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

Alright, Jeanette thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We’d love to hear the backstory behind a risk you’ve taken – whether big or small, walk us through what it was like and how it ultimately turned out.

As a Play Therapist who works with children and families, I saw a need to extend some of the activities that we were doing in the therapy playroom to the home. I wanted families to be able to continue the work in their own home after graduating from therapy. I also wanted to reach families who have limited resources or fear the stigma of therapy. To solve this problem and create this opportunity for these families, I created a book of play activities that are play therapy inspired. This book is playful and gives parents the tools to build and strengthen their relationship with their child through play.

In preparing to release my book, I began to experience impostor syndrome. I felt like I was somehow creating a book that no one would want to read and that I was only pretending to know what I actually know about play. Once my book released and people began to buy it, I felt like I was somehow “tricking” people into buying it. What helped me get through this was acknowledging my own discomfort and reminding myself that people could return the book if they didn’t like it so I was not really tricking them. I also began to get DM’s from parents telling me that they loved my book and asking if I could see their child for therapy. This was very encouraging and helped me reduce those feelings of being an impostor or a fraud and embracing my new role as an author.

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 decided to become a Play Therapist when I got my first job after graduate school. I was working, primarily, with children and realized that they weren’t benefiting from doing worksheets in therapy. The younger children were simply telling me what I wanted to hear and were not really processing anything in therapy. It simply felt too much like school and they saw me as an authority figure, like a teacher. I took an introductory Play Therapy training and learned so much from it. I took my newly acquired skills back to my work with the kids and it was amazing how much more they got out of session. I started seeing progress in their behavior and that made me sure that this was the path I wanted to take. I continued to get training in Play Therapy and worked to become a Registered Play Therapist.

Eventually, I decided to open my own private practice, Little Steps Giant Leaps Counseling, focused solely on providing Play Therapy to children and teens. Over the years I’ve continued to work with children and teens who have struggled with behavior issues, anxiety, depression and other issues. I love working directly with children and teens, but I’ve also come to realize that I love working with parents and giving them practical tools to use with their children. More recently, I have am working on expanding my brand and developing lower cost tools such as books, printables and workbooks that are accessible to parents who cannot commit to therapy, for whatever reason, but still want to learn and teach their kids about emotional regulation, building coping skills, and creating connection as a family.

In an effort to provide lower cost resources, I also started creating content which I, regularly, share on TikTok, Instagram and Facebook. My goal is to empower parents and provide educational content. If parents don’t have the tools and feel empowered to use them, it is difficult to create lasting change in a child. Parents are the most important people in a child’s life and I want to empower them to create lasting change in their children and strengthen their relationship with them.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

I consider myself a pretty traditional woman, so when I had children, I wanted to stay home with them. This was a difficult decision for me because as a professional who was focused on growing her business, I just wanted to keep the momentum going; yet, as a woman and mother of Mexican heritage, I wanted to stay home with my children. I have worked with children as a professional for most of my career and I just truly wanted to stay home and spend as much time as possible with my own children.

In my own childhood, my mother stayed home with me and my siblings for part of our childhood and worked for another part of it. I cherish the memories of having her home with us, which I know is a huge influence in my decision to stay home. In order to not completely let go of my business, I decided to take a year off after the birth of my second child. I knew that I would need that time to get adjusted to going from one child to two. I am definitely glad I did that. I also decided to continue my practice online for the time being and focus on only teen clients. Making these changes has helped me make the most out of my time for my business and for my children. Working online has cut out my commute time and be able to dedicate that time to more productive tasks like developing products. I am working on diversifying my income as well, by selling printables, books and workbooks which parents can easily download and use instantly with their children.

It’s been fun to reimagine my business and get creative about building it around what works for me and my family. It is still, very much a work in progress, but the possibilities are endless and that is very exciting.

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

I believe that I have been able to build my reputation in my field because I’ve been able to find a niche that I love. I didn’t want to be a general therapist and treat everyone and anyone. I wanted to serve a specific population, which is children, so I got trained in Play Therapy. Even within Play Therapy, there are different therapeutic modalities, so I have chosen to niche down even more and focus on the parent-child relationship through modalities such as Theraplay. I also combine Play Therapy with EMDR to treat teens with depression/anxiety.

I believe that the more specific you get in knowing who you are serving, the better you will be able to serve that population and you’ll be able to build your reputation as an expert because you will be one. I always remember a quote I heard, “If you speak to everyone, you will speak to no one.” I believe that is true and I’ve implemented it in the way I approach my business and the services/product I offer.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.LittleStepsGiantLeaps.com
• Instagram: @littlestepsgiantleaps
• Facebook: Little Steps Giant Leaps
• TikTok: @littlestepsgiantleaps

Image Credits
Mas Amor Photography