We were lucky to catch up with Althea Rowe recently and have shared our conversation below.
Althea, appreciate you joining us today. Was there a defining moment in your professional career? A moment that changed the trajectory of your career?
A defining moment in my professional career was the day I decided to go back to school at the age of 51, to leave my career as an attorney and enter the field of mental health. Recently divorced, no money, and running out of time…or so they say around that age. It was one of the top 5 decisions I have made in my life. I learned from this that it’s never too late to start a new chapter in your life’s 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?
My journey to the field of mental health began in the unlikely place of a career as a lawyer. I met my ex-husband of a 20-year marriage in law school. And though we did not make it to the “happily-ever-after”, that ending was my launch into the online dating world. Online dating wasn’t a thing back in my twenties, so I was excited to see that there were so many options! It seemed like a pretty simple and intuitive way to meet “my person”, the one from whom God drew a rib to form me. But it quickly became apparent that this journey would not be simple at all (fill out 250 questions on eharmony and my match would appear among the 20 or so possibilities – uhhmm, not so fast). Especially when I thought a good intro response was “my ex-husband was a Gemini, I don’t want to do that again”. To say that the learning curve was steep is probably an understatement. I made a very intentional decision that I would learn something about good communication, that this would be my first objective – the one before finding “my person”. So learning is what I did…back in the early days of online dating it was cool to respond to everyone (not so much now – you get in trouble if you do that now), and so I got a lot of practice – learning a lot of valuable lessons about myself and “the good, the bad, and the ugly” of communication. In the middle of it all, I went back to school for a Master’s degree in Marriage and Family Therapy. The idea of marrying the tools I learned from my many years of online dating to the tools I have gained in everything mental health was borne, and so I developed a curriculum based on the principles of authenticity, boundaries, and confidence – I call it, the “ABCs of interpersonal communication”. I then corralled my wonderful mental health colleague, Emily Adili, LMFT, into joining me in this awesome work of helping others to increase awareness and insight into becoming their best selves and intimate partner communicators.
Fundamental to the Over a LaaTeh brand is about connecting with people with the most intimate part of themselves. Through social media platforms (most specifically InstaGram) my Digital Brand Manager, Olivia James, @heyitslivjames, has consistently worked on developing the brand – to authentically connect with people, bring digestible information, to gain an understanding of what our audience is after in the dating and personal development world, and reaching out to them in the online places in which they find themselves.
Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?
The Over a LaaTeh start-up was originally about linking people to mental health professionals in quick face-to-face meet-ups at local coffee shops – the Uber/Lyft of mental health. Then the pandemic hit, and there went that brilliant plan! I had to pivot that idea into something that made sense for connecting people with help for the most basic need – healthy human communication and interaction. And I couldn’t be more pleased by the answer I found!
Putting training and knowledge aside, what else do you think really matters in terms of succeeding in your field?
Living it! I think succeeding in my field requires that I live it – bearing the mistakes and digging deep to be better for myself, family, friends, and those who I lead. Then communicating authentically about all of that, is the icing on the cake!
Contact Info:
- Website: www.overalaateh.com
- Instagram: @overalaateh
- Facebook: @overalaateh
- Other: [email protected]