We were lucky to catch up with Sarah Floyd recently and have shared our conversation below.
Sarah, appreciate you joining us today. Can you open up about a risk you’ve taken – what it was like taking that risk, why you took the risk and how it turned out?
I remember so clearly the moment I decided to open my own private practice instead of joining a group practice as I had originally planned. I recall driving home late at night after picking up some ice cream and hearing my inner voice tell me “Sarah I need you to be big. You are living too small and I need you to be bigger please”. In almost an instant, I had unconsciously turned up the heater because I felt this immediate chill alongside a “yeah but what if I’m not ready?? Will I ever be ready? Maybe I could just stay small THIS time and next time I’ll be big!”. The bargaining, the justifying, the procrastination…all these protectors of mine attempting to shield me from advancing in my career and of course the COMPLETELY NORMAL anxiety that hitches a ride when we are met with a brand new invitation. Anxiety, a second inner voice, had been banking on me for a while to stay small and dependent. She(yes my anxiety is a “She”) had the best intentions of wanting to keep me safe but she also was convinced I could not “do the hard thing” on my own without getting hurt again. She decided to join just about every conversation I had with folks who saw what I was capable of and encouraged me time and again to “stay small”. And here she was again, the anxious passenger beside me wringing her hands and convincing me the idea to start my own private practice was too risky.
Now, the thing anxiety doesn’t want you to know is this: the way out of paralyzing anxiety is to DO the thing that is making her anxious(Notice I did not say “scared”; I said anxious. No one else gets to tell you to do something that is unsafe.)
So I did it! I did the vulnerable things: contacted my Mentor, Sara Povey, and said with some hesitation that I was in so many words “ready to do the damn thing”. Some days I did things while anxious, while others I was able to gleefully skip along with the small inner voice that knew from the beginning I was meant to live big.
Sarah, 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?
My name is Sarah Floyd and I am a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist. I am the Founder and Owner of Good Enough Marriage and Family Therapy and I am privileged to love what I do. I have known since high school that I held so much reverence for the people who were brave enough to sit with a complete stranger with a fancy dancy degree and say “you’re it. YOU are the one I trust to hold me lovingly while I figure out what the hell this life thing is all about”. I find there is a humility and a meditation practice in sitting with folks in the dark while they feel around for the light switch, all the while learning they are the only ones who can find it AND they are not alone in their search. As a Black, Queer and Autistic Therapist, I find myself working with the Black and Brown Communities, the Queer Community, and folks with complex trauma. My clients are incredibly capable people experiencing understandable human reactions to white supremacy, patriarchal and rigid rules regarding emotional and physical expression, and the traumas of surviving under capitalism. It is difficult for me to say what I am most proud of because in truth I am proud of it all! I am proud of what I have learned as a fallible human loving the connections and disconnections my clients feel comfortable sharing with me, and I only hope they feel just as comfortable having completely human experiences in therapy right alongside me.
Other than training/knowledge, what do you think is most helpful for succeeding in your field?
The most helpful skill for succeeding in this field ESPECIALLY as a private practice/group practice owner, is to get loud when you don’t get it. In my experience, the Therapists who survive AND thrive are not the ones who know everything and appear to have it all together; the ones who make it are the ones who create Community with other Therapists while also anxious or unsure. I remember finishing up graduate school and thinking to myself “there is no way I am going into private practice. That all looks so lonely and depressing”. Woof. If I could JUST rewind and reassure young graduate Sarah that her People are out there waiting to be part of her success regardless of what success looks like day to day, I am confident she wouldn’t have wasted her time with bosses who tried to convince her otherwise. So to the young Therapists reading this and feeling ambivalent about making the jump into private practice…all of us have stood where you currently stand, and we have just as many if not MORE questions every week during our Consultation meetings.
We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?
Some people are hoping you lose. Sucks, doesn’t it? Yeah, it certainly does suck but boy does it help knock some folks off their pedestals so they no longer control your humanity. The backstory is a long one but I will say this- when I finally removed the rose-colored glasses, left the job that was attempting to manipulate me and keep me small, and was more choosy about who I spent my time with outside of work, I leveled up emotionally. Deciding to see other people as simply people and not all-powerful beings became my own way out of expecting everyone to root for me and then crumbling when I kept getting reminded that it’s not all about me(gasp!).
Contact Info:
- Website: https://goodenoughmft.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thatgoodenoughtherapist/