We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Jessica Taylor. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Jessica below.
Jessica, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today What’s the kindest thing anyone has ever done for you?
I am so grateful to have an amazing support system in my life. The kindest thing anyone has done for me is love me unconditionally. I have had several big life events, health challenges, dreams, and difficult scenarios occur throughout my life. My loved ones have always shown up in the kindest and most meaningful ways. They have and are there to listen to me, give me a hug, cry with me, laugh with me, and genuinely care about me.
This is a large part of what got me interested in this field. Knowing how helpful it has been for me to have a solid support system and wanting to help others. Wanting to share kindness, spread love, and be there for those who need it. We all deserve kindness in our lives.
Jessica, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
I got into this field because I often seemed to be the person my friends, family, and even strangers would approach to talk with. I enjoyed being present for others, hearing their stories, sharing support, and trying to help them. I went to college not fully sure of what career I wanted to explore and I tell my current clients it’s ok not to know. For those of us with anxiety….that can be quite a challenge! I started taking psychology courses and loved them resulting in me attending graduate school. I had an internship at a local community mental health agency where I ended up working for 10 years. I mostly worked with children, adolescents, and parents regarding anxiety, depression, trauma, and family relational issues. It was a very valuable experience to have access to such a variety of diagnoses, clinicians, forms of treatment, and it truly helped me become the clinician I am today.
Throughout my career I always dreamed about the idea of opening my own practice. Two years ago, I made the exciting and scary decision to go after my dream….I successfully opened my own private mental health practice and last year I expanded with bringing on an additional therapist. We are located in Mentor, OH where we provide both in person and virtual counseling services for children, adolescents and adults. We continue to help support those who are struggling with anxiety, depression, grief, stress, and have experienced difficult or traumatic things in their lives. I am most proud of creating an environment where we can be truly authentic with ourselves and our clients. We show up as humans and want our clients to know we truly understand where they are coming from. We don’t want therapy to be another stressor in their lives. Therapy can feel scary and overwhelming to start. At Hopeful Journeys Counseling and Wellness we help explain the process from the very first phone call, help answer questions, and see if you feel like we are a good fit. If not, that’s ok!! We provide referrals. If you feel like we are a good fit, we begin working together to help you feel like the best version of you. We listen and want you to know you deserve support!
We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?
I would say a lesson I had to unlearn was the “need” to know and get everything right. From a young age, we go through so many situations where we are taught to get it right, given grades, rankings, and in society we are pushed to try and be “perfect”. To go against this belief and realize there is no such thing as perfect or the ability to know everything can be difficult to accept. For those of us with anxiety, not knowing everything can be challenging. I have always been a competitive person whether it be academically, sports, or game night. Throughout my life and career I have realized, all I can do is MY best. I will never be perfect. I am not a textbook therapist and I am so glad for that! How boring! I have learned to accept my best and use my strengths to continue learning, growing, and developing every day as a person and a therapist. This has led me to be more of myself both in and out of my therapy office.
Training and knowledge matter of course, but beyond that what do you think matters most in terms of succeeding in your field?
There are so many important qualities to be successful as a therapist especially in private practice. Empathy, integrity, honesty, ethics, focus, determination, and countless others. But one of the most important that I value is hope and a positive attitude. You may not be surprised to hear that the word “hope” is my favorite word. It has gotten me through many difficult times in my personal and professional life and I value it so much I named my practice Hopeful Journeys Counseling and Wellness. I know some of you may be rolling your eyes at this point and that is fair, but I don’t share this meaning everything is sunshine and roses. I bring it up to draw your awareness of how has or could hope help support you? How can a positive attitude help support you?
As a therapist, one part of my job is to hold your heaviness. Your feelings. Your trauma. Your pain. Without hope and a positive attitude, that becomes even more challenging. I have hope that you can get through this. I have hope that by using the strategies you learn and processing your feelings or stressors that you can feel better. I have hope that by reframing your self talk to be more positive and focus on things that ARE positive, it can help you through difficult moments. One moment at a time. I have hope as I grow my business that some of the risks I take to expand will be successful in providing support to more who need and deserve it. I have hope that my positive attitude helps me manage my own life and in turn be a more present therapist.
So yes….I know the hopeful therapist with a positive attitude can sound a bit too optimistic. And don’t get me wrong, I have difficult days, anxious days, overwhelming moments, sadness, and frustration just like you. But I have hope that I will get through it. I have hope you can too.
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