We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Karla Moyse a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Karla, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Looking back at internships and apprenticeships can be interesting, because there is so much variety in people’s experiences – and often those experiences inform our own leadership style. Do you have an interesting story from that stage of your career that you can share with us?

When I was an intern in this field, I remember feeling overwhelmed, inexperienced, and insecure about the schooling I received to get there. I experienced imposter syndrome, which was nearly crippling to me at the time, and I clinged on to my supervisor to guide me, reassure me, and validate my skills.
One day during superivison at my internship, my supervisor gently confronted me about the blockages I was experiencing and invited me to complete a therapeutic packet on assertive communication. I admired her ability to confront and challenge me in a safe and supportive manner. In challenging myself to learn and practice assertive communication, as a professional, I realized that we all can benefit from learning assertive communication skills and that there aren’t many spaces where we get exposed to healthy and effective communication skills in our lives. In my experience and based on conversations with clients over the years, I’ve learned that we don’t often learn healthy communication skills in childhood or at school, as practical life skills.
Taking the time to work on assertiveness during my internship phase was a huge shift for me, personally and professionally. I began asserting my needs more confidently in my personal relationships and I was more inclined to collaborate and set healthy boundaries for myself rather than sacrifice or ignore my needs, as a professional. I am grateful for having had such an intuitive and experienced supervisor during that time in my life.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I am an enthusiastic licensed mental health counselor (LMHC) currently working with individuals and families who have a wide range of therapeutic needs. I have six years of experience in helping clients address concerns including depression, anxiety, anger management, stress management, poor social skills, relationship issues, family issues, parenting problems, self-esteem issues, and more. I have also worked with a great number of clients who have experienced trauma and/or suicide ideation.
My therapeutic approach is usually a combination of Humanistic and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT). I see to it that I approach counseling sessions in a non-judgmental and collaborative manner and therapeutic relationships with an open mind, empathy, and unconditional positive regard. I like to think that my job is to empower, motivate, and inspire change with the knowledge, support, and evidenced-based tools and practices that I have acquired on my own personal and professional journey.
My hope is to create a safe space for clients to be able to self-explore and experiment with new ways of thinking and behaving, so that they can progress towards becoming their most healed and most authentic selves. I tend to collaboratively set goals with clients that are unique to their therapeutic needs. I provide clients with support, guidance, and gently push them to challenge themselves when appropriate.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

There are two defining moments that come to mind for me in regards to resilience as a professional. The first moment that comes to mind is having to wait a gap year between when I originally planned to start my Master’s program for Mental Health Counseling and building up the courage to re-apply, re-interview, and hope that I could actually get that part of my life started in order to be where I am today. I experienced barriers at the time involving issues with my financial aid and I could not afford to proceed with starting my Master’s program, as originally planned. This was a huge let down for me, at the time, and I experienced feelings of rejection, inadequacy, and failure.
I was in my twenties at the time and did not want to fall behind on my life’s imaginary timeline. Despite, the negative thoughts and feelings that felt overwhelming for me then, I mustered up the courage to move forward and gave myself permission to unlearn this idea that there is a timeline for our lives. This set back became a valuable part of my story and I took things one step at a time to re-apply and get back on track with my goal of becoming a Licensed Mental Health Counselor. It took longer than anticipated due to this financial set back, however I’m glad I didn’t get discouraged or give up on myself and what I knew in my heart I was capable of achieving, regardless of the obstacles.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

The second defining moment of resilience in my life is pretty personal and may be triggering to some. During my years of working as a Registered Mental Health Intern in community mental health, I became pregnant and decided to work for as long as my body would allow me to. I was planning on studying for my lisencing exam during my pregnancy so that I could pass and secure the next phase of my career before giving birth and becoming a new and busy mom. At 31, almost 32 weeks of pregnancy, I experienced a still birth and had to take my maternity leave, without child. This still birth was one of the most traumatic and painful experiences of my life. I fell into a depression and experienced hopelessness and despair for months afterwards. During this difficult time of loss and grieving, I decided to cope by studying for my lisencing exam anyway and found it absolutely rewarding to pass and officially become a Licensed Mental Health Counselor. Despite going through a deeply painful and traumatic pregnancy loss, I am proud to say that I was able to take the time I needed to begin healing, sought the support I needed to grieve in healthy ways, and focused on what was in my control at the time, which to my surprise at the time, actually paid off. Studying for my licensing exam was something that was in my control. I like to think of myself as being resilient because of this life experience being a part of my story. Looking back, I feel grateful that I was able to cope in ways that allowed me to experience glimmers of hope and continued professional development. While I had no guarantee that coping in this way would like to me passing the licensing exam, I saw my choice to study and pour into myself in this way as a healthy means of coping. This challenging time in my life has played a significant role in where I am professionally today and is a testimate to how resilience can be cultivated.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://supportiveengagement.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/supportiveengagement.llc/#
• Other: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/therapists/supportive-engagement–davie-fl/1046869

  https://www.psychologytoday.com/profile/1053520

Image Credits

Karla Moyse