Today we’d like to introduce you to Jay Janicki

Jay, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?

For those that know me, I am what you may call a professional yapper, so I will try to summarize my lore/origin story and where I’m at now as best as I can!
As a child, I was a very sensitive soul – I had a lot of feelings and no way to name them. My family is extremely close and small, and I feel very fortunate to say confidently that I grew up with two parents and a younger sister who love me very much. I watched my parents both battle chronic illness my whole life, my dad being in and out of the hospital for years that seemed endless. I went to Catholic school for 13 years and didn’t know an ounce of what the world was actually like until I went to college. I even watched my sister struggle in her own way. We experienced trauma as a family and individually, and I don’t think any of us really knew how to name it — we were just surviving. A lot of life was just that – surviving.
I began early adulthood feeling so lost and unsure, switching majors before finding my passion in psychology. I dropped out of college twice, taking two separate gap years trying to figure out what I wanted to do. The first time I dropped out, I had ran away from my own life for too long before I caught up with myself — you always bring you with you, no matter where you land. I was pre-med, art therapy, nursing… all things that I thought I wanted.
The truth was, I had zero idea what I wanted, so I went by what anyone in my life wanted. People-pleasing was my default for quite some time. It felt natural – too natural. My own mental health was suffering because of doing what I thought was right for me, but was really only right according to everyone else. The second gap year, I landed in IOP and in the beginning, I started wondering what I was going to do: 21, dropped out of college twice, lost, shell of a human being. IOP gave me the strength to take the risk, and as fate would have it, there was a job fair at a local inpatient psych hospital and I got a job as a tech. It changed my life, and I knew this was it for me. I met people who I still call my mentors today and worked there while finishing undergrad. Eventually, I graduated with a BS in Psychology from Penn State in 2018 and went straight into graduate school, finishing with my MA in Counseling from Arcadia University in 2021.
My people pleasing got me into some awful situations. It landed me in a lot of unhealthy, abusive, and toxic relationships. I was ENGAGED! GROSS! I was trying to find myself and do the soul searching in all of the wrong places – in the approval from other people, in relationships, anything to deflect from what was really going on with me in my own world. I broke off my engagement two weeks before I started grad school and started trying to heal from the narcissistic abuse I just endured.
I graduated, became a therapist in private practice, and I was still unhappy. Little did I know that three years into this job, my head would come above water again and I would eventually see I was yet again surrounded by toxic, narcissistic, unhealthy people. This past year has been extremely transformative for me. I got a new therapist (love you, Anita), started healing the broken relationships I had within my family, and started healing myself. It’s hard to face yourself, but once you do, life truly changes. I am in a practice full time that I feel so grateful for. Better Minds truly made me fall in love with doing this work again. It inspired me to start my own private practice on the side. All of this has been incredible experience and I feel very fortunate to say that I’m proud of the person I am today – what a beautiful feeling.

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?

Anything BUT a smooth road. I think it’s genetic – being a Janicki is a challenge. We say it all the time as a joke, but at times, that felt so unbelievably true.
I struggled a lot with identity, always feeling like I needed to camouflage to “blend in”. I felt so uncomfortable in my own skin and felt like an outcast all throughout my childhood into early adulthood. I struggled with processing the trauma that was always happening around me, never feeling like I could truly catch my breath. This led me into a pattern where I wasn’t even participating in my own life, I was just letting it happen TO me, not with me. I struggled with trust, whether I was trusting too easily or cutting and running because of the fear of trust itself. I’ve struggled with immense grief and loss throughout the years, just sitting in it, not doing anything with it, not moving through it in any productive way. I allowed it to hold me back. I have lost friendships due to my lack of acknowledgment and running away from things.
It feels empowering to finally say that after facing myself and the parts that I wasn’t proud of, I am more equipped to handle things that happen and that I am a willing participant in my own life. The struggles still exist, but I am able to move through things a lot quicker and easier than I used to. It’s very nice!

Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?

I am a licensed professional counselor at Better Minds Counseling & Services and started my own practice, Janicki Holistic Healing. I am licensed in Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Delaware and also practice as a holistic coach. I have my NATC (Certified Narcissistic Abuse Treatment Clinician) and primarily work with queer people. Others would most likely describe me as unapologetic, authentic, genuine, and maybe unhinged (ha!). Being known as unapologetic, authentic, and genuine can sometimes be viewed as something that we shouldn’t bring into the therapy space. I like to believe it’s what makes me good at my job. I am a person and therapist that doesn’t hide the truth – clients don’t pay me to lie or co-sign their BS, they pay me to help them navigate life’s challenges and be honest with them when it’s asked for. I am most proud of the retention and rapport I have with my clients – some of these individuals I have been seeing since I was a wee little intern four years ago. Watching clients and I grow and evolve separately and together has been a really beautiful part of my experience. What sets me apart as a therapist is that I show genuine emotion. I will emote, I will react. There are sessions where I cry alongside my clients and sit with them in their pain. I feel like so much of what I learned in grad school has become the antithesis of who/what I am as a clinician and I am proud of that. I am proud to love, cherish, and cheer my clients on for years on end, and I am proud that I allow myself to feel alongside them.

Is there anything else you’d like to share with our readers?

It took me many years to find the TRUE Jay Janicki. I am proud of all of my struggles, my small victories, and my big wins. They all shaped the person I am today, which is someone I am so proud of. Younger me would be losing their mind over who I am today, in the best possible way. I have learned many times that life is not all sunshine and rainbows, it’s never perfect, it never goes according to plan. It’s all of the good and the bad that brings you to where you’re supposed to be. I hope that whoever reads this is able to achieve that same feeling of inner peace within themselves, my heart is with you as you go through the growing pains.

Pricing:

• Intake – $135-150
• 45-60 minute sessions – $135-140
• Couples/dyads – $170
• Groups – $50, Group discussions (anyone anywhere can join, $77)
• $300 investment, includes: 4 x 30 minute meetings & 2 15-minute check-ins // $600 investment, includes 4 x 60 minute meetings, 1 x 30 minute OR 2 x 15-minute check-ins

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.janickiholistichealing.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/janickiholistichealing ; www.instagram.com/bettermindscounseling
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/share/1JsFVa5KXU/?mibextid=LQQJ4d
• Other: http://www.betterminds-counseling.com

Image Credits

Better Minds Counseling & Services – group info images