Welcome!
New readers and potential contributors: Read this first.
This is a safe space for sharing stories. Since I started this joint, I guess I’ll go first.
I’m Janet, a Gen-X writer, artist, and educator currently a few months away from completing my Master of Counseling degree. I’m currently based in Singapore, but have lived in different parts of the US, and offer trauma-informed counseling and therapy to neurodivergent and LGBTQ+ folk of different backgrounds and nationalities in both online and in-person spaces.
Artful Counseling is a Medium publication I’ve set up to put my reflections on training as a psychotherapist in one place.
That said, I welcome writing and/or artwork from other counselors and therapists in training, as well as art from anyone exploring the healing journey itself.
Many years ago, I was a different person who’d grown up to believe that counseling was for the weak of mind. I believed life was “easier” if we could all just think away the irrationality of our feelings. You can imagine the self-criticism and loathing I experienced whenever I found myself unable to weather hard times through sheer will and white-knuckling alone.
When I finally let myself seek help (and all kinds of help), it was a long learning journey with some interesting sidetracks along the way. There was a lot I kept quietly to myself due to the common Asian stigma against counseling help, and of course, this fear and shame had been learned from somewhere too (and I’ll be sharing more about culture, stigma, and mental health).
If you’re curious:
For now, I appreciate your patience as I start to build up this space.
If you’d like to contribute and be added as a writer, just respond to this story with “Add me” and make sure your stories include “mental health” as one of the tags.
Thank you. And also, welcome!
