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

Hi Sharnise , thanks for joining us today. We’d love to hear about the best advice you’ve ever given to a client? (Please note this response is for education/entertainment purposes only and shouldn’t be construed as advice for the reader)

The best advice I can offer any client I have the pleasure of working with is:

It takes time to heal but time itself does not heal a dysregulated nervous system. The type of pain that is caused by trauma cannot be healed in isolation. We need the opposite of what left those wounds. We need safe environments, and we need safe people to witness what we have been too ashamed to acknowledge. This process can absolutely suck and it takes a lot of nurturance and learning, but it is possible to move out of shame and into a life that feels authentically yours. Shame isn’t the antidote, it is the outcome of being alone in moments where we needed connection and security. Shame keeps us disconnected from our bodies, while nurturance (from ourselves and safe spaces/people in our communities), enables us to begin the return to our bodies and learn that it can be safe to sit with ourselves.

Sharnise , before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

My job titles are licensed clinical professional counselor (LCPC), registered yoga teacher (RYT500), and small business co-owner. These titles/roles enable me to support folks in honoring the reality of their lived experiences to create a life they don’t have to disconnect from their bodies to live.

Like most therapists, my own experiences and fascination with human behavior fueled my desire to complete the schooling required to be a licensed therapist. I knew early on that I wanted to study psychology. I completed my undergraduate degree at Towson University and received my master’s degree from the University of Baltimore. I now teach a graduate-level treatment of trauma course within the counseling psychology program at Towson University where I have the honor of orienting pre-licensed clinicians to effective treatment considerations for providing trauma-informed therapy.

My own therapy experience has been a major motivator as well and is the reason I started practicing yoga consistently. After some time spent cultivating a regular yoga practice, I began yoga teacher training and finished yoga teacher training the same year I completed graduate school. Yoga and therapy have been profoundly impactful to me and have supported my personal and professional growth. Yoga helped me come back to myself during a time I hadn’t realized I veered away. It was important to me to create a space conducive to offering yoga and therapy services to clients and I am thrilled Lotus is that space.

I opened Lotus Embodied Counseling in 2021 to provide specialized treatment for complex trauma and dissociative disorders. The practice is now known for the specialized treatment we offer to clients with complex trauma histories. I didn’t set out to be a business owner; becoming a business owner, however, was necessary to provide the services I’m committed to offering. I now have the pleasure of running this practice with my best friend which is pretty damn cool.

We work with adult survivors of abuse (survivors of high control/coercive environments; narcissistic and sadistic abuse; cults; and those with a chronic history of physical, sexual, and emotional abuse in childhood) who also experience dissociative symptoms and/or meet criteria for a dissociative disorder. We also offer yoga for survivors as a resource to slowly become tolerant of connecting with their physical bodies after having to be disconnected from themselves to survive horrific experiences.

Carly and I are both EMDR (eye movement desensitization and reprocessing) certified therapists and consultants. In addition to using this modality to support our clients in reprocessing traumatic experiences, we offer training and consultation to therapists who are also trained in EMDR and want more specialized training. We provide consultation to clinicians who seek support by offering appropriate treatment to their clients who present with a significant abuse history and corresponding concerns.

We provide supervision, consultation, and training to other professionals and community organizations that aim to increase their knowledge of trauma-informed care. In addition, we provide in-house yoga for organizations that want to offer yoga to their staff or client base. We also offer trauma-informed yoga training to therapists and movement professionals so that the impact that trauma and the body can be acknowledged outside of just the therapy space

We offer continuing education training for clinicians looking to enhance their comfort and competence in working with survivors who have extensive abuse histories. Carly and I value the redistribution of the power that was stolen from those we work with. We encourage and support other clinicians in doing the same. If we can increase access to appropriate training, we can increase access to care. When harm is not named, it persists; we work with our clients and the clinicians we offer training and consultation, to learn how to name the harm and its impact.

If you could go back, would you choose the same profession, specialty, etc.?

Absolutely. There isn’t a day that goes by where I regret doing this work. I’m inspired daily by my clients and my colleagues; this work isn’t easy for clients or us therapists, yet the relationships we build are always worth it. I do not take for granted the opportunity to witness both the atrocities that human beings commit against one another, and the lovingkindness human beings have the capacity to share. The reality of both keep me grounded and passionate about what I do.

We’d love to hear about how you met your business partner.

Carly and I met at a previous job. We worked at a private practice and instantly connected. I learned that she was a trauma specialist and I remember meeting her and instantly wanting to learn from her experiences in the field. She kept to herself and I was new to the office so I had a secret mission of learning all about her and becoming pals. We learned pretty quickly that we had similar approaches to therapy, similar life experiences, compatible dark humor, a love for deep conversations about trauma and humanity, and a love for tattoos and the stories behind what motivated us to get them. After we each parted with the previous practice, we formed separate private practices but continued to collaborate professionally and our friendship grew stronger over the years. We’ve always been drawn to the same client population and have had similar professional goals. Last year, she had the brilliant idea to work together again, as co-owners of a practice where we could share the labor, burdens, and joys of managing a private practice while benefitting from doing it as trusted friends. So we did! We now have five brilliant employees and a practice that has a reputation for how we approach trauma treatment. It’s incredible to do business with someone while prioritizing our friendship because our friendship is what makes the business side of things possible. I

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.lotusembodiedcounseling.com
• Instagram: @lotusembodiedcounseling.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lotusembodiedcounseling
• Other: Our podcast will be available soon!

Image Credits

Professional photos by Kay Harrod Photography