Why I Became A Chronic Stress Counselor
Becoming who I had always been.
After a long career as marketer, analyst, strategist, and startup investor, this past winter I gave myself the gift of time and space to reimagine and redesign my career.
On the advice of a very wise friend, instead of doing what I’d always done when reaching a career crossroads — look outside to latch onto the next new “thing” I might be good at (e.g., AI + marketing strategist; Go-to-Market strategist for entrepreneurs) — I looked inside, to “see” and “feel” what my inner world might be telling me about what the right next move could be.
No stranger to self-exploration, adopting the inside-out lens revealed that the moment I was in wasn’t really about deciding on a new career as a separate thing from the rest of my life. The challenge — or opportunity — stared at me with the power of a thousand suns, just like my best pal Mojo used to (the red Siberian Husky looking into the future below; he passed a few years ago).
Is there a way to alchemize the thing I am most comfortable and passionate about with the skills I’ve honed and create a life of purpose that is sustainable? Can I even get close to Ikigai?
Reframed, the moment of challenge / opportunity moved from career-pivot to life-pivot. Which is how the moment of clarity emerged, simple and pure and right.
Use the experience and knowledge gained through my own healing journey (outlined in detail here) to help others stuck and suffering as I had been a few years ago.
Be, to others in need, a guide for inner-world exploration and self-healing that I had always been for myself.
Help people, disconnected from themselves and stuck in their own emotional or physical muck, get unstuck and more capable of healing themselves.
Become a Chronic Stress Counselor. Build a Chronic Stress Counseling practice.
Is it my calling to be a Chronic Stress Counselor? Is this my purpose, my why? Yes.
How do I know for sure?
Because when I envision what my life will be a year from now or in five years, there is a felt-sense of calmness and a mind-body harmony that is crystal clear in its voice:
I didn’t choose to become a Chronic Stress Counselor.
It is who I’ve always been.
It chose me.
This is who I am and what I will do for the rest of my life.
Chronic Stress Counseling
Each client is on their own journey; over time, clients typically transition from “stuck” in some sort of chronic anxiety, stress, and/or physical dysfunction (the old way) to a new way, “unstuck”, calmer, healthier. This process typically helps clients experience:
- Moving from chronically stuck in chronic distress to unstuck and calmer;
- A newfound ability to better-regulate mind-body;
- A clearing out of toxic energy stuck in the body that might be or is already creating physical illness;
- Real behavioral rewiring, the building of new neural pathways that support mind-body connection and health;
- Healing of chronic emotional and/or physical wounds and suffering;
- Life in the present, in core Self | Essence, versus living in the past, in wounded, hurt, or pained “parts”.
- The joy of Self-leadership, which fosters newfound resilience to manage future external stressors.
I’ve become (or soon will be) certified in specific modalities that helped me get unstuck, specializing in techniques and approaches that have helped thousands of others in ways traditional talk therapy has not. My approach to helping people includes but is not limited to:
- Parts Work (informed by Internal Family Systems);
- (Chronic) Stress and Trauma Therapeutics (informed by Components Based Psychotherapy, CBP);
- Mindfulness Techniques (e.g., partnerships with certified Yoga instructors, Somatics / Mind-Body therapists, and Psychedelic Medicine practitioners).
Read more about these techniques here.
I conduct one-on-one, private counseling sessions in-person or via video conferencing, typically 75 minutes each. Most clients find that they experience better outcomes meeting 3–4 times per month.
There Is A Better Way
Particularly in the US, people are suffering. Staggeringly so. Here’s a snippet survey results reported on July 16, 2023 by Axios:
Almost one quarter of adults in the U.S. visited a mental health professional in ’22, dramatically up from 13% in ’04. Separately 25% of college students share that they have had suicidal ideation, according to Gallup polling. Of the group surveyed — which is just one of hundreds that corroborate the same trends — only 31% described their mental health as “excellent” — the lowest share ever; among younger adults, those between the ages of 18 and 24, just 20% said their mental health was excellent.
As I have begun practicing, I’m humbled to hear how much chronic, seemingly endless, frustrating, expensive, time-consuming, and resolutely draining pain and suffering so many people are stuck in today. Most have likely been for long periods of time. To paraphrase a few:
“My relationship is a dumpster fire I can’t get away from. Actually, I’ve never been able to get away from these kinds of people.”
“I’ve worked with my current therapist for decades and have never been able to move forward, really. I just keep paying and reviewing the day to day.”
“There are like 10 doctors I see who treat one thing after another, my stomach issues, skin rashes. Yes, everything gets worse when I’m stressed and most of the time I don’t even know how stressed I am.”
“I just have to figure it out, fix it. I say that every time life gets dark but I never seem to really figure anything out, I just go on.”
If any or all of this resonates with you, I’m here to listen and guide you out of a state of chronic stress into a new, better way of life. Let’s get you unstuck.
Peace.
Scott
