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

Hi Christina, thanks for joining us today. If you had a defining moment that you feel really changed the trajectory of your career, we’d love to hear the story and details.

The defining moment of my career was experiencing burnout and rebuilding from the bottom up. I’m taking a risk by saying this- nobody wants to think their therapist doesn’t know how to take care of themselves. The truth is we are human, too. As a systemic therapist, I can’t ignore that we live in a capitalistic society which glorifies overworking and lack of professional boundaries. As a practitioner, I also originate from a healthcare system which is not working for professionals, or clients, in terms of access to care, fair pay, or good coverage. All of these factors contribute to systemic burnout.

My last position at a local practice led to burnout due to over-working, lack of support, and high levels of disorganization. It caused me to question my calling. After all, how could I be a therapist if I couldn’t even take care of myself? I took a calculated risk and stepped back from the profession to focus on what truly mattered to me. I was fortunate enough to receive a job offer from an old professor of mine who told me to, “Take care of myself and the rest will follow.”

So I cut my caseload in half, sought my own therapy, and paused any groups and networks I was apart of. Within a couple months, I was back to being “Me”. And I rebuilt from there with the things that really mattered. Since then, my career has gotten better than I could have ever imagined. I was able to sit back and ask myself, “What do I really want out of life?”

I am now a certified intuitive eating counselor able to work with individuals, families, and groups to provide counseling on building a better relationship with your body and food. I also specialize in providing therapy to intercultural couples, fostering their strengths and honing ways to honor differences. True to my values, a large part of my caseload are marginalized clients, such as those from queer or BIPOC communities, immigrants, women, or single parents. One of my specialities is working within the Asian-American community on family dynamics, bi-cultural identity integration, and perfectionism traits.

Had I not experienced burnout, as early in my career and as deeply as I did, I may not have forced myself to ask what I truly wanted out of life. I feel the most authentic, passionate, creative, and comfortable in my work as I ever have. I also feel connected to my colleagues, clients, and personal relationships, recognizing fully that relationships are the most important thing we have.

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?

I provide systemic therapy to individuals, couples, families, and groups – meaning that I recognize most problems originate in the relationships we have with those around us, and most solutions are found in healing those interpersonal connections. This also means recognizing the larger systems at play and how we can push against those systems to create space for what really matters to us. I specialize in providing therapy to folx wanting to practice intuitive eating, intercultural couples, Asian-Americans or other bi-racial individuals, and other marginalized folx like queer and BIPOC communities, immigrants, women, or single parents. I help my clients recognize how larger systems affect their lives, how they can advocate for themselves within those systems, and how to approach their problems from a relational lens.

I work partly at Lotus Counseling Group, which is a local practice here in Charlotte, NC. However, I also work part-time with Headspace, which is a mindfulness and meditation app, as a freelance therapist. Additionally, I lead intuitive eating and somatic therapy groups with Ashley Dail, LCMHC on a regular schedule and folks can contact us through my Instagram for access to signing up for those groups. I am also a mental health content writer who has articles on topics such as OCD, trauma, eating disorders, and more. Additionally, the practice I work for is partnering with me to provide some additional content through our website blog, which will launch in early January and focus on content from a family systems lens.

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

Earning my intuitive eating certification has helped me build a brand on social media. I’ve been fortunate to have already begun making connections with local eating disorder facilities, as well as start leading groups around intuitive eating practices. On social media, I can focus on the intuitive eating niche and build trust within the local community here in Charlotte, NC. That trust is built not only with folks looking for help with building a better relationship with their body and food, but with other professionals who are a larger part of the medical care system. I truly believe that a lot of systemic change happens in the small conversations I have with other professionals and clients on Instagram.

As a creative writer, I was honored to earn a scholarship placement at Wildacres Retreat in Little Switzerland, NC where artists of all kinds gather to create and hone their skills together. This retreat helped me connect my love of writing with my love of therapy, as I often write poetry and non-fiction pieces inspired by the work I do, as well as exploring my place in my own family system through my poetry and non-fiction pieces.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

Coming off of my own burnout, I started thinking of how I could help other new therapists from experiencing the same. This led me to use other skills and communities I was already apart of to work on systemic change. Coming from an arts background and many years of training as a creative writer, I already hosted a weekly co-writing group with some folks from college. I am now working on a book which is part self-help for early therapists and part memoir of my own struggles in pushing against the system to create space for my own self-care. I truly believe that when we are privileged enough to have knowledge others may not have (yet), it is part of our larger human experience to share that knowledge and begin the fight of enacting systemic change.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/therapists/christina-canuto-charlotte-nc/1036367
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/christina_mft/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christina-canuto/
• Other: https://www.choosingtherapy.com/christina-canuto-lmft/
  https://lotuscounselinggroup.com/our-team/christina-canuto/
  https://www.intuitiveeating.org/author/christinacanuto/

Image Credits

Alexa Little, professional headshot

Move.Talk.Zen (first two action photos)