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

Alright, Tricia thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Can you recount a time when the advice you provided to a client was really spot on? (Please note this response is for education/entertainment purposes only and shouldn’t be construed as advice for the reader)

The best advice I have given to a client was for the parent(s) to practice self-care first before they effectively were able to guide their child. Parenting is not about perfection but about connection. I encouraged the parent to start some work with me as a parent therapist before I started working with the child. The family was in the throes of a system breakdown and was able to repair the ruptures and reestablish harmony. I did end up working with the child, but the treatment lasted a shorter amount of time and had more long-term benefits. The parental self-care ended up being the glue that held the family together through the mountains and valleys of life.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

My personal experience with trauma as a six-year-old, and the ongoing fear it triggered, created within me a passion for helping my clients who struggle with various feelings. I received my bachelor’s degree at Vanderbilt University and went onto Denver Seminary to complete my master’s in counseling. As a Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC), Registered Play Therapist (RPT), author of Blessing From Fear and sought after speaker, I seek to walk alongside my clients, readers, and audiences of all walks of life to understand how they can regulate their emotions. At Tricia Thornton Therapy, my private practice in Nashville, Tennessee, I counsel children — often through their natural language of play — and equips parents with the tools they need to model healthy emotional strategies for their struggling children.

I reach a world-wide audience on social media with my posted videos, called “Two Minutes with Tricia Thornton” where I give relevant and practical ideas centering around self-care to parents and individuals. I also have a newsletter that I publish with an article I have written featuring guidance centered around parenting and helping our children to thrive in an uncertain world.

I strive to relate to my audience, readers, and clients by interweaving my life experience as a mother of a teenage and adult daughters and my marriage of over 24 years with over a decade of professional work in schools and in private practice as a therapist.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

From a young age, I believed that I had to put on a smile and show the world I was perfectly okay. However, inside fear was seeping into all facets of my life. Whether I was performing on the basketball court, striving to get all A’s or trying to gain the attention of my friends, I felt that it was not safe to really show anyone my true feelings.

Through years of self-discovery through my studies at Vanderbilt University for my undergraduate degree and at Denver Seminary for my graduate work, I was able to begin to see that my brain had the power to choose to regulate my big feelings. Through professional therapy, I revisited my past and rewrote my story.

Now, as a Licensed Professional Counselor, Registered Play Therapist, author of Blessing From Fear and speaker, I walk alongside others during their healing journeys. Together, we discover the freedom of naming feelings and embracing their True Self.

Other than training/knowledge, what do you think is most helpful for succeeding in your field?

Success as a professional therapist first depends on personal self-care. If I do not attend to my own care, burn out will surface. There are some days when I must hear painful stories, and I healthy emotional boundaries are necessary. We as humans all have two buckets that need to be filled each day. The first bucket is being seen and heard. The second bucket is having positive power. To keep myself from being drained emotionally, physically, mentally and spiritually, I must first see and hear myself so I can then be empowered to choose a healthy grounding tool when I am feeling drained. Then, I am able to be present and attuned with my clients.

My success as a child and family therapist is elevated when I make it a priority to work with the caregivers of my child clients. When a parent reaches out for me to work with their child, I first have some time to connect with the adults who will be influencing the child. Whether the parents start my parent coaching program, or we have individual parent sessions, it is imperative that I guide the adults. From a family systems perspective, parents play a crucial role in shaping the child’s development. Therefore, I desire to work with the parents as they interact with the family as a unit.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.triciathornton.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/triciathorntontherapy
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/triciathorntontherapy
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tricia-thornton
• Youtube: @triciathorntontherapy3644

Image Credits

Jamie Wright Images