We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Terah Sampler. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Terah below.
Terah, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Looking back at internships and apprenticeships can be interesting, because there is so much variety in people’s experiences – and often those experiences inform our own leadership style. Do you have an interesting story from that stage of your career that you can share with us?
Internship in our field is often grueling. You are trying to get a certain number of face-to-face counseling hours with clients in a very short amount of time while still holding to our ethics of doing no harm. I did my internship year while also being a new mom with a husband who had just taken a job 3 hours away. It feels a little insane as I’m recalling it all. I’m honestly not sure how I survived. However, my internship year is what really defined my therapeutic orientation and eventually, my supervision and practice orientation. When I started along this career path, I was very idealistic and just knew I was meant to change the world of counseling. I was going to offer free counseling for everyone! I learned very quickly that when something is offered for free, people might show up once or twice. I learned that people have to have a “buy in” for counseling and money is an easy way to keep people bought in. One of my current student interns asked me recently in regards to a client who frequently doesn’t show for their scheduled appointments, “How long would you put up with this if you were me?” I responded that it is very rare that I have clients that do not show up or cancel their sessions at the last minute because my fee, in addition to paying for services, keeps them bought into the process. Counseling can only be effective if clients show up on your couch.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
I grew up in South Carolina and learned first hand how crucial our mental and emotional well-being is when I had to navigate my parents’ divorce and remarriages during the 90s when it was pretty rare, especially in the Bible Belt. I spent my high school and college years knowing I wanted to do something to help families and kids like myself and I finally landed on professional counseling as that means. I lived in Louisiana for graduate school and while in New Orleans, I met and married my husband, Jason. I earned a Masters of Arts in Marriage and Family Counseling from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary in 2012. I am an LPC and a CPCS in Georgia, which allows me to care for clients and counselors in training. I have spent my years as a counselor at nonprofit organizations, first in Louisiana and then, for the past 7 years, here in Georgia. During my internship year, I became very passionate about how our bodies function as a whole. Meaning, our bodies wear the effects of trauma in every way: physically, emotionally, mentally, relationally, and spiritually and when one area isn’t functioning at its best, it has a deep impact on all other areas. After many years of encouragement from my biggest cheerleader, my husband, and then encouragement from my most recent boss and mentor, I am bringing my vision for a full-bodied counseling practice here in North Atlanta to life.
Hopeology Wellness was born out of a deep-seated belief that we are meant for goodness and there is hope to experience a little bit of that goodness now. When we have experienced trauma, hurt, betrayal, pain, grief, loss, and more, life can feel pretty unrelenting and we can feel pretty powerless to experience anything different. My vision for Hopeology Wellness is that we will be able to help you begin to experience a difference in your emotional, mental, physical, relational, and spiritual well-being, even when you keep taking hits by the chaos of the world. I count it a privilege for people to share their stories with me and consider it one of my greatest joys to see beauty rise from places that often feel desolate and hopeless.
When I’m not working, I love spending time with my tiny army of humans, running + reading, Mexican food, and Clemson football.
We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.
I think my entire career journey is a story of resilience. I received my acceptance letter to graduate school in New Orleans, the day that Katrina hit. I was meant to move to New Orleans in January 2006 to begin my graduate studies and I didn’t know if there would be a school to go to at that point. I ended up beginning online. Online education in the counseling world was pretty unheard of at that point. Our professors arranged a weekend learning retreat about half-way through the semester. It was all pretty unique. After continuing my studies on campus beginning the fall of 2006, I ended up taking about a 3 year sabbatical because I was entirely convinced I couldn’t do it. I ended up starting again when my firstborn was 10 months old and then began my internship year when he was 18 months and my husband took a job 3 hours away. It was a wild, wild ride. After that, we had the loss of dear loved ones, moving states a couple of times (for anyone pursuing licensure, you know what a complete headache this is), and many kids more. There were many times I wanted to just give up. I’m so incredibly lucky to have found the phenomenal support system that I have, holding me up when I just didn’t think I could stand anymore.
Other than training/knowledge, what do you think is most helpful for succeeding in your field?
One of my graduate professors said something like this a long time ago, “the success of counseling is 80% dependent on rapport building,” and it has stuck with me. Meaning, people do not care how much you know or anything about the counseling theories and diagnostic skills you spent countless hours honing before they feel seen, understood, and cared for. I tell all of my student interns to focus on building a relationship with their clients first. The skills and theories and interventions can come later but you won’t have a chance to use them at all if people do not first feel safe with you.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.hopeologywellness.com
- Instagram: Hopeology.well