We recently connected with Christina Furnival and have shared our conversation below.

Christina, appreciate you joining us today. Was there a moment in your career that meaningfully altered your trajectory? If so, we’d love to hear the backstory.

When I began practicing as a mental health therapist in 2009, my vision was to work as a clinic-based therapist, and I did so for almost a decade. But as life tends to do, it opened up pathways for me I couldn’t have imagined, and now I find myself working as a stay-at-home mom, a telehealth therapist providing therapy in the evenings, and an award-winning author of globally-enjoyed children’s mental health themed books.

My first career-defining moment was when I became a mother, a dream I had had since I myself was a child. I had always thought I would be a working mom, but when they handed me my little girl, I decided to become a stay-at-home mom and push the pause button on my career. While I experienced unforeseen challenges, such as a battle with postpartum depression and anxiety, I gained a deeper understanding of how to utilize my mental health background in raising my daughter, and – two years later – my son. Motherhood rebirthed me as a different woman, and certainly a different clinician as I stepped back into therapy providing telehealth in the evening to other moms. I realized there was such a need to support moms in their transition and adjustment to motherhood. In addition to providing therapy, I founded the therapeutic motherhood blog, Real Life Mama. My passion for writing grew and led to my second career-defining moment.

When my daughter was in preschool, she had her first encounter with something we all experience – a prickly friendship with a child at school. With my concern for her as a driving force, and my experience guiding clients through relationship challenges as a foundation, I wrote a story for her that helped her recognize her value and learn how to stand up for herself by setting boundaries with that peer. It was so effective for her that I took a leap of faith and submitted my manuscript to a handful of children’s book publishers. I heard back from PESI Publishing the very next day, and within a month had signed the contract for my first book deal!

The Capable Kiddos book series was born when “The Not-So-Friendly Friend – How to Set Boundaries for Healthy Friendships” was published in September 2021. The series grew with the second book “Fear Not – How to Face Your Fear and Anxiety Head-On” being published in April 2022. PESI has invited me to work on several other projects including a children’s book called “NowMaps Jr.” with renowned child neuropsychiatrist Dr. Daniel Siegel, and “The Big Feelings Flipchart”, an in-session tool for therapists who work with children. And currently, the third book in the Capable Kiddos series, titled “My Brilliant, Resilient Mind – How to Ditch Negative Thinking to Handle Hard Things Better”, is in production for release in Fall 2023!

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 am a fun-loving, DIY-trying, creative, empathic, and driven woman, wife, and mother with a heart for helping others through writing, psychoeducation, and therapy. It is my goal through my therapy practice for women and moms, and my award-winning children’s mental health themed book series Capable Kiddos, to support children and their parents to understand themselves better, navigate challenges confidently, and live the life they want!

The mental health field has been a part of my life since I was little as I grew up with a mom who is a licensed therapist and school counselor. I feel so lucky to have had her guidance as a child, and incredibly honored to have followed in her footsteps. With over a decade of experience specializing in providing therapy to children and their families, and with close to a decade of experience as a mom to my own children, I am able to both support moms through life’s ups and downs, and write relatable rhyming stories for children on common, yet complicated topics, concentrated in a way that is simple and as educational as they are enjoyable. And to reach more moms and families, I share about maternal and children’s mental health on my social media accounts: Instagram.com/Christina.Furnival/ and Instagram.com/CapableKiddosBooks/.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

Resilience is the ability to bounce back in the face of challenge, and no doubt every one of us has had to exercise our resilience at various times! For me, I had to muster all I had to find my strength – and myself – after having kids. Even as prepared as I thought I was to have children, with a background in child development and mental health, I was rocked by the identity shift I experienced as I became a mother, and I was upended by postpartum depression and anxiety.

Through doing my own introspective work, attending my own therapy, and turning my learnings into helpful lessons for others, I made my way through the fog and darkness and came out the other side. I am not unscathed, but I am changed in most ways for the better. I believe every obstacle brings opportunity, if we are willing to look for it, and my experience was no different. The topic of resilience is so important to me, that it’s the topic of the third children’s book in my series Capable Kiddos.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

I grew up believing that if I worked hard enough, I could achieve what I wanted. This rang true for me through schooling and in my career. However, it fell flat when it came to being a Mom. Motherhood, beginning from the very start, with trying to conceive a baby, has shown me that type-A, perfectionist me could do all the “things I’m supposed to”, but that so much is still outside of my control.

The same is true with parenting. I have learned over the years to continue to work hard on what I can, but to also acknowledge and surrender to what is not in my hands. Parenting is rife with challenge, at times more frequent (though less weighty) than the blissful moments, and it’s a constant journey in doing all I can while releasing what is not mine to control and allowing my children to flourish into their truest selves. My unlearning of this need for control and vise grip on unrealistic expectations is something I support other moms with through my therapy practice.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://ChristinaFurnival.com
• Instagram: https://Instagram.com/Christina.Furnival and https://Instagram.com/CapableKiddosBooks
• Facebook: https://facebook.com/ChristinaFurnivalRealLifeMama
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christina-furnival-680a5733/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheRealLifeMama
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC72qkLke9I5Lrjo3UaZX72g

Image Credits
Tom Furnival, Shannon Bailey