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

Hi Jamie, 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.

My journey has certainly been a long and winding path, with lots of wrong turns! But I believe everything I have been through has made me the professional that I am today, and for that reason, I wouldn’t change a thing.

I actually began my career as a film major at UCF (Go Knights!). I traveled to USC to immerse myself in the world of film for the summer and made a series of short films. I came back to Florida still on track to work in film, but unsure of how to get there. So I continued on my college journey and began taking philosophy and psychology classes to ensure I could create films that had meaning and purpose. I fell deep into this world, and to be honest, this is the first major, defining moment in my career. I realized I really liked exploring how and why people think and behave. One Psychology degree and one Spanish degree later, I decided to leave the film world and continue the psychology trek, uncertain of where it would take me. I also loved to travel, so I ended up moving to Australia for my master’s degree. I studied and worked there for four years, came back and began my journey as a mental health professional in the US. But I struggled with knowing what I wanted to do in the field and as a result, moved from job to job, trying to figure it out, kind of feeling unfulfilled along the way.

But then, in 2009, I was diagnosed with Stage 4 Hodgkin‘s Lymphoma and my life was turned completely upside down. I immediately went into treatment and lost my job, savings, apartment, friends who didn’t want to “deal with it”, put my pets in foster care, and moved back in with my parents. It was an extremely lonely and traumatic time in my life that, looking back, defined me more than I ever knew possible at the time.

I finished my final chemotherapy treatment on my 30th birthday, right before the doctors told me I could go back to living a “normal” life. But nobody tells you that with cancer, the real struggle begins after you finish treatment. The emotional, physical, and spiritual pain that you experience, the existential crisis, the struggle to make sense of what happened – that is a separate journey. I lost everything. I was bitter and angry and had to find a way to heal from the after-effects of my treatment.

This painful experience was probably the single most defining moment in my life and my career. It forced me to really look at the way I was living my life. Before cancer, I spent many years trying to find happiness in all the wrong places. Now, for the first time, I realized I couldn’t go back to that “normal”, nor did I want to. I needed more. I needed to heal my body and my soul. While Western medicine saved my life, it didn’t help me resolve and heal from my treatment experience as a whole, so that is when I took a dive into Eastern medicine to heal my body and find peace within. This is where I found my passion for yoga philosophy. In 2012, I took my yoga teacher training certificate, and it opened the floodgates to all the ways yoga can help us heal ourselves. This training reconnected me to my spiritual body again and led me to pursue a new lifelong journey of learning and practicing Eastern methods of healing ever since.

This way of living has allowed me to transform my life and find new ways of being. I was able to reconnect with my true, authentic self and let go of trauma holding me back. For the first time in my life, I was able to create boundaries and say no. I met my partner and established a healthy, loving relationship. And the best part was that I felt more connected to my mind, body, and spirit than ever before. What I realized was— I needed to be stripped down to my very core to see who I was and what I’m meant to do in this world. My cancer was the gift from the universe that allowed this process to unfold. It allowed me to reconnect to my purpose.

This is the reason I do everything that I do now. It fuels every aspect of my work. I want to help others find peace, joy, and alignment for themselves, just like I did. And that led me to create the business that I operate today. Be Your Best Self & Thrive Counseling, PLLC. was born out of my passion for mental wellness, holistic health, and de-stigmatizing mental health. I wanted to create a modern, inclusive space for individuals and couples to feel safe, empowered, and ready to embark on the incredibly rewarding path towards reconnecting with their true, authentic selves and living their best lives. And I can now say I am blessed to be able to do this every single day that I go to work.

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 background and context?

Be Your Best Self & Thrive Counseling, PLLC., is a modern, holistic and inclusive mental wellness company providing a variety of services both online and in-person in St. Petersburg, Florida . We take pride in our unique, integrative approach to mental health and wellness. Our goal is to help you build a healthy alliance between your mind, body and spirit that works together for your benefit.

We work with adults and couples that want to reduce anxiety and stress, overcome trauma and depression, improve their relationships, and learn how to develop positive attitudes towards life’s most complex and challenging circumstances.

I am the owner and founder of BYBS & Thrive, am a Licensed Mental Health Counselor, Registered Yoga Teacher, and a State of Florida Qualified Supervisor. I am an advocate for mental wellness and early intervention and champion new, innovative ways of education and service delivery in the field of mental health. My unique, holistic approach combines psychology, yoga and neuroscience into evidence-based and proven actionable steps that help individuals and businesses build and grow their services in a sustainable way.

Do you have any insights you can share related to maintaining high team morale?

Managing teams is very challenging – remember that according to Gallup, 80% of employees leave managers, not jobs. So it is important for leaders to train themselves in management strategies and know how to individualize their approach to each employee’s needs. I personally find the StrengthsFinder assessment tremendously helpful. This tool utilizes a positive psychology approach to supporting the growth and evolution of an employee. Imagine if we stopped worrying about people’s deficits and instead focused on their strengths? How much further could they excel? The StrengthsFinder assessment helps managers do just that. It provides positive language for a variety of behaviors, helps team members better understand each other, and helps managers develop strategic growth plans for each employee. By working from a Strengths perspective, managers can develop healthier, happier teams that are inspired, excited and motivated to come to work each day.

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

How Making Money is Killing Your Business, hands down. This book is a game changer for entrepreneurs that have big dreams, lots of ideas, but are stuck doing most of the work. It helps you figure out how to get out of “doing” and into “leading”. Highly recommend for my fellow ideators out there!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.bybsandthrive.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/beyourbestselftherapy/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bybsandthrive
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamie-molnar-lmhc/

Image Credits
Kailyn Rose Creative