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

Hi Amy, thanks for joining us today. When you’ve been a professional in an industry for long enough, you’ll experience moments when the entire field takes a U-Turn, an instance where the consensus completely flips upside down or where the “best practices” completely change. If you’ve experienced such a U-Turn over the course of your professional career, we’d love to hear about it.

There is such an immense need for mental health support right now, and one of the main catalysts for this over the last few years has been the COVID-19 pandemic, and its subsequent lockdowns and stressors. I was one of many therapists working from my bedroom, while my children played outside the door, and I tried to cram in up to 30 clients per week to accommodate the demand for mental health services. While the demand for mental health support hasn’t diminished much – which overall is a good thing, I’m so glad that more people are willing to seek support – I have seen a shift in the way that mental health professionals respond. Many of us, myself included, realized that cramming our caseloads full left us with very little time to emotionally process or recover, much less take on necessary administrative tasks such as responding to emails or documenting our sessions. There has been a greater acknowledgement of systemic factors, such as lack of paid sick leave, expensive childcare, and inadequate mental health insurance coverage (and reimbursement for clinicians). Mental health professionals are beginning to realize how these factors negatively impact our field in general, as well as us personally. I’m trained as a social worker, so advocacy and policy change has always been important to me, but now it is more critical than ever, both for myself and for my clients. I’m one of many in my field who chose to reduce my client load, even if it meant taking a pay cut or being able to serve fewer clients, in order to preserve my own well-being and better support my existing clients.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I’m Amy Lajiness, LCSW, PMH-C, and I’m an Ecotherapist and Psychotherapist practicing in San Diego, as well as a Coach for Highly Sensitive (HSP) parents. I got into this field because I enjoy helping others find insight and healing in their lives, and also, because the work itself is often really fun and creative, especially in private practice and coaching. I incorporate nature-based therapy (Ecotherapy) and somatic/body-based work into my sessions with therapy clients, so you can often find me walking/working at Windansea Beach or in Balboa Park!

Just this year, I launched a resource website and blog for Highly Sensitive (HSP) and Empath Parents and Caregivers at www.highlysensitiveparenthood.com. During a brief sabbatical from my therapy work in early 2022, the idea for this website came to me out of nowhere, and I’ve just been running with it ever since! Parenthood in 2022 is hard enough, but for parents (like me) who are empaths or highly sensitive, it can be incredibly challenging. Right now, Highly Sensitive Parenthood is a weekly blog and also offers both free and paid resources specifically to help HSP parents recognize their strengths and manage challenges with self-compassion. Later, I hope to launch online community groups and live retreats to support HSP parents in a more interactive way. The way that I work with clients is pretty unique – I empower them with information about their HSP trait, and help them towards a more self-compassionate mindset. But to me that’s not enough – I also work really hard to help parents see and change systemic factors such as accessing more childcare, helping loved ones understand/support their HSP trait, and considering their work/life balance.

As a human and a therapist, I highly value authenticity, humor, and compassion for self and others, and I think that shows up in both my therapy approach and in my work as an HSP parent educator and coach. Right now, I’m seeing a mix of teens, perinatal/postpartum parents, and professional women juggling stress and work/life balance. I love seeing a diversity of folks in my practice, and am so thrilled to get to support even more people through my coaching work at Highly Sensitive Parenthood!

Training and knowledge matter of course, but beyond that what do you think matters most in terms of succeeding in your field?

Hands down, the most critical factor in “succeeding” as a therapist (“succeeding” is in quotes, because I believe success is a bit of an arbitrary construct), is spending time on one’s own personal development. Perhaps more than any other field, therapists need to be self-aware, centered, and healthy if they are to do their best work with clients. For me, my personal development includes reading a ton of books, singing and playing guitar, exercise, painting, attending therapy myself, and engaging in spiritual/mindfulness practices. These practices not only support my physical/emotional/spiritual well-being, they also energize me to show up fully in sessions with clients.

Anyone who has been in therapy can probably attest to how important it is to have a therapist who is self-aware and is “doing the work,” so to speak, personally. Clients can spot from a million miles away a therapist who is spouting off advice without actually attempting to live their lives in a meaningful and healthy way. So for me, self-care and personal development is a way to care for both myself and my clients.

If you could go back in time, do you think you would have chosen a different profession or specialty?

Nope! I truly love the work that I do, even though it’s not always easy. One really cool thing about being a social worker in general, or even a mental health professional more specifically, is that you can pivot or shift in the work that you’re doing. For example, I started out working primarily with teenagers, then slowly shifted to working more with adults and parents. Over time, I found myself interested in nature-based Ecotherapy, Postpartum/Perinatal therapy, and therapy with Highly Sensitive People, so I pursued trainings and certifications in each of these specialties. Now, I can combine my knowledge and experience to work with, for example, Highly Sensitive Parents, or HSP teens who can really benefit from the soothing and grounding properties of Ecotherapy. I’m sure I’ll continue to evolve and learn more in my work, and I doubt that I’ll ever get bored of learning and practicing new ways of doing therapy!

Contact Info:

• Website: www.highlysensitiveparenthood.com AND www.innernaturetherapy.com
• Instagram: @highlysensitiveparenthood AND @innernaturetherapy
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HighlySensitiveParenthood/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLmPW6a55sZZ3qXlcA-EPng
• Yelp: https://www.facebook.com/HighlySensitiveParenthood/