We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Tammy Foster Harban Pauline Botchway. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Tammy Foster Harban below.
Tammy and Pauline, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We’d love to hear the backstory behind a risk you’ve taken – whether big or small, walk us through what it was like and how it ultimately turned out.
As mental health therapists, our jobs require that we are “lowkey” in the sense that we are to maintain our privacy and professionalism at all times when we are at work and even in public–which, when you live in a small town, makes it that much difficult. We cannot even say ” hello” to clients outside their therapy sessions. So fast forward to the summer of 2020 when the two of us decided we wanted to put our faces and lives on the big screen–Youtube. Why was this a risk? Well, being on Youtube meant that we have, basically, invited our clients and others, into our private world. Here is more risk. We basically had to learn to show our vulnerable sides and openly talk about difficult topics whether it is personal or general, and all the while struggling with imposter syndrome. We would even wonder if people had any interest in what we had to say or have self-doubt about feeling “good enough” to talk about certain topics. This is all a risk, and yet, we keep doing it. We have continued to show up and show out! Even when clients bring up the fact that they have watched one of our videos or have seen us doing something silly on Tiktok, the risk has been worth it because we have humanized mental health professionals, which in its own way is a form of promoting and destigmatizing mental health.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
Tammy Foster-Harban is a licensed Mental Health Counseling in Iowa. She has over 15 years of clinical experience working with individuals, children, adolescents, and families. Tammy completed her undergraduate degree at Upper Iowa University and received her Master’s in Community Mental Health at Drake University. Tammy was born in raised in central Iowa. She is the youngest out of 8 children, is married, has 3 children, 3 bonus children, 3 grand daughters, 4 dogs and 2 cats. Tammy enjoys spending time with her family and her pets. When it comes to shopping she would say thrift shopping brings her the most joy and she loves a good craft activity. Tammy loves travel, movies and live music. She tries to stay grounded, grateful and present by starting her day with intention by watching a sunrise with coffee. She tries to end the day with a grateful grateful heart while watching sunset. Tammy has a private practice in the same area where she grew up. She has an eclectic yet broad experience and expertise in various methods in therapy. However, her passion has been trauma work and working with couples. – Tammy
Pauline Botchway is a Licensed Professional Counselor(LPC) and National Certified Counselor (NCC) practicing in Oregon. She was born in Arlington, VA but was raised in Accra, Ghana, from the age of 2 until nine years old. Pauline moved and lived in Texas from 1999 until 2016, when she moved to Oregon.
Pauline enjoys traveling, learning, and discovering as much as possible about different cultures. She uses a variety of therapeutic approaches and modalities to help her clients make positive changes in their lives.
“I strongly believe that as human beings, we have the ability to change and transform our lives through choice.” -Pauline
Training and knowledge matter of course, but beyond that what do you think matters most in terms of succeeding in your field?
What has been most helpful to use in my field has been the ability to connect with people and build rapport which is something you cannot be taught. It has helped me above and beyond without schooling. – Tammy
The opportunity to create a safe space for people to be open and willing to tell their own stories has been most helpful to use in my field. – Pauline
Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?
During the pandemic, we created a Youtube channel–Therapy Talk with Tammy and Pauline, to help promote mental health while destigmatizing it. Although the pandemic created external and internal crises worldwide, the one thing we all have in common is to take care of our mental health. Therefore, youtube was the next best thing for that.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.therapytalkwithtp.com
- Instagram: TherapyTalkTP
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Therapytalkwithtp
- Twitter: TherapyTalkTP
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCpMwcVzP_hVMa7uEejyxDRg