer. I worked in residential treatment, crisis assessment in community mental health and hospital emergency rooms, and psychiatric inpatient care. I worked in these jobs for years to work toward state licensure as soon as possible as I built up my own private practice on the side. I’m glad I worked those challenging jobs because I was forced to face parts of myself and different faces of humanity and complicated complex human behavior. It was painful to work in systems that I felt question and doubt about at times. The way I saw humans being treated grated on my sense of morality with myself and I had a hard time showing up to work every single day when I worked in those jobs. I also felt a sense of fulfillment being a part of those systems and knowing that I had the power to treat people with kindness and respect and perhaps influence the type of day they had. While I worked those jobs, including consistent overnight shifts (brutal) for some of the lowest pay I had ever received, with a masters’ degree, I was exposed first-hand to the way my culture treats mental health. These experiences, while I was young enough to still have the stamina for them, largely shaped my approach to how I view and hold healthcare and client care in my private practice. The only things I would have done differently is to realize how young I was, to humble myself more in the face of the challenges I faced, and get more support. I had ample support in some ways and felt kicked into the lion’s den in others. At that time of youth I was in survival mode post-graduate school and simply hungry to “make it”. Now that I seem to have “made it”, have been in the field for over a decade, run my own business well, have a consistently full and thriving private practice, and have added incredible specialties to my work, I wish I could give the message to my younger self to know what a journey it all is and to relax into it a bit more. To ask for help. To receive more constructive feedback and ask for it. To drink in the community I worked in. My advice for a young professional is to gain extensive experience, receive mentorship from people you respect in your field who can hold you with high levels of kindness and support and also elevated standards of accountability. Realize and take note of the responsibility that we have as professionals when we are offering treatment and care to another human being, and know that it is in many moments a thankless career that comes with high levels of isolation and stress. Take care of yourself. Establish your boundaries and learn how to communicate them while also maintaining positive rapport. Master regulation of yourself and your communication. If you want more advice, find a quality mentor who you can see yourself being very vulnerable and transparent with, and share honestly when you’re young.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
I work in the booming and ever-evolving industry of mental health, somatic counseling, and women’s holistic pelvic care. I entered the field of mental health first via one of the only “somatic” (body based) psychology programs in the USA. After working in the field of mental health for 5-6 years I added pelvic floor therapy / trauma informed women’s pelvic care to my work which caused my business to flourish very quickly. This came with major perks and also steep learning curves. I offer individual / couples / family counseling in part of my work. I also offer women’s pelvic healthcare programs, in intensive style work, in a highly consensual / slow / trauma informed fashion. All of my work is based on holistic care of the brain, the endocrine & nervous system. My pelvic care programs come with virtual educational programs and materials. I also have these online materials available in a do-it-yourself fashion for those who for whatever reason do not want to work with a practitioner but want to have the experience on their own. I facilitate and co-lead different types of events at different times which has included a lot of different themes over the years including to name a few: dance movement therapeutic work, sexuality exploration, safe sane and consensual classes about “kink” alternative lifestyles & relationships, women’s pelvic care classes and workshops, women’s retreats, and more. I work with clients to address mental health needs, relationship & family dynamics, gender & sexuality exploration, pelvic healthcare, trauma resolution, and more. I’m most proud of having created a thriving business and practice as a woman in a field that many people see as taboo (somatic work and pelvic care are both still heavily challenged by societal and cultural norms), and that I have a special skill in normalizing this work and making it approachable and palatable for people who are new to it. The main things I want others to know about me is my defining values are mutual respect, freedom, and self-authority. I believe all living beings (especially those with a central nervous system) have an incredible surge of life force inside them. The journey to discovering, allowing, accepting, having access to, harnessing, and deciding how to utilize this life force is a core human longing and I believe is part of the collective healing we are in as a human race. I believe it is a privilege to have the resources and access to fully discover oneself. I also believe discovery of the full “self” in all its’ facets is a lifelong journey. The guiding principles that have shaped my life and exploration of this include personal relationship to the force of life, integrity with that force, and capacity to truly witness oneself and another. The revolution that I’m here to lead is all about the root…..The essence of pro-creation, physiological creativity, DNA fusion, fertility, legacy, pregnancy, birthing, family, continuation / disruption / colonization of lineage and cultural patterns, epigenetics (how inter-generational patterns impact DNA), sexuality, and intimacy are some of the most charged themes of humanity especially during our current world circumstance. These themes surround some of the deepest most primal human longings and are also what get abused during deep times of strife and collective power shifts. Opening the door to this work is one of the most powerful choices I’ve made in my life and I’m honored to support those on this path.
Any advice for growing your clientele? What’s been most effective for you?
Ensuring I offer elevated standards of client care and results, as well as maintaining personal and professional integrity. This can be a challenge when working with the subtleties, nuances, and challenges of human beings and their most inner and intimate worlds. The role of long-term, private support professional is a very unique one. The realities of what I’ve encountered in humans and myself is confidential and private, which automatically creates a very special quality to the relationship. It also carried with it a great deal of personal and professional responsibility. Maintaining high standards of professionalism while navigating the reality of being a human, going through crises, navigating a worldwide pandemic for examples, is no small task. This is one of the most delicate experiences I’ve had in my life, one I’m very grateful for and one I am aware of how much energy it requires. I believe the level of care, relationship, intention, and presence I offer to my clients is what has built my clientele and maintained a thriving practice over the years. I wouldn’t be telling the whole truth if I didn’t name how tiring it can be to maintain this. Owning up to my choice in the career I’ve grown into has been one of my biggest lessons in experiencing being a care provider during a worldwide crisis. My lesson….it’s time to lean in. I chose this path, now it’s time to show up.
What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?
Working on the ground in my community. At the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, I took a lot of my work online. I had a fascinating experience of encountering other professionals in ways I wasn’t accustomed to. I also had the unfortunate experience of feeling a lack of integrity in a lot of what I saw in the virtual world. This made me so grateful for my experience working directly within my community. The level of presence, dedication, and integrity I’ve maintained is partially due to my own standards for myself. But it is also due to the reality that I encounter my community, directly and consistently. There’s no hiding or re-directing my energy to somewhere else in the world because I’m working with people I see regularly, in-person, some of whom know one another. I view this as a gift. I’ve worked hard to make sure I maintain an elevated reputation in my community and in the virtual world. I believe this intention and work is what’s helped me gain the reputation I want to have and to have experiences such as being asked by brands to teach specialized classes and come into work with their customers. Maintaining a high level of integrity is a challenging thing to do amidst the type of human behavior we’re seeing in the world right now, and I intend to strive to maintain this integrity with myself and with others as much as possible until the end of my career and life.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.alicianpatterson.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/innerpoweralicia/?hl=en
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/innerpoweraliciapatterson
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alicia-patterson-742b459/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClZy4vQycuMm2QAY0-Gz3dA
Image Credits
All photos credit Rick Cummings except for the black and white “movement” one, that credit is Dana Winkelman