We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Jaclyn Fortier. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Jaclyn below.

Jaclyn , thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Risk taking is something we’re really interested in and we’d love to hear the story of a risk you’ve taken.

After struggling in school and finding all the trouble I could get into as a teenager. I decided on a different direction of risk-taking and enlisted in the Navy during my last year of high school. Finding my motivation from a military recruiter who came to talk to the senior students during a lunch event one day. He told me I could do anything I focused my mind on, and that girls can do anything that the boys can do, and we are often much stronger than we think we are. I enlisted the following week, and my orders came just before (barely) graduating from high school.

My first plane ride was to basic training! Eeeee…and I was scared of the turbulence. This is where I began my story towards big dreams and girl power bravery. Learning that you can be scared and strong all at the same time!

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 experienced adversity as a young mother with struggles to overcome that led to lighting my path forward. I began a journey in higher education with a focus in counseling, studying during nap times, and staying up late writing papers after bedtime. Through those days, I savored the sunshine on our walks chasing ducks after dinner, and afternoons at the community library, remembering that it was the little things that mattered and brought us the most happiness. This was the path I was destined for. After graduating with two little girls, one on each hip, and my proud parents next to me, I went on to work with domestic violence and trauma recovery programs to help others find their own way to safety and healing.

I have since created and renovated various safety and healing programs and am known as the “girl power” guru, loving everything girl power, and using power tools and paint brushes to fix up healing spaces for the community to grow in. I am passionate about supporting girls’ and women’s safety, self-love, and all things empowerment. I am now a national advocate, inspirational speaker, and writer with a mission for empowering others around the world. The world needs our light, and together we can make big changes.

Have any books or other resources had a big impact on you?

I love Marisa Peer, and her work is very inspiring to me. She is a brilliant therapist and writer, and has an amazing approach and therapeutic tools that allow the person to heal themselves through their limiting beliefs and the story they tell themselves, so that we change our story from an empowering lens.

We are the writers of our own story. We hold the responsibility and the key to the changes that we wish to make in our lives. This is great news, as this is something everyone has the capacity to do when they start by believing they can!
She has written two of my favorite books:

Tell yourself a better lie
You are enough

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 I was not good at math or anything school-related. I remember in high school being told by my math teacher that I would not be able to go to college with my grades. I agreed with him and started skipping class instead of trying harder. That belief took many years (at college and in the military) to stop believing that. I now know that I can do anything I put my mind to, and all we need is the right tools, a quiet space, good direction, and an inner belief that we can learn anything we put our minds to that we want to learn. (I still struggle with spreadsheets) But instead of saying I can’t do it, I take a break and take a walk, or ask someone to help me (which is often my person, he is amazing at spreadsheets), and I allow in the feeling of love and support from those around me who want to help.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.jaclynfortier.com and www.carolinacounselingwellness.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lemonade_maker/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jaclynfortier2022
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jaclyn-fortier/
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/carolina-counseling-wellness-associates-high-point?osq=Carolina+Counseling+Wellness+Associates

Image Credits

Cami Photography