The Samantha Parker Takeover Podcast Series EP5: Jennie with MEND Counseling

What Is Somatic Therapy? Jennie of MEND Counseling Explains Trauma, Nervous System Healing, and Building a Therapy Team.

On the Samantha Parker Show takeover series, Samantha interviews Jennie, owner of MEND Counseling Center in St. George, Utah, a group practice with seven other therapists (adding one more) chosen for extensive experience handling complex trauma. Jennie explains somatic therapy as “body” work focused on how the nervous system records experiences, describing physiological responses like tension, shaking, numbing/shutdown, and how pausing and breathing can help process emotions so trauma doesn’t become encapsulated. She emphasizes talk therapy’s value for safety, witnessing, and building a roadmap, but says somatic tools help resolve activation so memories become “net neutral,” mentioning modalities like brainspotting/EMDR and the role of window of tolerance. Jennie shares her path from college softball to psychology, wilderness therapy, and bodywork, plus a year-long psychedelic-assisted therapy training, and describes building a team to help more people. They also discuss self-care, community collaborations like Samantha’s impact walks, and where to find MEND online.

00:00 Welcome Back Jennie
00:35 Blue Vibes Banter
01:44 Meet MEND Counseling
03:52 Somatic Therapy Basics
05:53 Numbness Pause Trauma
07:57 Talk Therapy vs Somatics
11:56 Trauma Roadmap Safety
15:14 Brainspotting Window Tolerance
17:04 Why Jennie Became Therapist
18:21 Softball Side Quest
20:47 Somatics Bodywork Origins
23:55 Talk Therapy Burnout
24:23 Safe Adults for Kids
25:10 Parents Creating Safety
26:24 Making Therapy Engaging
27:27 Why Build a Practice
28:32 Psychedelic Therapy Safety
29:56 Starfish Team Vision
31:56 Leadership and Capacity
34:26 Counterpressure Self Care
38:55 Parenting and Connection
40:32 Where to Find Mend
40:59 Community Events and Wrap Up
42:50 Traffic Banter Goodbye

Jennie (MEND Counseling)

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Transcript

 Hey guys. Welcome back to the Samantha Parker Show. So today, this is part of our takeover series. It's been so fun. I've been talking with a lot of local business owners, why they got started, what their specialty is. But we get to welcome Jenny back to the couch. Hello. Back to the couch. That's my new thing.

Now when I say it, I feel kind of cringe. I'm like, welcome to the couch. I love this couch. It's comfortable. It's, it's a dark couch and a dark room.

We could probably like lighten it up. I should put it in your request and be like, could you guys change this out so it's more pink? See what they say? I blue is my favorite color, so you're my jam. Oh, blue is your favorite color. It is, yeah. Do you have the blue lashes in? I do. Looking at the corner here.

Yeah. Yeah. I, I like that. I remember you telling me that. I think the first time I met you too, you had like an excessive amount of blue on. Yes. Blue is my favorite. Yeah. It's also mend colors as well. It is, yeah. Yeah. So you vibe what kind of blue It can be North Carolina, blue. This royal blue in here. I like kind of all shades of blue.

All shades of blue. Mm-hmm. But my favorite is kind of this dark blue and then the kinda the turquoise, North Carolina blue. What? I'm gonna have to Google that. It's like the men colors. So the men colors are kinda that North Carolina. I know what that is. Blue. Yeah, I know what that looks like. Like ocean blue.

Mm-hmm. Yeah, North Carolina Blue isn, that a thing, someone, a fact checker. If someone, if most people who live, who ever have watched sports are like, oh, we know what North Carolina Blue is. Oh, like the sports team. I was like. Does North Carolina has a color. I'm fired. I can see it in my head. Clear as day.

Yeah, you can see their emblem. The blue. Yeah. I was like, fact checker. She's making shit up. That's you're, no, you're dumb. Yeah. See that's the color of blue. Yeah. Wow. She just pulled up. S shoved this mic on my throat. Stupid. Okay. I'm with it now. Okay. But Jenny is the owner of Mend Counseling, which is Whatcha guys doing?

We're getting waved at, look at Shannon. Okay, let's close the curtains. Yeah. Why are they, are they getting a full tour? Yeah, tour time. No, you don't have to. Actually, I just, she's like, look, we're just gonna have to pause for a moment. She's like, you gave me a directive and I did it. Okay.

I'm all just let them go. Okay. Okay. So Jenny is, Jenny is the owner of MEND Counseling, which is mend, I always say it that way 'cause people are like, are you saying men? I'm like, no, mend. I know, like I'm mending my soul. Men mending my heart. Yes. Men counseling, and it's a whole group. Like you're the owner, but you have a whole bunch of therapists.

Yes. Because a lot of times people are like, Hey Sam, can you gimme Jenny's number? And I'm like, oh, I'll just give you men's number. You know? Yes. We have a whole team. I have seven other therapists. We're looking to add one more, so I'll have eight and then nine, counting me. Very experienced team. A lot of group practices will have a lot of interns and associates and I, I'm a big fan of therapists.

They need a place to start. I had to start somewhere and get my hours. What I love about MEND is that we have recruited a really experienced team. Most of our therapists have over seven years of experience, if not two decades. And that's really incredible. Mm-hmm. They can handle complex trauma. 'cause that's essentially what was when I got into doing private practice, I was I did a lot of complex trauma, somatic therapy and so a lot of dual diagnosis and very complex cases.

So when I built a team, I needed them to be able to handle complex trauma. Yeah. And I think you've done a great job. I know people who go to like various therapists in your. Is it a practice or a group? Mm-hmm. Yeah. Group practice. Yeah, a group. Okay. I'm like, what's the proper terms? I'm all in your little cohort.

Yes. And nothing but amazing things, you know? Oh, so great. Yeah. The therapists reputations speak for themselves. They just, they've really built a really great referral base for themselves and they do a lot of great work. We get a lot of good feedback about 'em. Yeah. So today I wanna go a little deeper in your story.

'cause the last time you were here we were talking about, you know, alcohol and just different things like that. So today we get to talk all about you. Are you excited? I'm excited. Okay. So why do you feel like this conversation matters right now? Well, I mean, Sam, when you first came in and experienced what I do, you.

I remem, I'll always remember this question. You were like, what? What is somatic therapy? Like, how come I don't know about this? Like, you hear the word therapy and you can do physical therapy. You the in med, the medical world, there's a bunch of different therapies, mental health therapy, and so you're just going to hear that word is growing.

There's a huge wave coming in for somatic therapy, and I want more and more people to understand truly what somatic therapy is. In connection under the umbrella of mental health therapy and why it's so important that people work with therapists that have somatic tools and other tools as well. But somatic tools are important.

Okay, so let's just drop it down to basics, because I still feel a little confused. I feel like somatic is a new word. Mm-hmm. You know, or a new buzzword. It's not really though. It's finally just. People are picking up Yes. You know the good stuff. Yeah, but what the hell is somatic? So soma, so the soma means body.

So when we talk about somatics, it means we're getting connected to what's happening in the body and, and kind of more specific what's happening in the nervous system. So the nervous system. Is in our whole body. It's along the spine, right? We have the whole parasympathetic, parasympathetic, sympathetic nervous system, and we have that connected to our brain, the vagus nerve.

So there's so many functions in our body that are managing stress and managing how we interpret our world. So somatics is how the body is essentially recording our experiences. So our mind and our, and our. Good big frontal cortex is recording and thinking about things. It's processing emotions, but so does our body.

It's one of the reasons why our physiology like if someone gets mad, we're not just mad in our brain, we're mad in our bodies, right? People start clenching their fists. Their jaw, their, they, they get their jaw tight. When you guys can remember getting mad, you can even almost like feel like you wanna punch something.

Yeah. It's like the body starts to tense up and that's a physiological response to a an emotion that you're having based on an experience or an event that's happening. Okay. What about when you just kind of go numb? Just 'cause sometimes I'll drop into a weird, calm, numb state. But see, that's somatic too.

That's the body going. I can't handle any more of this data coming in, these experiences coming in, this sensory coming in, I'm going to shut down. And so that's, the shutdown response is still a somatic response. It's essentially, it's like if so unplug their wifi. When they have to reset it, they're like, it's, this is all messed up.

The lights are all blinking crazy. Let's unplug it and it just shuts down. And that's also connected to depression. You know, anxiety is an activating response inside the body. Depression is, there's so much pressure that just goes, it's like, I gotta go offline. Okay. What about though, I've gotten really good at this as not reacting and pausing.

Yeah. So I feel like a lot of times I'm like, I'm just kind of pausing. So that, so an emotion lasts 60 to 90 seconds, essentially. And so if you can get to the other side of that emotion, that emotional response, then you can get, then you're not, then you're not, you're processing and digesting the emotion.

You're not getting stuck in it. It's not getting stuck inside the tissues. When trauma gets encapsulated in the body, the sense of safety in your world gets ruptured. And instead of being able to resource and process that rupture, if, if there's not enough resources to do that, then it gets encapsulated in the body, right?

And then it's kinda frozen in time. It's frozen in, in the, in the whole system, not just in the brain. And so, but a pause is different. A pause is going, what's going on? We take a couple breaths, lemme just get my bearings and then let me process and digest what's happening and get to the other side of this so it doesn't encapsulate inside my body.

Okay. So see, it wasn't as bad as I was like Yeah. Making out to be. I'm like, no, I'm not numbing out. And like yeah. That's when we go back to sub numbing out as more of a shutdown. Yeah. You know, it's like I gotta go offline. And there's a lot of different reasons why people numb, you know, in in, in regards to the experiences they're having in life.

Yeah. Okay. So there's a lot of trauma that's just happens in day to day, but there's also stuff you can't avoid. Right? Like, you know, maybe you're walking and you get hit by a car, you know, like there's all kinds of different trauma. Yeah. But I really like what you do with, but I really like the way that you do therapy with the somatic stuff is because it's not just sitting around and talking.

You're like, Hey, let's actually move this out. And there's so much science behind it, so much science, you know, it, it's one of the things that I think is really important. Important for people to understand. 'cause at MEND we say it's not just talk therapy. There is value, and I wanna make sure this is understood.

There is such a value to being able to talk about something. When people are able to be witnessed in safe places, it reduces shame. It helps heal, right? We need our stories heard. There is a time and a place for talking, but sometimes. So much talking and not enough sloughing off the emotional debris, the somatic debris.

That's why somatic tools and somatic modalities are so powerful is because instead of just circling the drain with talking, that eventually can create re-injury. You know, if we, if we just keep looking at the injury and we never resolve the injury, we never heal the injury. Then we just become a part of the injury.

And so somatics help, help move and slough off all of what's keeping it kind of held in the nervous system and helps the body remember to go, what wasn't safe then is safe today. And I can join myself in the present moment with that safety and I can reclaim that safety in the nervous system and I can have more equilibrium.

And then instead of those memories having activation doing this in the nervous system. Which for you guys watching, she's kinda like shaking. Shaking my hand. Yeah, eventually. Or for you guys listening. Yeah. If you can unwind the act, what's activated in the memory system and eventually you can get that to release and let go, then it just sits net neutral in the nervous system, in the memory, the short-term, long-term memory.

So look, there's no activation. So now it's something that happened to you without the activation, so you can put a period on it, you healed. Right. Okay. So if something bad could have happened, but if you can heal it, it doesn't sit there activating in the nervous system. It now just sits net neutral and you can be more fully present here in the present moment.

And that's the power of somatics is that it finds the snags, the things that are essentially kind of pinning down the nervous. They're taking that room in the nervous system and they're keeping the nervous system activated and we want resolution. Yeah. Yeah. The body wants to be in its happy homeostasis place.

And so when we give it a doorway, it's a, you know, we govern this intuitive vessel and we give it a doorway to heal, it will. But if we're just talking about it, eventually you can just run outta a room that the talking's effective. Yeah. And so now we've gotta move the needle on what it means to reclaim the equilibrium and safety in the body and the mind.

Well, I've seen quite a bit of buzz, you know, and I probably just pick it up from social media in different places where they're really like, is talk therapy even useful? Yeah, I mean, what are your thoughts? I think it is like, when someone first comes to therapy, I don't just jump right into somatics because also that doesn't set, you know, you wanna lay, lay the runway.

You wanna create a safe runway for the experiences that we're gonna have. And essentially we're in very sacred territory. You know, people when they come into do therapy there oftentimes, like, this was hard for me to get here. I have a lot of hard things I wanna talk about or get through. And there's a, there's a hi.

There's a value in the history. There's value in understanding. What happened and what's still encapsulated. I, I need some talking points to find. It's like a making a roadmap. Mm-hmm. Like, okay. We need to spend time on your five-year-old. Okay. At some point we need to spend time. We lost your light. Okay.

Ghosts. Now we're gonna talk about ghosts. I'm just kidding. They've come, they follow me around. Since you talk, I'm like, gosh, she's so smart. No, really though. It's wild. I appreciate that. Let's wait. I told Tyler, I'm like, she's a wicked smart therapist. Definitely. There it is. Oh, hello. That's great. And then the Lord said, and then that there be light.

I made eye contact with it. I was like, sorry. Oh no, it was fine. Sorry. Okay, so I'll kind of pick back. Can I just keep, keep going? Yeah. Okay. So I'll pick back up. So, so some, so the roadmap in through the talking and being witnessed, you know, like oftentimes the trauma, these are things that people have held onto for years.

Like they weren't safe to say if they did say them sometimes. They weren't believed. Like these are huge ruptures in safety and, and then sometimes the ruptures in safety were corrosive over time. They weren't things that just happened one time, they hope happened over and over and over again. That's why a small T trauma can become a big T trauma.

Even something like bullying, like a kid that is in third grade, that by sixth grade, even by nine, you know. 10th grade, just never got a sense of safety in their social world. That can be really corrosive over time with someone's self-esteem and that and that, and that gets locked into the system. Right.

And what does it, what does it mean in the present moment if they're 32? To finally be able to say, I'm, I have value, I have worth. You know, so these are things that are really packed up tight and they try to lock 'em up. And the problem with locking up traumas and, and the body does the best it can at, in the moment that it, that it tries to deal with the ruptures of safety.

You know, that's part of the nervous system's job is to be like, this is overwhelming. That's why when kids are going through trauma, they'll often dissociate and be like, I'm not here. I'm here, but I'm not here because they're, they just don't know how to handle the. The, the what's oftentimes terrible or what's intense happening to them, right?

Yeah. That's why people can have serious blocks. It's not that they don't remember their childhood, it's that to remember it causes too much internal harm, and so they block it. So you start uncovering those blocks. You have to have a. The coping mechanisms. You have to have the safety, you have to be able to manage window of tolerance, where all you're gonna do is injure the system.

Okay. Question. Can they just stay blocked? I, it's interesting because I, you know, let's say that two people got in a helicopter crash and the way that someone deals with that trauma afterward can be way different. Someone can be like, I lived and I'm so grateful, and, and they were like telling everyone what a badass experience was.

I Amazing. Yeah. Another one's like just. Traumatized for much longer. And, and, and that has a lot to do with a lot of different factors, but oftentimes it's the way that they were resourced after the trauma, there's a lot of good resourcing and rec and reclamation of safety. And that's why like for example, if someone gets in a car wreck and the nervous system, you know, our, our nervous system we shock is like shaking.

We, we start shaking. The body is trying to slough off that nervous system that trauma energy is trying to equalize. And so when people try and. I'm not saying that you don't manage shock as you're supposed to, but sometimes people wanna stop the shaking like, you're fine, you're fine, you're fine. Actually, that shaking is really good for nervous system regulation.

Okay. That's why when something scary happens to us, we start to be like, okay, I'm, yeah, I dunno when I'm gonna stop shaking here, but at some point I will. That's the body of trying to equalize and do something with that energy. So when people don't have a good way to resource that. Or they don't feel safe to tell their stories or, or if they try to, someone didn't believe them, that gets encapsulated.

And so by the time someone is trying to share these, it's very sacred tender ground and their stories need to be heard. So that's where, this is kinda long answer, but that's where talk therapy and talking and witnessing and and sharing is really important. 'cause it creates the roadmap for eventually where I can do the somatic therapy to help relieve the burden on the nervous system.

Yeah, so basically they kind of go hand in hand. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. And we'll have some times in somatic therapy where we were talking like, tell me about how this last week went. Tell me about what you did with your coping mechanisms and, and, and, 'cause essentially what we're also gauging is do you have the window of tolerance to do some of these somatic tools?

Like if I do brain spotting, which is like EMDR for people. You know, I've had some people be like, we're in a brain spot every week. And I was like, no, we're probably not, because your window of tolerance is gonna dictate whether we're gonna do that or not. Yeah. I had brain spotting done once and I thought was really fascinating.

Mm-hmm. Because the memory that they took me to, it was very charged. Yeah. And now it's just like, whatever. Yeah. That's, that's where it became net neutral uhhuh. Now it just becomes, we're not erasing memories, but now becomes a memory that now has no activation. Yeah. And that's healing the nervous system.

And it could be like that was still. Shit tastic. Yes, but I don't really feel upset about it. Yeah, because you've reduced, you've eliminated the activation. That was, that was CRE that was created in the nervous system and now it just sits there. Calmly. Yeah. And so you don't, you know, you're not like, well that was a really hard thing, but now you can say, that was a really hard thing and I have no activation around it.

Okay. You know, and so when you're, it's almost think about being bogged down. You're not bogged down by all this nervous system tension. You can live more fully in the present moment. And you can have more equilibrium in your system and more safety. The body wants to know the body and the mind want to know that our world is safe.

Right. Is there a sense of safety with our people, with our places, with our experiences? And so when it gets ruptured, we need to resource those ruptures. And if we didn't have enough resources, they can get, they get encapsulated. Yeah. And so somatic therapy helps encapsulate. And return to equilibrium. Oh, that's, that was really well explained.

You did a really good job. Thank you. I'm all okay. That's all we need to say today. Well, and that's thematic therapy in a nutshell. Goodbye everyone. No, but okay. Really though you don't talk about yourself a ton. So why did you become a therapist? Well wait. Do, do you go to therapy to talk about being I do in therapy?

Yes. I think every therapist should have their own therapist, and I think every therapist should be doing their own deep work. I, I heard this a long time ago, and it, it really holds strong for me too, is that you can only drill as deep with your clients as you're willing to go yourself. So if you're not drilling deep and really mining whatever needs to constantly be worked on in yourself, it's hard to hold really deep space.

If you're gonna be working with complex trauma, you better have drilled deep yourself. Okay. You know. But why did you become a therapist? So I, I was, it was when I was playing softball in college, I was trying, I was like this is kind of ending. And it's weird when you're an athlete sometimes you're like, well, I'm just used to being an athlete.

And when you look ahead, you're like, well, I can't always be an athlete. I'm not, I'm not gonna be in the pros of soft. Ball, you know? And so I started thinking about what I wanted to do. Did you play college? I did. I played in junior college and I just, I was kind of burned out and done by my second year.

That's cool. And I didn't wanna go on, I played softball in high school. Yeah. Well, and then like all through, you know, yeah. Elementary, all that. Yeah. I came from really active athletic family. Like my sister played basketball at junior college, then she went to UNLV. My brother ran track in college. My brother played tennis and so we were all just really active and I wanted to play basketball or soccer, but softball was where the opportunity came, so, okay.

This is a random side question. Mm-hmm. Have you ever played as an adult on like the co-ed leagues here? I, you know, I'll tell you this. We had, we got together when I was at u, it's UVU now, but it was UVSC. We got, were friends. Hey, I did a semester at UVSC. Yeah, it's, it's a cool place. We got, we had, we're really good friends with the baseball team and, and then a couple of other guys.

We got together a. A co-ed team and we would travel and do these tournaments and we would win 'em. Yeah. Like we win these trophies and coolers. You haven't played here in St. George ever? I have. There's a couple I played for a while. I played one year with the team here. It gets crazy here. Yeah. St. George doesn't mess around with softball, like my hands hurt and everything and they kept being like, you need a bigger mint.

I'm like, I'm not going to buy a bigger MIT to play on this. Like for Funsies League. They didn't even have matching shirts. Yeah. In co-ed, they really liked to. Sometimes if a girl can handle the guy's throws coming from short and third, and also the, the guys that can throw, like some of these guys have some arms and they can hit, they can throw people out from the outfield into first base.

So I would always play first because even if the throws were crazy, I could. Usually get 'em. And then the gal that I played with in college, she would play second, and then we'd have the boys on third and or short and third. And so we just, we had a really good team at the time. We were, we were pretty, yeah, I just, a couple years ago on a team here, they like recruited me and I was like, sure.

And I mean, I was like taking like falls and rolling and grabbing the ball and I'm like, I was leaving and I'm like, I can't, I can't do this. You get so sore. Yeah. In your later years. It's like if you don't warm up properly, I always tease the people that come and do body work and I'm working on 'em. I was like, you don't need to warm up properly.

You can't just like go out there. I'm like, you're like in your forties now you gotta like warm that I could whack a ball too, you know? I know. I'm like, they're pitching so slow. So if you grow up playing softball, right, and you get into fast pitch. Then on this, I was like, they're pitching so slow. I was like, all the time in the world, this is too easy.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So it's, it's fun. Like once I started having kids, it just got really tricky to sometimes get to the games and do all the things. But yeah, I really, how do you feel about a Mend slash Samantha team? We should do one. I would do it. I had to learn when I was on a team when I was in residential treatment to just like smile and not be competitive.

Because if you have a competitive spirit, sometimes you're like. Why didn't you hit the ball? Or come on, dig that up. And you're like, it's a, everyone's just here to have fun. It's fine. What I didn't understand about the team that I was playing on is like, why didn't we get matching shirts? I was like, you guys, like all these other teams, like pitched in and bought their shirts?

Yeah. Why didn't you? That's weird. Yeah. And we looked like, we looked like idiots. That was why we were bad is 'cause we looked like idiots. You guys need to be come up more professional. Yeah. Okay. But anyways, back to therapy. You're playing softball, so I. I was, I had like 17 different professions. I swear. I wanted to do, I was gonna be a dental hygienist, I was gonna go and I loved animals, so I was gonna be a vet.

You, you look like you could be a dental hygienist. I, I would, well, I did an, I did an internship with an orthodontist. Those guys are pretty serious and very intense and I was like in borderline. I was a 16 at the time. I was like. He, I felt like he was mean. And so I was like, I don't think I can do this. I was like, these guys are very serious.

Like you handed him the tool wrong and they would just drop it. And there was just, I was like this is, this is hard for me. 'cause I'm just like, let's be nice. And he's like, let's be effective. So that went out the window. So when I did my first psychology class in college, I just, it hit me. I was like, this is the field I wanna be in.

And after that I just, I ran with psychology, so I got my bachelor's and then worked on getting my master's. I was in wilderness therapy while I was getting my master's and eventually while I was in wilderness therapy I was a therapy assistant and just working towards, and then while I was in grad school, I also went to massage school 'cause I knew that, you know, one of the things that I can see is like 10 miles ahead.

And when I read the Body Keep Score with Bessel VanDerKolk. I knew that somatic therapy it just made sense after working on bodies. You can't help but you pick up people's emotional debris and somatic debris. What's held in the fascia, what's held in the muscles, the very cells of our body, the bones.

Like I could be working on someone. I was like, Hey, did you take a, a blow here? Or like, I could tell if someone had been hit 'cause of the way that even just very micro like nonverbals. And they're like, how, how did you know? And I was like, you're. Body's responding like it did. And because I'm a therapist too, we could unpack that.

You know, a lot of times if you go to a massage therapist, they're gonna go, you're having emotional release and you're safe, you're fine. But they're not gonna really unpack that or unwind that 'cause it's not their lane. So, because I would be working on bodies, that would actually be odd. I think if you're.

I in your setting? Yes. But like if I was just getting a massage, then all of a sudden you try to do therapy, you're like, I don't wanna, I didn't come here for that. Yes. Yeah. And it would take sometimes my clients too that I, when I was strictly just doing body work, because I don't do massage, I do structural body work.

Like it's a, it's a, it's a muscle alignment therapy and it's all through the clothes. It's very, it's very specific to healing snags that are in the muscles. But, and again, inevitably, and all of my clients know that I'm a therapist too. So when it was safe enough for them, I'd be like, Hey, this is coming up.

Just be aware. Right. And they would wanna talk about it and Yeah. Unwind it. And so, you know, in those experiences, and even while I was in grad school, it just, I was like, this is. You know, somatic therapy is gonna be a thing. And I saw that over 10 years ago. And so, I just knew that eventually I wanted to build a practice where more holistic health.

I'm a big fan of collaborations. It takes a village. And you need, you need a, a big wrap. You know, it's not just one way. Mm-hmm. That's why the more tools and modalities that you can have, the more effective of a therapist, I think you can be. That's why I think just talk therapy eventually hits a dead end because you're not, you're gonna, you're gonna hear the story.

You're gonna understand the story. You're gonna have insight. But insight needs to eventually be integration. Yeah. So. I know the last time I went to a therapist, not in your group, but it was, I was sitting there and I was like, this just feels like a giant circle jerk. Like I just talked, I know what she wants to hear.

And I was like, just talking my way through it and I got my car and I was like, she should have paid me. And I'm like, I think I'm like, ready to try something. You like, okay, I think I'm done. Yeah. Just graduate into something new. Mm-hmm. But talk therapy was so good for me, especially as a kid. My dad did a great job of putting me Yeah.

In therapy at 17 and. Well, and think about like I, like I look, you know, kids, teenagers, they're having big emotions, sometimes still in little body. They don't have skills. They don't have the skills that hopefully we develop by the time we're adults, and so sometimes they're just doing the best they can.

So even just getting them to talk more is a win. You know? Yeah. Like, Hey, tell me more about this. And hey, this is safe. And kids get used to lying. They get used to hiding. And so having a safe place where you're like, I'm not your mom. I'm not your teacher. Like this is a place where you get, tell me the things so I can actually help you with the things.

Oh, I'm a big advocate of kids having, you know, a safe, a safe adult. Mm-hmm. That's like someone they can tell their stuff to like, yeah. And you know, I had two great aunts growing up and I felt like I could tell them stuff that I knew they weren't gonna tell my mom, you know? Sure. And they were like, Hey, you shouldn't be doing that, but I'm not gonna tell your mom.

You just call me. You know? Yeah. Like, you need that. Well, and even being able to coach like a kid or a teenager, like sometimes don't tell my mom or don't tell my dad. And, you know, especially in working with minors, it's like, Hey. You know, there are some things that I'm gonna have to tell your parents if you won't tell 'em.

But let's teach you how to tell your parents. Let's teach. And I teach parents like you're on the front lines with these kids. Don't let 'em bench you in the hardest times of their life. So if you don't want 'em to bench you, then you have got to create safety and safe conversations. So even if you don't like what they're hearing, how do you still make hearing it safe for them to tell you, even if you disagree with what they're doing?

And that's a tricky dance because you don't wanna just hear 'em be like, well, you can do whatever you want, but you also, want to create, like, Hey, you can come to me with the things. I may not agree with what you're doing. And there's at times maybe consequences, but it, this is a safe place to tell the things.

Yeah. And, and if more kids and teenagers and young adults could align with their parents instead of bench 'em. Because ultimately those are the people with the most wisdom, right? They've had the most life experiences. Mm-hmm. And nobody loves 'em more than them. And so they're the ones that wanna help you the most.

Yeah. Hopefully both of my kids go to therapy, actually. Yeah. I think it's one goes to your group and my other goes to somewhere else, but Yeah. Yeah. And how has that helped them? I mean, lots new places. Yeah. Yeah. I was like, I don't really wanna tell, like their experiences. Well sure. But, but it does that safety, can you see that the, a safe place for them to unpack things is helping them?

Yeah. Yeah. My son's therapist actually taught him all these really cool card tricks. Oh, that's cool. And I mean, if that's all he took away from it, he like, shows everyone these like card tricks all the time. Mm-hmm. And he is like really invested in it. And it's been funny too because then him and my dad have like taken the card tricks further and they're like FaceTiming each other with magic tricks.

So it's created a connection point. Isn't that beautiful? Yeah. I love it. But it was really funny. I was like to, because I told my husband, I'm like, oh my God, are they just teaching him card tricks? And Jake's like, no, it's, they can talk. And you know, that's how the guy's connecting with him. Yeah. I do that all the time with some of my teenagers or even kids.

I'm like, we'll, we'll play things or do things at a game. You got card tricks. I don't have card tricks. I have a game called mca. I really love playing it with them 'cause it's strategic and, and you can sit there and play it while you're talking. And there's a couple different games that I'll play. And they love 'em.

They, you know, you, you don't want someone to come to therapy and hate it and like, well, I'm coming becausecause, my mom wants me to, you want 'em come to therapy because this is helpful. Yeah. And if I have your ear, you're gonna be way more interested in the wisdom I have to share than if you're just here because you were supposed to, or you had to like, I don't got your ear, you're not really listening to me.

Yeah. Okay. So you decide to be a therapist. Mm-hmm. What really drew you to be like, I'm gonna create this? I'm not gonna call it an empire, 'cause that doesn't seem like the right words, but you really have created this really amazing why, because I don't know why I want it. I feel, to me, I feel like Jenny's over there, she's created this huge empire, but that almost feels wrong for therapy.

So I'm like, what am I calling it? Like this, this place appealing? Well, for me, I when I got out of doing residential treatment, I wanted to work with people that weren't made to be in therapy. They wanted to be in therapy. And because I of. I just have a really huge skillset and because of that I got really full really fast and I just felt, I really feel like I'm built for this work.

Mm-hmm. It's hard to get me tired in it. I, I can work a lot and everyone's like, how do you work so much? I'm like, I just don't get tired. Like, I love it. I love helping people. You know, people ask me that too. They're like, you're just so busy all the time. And I'm like, oh, am I? Yeah. It's just I love what I do.

Yeah. If anything, I, I definitely have to sometimes bracket time, 'cause I obviously want time to spend time with my family and my horses and those kinds of things, but I, it's hard to get me tired in this work. And I just got so full so fast that I was like, I, I can only help one at a time. And then I saw this kind of in my own kind of journey when I was working with my own journey of psychedelic healing.

Like, you know, that's another thing that I did a year long training for psychedelic assisted therapy. And when you're working with Can pause, pause real quick too. Mm-hmm. Just for you guys listening. So I've done you know, different things, but I have to say, and it was presented as like. You know, it was a guided journey.

I mean, and it was, but I have to say the experience I got out of it was not awesome. And so I think it's really important what you just said there, like you did an entire year. You know, you guys like, just because some girl says, she's like woo woo, and she'll take you on this mushroom trip. You know, I really think that there needs to be credentials around it.

There definitely needs to be safety, just like anything those molecules can be inre if they're not used therapeutically. And and when you're dealing with altered realities, you better be anchored in safety so that it's a safe place. I'm in a safe place with a safe person. It's safe to journey. And so in my own journey, there was, and some of this is silly, but if, and this kind of dates me for sure, but in the.

There's a movie called Field of Dreams and there's a movie called If You, if you build it, they will come. And I literally saw a fence and there was thousands. It was insane how many people were behind the fence. And I could only get one at a time in with me. Mm-hmm. And I was like, this is insane. This isn't helpful.

Like this isn't enough. I need a team. And so I, I knew that I couldn't just be me. I said, I need a team. I need to get tenant at a time. I need to get more people in at a time. There's also this story about a man throwing starfish in, in the ocean, and this guy comes up to him and he is like, you can't save all those starfish.

And he throws one in the ocean. He goes, yeah, but I just saved that one. And so for me, that's kind of the metaphor that I use. I'm just trying to throw as many starfish back in as I can. Oh, that's awesome. And if I can get 10 people helping me throw the starfish in, that's why sometimes when people are like, aren't you worried about people competing with you?

Or, there's a lot of therapists here, but there is way more people that need help than there are even therapists. And when people get busy about, well I'm gonna watch how you throw a starfish. And I'm like, why? You should start throwing your own starfish. And there's a lot of people that need help. Stop watching each other.

Throw starfish and get 'em in. Get 'em in the water. Like just help. That's so inter, yeah. Your journey, the last year has been so interesting and you know what it is, is you hit kind of that level where you were getting. I'm gonna say big. Mm-hmm. You know, not you and your ego or anything. Sure. Like you're a very grounded, amazing person.

You're one of the most amazing people I know. But it was like, you could tell Jenny's like hitting this level of success. And I do see what happens is people are like, how dare you throw the starfish in the ocean? And I'm like, why aren't you throwing starfish in the ocean? There's a lot out here. We all need to get him back in the water because I got it the year before.

Yeah. Remember? Yes. Yeah. It's weird. I was like, why is everyone being mean to me? Yeah. I just don't wanna drink alcohol. Yeah. That's it. So, so for me, that's the big metaphor I go off to is I just, the more that we can, the more people we have that can help, the more that there's, you know, there's no shortage of people in this world that, that need help.

And it will always eclipse how many practitioners we have. Like, you know, when people say Fields are too saturated, I'm like, no, there's just not enough people yet that know about you and that know how you can help 'em. So. That's why I love collaborations, like mm-hmm. I think, I think the more collaborations the better, because I, you know, I literally saw, it wasn't even just thousands, it was hundreds of thousands.

Like it was, it was insane how many people needed help to the degree that there were helpers, and I'll never forget that. I was like, that's why we need teams. That's really cool. That's why we need collaborations. Yeah. I've had moments like that where just something clicks in and you're like, I just think about it over and over, and you're like, I don't know what that was.

But that was a big moment for me. It was, yeah. And that's where I, I knew I had to build a team. I was like, 'cause I was just gonna be fine with my own thing. Mm-hmm. Because lemme tell you, this is, it's easy to do your own thing. It's, this has been hard and it's, but it's been so worth it. Like, I, I love what has been built.

It is kind of hard because you introduce a new layer to yourself, you're like, okay, now I gotta be a good leader. Mm-hmm. You know? And now I gotta be a good business owner and now I gotta like. Do all this adage, I know it's grown me in ways. Yeah. You don't go to grad school with in therapy and they, they probably sh maybe now they building in more business classes.

We definitely don't leave there with like, I know how to be a therapist and I also know how to learn this amazing, like great business, like what I've learned and what grew me and also like thresholds, like it's, it's interesting 'cause I just don't get very stressed anymore. I just grow capacity. And 'cause for a while I get really stressed.

Okay. And that stress was literally sometimes it, like there was a year where I had so much inflammation in my body, I was just, I felt like an alien in my body. I was just not managing stress well. And now I just. I'm like, I'll just grow capacity. I just, it's, it's changed me in a really beautiful way in regards to what it means to, if you're gonna grow something even moderately, not even big, but moderately, like there or, or big, like, you've just gotta be able to handle capacity.

You gotta grow capacity to handle. 'cause it doesn't, the stuff doesn't stop. Like, even just last week, I think about the extra things I was managing on top of my caseload and I was like, and someone's like, how do you not get stressed? I'm like, I just. I just continue to go up. That's part of what I chose.

Yeah. And I'll just keep growing capacity to manage this, this over here. Well, and sometimes too, like it's a blessing to have pressure like that. Yeah. You know, where you're like, okay, we've grown. And people are like, oh, what are you gonna do? I've never asked anyone that though. I've never been like, well, what are you gonna do?

Because now you have all this other stuff. I'm like, but I look at it as a blessing. I'm like, oh, this is a blessing. To think like, oh, how are we gonna handle this new? Load, you know? Yeah. Well, I think sometimes it's that when you look at cognitive behavioral therapy, like metaphors or flips, what flips in your mind?

Like, what can be the glass half old, a glass half empty? Someone said this one time, what a, like what a, I had read this thing. What a blessing it is in your life to have built so much of what you always wanted. And so if it's making you busy or sometimes you're tired, like what a, a blessing. I was like, that's such a.

Great way to look at it. Like, this is what I wanted, this is what I built. I do wanna sustain it. I do want, I, I do want it to be magnificent. I do want it to help a lot of people. And I was like, tribe, what a blessing. The days I'm tired, I'll be like, what a, what a blessing. Well, sometimes I just get tired, you know?

Yeah. I, I always do find it fascinating though, like. Other people's outside perception. And I'm like, well, what the hell do you do all the time? Yeah. You know, I'm like, what are you doing right now? Yeah. But I think that's why decompression and like your own therapy and your own places, like I don't just go to therapy.

Like I have a craniosacral therapist I work with, you know, going and spending time. You, you've seen my horses, you know, people are like, do you ride? Oh, I have seen your horses. Yes. 'cause now I'm obsessed with using you on all my graphics. Anne's a special horse. She just is striking and she's, she's so sweet.

Even that day. That all the different challenges with the wind and the tarps. Like I was surprised at how well she did because I was like, there's a lot of distractions here today. I know. I forgot it was cold that day and I sent something over to Cindy with. And I was like, I just told Jenny, she's now like our poster child.

Yeah. I love it. And she's like, those were so great, but it was so cold. And I'm like, I forgot it was even cold. I know. Well, and, and, but it's even just spending time like a horse's, electromatic, electromagnetic field is five time larger than humans and that's why they can be so, so for me, you know, I don't have, someone's like, well if you're not riding 'em, why do you have 'em?

I was like, 'cause I don't, that's not why I have horses. They're just therapeutic for me to be around. Pulling them out and even just brushing them and grooming them and making sure that, you know, doing their care, like making sure all their salt blocks are are hung. Like, to me, that's the joy of having the animals and then spending time with them is very, like, healing and just calming.

So, to the degree that you have a high amount of. Things that you're doing that could create pressure. It's just like if I was to work on a muscle that was tight to the degree that I put the pressure on to get it to release, I can put too much pressure. The body's gonna fight me, it's gonna push back, and it's gonna kind of try and throw me off of it.

If I have to push too lightly, then it's like, what are you doing? Nothing's happening here. I have to put the right amount of pressure. So when you have a lot of pressure on you, you need your counter pressures, you need your counter. Things that that create. Pressure off the system, and those are my outlets.

Time with my kids, my family, my horses, the therapies that I do, the craniosacral, my own therapy, you know, even, even my nails done or my hair, you know, things like that are therapeutic. Like my lash lady is one of my best friends, and so when I go do lashes, I was like, eh, let's talk for an hour. You know, like it's, it's, it's a, it's a.

A, a releasing outlet. In fact, the people in those industries, the hair, the nails, the lashes, I'm like, oh, I know, like mini therapists because my daughter has her nail business now. You know? Like she didn't mind. Oh, they're beautiful. She does a good job. She does crazy nail designs. Yeah, she's seen some of 'em.

I'm like, you go girl. Yeah. Some people just have a knack for that. Gosh. Their little tiny brushes and she's her little tiny hands. Yeah. But I told her, I'm like, people will tell you wild stuff. Well. They're getting their nails done and she's like, you were right. People are telling me the craziest stuff.

They just unpacked, they're unwind. Yeah. Yeah, because I'm like that too. I'm like, my nail girl knows everything about me. Like that was my, my comfort. So Julie, those appointments, she's like, I think that was TMI. But she asked, hopefully it's the safe place. Yeah, she asked, she knows that she's seen me cry.

She's seen it all. Yep. That, and like my wax girl. Mm-hmm. I feel like we're busies, like, I'm like, we're bonded for life. Well, that's, those are some vulnerable places we'd be working. Like, you know, you might as well be going to your gynecologist if you're going to a waxer. So, yeah. I know every month and I'm like, I'll see you next month.

And I'm like, should we go to lunch or something? Yeah. You know, probably not, but. Right. Yeah. I'm like, the other day I saw her out somewhere and I pulled up and I was like, Hey girl. And then we drove off and someone was like, who is that? And I'm like, that's my wax girl. Yeah. It's like safe places for women.

And those are like, again, but even those self-care pieces are counter pressure to the, to the pressure. And that's why I think even moms have to have times where they're not moms, right. And they mm-hmm. And they have to have times where they're just, you know, partnerships have to have time where they're just partners and they're not parents.

And people also have to have times where they're not. A wife or a husband or a, a mom. They're just them. I know. I do miss, it's just me, my husband being in the army only for the, the one weekend he would do every month. Uhhuh. I was like. I really kind of miss that weekend. Yeah. That was the only piece I miss.

Yes. And I don't miss it that much, but Yeah. Yeah, because I'm like, oh, you just get in bed by yourself. And I'm like, I can just like not do dinner. I'm like, and I can just do whatever I want. Yeah. But that's where we just need, sometimes we just that. And that's why like even with my guy, he'll, he loves what he, what he does in the garage like, and so when he is having his garage time, I'm always like, Hey, I got the kids you need this time it's cys decompression time.

And you know, and I can always tell like, Hey, if he's spending time in there, he needs. Time away from being a parent. He needs to just be him. Yeah. You know, and those are, those are that like releasing pressure to the, to the degree that you have pressure on top of you and you need, you need those counterbalances, what does he do in the garage?

He does all kinds of things. Well, what kind of garage does he? Dirt bikes. He has tools. He works on all kinds of things. And so. It just kind of tinkers in there. Yeah. But it's like if he's in there, don't bug dad. You know? That's awesome. I mean, the kids can go in there and he's cute with them, but it's like, okay, come on.

Like, leave dad alone. You have four kids, right? Yeah, I have four boys. Four boys. Yeah. Yeah, so I, I got batches. I've got a 19 and a 17-year-old big gap. And then I've got a 9-year-old and a five and a half year old. Yeah. So They're so cute. Yes. You're such a good mom. You know that. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah.

It seems like your older boys are really into you too. Well, I, one of the things, that's why I tell parents too, is, you know, again, I don't, my teenagers are about to enter some of the toughest, you know, kids are. Or what they are, but like teenage years and young adult years, sometimes they're just tough and you're making big decisions and you're growing, and I just want them to, I wanna have the kind of relationship with them where they, they come to me and they ask me the hard questions and they, it's safe to talk, like, don't push me away and hide your life from me.

Like, I'm here to know the things and to help you and, and so just nurturing a relationship. I mean, I have a really great relationship with my parents. They're, I consider them some of my most, the most wisdom and like deepest friends, and they continue to show up for me in my life in a really powerful way.

And that's the kind of relationship I wanted to nurture with my kids. That's amazing. Yeah. You don't hear a lot of people say that. I know. And my siblings are that way too. Like I have really close relationship with my siblings and so I just wanted to foster that with my kids. And also be able to be there for them.

And so it's, but I also love playing with them, like being playful. So my 17 year old's not a big fan. I mean, he's, he's mixed. Like he'll do tiktoks with me. My 19-year-old is like, absolutely not. But then my 9-year-old will do them all the time with me. So Im always like, I'm seeing your 9-year-old on TikTok.

Yeah. Yeah. They're fun, but that's just a fun way to, you know, and with my 17-year-old going to college, he's going to the U I'm like, we gotta get our tiktoks. And he is like, mom enough with the tiktoks. I was like, I'm gonna get to a million views. I need your help. Okay. I need you to do tiktoks with me. I love that.

Yeah. Okay. Well, Jenny, what's your, that that, okay, Jenny, where can people find you online? So, we have a website, it's mend counseling center.com. And we also have us on our socials, same, same Hooks Mend, counseling Center and Facebook. And, and then if you guys come over to my Instagram, so though Samantha Parker, if you comment on any post or send me a DM with the word mend, MEND, I'll send you the link right over to, yeah.

The website. Yep. And then well, you'll see us in the different things that you're doing, like your impact walks. I have a lot of people asking me about those and they come, yeah, Jenny always comes. And then you sponsored the last one. Yes. It was so fun. And I think those are great spaces for women. And also some of the guys have been like, can men come?

I'm like, well, there's some men there. I have been trying so hard to get the dudes there. Yeah. So I've had a few, I was like, no, I, you're happy I'm bringing two guys this next time. Thank you for the doctor's walk. Thank you. Yeah, you and some of the problem I think. Because I've only had girls show up, so I only have videos of girls.

'cause someone said the other day, the walk you do for the ladies. And I'm like, no, it's for everyone. Not in any marketing does it say for the ladies. Yeah. Yeah. So hopefully they start to trickle in and I'm just gonna stock photo dudes in there. Little paper cutoffs, put them in. Yeah. And those are great collaborations.

I think. You know, I've met some really amazing people and I always, I always tell people like, you know, we need it. It takes a village. We need community. Community is a powerful. Powerful piece of our mental health. Yeah. And so when we connect and we create and we create these connections and then we just help each other.

Like the businesses I've met I didn't even know existed. And that's what I want people to know too is Mend Counseling Center is here. We do unique therapies, not just talk therapies, somatic therapies, but there's also a lot of incredible group practices here. And so I always tell them, come on these walks.

Like you can't have too many therapists. You can't have too many plumbers. You can't have too many like calm. Oh sure. And connect. Yeah. Absolutely. I love that. So thank you for spreading the word. Thank you for sharing about it. Yeah, absolutely. You guys might have heard Jenny and I on the radio together too.

Yes. I get so excited when I hear it and I send you weird videos of me listening to it. Yeah, it's You're on, you're on. It's us. It's us, Jenny. Yeah. Yeah. And then big event in April too. You'll be there. Yes. At the, I'm excited about the Sper Club. Yeah. Did you? Yeah. You got your spot? Yeah, I did. I saw it so, mm-hmm.

I was doing some basic math yesterday and I was like, everyone at this table did not sign up. I'm like, I did right away. 'cause if I don't then I'm like, oh shoot, I didn't get my spot. I know. So it's gonna be pretty cool. But thank you for your time today. Absolutely. I love we're driving on your podcast.

Yes. I know. Traffic was a little nuts today. Yeah. It's weird to say we have traffic. It made me do my somatic breathing and not have any road rage. I was like, this is such, this is a. This is a practice so that I can show up calm for the podcast. 'cause it was, I I was like, damn, it's crazy the things that can irritate you.

Yeah. I did notice this morning as I was driving over, you know when you hit that curve? So if you guys aren't listening, we live in St. Or Oh my gosh. For those of you who don't know us locally, we're in St. George, Utah. But when you hit that curve off the freeway, you know Dixie Drive, how you go over.

Mm-hmm. I did notice they're starting construction where it's gonna go through that nature area there. There's gonna be a road go that goes from here. Or from there straight to the light that's right here. Yeah. They need to have grow the infrastructure. It's, they've started it, it's tight here. Yeah. Yeah.

But it's supposed to kind of. Go through. And then I think it'll go over the river, I think, and then over some of the trails. 'cause I'm like, these are our running trails, you know? Yeah. And then it comes out like this light that's here by Dutch bros just to kind of help with the traffic again. So now we'll be able to go straight across Yeah.

Versus woo. No, it shouldn't take a half hour to get to somewhere that used to take 10 minutes. No, but it is, it's also Prime St. George season right now. Right. So. Yeah. Okay. But well, all right. I love being on here, Sam. Thanks for inviting me. I know. So this is time number three, so we'll have to see you back for time, number four soon.

Yes. I'll, you know, gimme a topic. I talk, I can talk for days. Awesome. Thanks Jenny. Take care.