Yin and Yang: How do you balance work and family?
As a team, we are clear on our own values around prioritising our families, and the health and wellbeing of our team members. Therapists spend all their time at work concentrating and attending to the needs of others, and this work brings us much joy and satisfaction when we notice the shifts and changes in our clients. However, we also really consider how we are meeting our own needs and those of our loved ones.
The balance of work and family is always tough. We feel awful when we are sick or our children are unwell and we need to cancel sessions. But setting boundaries means we can be fully present when we are at work and allows us to switch off and be present for our loved ones when we leave.
As for our kids, it’s always interesting to listen to their commentary and to see how their understanding of our work shapes their views. Last year, when my primary school aged son was watching a movie with me, he asked, “Is she behaving like that because of her traumatism?”. Yes, psychologists like to add “ism” to the end of most words, but traumatism was a new one for me 😊.
The drive: What challenges have you overcome?
There are several challenges that we have experienced, but with each challenge comes growth. We have recently moved premises, which has been a very stressful process to do whilst still running our standard clinic. We now have a warm, inviting and peaceful new space to welcome our clients into.
Through Covid, our practice in virtual therapy really expanded, which was a delight. This has allowed us to provide services to women without the constraints of a physical location. We now have clients throughout Australia and several overseas. Our staff enjoy telehealth consultations – surprisingly, some local clients have only ever accessed us via telehealth – the convenience of remaining in the home or at work without having to factor in time for transport allows some of our clients to engage in therapy, which wouldn’t have otherwise been possible.
Everybody has their own unique story and therapists are no different. As experienced therapists, we are mindful of the therapeutic space that we hold for others. We are aware of our own triggers and have developed skills and capacity to put our own experiences aside while we attend to the unique experience of the person in front of us. Women will often downplay their experience or compare themselves to others, and what is important to understand is that the experiences of others don’t matter when it comes to your own mental health – whatever has happened or whatever you are experiencing is significant and worthy of our time to explore and understand.
For better or worse: What are the pros and cons of running your own business?
The pros are that we get to decide where to put our energy – we have specifically chosen to work with women and families through fertility, pregnancy and early parenting and loss experiences. Working in our chosen field is incredibly rewarding. The longer we work in this area, the more we continue to learn – the field of women’s mental health is evolving at a very fast rate.
The con is that it requires a lot of effort, time, energy and expense behind the scenes for a business to be sustainable.
Hopes and dreams: What next?
At Restored Wellbeing, our immediate plans are to settle into our new home and enjoy our surroundings with our clients. The plan is to increase access to psychological support to as many new parents as possible, while supporting our team to continually develop further therapeutic skills. Connecting with likeminded colleagues really does make a difference.
The other part of this plan involves providing supervision to other perinatal therapists, especially in the space of perinatal loss. Our team has decades of experience, and we are happy to talk about all things perinatal with emerging perinatal therapists.
Visit the Restored Wellbeing website to find out more about the services they offer. You can also connect with them on Facebook.
