We recently connected with Tommy Adanalian and have shared our conversation below.

Tommy, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Was there a moment in your career that meaningfully altered your trajectory? If so, we’d love to hear the backstory.

One major defining moment for me was when I joined a mental health disaster response/recovery team after I had started my private practice. I had been on disaster teams before, but this one was different because I was flown out of state to assist the state of Florida after a hurricane in 2022. We were the first ever state funded mental health team to respond to a disaster and the work we did was really great. We did a lot of mental health work, we had massage therapists, we had nurses, and we connected community members to necessary resources. It was an incredible experience and really motivated me to want to get more involved in helping to create teams of therapists responding to disasters. After that I became the Denver/Boulder Colorado TRN coordinator with Trauma Recovery HAP and have since left that team to join an international disaster response team that responds to disasters throughout the country and abroad. I really like doing disaster work and leading teams of therapists into disaster zones to help the community and first responders heal their trauma so that it does not turn to PTSD. One thing that really sticks out to me doing disaster work is how kind, caring, and resourceful people are when disaster hits. We might think that people are only looking out for themselves and their own families, but in reality everyone is looking out for everyone else. All differences get set aside and people really come together to help each other out. It is a beautiful thing to see that despite all of the loss/grief/trauma that people really do care about others and will share what little resources they have to support someone else and even complete strangers.

Tommy, 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 name is Tommy Adanalian and I am a licensed clinical social worker (LCSW) and a licensed addiction counselor (LAC) and I started my private practice in February of 2018. I got started as a therapist because I really like working with people to solve complex problems. I work mainly with people who have experienced trauma, addiction, grief & loss, anxiety, depression, and issues with sports related performance. I specialized in working with healthcare workers, first responders, disaster survivors, and athletes. My clients often give me feedback that I am different than a lot of other therapists they have met before because I use a lot of psychoeducation to get clients to have a better understanding of why and what they are experiencing. I do this because once clients have a better understanding of what they are experiencing they can create the change they want to see. I also believe that providing clients with practical tools they can use to move through whatever challenges they are experiencing are extremely important. I feel like part of my job is to put myself out of the job so that clients can feel confident in themselves to handle any future issues that may arise. In addition to my clinical practice, I an on several different mental health disaster teams that respond to both natural and human caused disasters throughout the country and abroad. I also started an adventure therapy program for first responders and healthcare workers where we go out into the backcountry for 4-5 days on a backpacking trip in Colorado. On these trips we connect with nature, challenge ourselves by physically pushing ourselves, and engage in both individual and group therapy sessions while out on the trail. It is a blast and our clients have given only positive feedback about their experiences. It is really fun having a variety of things to do with my practice. Next, I am looking to get more into the psychology of individuals on teams going into isolated, confined and extreme/hostile environments like astronauts going into space or research teams going to places like Antarctica.

Putting training and knowledge aside, what else do you think really matters in terms of succeeding in your field?

I think one of the things that has helped me be successful is networking with other providers and people in the field. I absolutely love networking and learning about what other people are doing with their skills and experience in the field. It has been great getting new ideas or perspectives on things and learning about what else I might be able to use my skills for. I have learned a lot throughout networking and I always say yes to anyone who reaches out wanting to connect. This is how I was able to start getting into disaster response/recovery and start my wilderness therapy program. I also think that it is really important to maintain contact with the people I network with in order to maintain the relationship. I learned that anytime you network with someone it is opening another door to a whole new way of thinking and problem solving the complex problems that we work with. If I were to give anyone advice about getting started or wanting to grow their practice it would be to reach out to people in the field you find interesting and be really curious about them and how they operate.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

Being a mental health therapist and being an empathetic person I tended to always put everyone else’s needs ahead of my own. I was told a lot early in my career that if I maintain that approach I will get burnt out quickly and I did end up getting burnt out and had some compassion fatigue as well. Once I learned that I can maintain boundaries in an empathetic and compassionate way, I became a lot more confident in my work and I found myself not getting burnt out, which made my effectiveness as a therapist much better. I stopped taking it personally when a client had a set back or fell short of a goal they had for themselves and instead took an approach that all I have the control to do is be empathetic/supportive, help educate about what they are experiencing, and teach skills so that they can work through things on their own eventually. I had to unlearn that supporting someone means sacrificing yourself so that they can grow. Now I know that taking care of myself and making sure I get my needs met will help me be better at my job. I absolutely love what I do and the people I work with so of course I take things home with me sometimes, but I also get my own needs met by exercising, spending time with friends/family, going on adventures, and seeing my own therapist as needed to process through challenges.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.mountainmindstherapy.com/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mountainmindstherapy

Image Credits

Quell Foundation – I provided mental health support on a bike ride and I helped them create training videos about mental health for first responders to help decrease the stigma of mental health in the first responder community

The pictures of destruction are from when I was in Florida responding to a hurricane

The picture of the 3 backpackers is from a backpacking trip I took clients on.