We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Moushumi Ghose. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Moushumi below.
Alright, Moushumi thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. I’m sure there have been days where the challenges of being an artist or creative force you to think about what it would be like to just have a regular job. When’s the last time you felt that way? Did you have any insights from the experience?
I became a business owner so I could express myself creatively in a variety of ways. Being a business owner has allowed me to wear so many different hats, and to split my time doing the things that I love. As a multi-passionate, I learned that I could never do just “one” thing. I am inspired and alive when I pursue and can do a variety of things.
Here’s my story;
After I graduated with my Bachelors degree in Psychology I decided to pursue what I really wanted to pursue: music. I had a day job that was very unfulfilling and on the weekends I worked as a waitress to make ends meet and my main focus was playing music. About seven years later, I decided to go back to graduate school to get my masters in psychology. I was already playing in bands, and I knew that with a masters degree I could also do the work in my field of psychology, get paid better for it , and have some stability. Psychology was never a Plan B, as many people might assume. It was in addition to, and the means, for my art and creativity.
Getting that Master’s degree would guarantee me some sort of job as a therapist. Whether that was working for myself or working at an agency, it would also help with the money side of things so that I could continue playing music.
After completing my hours and getting my license to be a licensed therapist, it quickly became obvious that working at an agency was sucking up all of my time and energy. I could make more money, work less, and do the work that was more in alignment with me if I worked for myself.
I left that salaried agency 9 to 5 job in 2009, to work for myself 100%, to carve out my career as a s*x therapist, and I never looked back.
But along the way, there were a lot of lessons to be learned.
I started my business as a s*x therapist and I took on as many clients as I could. This led to burnout city….
I began to hate my job. I needed to do something different.
AND, that’s when things started to shift…..
I started to discover other areas within my work a s*x therapist that allowed me to express my creativity as well. I was still playing music, and then I started making documentary films about s*xuality, I started a web series on YouTube about s*xuality and relationships, and I began writing books. At first I wrote my own books, self publishing, and then landed a book deal.
My work as a s*x therapist was leading the way into other creative endeavours.
I eventually began hiring therapists, who wanted to be trained as s*x therapists and or eager to build their own businesses, too.
This allowed me to stop seeing as many clients, shift focus, be more prolific and stay interested in the work.
Variety, for me, is the spice of life.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
Today I oversee my group practice, LAST Collective or Los Angeles S*x Therapy. We have a team of s*x-positive psychotherapists and wellness professionals who treat clients who are seeking s*x therapy, counseling or coaching. We also offer a psychedelic assisted therapy as well as free gender letters for those who are seeking for access to gender health care.
We offer training programs and certification programs for up-and-coming therapists as well as coaches who are interested in seeing clients and helping people transform their lives around s*xuality and relationships. And I get to do the work that I love. I see a few clients myself, I write books, make films/videos, make music.
What can society do to ensure an environment that’s helpful to artists and creatives?
The most problematic idea is that we have to do one thing. This held me back for so long. Going to work for myself was the only thing that helped me get out of that thinking. I still have work to do to make it better. I have to hire the right people I have to make sure that the people at my business are running effectively but overall this allows me to wear a variety of hats that to me is better than the alternative of doing one thing only, day in and day out.
If people are given the freedom to do a variety of things, I think this would make a lot more sense.
What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?
I am still unlearning so many lessons. One of the lessons for me as a creative was that being successful as a creator had to look a certain way. It definitely doesn’t. Success is however you decide it.
For me success is having the freedom to create what I want, when I want.
Contact Info:
- Website: losangelessextherapy.com
- Instagram: instagram.com/losangelessextherapy
- Facebook: facebook.com/losangelessextherapy
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/losangelessextherapy/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheSexTalkSeries/
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/moushumi-ghose-mft-los-angeles-sex-therapy-toluca-lake-4
Image Credits
Photographers: Teresa Bouche, Simon Potynski