Women Like Me Stories & Business

Trish Scoular - Transforming Mental Health

• Julie Fairhurst • Episode 98

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This episode delves into the transformative journey of self-love and mental health with Trish Scoular, a dedicated counselor. Trish emphasizes the importance of understanding one’s emotional triggers and the power of community-based counseling in creating a safe space for healing.

• Introduction of Trish Scoular and her journey to counseling
• Discussion on community-based counseling and its benefits
• Differences in self-esteem struggles between men and women
• Overcoming limiting beliefs for personal growth
• Tools for exploring emotions: journaling and art therapy
• Importance of trust and openness in counseling
• Call to embrace mental health as an essential part of well-being

Trish Scoular - Clinical Counsellor, Published Author, Artist, Wedding Officiant, Holistic Empowerment Coach

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Who is Julie Fairhurst?
Julie Fairhurst – Speaker, Author, and Founder of Women Like Me

Julie Fairhurst is a champion for women’s empowerment and the founder of the Women Like Me Book Program. Since 2019, she has published 30 books and 300+ true-life stories—at no cost to the writers—giving women a platform to heal, inspire, and reclaim their power. Dedicated to breaking generational trauma one story at a time, Julie’s mission is to uplift women emotionally and financially, helping them create better lives for themselves and their families.


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Speaker 1:

Welcome everyone to another episode of Women Like Me, Stories and Business. I am your host, Julie Fairhurst, and I'm just so excited to have you here today. We have an amazing woman, just an amazing woman. She has been in our community for quite some time, but she is an author of her own. She has. Well, let me, let's ask Trish just to tell you a little bit about who she is. But hang on, for this conversation it's, I trust, trust me, it's going to be great. So, hi, Trish.

Speaker 2:

How are you, hi? Hi, julie, thank you so much for having me. Oh, you're welcome. I have so much respect for the community that you're building here. It's really helping a lot of women around the world. Well, thank you.

Speaker 1:

Thank you for that, trish, I appreciate it. Okay, trish, why don't you tell our listeners and our viewers a little bit about yourself?

Speaker 2:

So I'm Trish Schooler, I'm a clinical counselor and I became one in, I guess. I got started in 2010 in my training, then finally got part of an association in 2014. And I've been working at building my business ever since. I'm classified as a clinical counselor not a registered clinical counselor, because that is like a different association, but I am a registered professional counselor and I really love the type of work that I do. I love to help people. I love it when I give them resources and they start to look at things and light bulbs start to come on and they start to make that small shift in what they need to do to make their life better. I was in nursing before as a nurse nursing assistant, and so it just seemed like the best transition and something I've kind of always wanted to do all my life.

Speaker 1:

Wow. Well now, if I remember correctly, were you, did you work with the, the elderly?

Speaker 2:

the, the elderly. I did, yes, for 24 years. Yeah, wow, 24 years, wow, wow. That's like, yeah, it was, uh, really rewarding. Nursing wasn't really anything I really wanted to go into. Um, I was in broadcasting at the time and was in acting and I had an opportunity to go professional and just kind of got discouraged against it just because of the lifestyle it can lead to, and so I ended up becoming a nurse I guess, long-term care aide and I did that for 24 years. I should have gone to become an LPN, which I wanted to do, but I didn't, and so I stuck with that and worked in all aspects of healthcare.

Speaker 1:

Wow, you know I forgot that you had been in broadcasting. I remember I think you wrote that in all aspects of healthcare. Wow, you know, I forgot that you had been in broadcasting. I remember I think you wrote that in one of your stories.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, it was quite a long time ago, yeah.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, it's so interesting that you know you talk to people or you get to know people, but really until you sit down and start to actually find out about their story, there's always so many more interesting things than what we see.

Speaker 2:

It's very, very true, you know, and we always look at the surface, don't we, rather than finding out the deeper parts of a person and what's actually going on. So something my parents always raised me with was be careful where you point the finger, because you don't want people judging you or talking about you in the same way. So I kind of always tried to keep mindful of that as I, as I aged.

Speaker 1:

Yes, yeah. So, trish, let me ask you a little bit about your counseling career that you've got. So what inspired you to focus? Because, from my investigating, what inspired you to focus? Because, from my investigating, you are focused on community-based counseling. Is that correct? It is yeah, so why don't you tell us a?

Speaker 2:

little bit about what is that and why you got inspired to focus in that direction. So I recognize that people don't feel comfortable in a clinical setting. We see that in doctor's offices. I know myself when I go to the doctor it's a little intimidating at times, especially if you're feeling vulnerable and you're not sure how the conversation might go. And again, it's the same for counseling. Right, it's in the office.

Speaker 2:

We don't always see the outer perspectives of what's going on with the person. So one of the specialties in the course I took with the klona college of professional counseling was the specialty was community-based, and so I really like to get into people's environments. I find the best counseling I've had is with people walking in the forest, sitting at a park, um, and going into their home, because you get a lot more um opportunity to actually see what's going on in the surroundings around them. Um, because there can be a lot of other dynamics that are going on right. So we're not always seeing that in that clinical space, and so that's the reason why I really wanted to focus on that.

Speaker 1:

Wow, yeah, I never. I never actually really thought about that, but but it does make sense. Is that it is intimidating going into someone else's office and and but in that, and I think in a lighter and now I'm not a counselor, of course, but in a lighter environment, people must open up more.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, they actually do and they feel a lot more relaxed. You know, I always make sure because confidentiality and privacy is really important to me. So I always make sure that we're in surroundings where there is nobody else. If we are going for a walk and people approach, I just stand in the background and let them have the conversation. Don't engage that way, because I think it's really important that they have that anonymity of who I am. I think it's really important that they have that anonymity of who I am or what we may be there for. So and that's one of the only challenges I guess about doing the community based counseling, right is is what others may hear, but I do the. I am very good. A lot of them feel very comfortable with me and, um, how I am in my approach. So, um, so far it's been good, good yeah, do you?

Speaker 1:

do you work mainly with, uh, men or women, or or both or.

Speaker 2:

I've worked with both I I started off my business was called love from the inside because I recognized that not only myself but other women, and I didn't really focus on the men at that time. But men also deal with self-esteem issues, right. So? And so a lot of us aren't really loving ourselves or really sticking true to what our values are, and so we tend to get off course, we tend to make wrong decisions and we end up with some consequences that we have to face and kind of like process right and so, um.

Speaker 2:

So it was all about wanting to teach people how to love themselves first and not worry so much about being in a relationship until they can actually find that that person within themselves, with who they truly love, because I think when we do that, we start to attract different types of people. And so that became my focus. And then I changed the business name to Guiding Hearts and then the Love from the Inside became a wellness society and you know, that's kind of where it is, but the still principles of loving yourself first, um, is really important and that's and it's looking at your core and limiting beliefs and things that are helping you to keep stuck and not believing enough in who you are. So, right, my business evolved.

Speaker 1:

So do you think that men are men and women are different in terms of loving ourselves? Like, do you find I'm just curious whether, if you're sitting down with them and you're counseling, you know a man comes in and then a woman comes in. Are we that different?

Speaker 2:

I think we all struggle with our own internal issues, our own feelings, our own thoughts. Men, I think there's been a perception of men having to be the strong male influence of not showing your emotions and and, and that's the kind of like era that my father grew up in Right, so there wasn't always that loving, touching, healing.

Speaker 2:

Like you know, it took us a long time to get to that place of like I love you and I respect what you're doing, right, yeah, I might not have always liked the choices, but so I think men process things a little bit differently and they're not as as open to talking about their thoughts and feelings as much as women are. Like, we just get together and we chatter, chatter, chatter and we tell everything right, and men are they. They respond in a different way with each other, right, right, oh, yeah, I think there are some differences, but I think we still all struggle with a lot of the same types of issues, but just in a different way in a different way.

Speaker 1:

For sure, I agree. Yeah, um, okay, so I have another question here for you. Can you share a memorable moment or a breakthrough in your career that really confirmed that counseling was going to be your passion? You know what brought you here, what brought you to counseling.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I wanted to do this since I was a kid. I was always I think I don't know if I was raised or it was just in my innate ability to be the one that just kind of sat at the sidelines and listened to everybody. I was that kid. I was the one who would sit and listen, yeah, and encourage everyone, and I was the big encourager and everyone knew me as a very sweet girl, but I also had a little bit of. You know that I did things on the side where people didn't know.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, exactly, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, that's like being a teenager, right, I just wanted to take um.

Speaker 2:

I got involved in nonprofits and working with um, uh, women who are are pregnant and um, and and that's kind of where my heart has always been, to be honest, ever since I was kid is just always like helping people and encouraging people, and that really hasn't changed.

Speaker 2:

I think I've always been a heart centered person, um, in terms of that, but it always hasn't been receptive because people have looked at it as, oh, she's trying to fix me or she wants to change me, or, and so I've had to really learn that in my counseling.

Speaker 2:

When I took the counselor training, I was like that's where I was going wrong in my some of my relationships, as I was wanting to encourage them because they were telling me all the things that they wanted to do in their life, but they had so many of their own limiting beliefs or their own core beliefs of they're not good enough, they'll never be good enough to be able to achieve those goals. Yeah, and I I finally realized that's probably where the interpretation of they're trying to change me by, by wanting to encourage them more, and that's when I really had to realize that we all have our own path to walk and I have to respect where other people are at and I can't change so because I think there was a point where I really wanted to fix everyone's problems and I could do that right. So that was the biggest eye opener for me in my career as a counselor.

Speaker 1:

So how do you think then? Because you said you know that we're a lot of us don't feel that we're worthy or that we're good enough. How can we change that mindset? What can we do to help ourselves?

Speaker 2:

I think and I don't think that we probably all feel that way, but I think we do at times, depending on what our circumstances are, right, and how we being the, the people that we're involved or we're involved with, and and how our parents may have brought up like um. So there's just so many different things where we can feel really good and then, all of a sudden, we go through this patch of wow, I feel really terrible about myself. What is that? And exploring that, right? So I think it's really exploring about what's triggering me to feel like I'm not good enough, and so I think that's the first thing is really and I know that people say, oh, that's what you counselors talk about all the time is triggers, but I think we have to pay attention to what those are, because if we don't understand them, how can we change them? Or how can we sort of like delve, delve a little bit deeper into knowing why, right, because if we don't know the why, we can't make the change.

Speaker 2:

And so I know that, true, to be my own life Like why does this keep happening? Why do I keep attracting the same types of men? Right? What am I not doing? Or what am I doing to to change that, because it seems to be a pattern somehow. And where did that pattern start, right? Yeah, because they're the ones who made me feel in the conversation like I wasn't good enough or I wasn't worthy, and maybe that was part of my religious upbringing or you know they they didn't understand that, or there's so many different variables it's really can be quite complex, to be quite honest.

Speaker 1:

Yeah. And when you say you know, know that it could be about your, you know your religious upbringing or any kind of thing that happened in your childhood. But it is interesting, our beliefs and sometimes we have to stop and say wait a minute, why is it? I believe that you know. Yeah, did it?

Speaker 2:

yeah, exactly like was it was. Was it in our childhood, because my parents never told me that I was not good enough, right, right, I heard I heard it more from from kids in school like I was a cheerleader but I wasn't the prettiest one on the team and the boys would tell me that, but I had the biggest boobs. Right, stop and go. Hey, where was it that I? I became to believe all of these things. That aren't true, right, yeah?

Speaker 1:

Yeah, you know, when I was um in my early twenties, uh, uh, and I knew I had issues and one night I put my kids to bed I was a single mom I put my three boys to bed and I sat at the kitchen table with a pen and a piece of paper and I thought, okay, I'm going to fix myself, like I'm going to write down all the things about myself that I that I feel I need to change. That paper was blank. I was, I couldn't figure out. I was so not in touch with myself that I knew there was problems, but I couldn't identify them or I couldn't write them down. So, like what would you suggest to someone who, like me, who you know, who like who went through something like that? Like knowing you have a problem but, just like you say, you can't fix something that you're not aware of.

Speaker 2:

It's very true and I find I've become a practitioner in emotional freedom technique that I'm starting to use and that's really effective, a tool for helping people to sort of like break things down in terms of our emotions. But someone who knows that they're stuck and I've seen it with my own clients it's just, it's a process, right, and for a lot of people that know there's something wrong but they don't know where to go to, it's a process and you feel frustrated and you feel like, well, I feel like I'm okay, but I'm getting this message that I'm not right. So it's really like it takes time. So I just tell people to. Usually they're in a panic state or some anxiety around that, and so I just really try to calm them down first of all and try to create that safe, supportive space for them. Because it can be very overwhelming when you're starting to look at what, what those issues are and maybe not ready to face them. And I think, especially with trauma, people block some parts of that trauma out and do we need to resolve what? That trauma is right, and maybe they will never be able to unblock it.

Speaker 2:

But we've really found that with working with the homeless um and addictions is again. It's like when they're active in addictions. Do we want to be dealing with all the traumas that they've faced, and most of them since childhood? Right, so, because that can, um, create more issues for them and more drug use, and um. So I would say just to to breathe, we need to breathe. I think we get to that point of I know that I'm not good enough, because something has been telling me that for so long. Yet I feel like I excel in this, this situation, but I'm having problems. So where are the problems? At right now, I just need to breathe and learn how to breathe, and I've really had to learn how to breathe again too. Um, to just breathe it through and to say that it's okay and if I don't know what the answers are today, it's something that I can resolve maybe tomorrow or the next day. Right, because I think that's how anxiety creates it within ourselves. Does that make sense?

Speaker 1:

Oh, it totally makes sense, absolutely. And I and when you said that, oh, shoot, I'm trying to remember your exact words, I can't remember your exact words, but basically just not in touch. Yeah, so you can't write. That's, my paper was blank. Today I have a book, but my paper was, but that paper was blank yeah, and it's hard.

Speaker 2:

it's really hard to have to look at ourselves like what part of this is happening that I can't see for myself? Right, yeah, and that's really, and that's the very vulnerable piece that we look at with people. Is that vulnerability, that place of now. I'm going to have to be vulnerable, not only with myself, but now with this person who's a counselor. Are they going to judge me? Are they going to judge my family? Are they going to judge you know? So that whole judgment part comes in and then, and then there's the shame, so there's the fear and then there's the shame and there's the anger, and so there's so many different pieces that go with that blank page of where do I start?

Speaker 2:

I think I know where it is, but I don't know if that's what the root of it is, right, yeah, yeah, and so that's why counseling you can't just always fix things with, like with the six or eight weeks, right, I mean, sometimes it can be longer and depending on the types of trauma that people have had or what they've experienced, so what happens if?

Speaker 1:

do you ever have people come in and they'll say I know I need counseling, I know I know I need some help, but I don't want to talk about my parents, or I don't want to talk about my husband, or I don't want to talk about my job? It happens a lot. It does, and is that then the issue that they have, Do you think?

Speaker 2:

Not really. It's just about. Then, what are you coming into the counseling for? You don't want to talk about your parents, you don't want to talk to your husband, so what's actually going on? Is it? How is it? Is it you and how you're feeling about the situations, or about them, or so that's where I kind of focus on as a counselor of okay well. Well then, what's bringing you here, if you don't want to talk about what these, these other things are? Right, yeah, there may be elements to what your problems are, but then we need to talk about what it is that you're wanting out of this, right?

Speaker 2:

and I think, sometimes, um, you know, we as counselors, we need to be be mindful of that, and it's not always easy to be mindful, right, because sometimes it triggers some of our own things like, wow, I've thought that before and and so, and I think that's where that whole boundary thing of um with counselor and and, uh, client becomes really important.

Speaker 2:

Um, about, you know, this is this is not about us, it's just about, it's always about the client, and I think that's the most important thing for setting up safety and talking about what is it that brings you in here? Not here to judge, I'm not here to but we need to find out what it is so we can actually get to the root of what it is right, and then it may eventually, over time, come out about well, my husband's been talking to me this way, or he's been wanting me to engage in something that's harmful. It goes against how I feel, right, um, sexually or romantically, or, but I'm not a sex therapist again. So if it's all about, like, what is it? How can we help them? How can we maybe refer them if we need to refer them in situations where it might be more complicated, but we may not know that just in the first or second or third sessions Right. Well, and.

Speaker 1:

I think what really something that clicked in my head listening to you talk is trust. Trust is a big thing, yeah. The more you trust your counselor, the more you might be willing to open up and share about those things that you initially said. Oh, that's a subject we're not going to.

Speaker 2:

No it's very, very true, and building that relationship is so, so critical to building that relationship with that client. So they know that it's not going to be, because I've heard from clients about the counselor. They made it all about them right, and so it's very important to to uh know what your boundaries and your ethics are and able to be able to counsel people in a more effective way because, if you don't, that's when you're going to get into just to trouble.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, and it's not fair to the client that's coming in, who who needs that safe space for that person to talk to and to feel that they can trust, right, and that's why we're trying to get this fact BC, this call of regulated college going in BC, because, you know, I've heard I have heard it from clients myself and so these are the things that we want to put in place that protect not only us but also the clients, especially who are very vulnerable and everyone's got a completely different story of what has evolved in their life. Like you made some similarities, but you can't say you know, yeah, so yeah.

Speaker 1:

I know that I watch the news a lot. That's probably not the healthiest thing, but I tend to do that. And I know that our premier of British Columbia because that's where we're based is in British Columbia is talking about having some street people committed and I'm just wondering what do you think about that? Unvoluntarily committed? And I'm just wondering what do you think about that? Unvoluntarily committed?

Speaker 2:

I think it really depends because there and it's a very sensitive subject, so we have to be careful because a lot of people feel, especially on the streets, that their rights are being violated and taken away from them, Right, yes, but I think there's also that part of what part do they need? I think that's where it's finding out. What are the gaps in um dealing with the homeless issue right, with people that have severe addictions and mental health issues? Um, and so I think sometimes we need to to figure out, like I think and I I've said this to the city of Nanaimo or of Abbotsford, actually, when they were doing this recent survey on the situation and I think it's really important that we get a team of people who are professionals, like psychiatrists and psychologists, and go in and these accountants and find out exactly what their, what their diagnoses are. We know that it's, um, and this is what I part of what I struggled with as a counselor working with addictions, because it's kind of like a bandaid you come in, you give them some tools, but they're not going to stick to the tools when they're still active in their addiction, right. So what part is, are they being? Are they harming themselves? What part are they harming others is are they being? Are they harming themselves? What part are they harming others? What more can we do to support them in what they need? Um so taking away their rights? I know it really drove me crazy when I was a a nurse aide because um going into the homes as community health worker and knowing that these clients needed more care but they had the right to live at home, right, yes, but they were impacting my mental health, they were impacting their family's mental health. They were impacting the system, right, yes, so many ambulance calls coming and so everybody was getting frustrated. So I think there needs to be more conversation, more working together, not more maybe societies and stuff, more people coming together and where are the gaps that we're missing? Yes, and able to diagnose, able to get them the support they need with addiction.

Speaker 2:

I have a. I had a really good friend still a good friend we just aren't in contact as much but she lost a daughter to addiction and was raising her, her grandkids, and so that was something they wanted to know. As a grandparent, raising their grandkids from a drug addicted child Right, there's a lot of challenges with that, and so there's a whole society association for grandparents raising grandchildren in BC, and so something I wanted to advocate for her was okay, because there's a lot of guilt for parents who are raising these types of children that were drug exposed in BC and then they're trying to. There's a lot of guilt about maybe we should have been able to have the kids with her and if there was other places, facilities that could support that. But then to find out in my research that you know the College of Physicians and Surgeons, their scope of practice wasn't really on that. So it's a very, it's very complex.

Speaker 2:

Yes, what the steps are in trying to treat or trying to make an event for everyone.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, yeah, I, yeah, it is really really tough. Yeah, yeah, I, yeah, it is really really tough. I my, I think you know my niece passed away from fentanyl and my brother and his wife are raising her son Because of course you know, she was a single mom and and I, my brother, tried to help her and tried to get her help, and but I think I think when this my own opinion when there, when someone is so sick and so drug induced and so mentally from the drugs that they can't even make, they can't make a proper decision about their, their health, about where they want to go. So I agree that we have to be very careful about taking away people's rights, but I think there's also comes a point where where, if they could just get their mind clear, yes, maybe they could make that decision.

Speaker 2:

You know my niece, my niece never got her mind clear yeah, and I I kind of I feel, in my opinion, the same way as how you do in in terms of um, it's sensitive, we don't want to take away their rights, but if we can give them that opportunity to get to a place where they can um get off the drugs and then start to deal with their own mental health, right, yes.

Speaker 2:

And then the trauma because a lot of them want to come in. They're like I want to deal with the trauma. Well, you know, we're not at a place. The psychiatrist is like, no, we're not going to deal with the trauma because it's going to trigger more of the addiction, right, right, and so it's. It's very I loved my job doing that, but when I I helped, I helped a client and then I found them, um, they get into treatment.

Speaker 2:

Then they came out of treatment long story, yeah.

Speaker 2:

Then they came out of the bushes a week later, got hit by a car, died a week, oh, and I went to see them because I felt like I needed to go see them and they were indigenous and I've always loved the first nations people, and so, um, I took them some him, some cedar boughs and some smudge I'd made. And, and a friend of mine, my best, one of my best friends is indigenous and so she's like take them cedar boughs, that's what they need to help them to cross over, right? So I, just after I left, I was bawling and I was just like I wasn't expecting to see that and and the impact it had on me, um, as a worker. So how many other workers that are on the frontline that are feeling and dealing with the same things as I am in terms of I'm trying to help them so much and I see so much potential, but there's all these other um struggles that they're dealing with that are really hard for me as just one counselor trying to contain right.

Speaker 1:

Right and.

Speaker 2:

And in and out of the treatment programs and you know, and jail them doing time in jail was really didn't. That wasn't even a problem for me because I think that was more of like a survival thing, as it was trying to survive, you know, up the streets and and having nothing, having nobody, yeah, yeah. So yeah, it's very, it's very, um, it's tough, complex, it's very tough. Yeah, so hard on families, the emotional part of yes yeah, and, and they're dealing with that.

Speaker 2:

They're dealing with the police constantly. They're dealing with, they're it's like post-stress disorder. Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1:

Just too much stress, yeah, and daily, 24 hours a day. Yeah, let's go to something a little bit lighter. So of course you're part of my Women Like Me community and I appreciate that so much and I know you've written in several of our books. And again, thank you for your participation. What do you think about that? What do you think about women or men? But what do you think about? What do you think the benefits are to women writing? Let's just talk about women. Women writing their stories.

Speaker 2:

I think it's really important. I found how much it helped me when I published my first book, Steps to Loving you Creating Positive Change, and it was kind of like I never thought of. Well, I kind of thought about writing children's stories at one time, but I never thought about actually writing a book about a business that I would have. Right, yeah, Um and so. But I thought, okay, well, maybe that's the step I need to take to sort of promote what I'm doing. Um, and the publisher I worked with is great. She's on sunshine coast. Um, and yeah, yeah, I just never thought, but I know how it gave me a voice to share to talk about.

Speaker 2:

What is it I've struggled with, how maybe I can help other people. So what you're building here, Julie, is really a gift that you're giving a lot of women who are struggling to open up or to talk about what it is that they're really struggling with. Look at what the women you've done in Kenya and how that's helping to for them to make money, right, so they can feed their kids, and they have way less than what we do over here in our country. Some of them are making $1.50 a day like teaching in schools there, right, and we're always complaining about not making $80,000 teaching in schools there, Right and? And we're always complaining about not making $80,000.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So what you're doing to help these, these communities and women with writing, I think it's, it's really important, and I see the importance of it every day, as I'm getting the opportunity to do that myself. So I really feel honored to be part of the women like me, and I wish I could do more Well thank you, Thank you so much.

Speaker 1:

So so then, Trish, what would you say to someone who's not part of our community but they're? But they're out there and so would you like what kind of what would you suggest for them to do? If to maybe do some emotional healing, even on their own, through writing, Would you suggest journaling? What through writing? Would you suggest journaling? Um, what? What would you suggest?

Speaker 2:

I suggest journaling, um, but not everyone's really comfortable with journaling, um, they're afraid of people finding their journal.

Speaker 1:

They're afraid of uh how those thoughts might get out there so I have.

Speaker 2:

I'm an artist, so I do art therapy.

Speaker 2:

I'm not a trained art therapist, but I have taken a few courses in it, and so I have found that to be a really effective tool actually, and I've seen more people turn to the art than I have to the actual journaling and writing about their emotional responses, and so that's what I have focused on.

Speaker 2:

And last year I did it with some homeless women and then we put an art show at the art gallery here at the Reach and we had all their paintings up there and to them. And I know how it felt for me when I first had my art piece up on a wall, right, so how would it feel for them and I know there can be the negative thing of well they're going to if they ever sold their paintings, where would the money go? And I think there's a lot of judgment and stigma around that, and so this is something that's really, and for them it wasn't about selling their piece or but maybe it's just that little bright pebble that's going to ripple down through the time, right down through through the time, right of well. I found something like I found I worked with one girl and, um, one lady and she really opened up to that and and she's that's. All she turns to now is art as a way of helping her to heal and to work through some of her emotionals.

Speaker 1:

I never even thought of that. That is excellent. That is an excellent suggestion because, you're right, not everybody's wants to write or or can write. I mean, everybody can write, but but can, as in me, sitting at the table with a blank piece of paper. I think that that's. That's a beautiful idea, and I didn't know that you did that, and I think that that is just wow, like how beautiful for them to be able to do that and and and then have their art, have an art show, yeah.

Speaker 2:

I wanted to do it next year but they're changing how, how they're doing things at the gallery there. But but it was just really good to see them happy and participating in something and getting a focus out of their own life circumstances right, because their lives have not been easy and and we have had the best conversations like I mean, even in those conversations I've learned some things about myself where they're just like oh, I just want to write without the color, like they go without the boundaries right and I was more about.

Speaker 2:

It's got to be perfect or it's got to be like this, and they're just, they're just creating, and so I think it's it's. It was a good lesson for me of um. You know, it doesn't. Nothing in life has to be perfect, it's just. It's just how we interpret, how we feel and how we see a view what's going on around us in this world. Yes, yes, and so that's what I'm focusing on. Is is more art therapy than I am with journaling, with people, because a lot of people just don't know how to regulate their emotions and and to know actually what it is. What is actually the emotion that I'm feeling?

Speaker 1:

yeah, I, I love. I think that's a spectacular alternative to writing.

Speaker 2:

If somebody wanted to give that a try, that's great many different things using leaves and printing and there's so many things that people can do, even in nature. I created a course called creative nature quest and that's basically what it was about, because it kind of evolved out of that of, well, I think I could really do this with clients and take them out into the forest and we can do some creative nature quest about how can I, how can I look at what this this leaf is and how can I find that self-love? Or how can I look at what this this leaf is and how can I find that self love? Or how can I learn that self love piece about myself from that leaf? Right, Beautiful.

Speaker 2:

And that idea, yeah, and just being out in nature is very grounding anyways.

Speaker 1:

Yes, yes, wow, yeah, Wow. Well, what a fabulous conversation, trish. I could sit here and chat with you for a whole hour or two, but we're almost at the end.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, and I understand. I want to honor your time. No no worries, You'll have to go for coffee. Yeah yeah.

Speaker 1:

So, Trish, in closing, what advice or what would you say to someone who might be watching on YouTube or listening to the podcast and they're feeling like they maybe want to reach out to, maybe they feel like they need counseling, but they're not sure? What would you suggest to someone?

Speaker 2:

Reach out, look to see what type of counselor that you're looking for and maybe not focus on counseling and maybe more on mental health, right, ah right. So there's two types of scopes, right, so there can be clinical counseling and then mental health. So, really, it's just focusing on your mental health and so I tell people don't look at me just as I'm a counselor, but look at me as like a mental health therapist or someone you're coming into that, that you can get the help that you need. It's just about open conversation, right, right, but you have to feel comfortable with that person, with that person, and so you know, looking for different things that you want in a counselor, you know, do they actually? Are they able to meet the scope of what I need? Right, again, that's really important because you don't want to start a relationship with a counselor and then have to refer them out, right, right, are they trauma informed?

Speaker 2:

But I think it's mostly about just just taking that step, and I know that it's hard and people really struggle. With the mental health part, it's no problem going to a chiropractor or to a massage therapist or somebody else, but when it comes to their own mental health, there seems to be a lot of stigma around that and that's why I did that art project at the Reach because I want the stigma to change. I think we need to talk more about mental health and we see it through Bell Community and other people that have started those talks the Duke and Duchess over in England.

Speaker 1:

Right, yes.

Speaker 2:

You know again the Sussexes. They've done that too, right? So there's so many, even Gabor Mate, right? So we're all talking about mental health. Maybe just take the focus off that as a counselor. It's just. It's more about I need the help with my mental health, and that's what we need to focus on, right, because my mental health is just as important as my physical health, or my spiritual health, I'll go to church, I'll go to temple, I'll go to all these other things, but what do I do about my mental health?

Speaker 2:

Nothing. You know all these other things, but what do I do about my mental health? Nothing. Everyone suffers in silence. Yes, yes, and that is is not a good place to be. And because people need to feel heard, they need to feel like like their mental health is important and that the depression is real right, yes, but again, that's that scared of going to a counselor or going to a doctor and opening up and then ended up on medication, and but that's where you need to really identify what it is you want in that session. You know, keeping it. That's where a journal is really helpful. For how many days have I been depressed? How many days you know? What was the triggers around that? Maybe it's just a life circumstance you're going through, it could be temporary, right, right. So I think people need to be a little bit more open when it comes to looking at their own mental health and what they could benefit out of getting some therapy.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, no, that's great advice, Absolutely. And I love how you made a distinction between because somebody might go, oh I don't want to counseling, I don't want to do counseling, but mental health, just yeah, you're you're we all need, we all have issues from time to time and and we all should be thinking about our mental health, absolutely, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2:

Especially nowadays with so much going on. The wildfires down in California and we have our own wildfires here and the impact it has on people right it and it feels and it does impact our mental health in many ways.

Speaker 2:

we there's a lot of fear, there's a lot of anxiety and yes and um, you know, I think when it really gets to the critical, especially with anxiety, it's it's how much of that is taking up your time in your day of worry, and we see that a lot with generalized anxiety, right, so how much is being consumed by, by worry and about fear, and about those are when you really need to? I think look at going to a therapist that can help you with that. Yes, and I try that before it can tell them straight out I don't want medication. I just I'm looking for some, some resources to help me figure this out. Right, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, no, that's great advice. And yeah, and when you see your doctor you can say I mean, if you need a medication, obviously get medication, but if you're feeling like that's you don't necessarily need that, you just need an alternative route to go, then absolutely speak to them about that. That's what they're there for.

Speaker 2:

Yeah yeah, I know a lot of people are wanting to do lion's mane and different things like that, but again it's finding that therapist that is really specifically trained in that, because not everybody is right, right, yeah, and so I don't know how to use those types of medicines. So it's really like do the, you got to do the research, find where they are, go in and take that chance, have that you know, 30 minute consultation with them to see if it's actually, if you feel comfortable with them, yeah, and then going from there.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, perfect. Well, thank you for that advice. So, everyone, I want to let you know if you need to, or you want to, reach out to Trish, all of Trish's contact information is going to be in the details section of the podcast, as well as the YouTube video. So, if you want to snoop around, learn a little bit more about Trish, all of her information will be there. And, of course, if you wanted to reach out, she, as you know, is very, very easy to talk to. We can go on and on, so, but do feel, feel, if you need to reach out, then just just go ahead and do it and and she can always help you with you know, letting you know, maybe if there's a different direction that you need to go. So so, trish, thank you. I want to thank you so much. This was very good conversation. I learned some stuff. I know I'm sure our listeners and viewers have learned some things as well. So thank you so much for sharing your expertise with us. I appreciate it.

Speaker 2:

And thank you so much, julie. It means a lot, like I said, to be a part of the community, and thank you for having me on.

Speaker 1:

oh you're welcome, you're welcome, okay, everyone. Well, that's it for another episode. Um, so yeah, as I mentioned, tune in and um contact trish if, if you, if you feel pulled to do that and we will see you next time. Bye.

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