The local therapist behind the Insta account, @ResiliencyinBloom takes over our Gram stories this week and shares how she found her calling to “travel” along with others through their mental health journeys.
Hi All-
My name is Ashton and I am a Licensed Professional Counselor in the Cincinnati area, working primarily with teenagers and adults. In my “free time”, I also run the website/blog, Resiliency In Bloom – a place where mental health advocates and enthusiasts can brainstorm and be directed toward therapy-related materials and discussions.
My enthusiasm for mental health advocacy and stigma reduction began when I was a teenager. Upon grappling with personal and family mental health issues around that time, I knew I ultimately wanted to reframe my history in a way that would be meaningful and be able to help others. We ALL have mental health, and I think we would all benefit from acknowledging how well we do in prioritizing this significant piece of our own identities and how it impacts our relationships with others we love.
It’s been my pleasure to be a therapist (and additionally to be a seasoned client), and I look forward to learning more about each person that I get to “travel” next to while in the therapist chair. I personally relate to Irvin Yalom’s depiction of therapists and clients as “travelers,” as we’re all in this together. It’s not the therapist versus the client; rather, it’s therapist and client versus the problem. In the end, all parties in the therapeutic process are humans who can contribute expertise to each other either in order to help the individual(s) cope with the circumstances. Being able to develop a framework for problem-solving (if appropriate) and meaningful narrative development is what continues to drive my passion in this field. After all, and I may be a bit biased, it’s one of the greatest fields there is.