Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Lindsay Love. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Alright, Lindsay thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. It’s always helpful to hear about times when someone’s had to take a risk – how did they think through the decision, why did they take the risk, and what ended up happening. We’d love to hear about a risk you’ve taken.

My biggest risk was starting my practice, TherapyLuv, PLLC. I was working at a large community behavioral health clinic as a clinical manager and I would tell my peers that I never wanted to start a practice. The idea was scary to me and owning a business seemed complicated and confusing for me.

I started my practice in 2020, during the height of COVID like everyone else. I felt underappreciated in my job and I wanted better. I had friends who kept telling me I was overqualified, but I did not want to move up in management and going to another agency did not seem right at the time. I was tired of going on interviews that seemed exciting but then the job setting and culture would largely disappoint me.

After a battle with HR over health accommodations for COVID and my twitter, I knew I had enough. A colleague called me out of the blue and challenged me to set up my own practice. She walked me through all the steps and I set it up over the course of a weekend. Literally, I started setting things up on a Friday and by that Monday, I was getting client referrals and fully operational. My plan was to leave in the spring of the next year to go full time private practice. However, I started in August and put in my notice in December. I was determined to go it alone. My practice just celebrated its 2 year anniversary August of 2022 and I will celebrate my 2 years full time in private practice in January of 2023.

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

I worked in a domestic violence shelter prior to grad school as a resource advocate. I saw glaring disparities within that system, one of those disparities was the lack of knowledge with regards to understanding and dealing with trauma. Shelter residence would get punished or exited for things that were clearly trauma responses. I was confused by how those with substance abuse and mental health issues were often written off by the staff. There was also a dynamic of abuse from the top, directed at advocates.

I started graduate school and wanted to focus on how to better understand and help those who’ve experienced trauma. I graduated from the University of Southern California in 2013 and worked for various behavioral health agencies where I obtained my licensure hours and worked as a clinical manager for a child and adolescent team. MY specialty was trauma and I received EMDR and Brainspotting training within that time to better support my clients who were experiencing trauma. I also ran for school board and won a seat on the Chandler Unified School District as the first Black woman governing board member. During that time. my district was plagued with high profile racist incidents and suicides. I just wanted to help any way I could.

I recognized that there were not enough BIPOC therapists who could connect with our diverse clients. I was one of many Black therapists in my agency for a long time, until I started hiring other Black and Brown therapists and helping them work towards independent licensure and training them to work with trauma. I feel that providing a gateway for our future clinicians is key to creating a wellness community that supports marginalized communities since access to competent care is a barrier. I continue to provide supervision as a part of my practice and I am an EMDR Consultant in Training today because we need more diverse EMDR certified therapists to work with diverse communities.

I also wanted to create healing spaces that were inclusive of BIPOC and LGBTQ clients who are often excluded from wellness narratives. When I created my practice, it was important for me to center their voices. I’ve brought on other clinicians to support because I realize I cannot do this work alone. I look forward to working with other clinicians and healing professionals to continue building.

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

I think leaving community behavioral health and opening up my practice was the greatest unlearning process for me. I knew that I didn’t want to create a practice using the same principals and values around work and healing that I had to uphold in community behavioral health.

I focused on the quality of care rather than the productivity at first because I wanted my clients to have an experience where they felt valued. I wanted my therapists whom I supervised to feel confident in what they were doing.

I had to reinvent the wheel a bit. Especially around leadership. For many, I am the first Black woman supervisor they’ve had in this field. It used to intimidate me, because I never had a Black woman supervisor myself. So I had to totally create a blueprint out of thin air. I sat down with my clinicians for find out what they needed that they did not get from other supervisory experiences. I try to improve upon that by working in collaboration with them and centering their vision of the clinicians they wanted to be.

With my clients, I had to unlearn theoretical approaches that did not work for them and adopt other frameworks from diverse theorists to make the experience work for them. I adopted folks like Dr. Joy Degruy, and abandoned the Brene Browns.

Do you think you’d choose a different profession or specialty if you were starting now?

No. This profession has been rewarding in a lot of ways. I love working with people to find healing and I love that the field offers so many avenues for me. I can be a therapist, a politician, and activist and advocate all in the same day. There’s a lot of flexibility and creativity.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.therapyluv.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/therapy_luv/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Therapyluv
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lindsay-a-love-lcsw-85750747/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYcUQEawbCyX5bESmC17kYg
• Other: The Practice Spotify Curated Playlist: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2aDcdcYx5YRKvq0P1hXyZt?si=1Z8yQxAQQRWgARrDB-_lcw&utm_source=copy-link&pt=93968a6c23ab7882527ac299245bb4a7

Image Credits
Noemi Gonzalez Photography