We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Kyle Brandt-lubart a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Kyle, thanks for joining us today. We’d love to hear about how you went about setting up your own practice and if you have any advice for professionals who might be considering starting their own?

The process of establishing my own holistic mental health and community arts practice has been in the works for over 14 years. At times the steps involved have been slow and subtle, especially early on. I’m at a moment in time and space where I’m able to recognize that I’ve been building towards where I am now for much longer than I’ve been consciously aware of where I was going.

Working in the realm of mental health has always felt incredibly natural, in part because the lived experience that society often labels “mental illness”, “disability”, and “addiction” are intimately interwoven into both my inner world and my family history. One of my earliest jobs was as a group home aide for adults diagnosed with developmental disabilities. I filled out graduate school applications over night shifts while everyone in the home was asleep. When I was getting my Masters of Social Work degree I took the initiative to design my own concentration, specializing in “Mental Health & Community Arts”, which really helped me set the groundwork for my current practice. I then worked at a community-based mental health organization for seven years before feeling ready to start my own business.

The most important piece of advice I have to share is to challenge the inherently limiting narratives that create false binaries and seek to hinder the imagination. There may be times where you are told you need to pick one path or the other, that you can’t honor the complex constellation that is how you think, move, create, and self-actualize. Just because our dominant institutions generally don’t know how to embrace nuance, multiplicity, and disruptions to the status quo doesn’t mean you can’t forge a path that feels like your own. Going your own way can feel overwhelming and isolating, which is why community is key. The simple and significant act of showing up for others is incredibly important. Not showing up because you want or need something in return, but because you genuinely care to be present as the folx around you strive, struggle, and grow.

Kyle, 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 identify as a holistic mental health practitioner, community arts organizer, and multidisciplinary maker. I operate an independent practice called Tiny Postcards Counseling & Creative Arts based out of St. Louis, Missouri. Tiny Postcards, which just moved into a brick and mortar space this past July, houses the intersection of my passions.

Through Tiny Postcards I provide individual therapy services, facilitate community arts programming, and engage in my own multidisciplinary creative practices. In my role as a therapist, I focus on offering holistic mental healthcare to queer, trans, and non-binary folx, neurodivergent individuals and lower-income community members. My therapeutic philosophy is rooted in anti-oppression, empowerment, and recovery-focused frameworks. I am inspired by efforts to deinstitutionalize healthcare, peer-led movements, and the principles of liberation psychology.

I feel passionately about reclaiming hyper-clinical wellness spaces and believe that the arts are a powerful vehicle for fostering holistic community health. My community arts practice involves facilitating creative experiences that foster inter- and intrapersonal connection. Examples of this are co-hosting a monthly poetry open mic, facilitating workshops, and curating a variety of groups/offerings at the Tiny Postcards Studio.

My personal artistic practice is highly intermodal, meaning at any given time I’m probably incorporating multiple creative modalities. These modalities span visual art, public installation, poetry, expressive movement, music/sound exploration, and more. I’m recognizing more and more how my own neurodivergence has shaped my “all the things” approach to, well, all the things.

I’m also very involved in community work in Dutchtown, St. Louis. I live in Dutchtown, and my practice is located right in the heart of the neighborhood. I currently serve on the Dutchtown Main Streets Board of Directors and chair the organization’s Design Committee. In this role I work with a great grassroots team of neighbors to promote shared prosperity and socioeconomic equitable development.

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

When it comes to both therapy and community organizing, the nature of the work is deeply and fundamentally relational. For this reason, embracing a spirit of genuine, non-hierarchical collaboration is incredibly important. Creating a therapeutic space that’s trauma-informed requires honoring the autonomy, choice, wisdom, and intuition of each individual human you have the opportunity to work alongside. It takes additional mental and emotional labor to recognize and disrupt the power dynamics that are so normalized by the medical and mental health industrial complexes. But to me, it’s absolutely crucial to put in that time and energy.

Similarly, in community work, collaboration is vital. I operate using a practice model where I don’t work “for” anybody, and nobody works “for” me. This allows me to move with flexibility, stay in alignment with my values, and build equity-driven relationships with collaborators that continue to bloom in exciting new ways over time.

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

In the Winter of 2020, I was working at the community-based mental health agency I mentioned earlier. I had been pouring myself into developing a community arts program since 2018, and it felt like things were finally entering a new and exciting phase. I was well-positioned to receive a significant grant to build out the program and was collaborating on an arts-based research initiative that was going to be featured at a fantastic local gallery.

Then came the pandemic. At the time, creating this community arts program felt so integral to my identify and sense of self that I could recognize it had become unhealthy. When it all came to an abrupt stop as Covid-19 ravaged the globe, I kept coming back to this image of having built an intricate sandcastle that was now being uncontrollably washed out to sea. I experienced feelings of grief, while reminding myself that this grief paled in comparison to that of those who were losing people dear to them. But it still hurt. Ultimately, I never got to rebuild that program. But instead, everything I learned from the first go-round has become integral to building Tiny Postcards Counseling & Creative Arts.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.tiny-postcards.com
• Instagram: @tiny_postcards

Image Credits

Image credit for head shot: Waterbearer Photography