We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Kelly Graham Flores. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Kelly below.
Hi Kelly, thanks for joining us today. One of the toughest things about entrepreneurship is that there is almost always unexpected problems that come up – problems that you often can’t read about in advance, can’t prepare for, etc. Have you had such and experience and if so, can you tell us the story of one of those unexpected problems you’ve encountered?
I had spent quite a few years figuring out how to really do what I love in the area of helping people heal and live their very best versions of themselves. I had learned that it felt so much more fulfilling and worked so much better to give clients options of mental health healing as a Marriage and Family Therapist, Coach, School Psychologist, and Holistic Healing. The beginning of Summer 2021, I was the happiest I have ever been. My healing practices were going better than anything I could have ever dreamed, clients were growing exponentially, my level of peace and contentment in life was well beyond any of my own expectations. That allowed me to be the happiest and healthiest in my mind, body, and soul I ever had been before. Euphoria is the best way to describe it. And then on July 2nd, 2021 I began to develop a very bad headache that I attempted to ignore. In the very early hours of July 3rd I woke up confused with in the worst pain in my head I ever experienced. My husband realizing that something was really off made sure I got to the ER as fast as possible with the help of my sister. It had turned out that I had developed a blood clot in my neck that caused a brain bleed which had then caused a stroke. In a blink of an eye, everything I had worked for so hard and loved so deeply was gone. As a sole business owner and sole practitioner, my whole practice shattered. After spending 11 days in a Brain Trauma ICU, I went home and began the fight to find me again. Many functional skills were lost. I had to relearn how to walk, how to functionally communicate, had vision and hearing difficulties, extreme dizziness and nausea with slightest of movements, just being able to get through the most mundane regular day to day activities like taking a shower would be all I could handle.
What did give me hope is that when I could not remember words, how to do simple things like operate a fan, move my legs to get out of a car, etc., internally I knew who every single one of my clients were, what their story was, the great work we were right in the middle of, their goals they already met and what we were working towards, and the continued plan for success was- yet I did not remember their names. I could also remember my favorite tried and true treatment modalities and techniques, it was all just stuck in my head just patiently waiting for it to be utilized once again. Brain Injuries are very interesting and besides being alive I am so grateful that the stroke did not impair the part of my brain that my practice was built on.
Right away, I began about 9 months of treacherous therapy, first in home speech and physical therapy and then later a brain injury day treatment program where I would spend all day working with speech, occupational, and physical therapists with tons and tons of homework. Luckily all these therapists knew how badly I wanted to get back to practicing what I loved and worked tirelessly to provide me the therapy needed for my specific work as well as to function once again.
It was HARD work. It was physically and emotionally so painful. But the work was so worth it because my practice is back up and running and I am currently in the rebuilding phase. I did have moments of doubt and questioned if I could really do the work again. I am beyond pleased to say that not only can I do this work again, I feel like this experience has made me even better than I was before because of this level of fight and insight that I gained.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
I offer different modalities of mental and emotional health healing. I see myself and my clients as a team who pair up together to work through challenges that are preventing them from being their best selves. I see my clients as the expert in their lives and I come as the expert of a bunch of different techniques. Nothing is more powerful than experts pairing up together to get the job done! My business is called Overcome and Rise because that is my exact mission: to help people overcome any struggles, hurt, experiences and truly rise to the level they want to be at.
Much of my expertise is related to trauma, grief and loss, and life transitions. Now, I am adding brain injury reactions and recovery as well. Out of these types of challenges, it is easy and expected to have deep or difficult feelings. Maybe even some depression, anxiety, fears, relationship challenges, etc. My clients and I look at the whole picture of the what, where, when, why, and how of it all. We work towards acknowledging and validating the past, yet also working on specifics of what the future can hold. Even before my brain injury I was already a brain nerd and would utilize brain research and understanding with my clients about how pain and difficult experiences can literally change the wiring in a brain but the brain can once again be rewired for health and happiness. Now I just have a more dramatic example to use on how and why the brain can be damaged yet also healed.
We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.
I have to accept that I forever will have brain damage. Once a part of the brain is damaged, there is absolutely no way for it to work again. BUT the brain is amazing and the areas lost can be rerouted to other parts. This is what therapy was really all about, rerouting the lost functions for new parts to do that same function. I also pretty much for forever will have some difficulty with word finding here and there. My resiliency has been illustrated by recognizing and accepting these facts about my brain. However, I have full ability and strategies around these facts of my life. The brain will only go as far or heal to the level it is pushed. And oh did I push it. My greatest complement now, just a year later, is to be told that no one sees any evidence at all that I suffered from a stroke and had so many significant deficits. All the evidence is all in my brain, working extra hard to utilize my skills and strategies for success. It does take way more work and can be very exhausting but is well worth it to do so what I love and was called to do. Challenges are a part of any journey worth living and overcoming from this challenge has to be one of my greatest sources of resilience in my life thus far.
Can you tell us about what’s worked well for you in terms of growing your clientele?
My most effective strategy to grow my clientele is trust and dedication. I am not the “tell me how that makes you feel” kind of practitioner. I am a problem solver, I am an understander, I see the whole person, their unique experiences, and their own hurts and challenges. My clients and I really ‘feel’ together- we can laugh together, cry together, get angry together, and then we figure it out together. I give each of my clients a piece of me. I know they know that I genuinely care and my dedication is so very apparent. But I also see my clients as my teammate, my equal, empowering them but also helping them find the tools to Overcome and Rise. My best and only way of growing clientele is by word of mouth and that alone. Trust is one beautiful thing. When my clients refer me to their friends and family, they are already coming to me with a level of trust as well as I for them. My greatest business cards are my clients living out their lives, people seeing their genuine happiness, people seeing them go through the process and come out so positively impacted because they Overcome and they Rise.
Contact Info:
- Website: overcomeandrise.com
- Instagram: overcome_and_rise