We recently connected with Kristie Fuller and have shared our conversation below.

Kristie , thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today We’d love to hear the backstory of how you established your own practice.

When I first started out and decided to back to grad school to become a mental health therapist, I always envisioned it would be my side gig as I continued to work as the professor & program manager for the vocational program I ran at the local community college; and then 2020 happened and my whole world turned upside down.

In February of 2020 my sister was murdered and this meant I was home from the college on bereavement leave. I was managing my entire family unit through phone calls between investigators and police and then two weeks later – Covid hit. Between my autoimmune disorder and my parents’ age, we all had to separate and stay away from one another during this time of need. This was really difficult as you can imagine.

Staying at home, day after day, having to manage my own internal struggles and emotions, along with that of my parents and my surviving sister, I knew that I couldn’t let the universe throw me for a loop. I had spent years trying to find my new career, my true life’s work, and I couldn’t just sit around waiting for the world to get better, to feel better. The loss of my sister reminded me that tomorrow is not a guarantee and so after some soul searching and I decided I wasn’t going to wait any longer.

That June, I opened my private practice online and started taking clients via telehealth. I consider myself so very lucky to have friends, family, and colleagues support me in my journey towards licensure so I could fully realize my dream: Sweary Therapy. I started working in earnest to complete the hours needed for full licensure so I could practice fully independently. Once I put my mind to it, it took one year and early in 2021, I was fully licensed and that is when Sweary Therapy became the practice it is today.

The main thing I wish I had done differently was to realize there was no reason to wait to begin with. The biggest challenges were my own self-doubts to be honest. The rest of the steps are pretty straightforward! The biggest advice I would give a new professional in this field (or any field really) is to GO FOR IT. It’s not as scary as you think, and if you graduated, you have already proven to the world you deserve to be here.

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 back background and context?

I’m the Sweary Therapist. I help people who are intimidated by what some might consider stuffy, bored, tired, or traditional style therapy. Because at the end of the day, it’s just f*ckin’ therapy, right? Why can’t it be more direct, more brash, more real and down-to-earth, and genuine without all the bullshit? This is what I strive to bring to my clients – a real experience with someone like them.

At first, I was self-conscious of being the “sweary therapist” because, as an intern and student, swearing was something many of my bosses & supervisors had looked down upon or criticized me for. But for my clients, it was the moment they knew they could be themselves and did not need to censor their language or avoid talking about certain topics. They told me it gave them the opportunity to be authentic in a way they’d never been able to do before. My rainbow hair, colorful tattoos, colorful language, and laid-back casual dress style is another aspect of connection my clients appreciate as it is one more way of expressing my authenticity.

With the encouragement from my clients’ feedback and several supportive colleagues and one amazing supervisor, I was encouraged to lean into my authenticity and embrace my identity as the Sweary Therapist.

I’ve always been a rather authentic person myself, and I have always struggled to match the image of what a professional is “supposed” to look like. Once I became licensed, I decided I would fully embrace the idea of authenticity, and that’s when Sweary Therapy was born.

I specialize in working with adults who are ready to deepen their awareness of their internal landscape so that they can understand who they are, what they are thinking and feeling, and how those interact to create behaviors. My practice is welcoming to everyone looking for someone who is dedicated to creating an environment that is inclusive, diverse, LGBT friendly, sex-positive, and neurodivergent-affirming. My clients enjoy working with me because I create a safe space for them to be truly their authentic self.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

One of the biggest things I’ve had to unlearn is the whole idea of the grind culture. I (and you) do not exist in order to be productive. I am a human BEING, not a human DOING. I have a long history of burning myself out for the sake of a job and when I became a therapist, I could no longer pretend to not know the damage that was causing. Building self-care into my non-negotiable routine was essential if I was going to avoid burnout as a therapist. I had to learn to prioritize my own needs, take breaks, and have good boundaries if I was going to make my dreams a reality. Learning to say no, not over book myself, and take plenty of recharge breaks has been essential to my success.

Training and knowledge matter of course, but beyond that what do you think matters most in terms of succeeding in your field?

Honestly, I feel the biggest, most helpful thing anyone in my field can do is to practice what we preach. I do not expect my clients to do anything I am not willing to do myself. In grad school, it was like a mantra in every class I took: “every good therapist has a therapist of their own” – so I have my own therapist, so I can ensure that my “stuff” doesn’t accidentally impact my client’s “stuff”. I journal, I go on mental health walks, I journal, I move my body, I have a daily mindfulness practice– basically I practice all the tools and skills I teach my clients on a daily basis. I think this is especially true for therapists when it comes to boundaries and self-care practices or burn out will happen.

And when I say “self-care” I mean more than a spa day – I mean ALL the things we do to take care of ourselves as a whole organism, such as eating food that makes my body feel good, getting enough rest, being social and maintaining healthy relationships, making time for play and time for rest, doing the things that stimulate my intellectual health as well as engaging in practices that support my spiritual, medical, and mental health, and so on.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.swearytherapy.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/swearytherapy
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SwearyTherapy