Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Ema Grant. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Ema, appreciate you joining us today. Can you open up about a risk you’ve taken – what it was like taking that risk, why you took the risk and how it turned out?

I have taken several personal and professional risks over the last few years. Professionally, I have made three significant job changes, each with a high potential for failure and few guarantees of success. I completed my internship and first three years of professional work with the same company only to part ways with significant personal and professional trauma. Choosing to leave a secure job with nothing else lined up was overwhelming and was certainly the end of a dream I’d had for my career. However, this also created the opportunity for me to seek out a job that met my needs for support in all areas of my life. I was able to interview my potential employers as much as they were interviewing me. This led me to a very supportive supervisor, a practice where I could branch out and try new skills, and where I earned respect as a professional.

The second job change came at the completion of my supervised work experience, where I learned I would not be compensated accordingly for being fully licensed. This once again led me to seek out employment that would meet my needs. Through this process, I was able to demonstrate the competence, respect, and value I brought to a workplace, and to choose an employer that valued me in the ways I had earned. The position I chose turned out not to be what had been communicated and promised in the interview process, however I was able to gain confidence in my skills as an independent practitioner.

The third job change has been the riskiest of all – self-employment and private practice. While I have the support and convenience of being contracted with a group practice, I am primarily self-sufficient. The past year of working in private practice has been both exciting and challenging. My income has taken a significant hit as I build my caseload, but the respect, freedom, flexibility, and encouragement I have from my colleagues has been life-changing in my professional identity.

Ema, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I am a Licensed Professional Counselor in the State of Arizona and graduated with a master’s in professional counseling from Grand Canyon University. I specialize in treating trauma, grief, and life transitions in adolescence through adulthood, with skills gained from training in DBT, IFS, and trauma-informed theory. I am also passionate about men’s issues related to relational and emotional awareness, including developing skills to strengthen relationships and enhance life satisfaction.

Life gets complicated, relationships get difficult, and our ability to cope can get overwhelmed. Often, past traumatic experiences make it difficult to manage our present circumstances. Through the work of therapy, I support clients in developing skills to manage their emotions, build healthy relationships, heal past trauma, process grief, and create meaning and purpose in life. I strive to be a partner with clients in their journey toward healing and wholeness, and will support them as they develop skills to become fearlessly authentic, resilient, and hopeful.

I chose to work in the counseling profession as I saw the need for children to resolve trauma from their upbringing in order to change their family tree and break cycles of generational trauma. I have found that adolescence and young adulthood is a time in life where we are already challenging and re-learning what has been taught to us by our families and the world around us, making it an ideal time to resolve trauma and build new skills.

I often have clients tell me how they feel safe, supported, understood, and also challenged by me. I am not one to take credit for myself, but I am proud of my ability to be a healing presence and a voice of truth in the lives of those who have every reason not to trust a stranger. I continue to be awed, humbled, and amazed at the resiliency of the human spirit and the inherent good in each of us and the world around us, no matter how dark life may seem.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

I had to unlearn that my performance dictates my value, and that my personal life is secondary to my professional life.

As a high-achieving student raised in a family of competitive athletes, I came into adulthood with many messages about my value and worth. Getting good grades, being involved in the community, in clubs, or in sports was the key to success – or so I thought. I began my career in case management – a world of deadlines, productivity, and cranking out as much paperwork as possible – with minimal paid time off or flexibility in scheduling. I then moved into a position where I was the only employee skilled and trained in my tasks, with expectations of being on-call and present every day, meeting deadlines set by ‘powerful’ administrators, and any time away from work placed undue burden or responsibility on my colleagues. During these years, I developed a host of chronic health issues, my friendships and marriage struggled, and I did not like who I had become.

After changing employment, first to a supportive environment and then to self-employment, I have had to unlearn these arbitrary definitions of worth. My productivity is based on the satisfaction and commitment of my clients, not on numbers or statistics. I am able to prioritize the needs of myself and my family, and still earn a living and do good work. None of this compromises my professionalism or the respect of my colleagues. I am physically, relationally, financially, and professionally healthier than I ever imagined possible.

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

I absolutely would choose to be a counselor many times over. I am honored and humbled to be a witness to the most painful moments of my clients’ lives, and to be an encouragement and support to them when they find hope again. It is beautiful and sacred work, and I do not take lightly the responsibility and trust I carry with each person I work with.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.evolvecounselingaz.com/ema-grant
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/resilienthopecounseling
• Facebook: https://m.facebook.com/resilienthopecounseling