Welcome to Digital Podcaster. My name is Dylan Schmidt, thank you for joining me today. I'm really excited for sharing my conversation today. My guest today is Lisa, of urato, who is a licensed professional counselor and a certified clinical trauma professional. And the reason why I'm having Miss Lisa on is because I am a huge fan of therapy, I have been a huge fan of therapy since I was young. And Lisa, I should get this out of the way, Lisa is not my therapist. But I have been seeing a therapist for a couple years. I'm just such a huge fan. And it's probably something I haven't really shared on this show. But I have worked with a lot of therapists to like not one on one me, but like behind the scenes, whether it's with their podcast, or their marketing, things like that. And I'm just a huge fan of therapy. If anyone who knows me in real life, not just in the digital life, they know that I love going on deep conversations, talking about emotions, things like that, not in a way that's like weighing you down, but in a way that frees you up so that you can move forward and do more of what you want to do like getting the things out of the way. And that's what really sparked me to have Lisa on. Because yeah, she's pretty amazing, as you'll see. And, you know, a little bit background about myself real quick. So when I was young, I had a brother, when I was around three years old, he passed away. And I saw a grief counselor after that. And I like really loved it. I clicked you know, I was really little when I had seen the grief counselor. And I just I remember it being a positive experience. And then my parents get divorced a couple years later, I see a another counselor. But I had such great experiences with him, thankfully. And then around when I was 11, my mom passed away unexpectedly. And I saw another grief counselor. And it was just such a great experience. I know like not obviously my mom passing away, that's not a fun experience. But the experience of meeting someone weekly, and working through emotions just kind of sitting with the emotion sometimes. Sometimes we just read a book, different kinds of things. And then I've been seeing a therapist for the last couple years because I am you know I love I love going down those kind of rabbit holes of emotions of like, how am I feeling because as a creator as a creative, it's really easy to just kind of move past emotions. And especially when you're, you know, building a following online or something like that, or building a business, it is really easy to just go go go go go. And then like not sit with how you're feeling. Because there's always a million things to do. So I really like the idea of just sitting back and feeling you know, sitting with those emotions, even if it doesn't seem fun. And it's not like today on this episode is a conversation of me just talking about my emotions with Lisa. But it is more of a conscious conversation of how you can take better care of yourself as a creative, and just how I feel like this is the perfect conversation to start 2022 out on. Because I think this year if we all have our own attentions, but if I had an intention for you, it is to, of course do more of what you want to be doing. But also taking radically good care of yourself along the way. Because you don't have to burn out. You don't have to put yourself in the backseat, your own, you know, health, mental health in the backseat to build something you know, it's really easy to get overwhelmed, and all that stuff. And Lisa and I talked about that in today's conversation. So I'm excited for you to hear that. And here's my conversation with Lisa. Enjoy thank you so much, Lisa for joining me on Digital Podcaster I'm so honored and grateful to have someone with your expertise on here because I've got like a lot of a lot of interests and therapy is a huge interest of mine. And I will tell you more about this later, but I feel like I have a special gift for pointing out awesome therapists with very minimal information. And you struck me right away as an awesome therapist. But do you mind sharing like a little bit who you are and what what it is? You do? Yes, yes. Okay, so, so my name is Lisa Alvarado. I am a licensed professional counselor in Pennsylvania to say that because each state has their own different you know, there's licensed mental health counselor you know, clinical counselor, I'm a licensed professional counselor and pa all that is is a mat a master's level therapist and what I specialize in masters level therapists all we all of our training experiences on diagnosing and treating so people would get confused with a psychologist what kind of a basically a master's level psychologist typically appear The psychologist, they do a lot of training on research. They also do clinical work, but on most of his own research and stuff, so psychiatrist or medical doctors they give our medications is different. So as professional counselors I diagnose so evaluate people look at history symptoms, you have to look at the bigger picture. And treat. So what that is, is depending on what the problem is what's going on, we have goals, right? So for example, I specialize a lot in anxiety disorders. So that includes panic, panic disorders, generalized anxiety, OCD, phobias, that's like the biggest chunk of my practice. And I mostly see young adults, so a lot of from high school or college students to like in the 40s. That's the chunk of my practice. So I'm still young adult, cuz I feel like life is, is a certain role. And like, the age range is getting higher, like 40s is like the new 30s. Did you choose? So did you choose like, when you were doing when you were learning? Or going through school? Did you choose like, the anxiety route? Is there like a fork in the road? And you're like, anxiety, you know, borderline, like different disorders or something? No, not that at all. I actually tell this story a lot to my college kids, because anything adults are like, I don't know what to do with my with my life, it's fine. Because you just have to have a sense of direction where you're attracted to. Right. It's a no, I love being a creative. I love helping people, whatever it is, right. But originally, when I went to do in high school, I didn't know at the young age, I wanted to help people. But I didn't want to be a child psychologist. And then I worked with kids. And I was like, yeah, no. Because I love kids. But really, when it comes to therapy, you're really working with their parents. Kids don't really, you know, even if something happened to them, you're really doing a lot of parenting work and coaching and stuff. And from from early on, is I get frustrated. You know, and it's hard. And I don't like to be told what to do. It's up. But I mean, I just, I don't like so as to work as clients. And I know, that's not my strength, I should say, yeah, everything you need to know what your where your lien is, you know, and when I was going for my hours, so to become a licensed professional master's level therapist, after you're asking your masters, you have to do two years, if you have a full time, which is 3000 hours of clinical hours, comes up two years. So as you've had a nonprofit, where saw everything from h three, believe it or not, to 80, you know, or whatever it is thrilled to not be in therapy, but that's at the nonprofit that I worked at. That's what they did. And I just happen to have I when I was training myself to be in private practice, once I knew like, I'm going to work for myself to learning from other therapists and marketing. One of the therapists that I thought was Casey Truffaut, that's how I learned a lot about private practice. She had an exercise as I look at your calendar, who are your clients get excited to see, and they happen to be teenage girls. And I would never have thought that I never would never have thought that and the more challenging the adolescence, the more I like, I don't know, I just really love that part. So I was actually doing therapy. Yeah. So sometimes they just find you by just doing clarity comes from taking action, you know, and that's how it is sometimes. That's amazing and interesting that you know, you started as child psychology and then you end up where you've ended up because I didn't really script all that too, you know? Yeah, and that's a grad school. You know, when I was in grad school, I was like, Wait, I don't need a PhD. I can do this with a master's. I was like, No, sign me up so well, and you've probably, I'm sure you've heard and seen so many different things from people, just the things that they're going through. Like, one like one thing that's always stood out to me. So I've don't have the academic background you have my specialty is marketing and audio, but part of marketing right is like psychology. And so that part is human behavior is always interested me. But one thing that's stuck out to me as I don't know, it's hard to not like it's funny because like normally if I'm talking to someone and I say something about myself, it sounds way less serious. But if I say to you, you know, I don't know, introverted a sudden, like, wait, I mean, it's like a label, the label becomes more serious when I'm talking to you. So I'm using this in a non serious way, but like, I'm a bit introverted, you know, don't not like super haven't been like super just want to be like the life of the party, all that stuff. But I found that totally forgot what I was gonna say. But oh, I found that when I'm talking to people that sort of say, when I'm talking to people, I've always got this like, kind of worry that I'm going to be drained like energetically. And one thing that's always stuck out to me and I'm curious, what you do is like, how do you talk to so many people and hear so much like, heavy things, even when they're not heavy? I don't know they can it's all relative. How do you like maintain your own energy throughout the day knowing that you hear you hear it all. Oh, yeah, I get asked that question a lot. Just random people that I meet, and they know what I'm doing what I do for a living and stuff, it really comes down to boundaries. And definitely we talk a lot about that today, because it comes down to boundaries you need to know. And so what are boundaries and basically limits. You need to know your own limits. This is hence why I don't work with kids. I love kids. I love kids. I actually before I was a therapist, I work in foster care. I was a caseworker and a supervisor. And that job really taught me boundaries. Because in the beginning, I was 22 years old working with foster children. And I will go home wash dishes and I'm crying because this case is could almost died from non nutrition itself and, and thank God my partner's my better half you can't bring that home. gotta deal with that. Yeah, he's like, Yeah, can you just for a living and you look at your your mess? Or whatever they're doing? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And, and that's, that's why and that's why you need to know your limits. So, you know, I care about people, I want the best for people. But I cannot I'm not emotionally invested. You know, what I mean, is different. This is why quite of our ethics is used to not be seeing family and, you know, as clients, because you can't you can't be impartial. We can't be neutral. You know, so, yeah, you have to know your limits. Yeah. And that's all part of boundaries of who you can work with. So another thing I don't I don't work with couples. Because, number one, I don't break anybody out. But but it's like playing tennis, two against one. You know, we have to we're analyzing everything, body language, tone, everything, right. So to have to, and it's, I see coupled once in a while, because I have a client, for example, and they're doing something I think it's important to include their partner. So we'll have a session. I just can't do that all day long. Yeah, I respect a lot of couples that do that all day long. I can't I know me. Yeah. Yeah, you know, so it's that self care, listen to your body switches, knowing your own limits, you know, and that's what it is. So when it comes to clients, I don't work with certain, you know, issues on that because that is that's a disservice. Right? I'm going to work with clients that I know it's my strength, and I can really serve and also with my time, so a lot a lot of self care. I consider myself extroverted introvert. I love talking in front of people. I do talk, they do stuff, but then I need alone time is actually my large extrovert. I don't know I made that up. Okay. I was like, that sounds that sounds. It makes sense when you say it. And then on the other hand, I'm like, oh, maybe? I think I've made I don't even know the word but I call it extroverted introvert, you could be both a little bit of both. Yeah, that makes total sense. Because it does seem like a bit of a spectrum. Not like all or nothing, you know, I found with people that especially are marketing themselves online, whether they have a business online, or one have a business online or just are online a lot is that it becomes hard to really have like energy management, and run something online, especially business because you feel like, when you're not online, you're not possibly making sales, or you never know, like, what's around the corner, people will like, just be so burnt out, but then not really do anything and kind of spin the wheels. And I was wondering if you had any, like, tips, thoughts, suggestions, comments on like, what, what, from what I see a lot of people are just like, you know, just doing feels like they're doing a lot, but they're like, kind of giving it all away for free. I guess, you know, it's, I'll help anyone for anything, because if I show my value, then somehow that will translate into me being successful. It's like someone else I see. That's making six plus figures or whatever on Instagram, you know, they're like, that person seems to be doing that. If I just keep going. I'll be like them. You know what I mean? I've seen that. Yeah. Oh, yeah. And yeah, you can't, can't do that. You know, I think again, and I get that because i Yes, I am a therapist as I do, but I own a private practice. So I also wear this hat of marketing and the business end of it. I am a solo practice. And again, part of a couple years is I really beyond any help, because I am also bilingual, I speak Spanish. So my practice from the beginning has always been booming with I'm grateful. I've been so blessed and grateful that I I never have a shortage of clients. I honestly don't know. And I see therapist like struggling. I'm like, there's more than enough people that need help out there. package it right correctly. And I see everything. I do take insurance and private pay. And that was my personal against boundaries. That was my personal choice where I have clients, I have state insurance, and yes, they don't pay much however, I just it just feels right for me. And I limit how many clients I see in that spectrum. To me just feels right that to serve that population needs. Practice, you know, because a lot of them get like clinics, and there's nothing wrong with that. However, a lot of the therapists there are students, I was there, students don't have a whole lot of experience that a lot of them are not licensed. Yeah. Because you, you can do papers with the masses and not have a license if you work in Oregon and divinization, that they're licensed, licensed, you see, so, so to be, you know, individually licensed, that's when you can work in private practice and bill insurance, which is two more years after your masters is full time. Does that make sense? So, yeah, so for me, it felt like that, but then, you know, I also have clients that maybe they want to join the military, and they don't want anything on their record. They don't want to use the surance. And that's my full fee. And then again, I don't want anything on the record like, yeah, because Because to see a therapist. Now, if you're using insurance, we have to diagnose you. Insurance isn't paid to talk paid if you have a disorder. Yeah, that makes total sense. Because I don't have a disorder. But I was like, going through my insurance, like, I want to talk to a therapist, because then they're like, why? And I was like, I just want to talk to a therapist. Like, I just want someone to talk to you regularly. And they were like, but what's wrong with you? And I was like, what? Why Does something have to be wrong with me? I'm just the human, you know? I think, yeah, that comes from the bad don't understand therapy, you know what I mean? So people don't understand it. Always think like that. But the doctor by the way, the doctor didn't even the didn't seem to understand it. But I get it now what you're saying like, they were like, they're medically trained. So yeah, they're like, let me look it up in the DSM real quick, like, Okay, do you got any of these things? Yes, I fidget sometimes go he's, uh, he's gonna go to therapy for fidgeting or something? I don't know. Yeah, yeah. But that's what it is. That's the medical model. And I'm all about educating people. And I tell them that, you know, you know, so usually adjustment disorder, the lowest thing you can give someone, it just means you're having trouble adjusting in life. You know, but even adjustment disorder and there's different kinds of investment disorder with mixed anxiety and depression with anxiety, because that's given to people that are just adjusting to be a move, you know, with some COVID I saw a lot of kids that they never struggle with anxiety and nothing great students and because just being away from their friends, you know, online school, they have such a hard time. So they were just says that's adjustment disorder, you know, but I think it's more than three months, and it changes and stuff. But but that's because we're using insurance. Yeah. If not, then people do rather pay private pay. Yeah, well, I don't I ended up not even using because it was so slow. And the whole thing process, I just pay private pay. Yeah. And I have for years, but I'm like such a big fan of, of therapy. I know. Keep saying it. But just because it's funny, I don't know. So it's on, there's the different I know, I know, you read into this too. But as someone who's not like an academic background, like talking to someone, and I mentioned therapy, and they're just like, what, and they lump it all together of like, therapists of having really no idea. They're like, they think, you know, therapists are prescribing medication. And they think psychiatrists are the same as therapists and all that stuff. And all like, when I talk to people, there's like this, Mr. You know, and by the way, always, by the end of the conversation, I'm going to look into that, you know, and part of the recipe, like, let me help you find one, you know, because because it's one thing they'll say, you're gonna look into that. And it's also not like driving through McDonald's or something where you can just find him. It's to find someone that you trust, that you can share stuff with, because hey, you know, I heard this thing actually a slightly off topic, but I feel like it would be useful to someone listening, is to give, I don't know where I'm read this now. But to give if you see a therapist, give them around three tries, or three sessions before you decide whether or not Do you really think about that, like that? I've heard of that. I don't know personally against depends on your preference. I think like two times, you should know but yeah, I think personally and again, I do this for a living so I can tell right away if I'm going to click with someone or not. I never thought about on the other side, it's kind of like, again, that's a funny thing. I'm looking at like the side of that barber or something, women's haircuts different because it's like a very, there's a whole more process there. But for a guy as a barber, like, I'll go to the barber, way more times than I should, until he really messes it up, you know, with the therapist, it shouldn't be like that. They should be like Barber is always gonna cut the hair. He's not gonna be like, actually, I don't think your head shape is really working from my slippers. And yeah, so like, maybe it's just maybe see a different barber or I don't know if this is a great fit, but not that a therapist would necessarily do that. Maybe they make a different suggestion. But yeah, you know, on your side if it's gonna work out, huh? A lot of times Yeah, yeah. But you know, it's kind of connected to your question about energy, right? And it's knowing your limits and I thing that takes mindfulness, you know, and all it is, is mindfulness again, we always hear about that is paying attention. You know, and as creatives and entrepreneurs, we're always looking, you know, we just love a lot of time. We love what we do. That's why we get out of the whole rat race mentality. And we're like, I need to do this for myself. But then we get so caught up in the shiny object. Right. Okay. And I've been there, you know, I have a YouTube channel and I haven't posted in a couple months, because I know I shouldn't say I don't have time is not a priority. Yeah, low priority right now. Professional redirect right there. You're sitting there, you're walking, you're walking the talk. But this, uh, you know, we get excited what we do, and you have to be mindful of your energy, because if you're trying to do everything, it's all podcasting is popular. I'm gonna try. I'm gonna try one. Right. And I should be ebooks and I should do an online course. And that all of that takes energy. And from the moment we wake up, we go to bed. We only have so much of it. Yeah. So you have to be mindful. Were you putting it up? You know, and putting it in podcasting? No, I'm just kidding. That's just you know, my mother said that he was like, You shouldn't because I love podcasts I listen to podcasts is the beginning. I think I made fun of by the way, every time I yeah, they're just bothering me. But every time they go in our in my car, they're in my pockets about automatically. Oh, my God, is on this ride. And now he's always looking to play a guy him down to like Joe Rogan. Right? Yeah, yeah. Now it's become like so much more normal. But I will say, and I totally wasn't, I was just kidding about doing podcast. But on one hand, I will say and again, it could be YouTube. I'm not saying like strictly podcast. But the argument I always make for doing podcasts is to your point, you only have so much energy in the day? And what are those big things you can do that make everything else easier? And I do think it's easy to take a podcast that makes informs the rest of the content you post. So that's my like, one argument for making it. But yeah, but that's, that's the point. So but yeah, you only have so much energy in the day, as you were saying, and using that. Intentionally. It sounds is really the key to growing online. It sounds simple, but there's so much stuff that gets in the way. Yeah. And it seems like what what I found is people are really great at not really checking in with themselves throughout the day. And people, myself included, I'm not like that I'm not a part of this. We, as people are great at like, feeling, you know, we did some stuff, but not always checking in with ourselves throughout the day of knowing, like how much time was spent to certain activities. And it just starts to seem like it escapes. And that whole like time, energy management becomes like a blur. Do you have any like thoughts on like, how to kind of navigate that? Because I know for me, I mean, if there was if there was like a physical response, did you ever hear that thing? The padlock. It was like a watch that you could wear and like every time I think was for like cigarettes, but you could use it for anything. It would shock you if you like, had a craving. Yeah, it was like it was I don't know, if it's still around, it was popular. It was like a Kickstarter thing. And it would shock you if you wanted a cigarette or something. And I don't know, if you had a shock yourself how I don't remember how it worked. But if we if we had a thing that was like, every time we were scrolling Instagram or Tiktok or YouTube mindlessly, and it shocked us, I wonder how many times that would go off. You know, to slow down and be mindful. It's really hard when you're in like a repetitive cycle of that stuff. You know what I mean? Yeah, definitely. I love how the iPhones now give you like your report. And just and just noticing that, again, mindfulness is paying attention and stop living in the thoughts in your head, you know, and just being president, what is it just noticing that? Oh, my gosh. So yeah, it really comes down to that. But I'm gonna point those in like, because my thought a little bit. But yeah, with mindfulness, I think is, yeah, good paying attention. There's actually like a thing called a dis time study, you can read it, it saves a lot of work. But every 15 minutes, you write down what you're doing. If you do it for a day, it's almost like when you're tracking your expenses, like you're trying to get hold of your spending and like write down everything on here. It's like a penny you spend on write it down. It just makes you more mindful. So, so you, there's probably apps I don't know, which is writing it down, right? Where, you know, what are you doing every 15 minutes or something? So it's just again, paying attention to that. But I will say because I'm a therapist, you have to leave. Think about you and I think sometimes you worry so much about what's the hottest thing on social media, I should be doing this. I should be doing that. And shoulds anytime you catch yourself saying that I should and shouldn't be doing it. You're judging yourself and putting pressure on yourself. You know, and I think sometimes you got to, I know I have a bias because I'm a therapist, but our mental health is the foundation. If you're struggling with grief, you're heartbroken, having marital issues, you know, just lost a job, you struggle with depression, you're very anxious person, your mind is always racing, you can't focus, it's extremely hard to Germany wasting energy. So number one, you have so much of it, physical injuries to I see a lot of clients that have chronic chronic pain that takes up so much energy, that when you need to focus on your business on your creativity is so hard to do that we cannot be creative, when we're under stress is to different parts of the brain is you know, is we have to be in a relaxed state to open that up, you know, so you have to take care of your mental health first. And that doesn't have to be therapy. I know it's not that but just acknowledge it does, acknowledging like, I'm not okay, I'm in a funk. Just again, they acknowledge that you're human. And it doesn't have to be a therapist, it may be a hotline, it might be your buddy go out fishing, you just talk about it to get it out. You know, because emotions are energy in motion. That's what emotion stands for. So when we feel something, and it's just there, it's like heavy in new ways. And you can still be successful, you can just do stuff, but it's really hard. You're almost like running in water. You know, but when you acknowledge how you feel and take care of your of yourself first, with self care with talking about things, whatever, then it's so much easier to then focus on the things that are on your goals and what you want to do. Yeah, and that that makes a lot of sense. And that kind of sounds like one of the things that maybe when it's there's that mindless scrolling taking place, is you kind of really outsourcing that energy or outsourcing that. That emotion to whatever pops up on the feed, you know, is a negative coping skill actually. Yeah, it's a it's a way to escape from stress is something we just want to escape and mindlessly scroll, because it's not like you're doing research. Right? It's a way to escape and we all have, you know, a coping skill is just something that makes us feel better. That's there's a simple definition I give it right sometimes gives us relief. But there's positive and negative ones. And you always know it's negative, because sooner or later you have negative consequences. Right? So drinking itself is not a bad thing. But if you do it so much that now is causing issues with work with your relationships, your health, that's a problem, right? So it's the same thing. Our technology is not bad for me, I love it. My god, I've met so many mentors, we get to connect because of that, right? But it's when you are now using as an escape, you know, or you're just so emotionally numb that is almost like just doing this and you know, then that's when it becomes like a negative. Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. And I feel like I found for myself at least the effects of that numbing, because I don't really drink, like hardly, and then I don't do drugs. And so like, I'm pretty pretty, I'm like super clean. But when it comes to like Mindlessly scrolling, when I've done it in the past, the effects of it seem very subtle, but I know they're there. But it's almost like this film, I feel like with my mind, where it's like this, things are just a little bit not as sharp and clear. And it's so different than if I just spent like an hour outside having a conversation with a friend. Just spending some time reading a book, things like that. And he just feels like this like film that I'm like, I don't even always know it's there. It's kind of almost like if I ate a bunch of junk food, and I just don't feel you know, like, I'm not gonna go run a marathon same thing after I'm not going to just scroll, Instagram Tik Tok for an hour and a half and then be like, Okay, now I'm ready to go run for a marathon. You're overstimulating your mind, our mind has not our mind can only process so much information at once and aware at times are like it's so much stuff. It's fighting for our attention and is overstimulated you know, if you just do one finger scroll just once on any social media site, all that information your brain just again, now, I think it's like between seven and nine pieces of information, give or take a number of how much our mind can process at once. That's why we break down phone numbers, phone numbers, 10 digits, but we tend to break it down to three, right? 484523386 numbers. Okay, that's public exam. But we tend to put it into three chunks, right? Yeah. So when we're scrolling, our mind is overstimulated, even if it's nothing bad, you know, I know for myself, I always know when I wake up at four in the morning and my mind is just like flipping channels on the TV and I'm aware of them. I was thinking of this. And then I catch myself. It's I haven't meditated in a week. Yeah, yeah, right. And that's why We need that. Again. It doesn't have to be meditation, it could be just sitting alone, taking, you know, writing, you know, home from work and just turning off the radio, just turning off the noise. Yeah, yeah, that seems things. Yeah, I was like, super into meditation for years. And then just kind of like was like, I want to see what life is like without it because I was like, doing it for like, religiously for three and a half years. And so I kind of wanted to like, like, I felt like I wanted to implement what I learned. And then just recently got, like, back into it. And I feel like the spate the separate, it feels it feels like it puts like a wedge in between moments. If I feel like when I don't meditate, it just tasks shifting. It's one thing to the next, the next, the next the next, but somehow just one block of meditation in the morning. And even my afternoon feels different. Somehow, you know, there's like, a breath, which is just incredible how that works. Yeah. And again, as creatives and entrepreneurs, you know, if I ever heard a lot of I follow a lot of successful blogs, you know, the millionaires, because I like to learn from them, you know, and billionaires, but they credit the more they slow down in the morning meditating in general, like meditation or just slow down, the more money they need, the more creative they are. Yet that makes sense, though, because now there's space. You know, when we're go, go, go, go, your mind is just racing to the next thing. And then again, if you're in a hamster wheel, when you can actually slow down. Now you can get creative, like ideas popping up. Oh, yeah, I could do this. Oh, no. You know, what, if this is wasting my time, let me just hire someone on Fiverr. And do this, like these ideas. Now there's space for that. You see, so it's so important to have that? Yeah. And it feels counterintuitive, not feels because it doesn't feel counterintuitive when I'm doing it, but it like sounds I would say counterintuitive, when you know it's Wait, I'm gonna slow down and do more. But it it's crazy how how that works like that. It's almost like time shifting or something. Because I know that when I meditate in the morning for 10 or 20 minutes, like, just the whole day feels different. And maybe I maybe it's, you know, I'm not tracking my time to a tee. But like, maybe it's because I'm spending my time more wisely or something. That's the only thing I can think of, I'm sticking with certain tasks longer not switching as much. But yeah, it's crazy how that works. And you realize, holy cow, this wasn't a good idea. Or maybe this one thing was a good idea. And that seems to help with energy management. Do you think exercises in that same category to as meditation? Well, definitely, yeah. You know, meditation is not sitting in the install and humming. Yeah, for anyway. meditation and mindfulness is again, paying attention. Right? So a lot of times, you're physically wherever you are, right now, you're physically there. But if your mind is in the future, what if they're making up scenarios, classic anxiety, by the way, and a lot of times, when it comes to our thoughts, a lot of times with depression, we're stuck in the past. So when you think about it, your second memories are imagination, which you're not here. And I think exercise, which I love, too, it helps me to really focus, you have to be present and make sure you keep your balance, you know, you're feeling the resistance, if you're lifting weights, whatever you're doing, right, it forces you to be present. So not only does you physically moving, you know, benefit you just good, you know, quite feel good hormones, but it's a way of meditation, you know, you're, you're present, if you think about it, you know, unless you're doing something repetitively, well, that's just autopilot, you're still not paying attention. You know what I mean? When you're paying attention to your movements, like yoga, you can keep your balance, if you go if you're not, you lose your balance and stuff, right? Anything that you do as you're biking. You know, a lot of runners say they get this runner's high, you know, because of that because you're so present in the moment you know, and that's in this video we're just talking about now you want to work even when they weren't smart right work hardly smarter not harder. Yeah, you know, and being productive not busy. Yeah. And that's what it's that's what it does, you know, so yeah, yeah. Again, doesn't have to be like sitting Indian style, you know, artists people like that paint, you know, whatever, like musicians, you know, exercise, fishing, shooting, believe it or not, or whatever, whatever helps you be present in that moment. That is a form of meditation. It's funny you say shooting right there because I got into shooting a while ago but I got into meditation first and I don't really talk about shooting much because that's not really the crowd and it's just like every every like culture, like people make people to me, I found people make something their identity, like they're like, I love football. So now Football is my identity and it's all or nothing on my team, you know, or it's I love video games. I'm a gamer this and that and it's all or nothing and I'm a big fan of not making my hobbies or interests or even job, like my identity, like, I just want to be myself. And then those are influencing. But so that's why I say about shooting because it's like, I don't make shooting my identity because I'm like, not trying to attract all the other people that is like, crazy people out there. But But I found the I go to a tactical shooting school that's nearby me. And the head instructor has been doing it for 30 plus years. He likes to call it like, this gun fighting. It teaches Zen with bullets. And I was you know, like, he's not he's some like, yoga guy. That's it. He's not that at all, you know, retired SWAT and he's but but the the focus I came out of there with like, such, I was like, I can do anything right now. Not because I feel like awesome because a gun, but just because of the sheer amount of precision focus it takes because you can't be switched off. And all the training really is about being switched on. And it's like the ultimate mindfulness training in the last place I expected, you know, yeah, yeah, the activity you know, you're not hurting anybody and hurting anyone is the is the activist sports does that to a lot of athletes, you know, about I just been like, present and stuff, you know, so it's whatever rocks your boat, and it helps you and, and it doesn't have to be customized. When I create list of coping skills with clients, I tell them, it has to work for you, you know, skills with like, you'll make like a list of the skills with a client? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah, yes, I have, like part of our you know, that we, you know, again, therapy, you're learning what I do, you know, we teach, you know, you're learning these skills. My goal, I always tell clients, my goal was for you to be your own therapist, you're gonna get so good at all that the trigger was support that let me let me feel it out. Like you just know the steps now, you know, and that's yeah, I create there, we create lists, like, alright, take out your phone, or whatever works for you. And we just create a coping skills list. And then I tell them, whenever you notice, you're either like your mind's racing or you're in a funk, whatever it is, pull that list out, and which ones feel out which one feels right in that moment. And it has to be customized, because what works for me might not work for you. And vice versa. Yeah, you know, so, yeah, I love that. And I found so people are kind of like, I think to like with like meditation or exercise, you kind of get like, Okay, I got to do this, like, a couple times a week, a few times a week. But I think with therapy, especially people are kind of like confused on how often what is it look like? What do you find with people who come to therapy? What's the schedule usually look like for someone coming to you? Yeah, so definitely depends on our schedule, because I have a lot of clients, but it depends, like, usually when I do an assessment, if their symptoms are really high, so they're having many panic attacks, you know, a couple of times a week, we might have to do twice a week for a little bit to prevent hospitalization, you know, and it goes into the technical stuff to prevent that a higher level. But typically, if it's like, they're really really struggling, their symptoms are really affecting their life in a negative way. I recommend a week, once a week, as things get better, your someone's okay, you know, I think you can do this every, every two weeks will be fine. And then what I do personally, is we the goal is to space them out. So then I have a couple of clients that I see as needed. They're great, they met all their treatment goals. They have it down pat, but they like that support. You know, so sometimes I see once a month, or as needed, where I might not hear from for two months, and they're like, hey, you know, something's coming up, can we have another little touch up session. So that is the goal to get to that point. And that's fine. But typically, the more severe the symptoms are, then the more frequent is going to be how often you see no more if it's more than twice a week, then that's technically you need a higher level of care. Outpatient is you need something more than outpatient. You need maybe like a partial program, which you go there all day long, from nine to nine, nine to three in the afternoon. It's your therapy out, you know, so there is different levels of therapy. And I think again, like Hollywood makes it seem like you know, when you're therapy you're at the highest level of where the highest really residential you can even live on your own. But people think the hospital and is that fair, we prevent that. So outpatients down here, where we're preventing that from happening. Nice. Yeah, yeah, it is kind of a mysterious, it almost seems like it could be like people in like movies or shows, it sounds like they go to their therapist, like a couple times a week where they're like, I had to go to therapy. It's like, what if you're going to yoga or something? I mean, you could but you're paying out of pocket because there's not going to cover that. Yeah. Yeah, like you should just go hospital at this point. So it's really flexible. It kind of works with whatever the person's schedule really is. And would you what would you say to someone to they're like, Yeah, okay, like therapy sounds cool. But I don't know that I have specific problem to work around, or I don't even know what I would talk about. Or, you know, I know I feel like I kind of want to go but I don't really know I feel like people feel like They need a reason to go. Do they need a reason to go? No. I mean, the reason could be prevent problems. Like, why would you wait for something bad to happen? Right? So usually when people end up yeah, like I need some therapy is because those things have gotten so out of control, right? Think of marriage counselors like, you wait till you're fighting all the time talking. Somebody talking about divorce, let's see a therapist instead of preventing them, you know, so Prevention is always better, of course, you know, but that's why again, that's why I always tell people, you got to do your research, like any, it's so it's such an intimate thing. And it's kind of weird, because if we have your telling, if there was things that you pirates told anyone, and it's so interpreted one way, yeah. Oh, yeah. Always, when people asked me like, how are you doing? I'm like, yeah, it's a one way it's kind of weird, but it is. So that's why it's important to do your research, look at their profile. And again, I kind of you can get the vibe, the sense of someone by looking at the pictures do they have, you know, like something I personally judge the image, just everyone's gonna have a website? I refer that with it. Yeah, I see. too. I'm like, when I'm like, looking, because like, I'll be looking at, like, for therapists for a friend or something. And I'll just be like, I know this person. And I just can look at generally speaking, if like, I'm looking for, you know, a guy around my age, and I just know him well enough, like, I'm probably not going to refer him to, you know, a certain type of therapist, based on the looks, I just know, like, I just narrow it down, you know, not not that, that there's something wrong with that therapist, but for the person, you know, it's I do find a believe that like, you're like, yeah, like, I feel like certain maybe female clients, probably, if they don't feel safe with a male or female client, like they shouldn't, is you have to force you know, you have to force anyone to be like, your therapist, you get to choose, you get the power, you know, you do you too, and then you have to be right, it has to be a good fit. Culturally, right. So, you know, I'm Hispanic. So a lot of clients have told me basically perfectly fine, angry, we speak in English, but our culture is different. And that's important, you know, cultures, different religious, some people they and I have had clients call me and they're like, hey, funny things have a question. Are you you know, is a personal? Are you religious and stuff like that? And then I'll tell them, and it's whether we're a good fit or not? Yeah, fine. And I appreciate that. Because you want to know, from the beginning, you know, so, and that's totally, totally fine. This is personal, you know, so you should, you should shop around. And because, again, it goes both ways. It's a good fit, you know, and I think that's why I was so good. Well, I am good with adolescents, because I look a lot younger than what I am. So even when I was younger, you know, it was they can just connect more. And I've had gotten that feedback. They're like, I love that you're just show and we're just, you know, talking, they don't feel like I'm like another late teacher, you know, tell them what to do. And they don't, I'm not I'm not like that, you know. So you have to find that fit is super important is definitely nothing wrong. If you want a specific race, specific gender, you know, sexual orientation, that's good, you should want that you want to find someone that you feel comfortable with. If you don't feel comfortable, I don't care what the therapist credentials are is not going to work. Because it has to be a right fit that as there's so many research studies have been done on why they keep doing them at this point. But they've actually reached what makes therapy work. Why is it some people can degrade get out of depression? And you know, what is actually the therapeutic relationship? Finding someone you feel heard and listened and seen? You know, we're like, Okay, I'm not one of my biggest compliments. I have you that love this. One of the biggest compliments I've gotten actually this year is pleaser, you make people feel like they're not broken. And I love that, because it's my hope. Because you're not, yeah, we're human. You know, we live through that as whatever stuff from childhood. And I think it takes is a sign of maturity. And as a sign that you're ready for that when you start to realize, oh, maybe I need to work on myself. You know, regardless, we can undo what happened to us, and when we're younger and our childhood or what life throws at us, but there comes a point where like, Okay, I need to do something about this. Yeah, you know, and again, there's only one way if you're not to that point where you're like, wow, I struggle with depression, anxiety, that's for coaching. And I do a little bit of that too. Because I feel I'm I consider myself a frontline worker. So I see mostly clients, but I do coaching to where you're not getting a diagnosis. You know, you're just strictly getting to what's the problem and very solution focused. And that is when I see clients like that. My average is about me four sessions by the fourth session. They're like, I'm good. I'm good. Yeah, I feel good. Like I can definitely coaching. I love that. And I think to tie it to like creative entrepreneurs, I feel like entrepreneurs in general are and, and people who put themselves out there, like content creators, people like that, like, to me, it's almost like I really have a hard time saying, like, I feel like every content creator and entrepreneur needs a therapist on some level, because like, they go up against another level of like, self judgment and compare all these things. Like you're putting all this stuff out, like you're exposing, like these different ideas and all this stuff. And you're like, kind of putting it out there. And then today, in social media world, it's there's all these analytics being shown to you, and it's do it better, do it better do it better. And that's not necessarily the healthiest mindset to be in when you're starting something from scratch. And you're like, conceiving this idea publicly. And then you're putting it out there and you're like, Wow, this person's also, are they doing it better, because they've, but that person's also been doing it for longer, and has a team of 30 people. And it's not the same, it's not shouldn't be comparison. But like, you, it's hard not to compare. And sometimes people compare, and they don't even realize they're comparing all that type of stuff. So I'm such a proponent of any content creator, entrepreneur, to at least try therapists therapy with a therapist that they trust and feel safe with, because I honestly believe it's like a secret hack, to leveling up your, your entrepreneurial game, your content creation game, when you like, have that support, especially if you feel like you don't have a strong, you know, emotional support from someone in your life, especially if no one around you've done what you've tried to do to be able to, like tell someone like, Hey, I posted on Instagram today, or, Hey, I published a podcast and no one listened. And I put so much time into it. And I got nothing back. You know, and and to have that just to be able to say those words physically, rather than just in a journal. Say that to another human being who can then like, validate and witness that. That's, that's, that's that's the fuel that keeps you going. You know, I don't I found. Yeah, I agree. I think nothing brings out our stuff than entrepreneurship. Because we are so vulnerable. Right, you know, it's a pitcher that you sent to put yourself out there your best ideas and like, crickets, and doesn't mean again, it doesn't mean it's bad. It's just my students see it? Yeah. You know, because everything flooded, you know, but yeah, it does. And we all have stuff. We all have stuff, you know, I mean, everyone else does. Yeah, yeah. Except for you. But even as Klein for examples like that they have they're, like, had a happy childhood. Like, I feel guilty that I'm feeling so anxious. Because I have no reason. You know, and it's like, okay, you don't understand the anxiety is a biochemical your body's reacting to something. You don't need a reason for that. I had a very happy childhood girl and mom and dad very loved me nurturing at a very strong foundation. I have still have stuff. Yeah, that still, you know, that comes so there's Oh, and when we're at we pick, keep picking things up. So we're older, there's all his life. And I think again, that's why I say it's a sign of maturity, to be mindful and self aware is ooh, I put myself out there, you know, I hear from money coaches all the time that every time you hit income level, new stuff comes up. You don't I mean, once you hit the six figures is like and now all of a sudden, you're gonna have issues that keep you there and when you hit 250 You're gonna have these issues and vice you know, a million so that's what I mean. It's always like that when you put yourself out there we're so vulnerable. So you definitely have to work on setting boundaries and self care and self love to realize great that work for you because comparison is like a killer of confidence. And I always tell people you have no idea what the backstory is behind them you know? So like you said, Oh my god, they have all this stuff. Yeah, but they've been doing this for 15 years. They have a whole team you know, you just starting off or maybe you've done it for a while but maybe you're in a smaller market or whatever. Like is not fair to compare and I think that's why you need again that strong is why the beginning you need mental health is our foundation because nothing brings out our insecurities you know then entrepreneurship you know so and that's happened to me for the longest I wanted to start my own private practice and I worked for a hospital I was in both for a bit and my partner's you're making more from working 10 hour like it was a ridiculous working part time they said the practice been full time at this hospital. No brainer. Why don't you leave in the fear? Right? Ah, what if I don't make it what is and and then I caught myself against self awareness is like pleaser. Here's my little trick when I tell a client Yeah. and is well what do I have into my brain? Trouble, what can I control and marketing putting it out there? And within two months of fine, I was completely full and good. That's what I mean each step every time you level up, there's always going to be stuff is now your another phone is like, look at all this stuff here. Yeah, from when you were seven? Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah, that's why you don't have to again, be clinically depressed, it's just all therapy is is really teaching you how to improve your thinking and controlling your emotions. That's the best way I can describe it. Right? We all have for different reasons we have stuff from all different things. But again, how can you control that thinking and challenge your thoughts? Right and being able to like, you know, that's okay. Like, at least I put myself out there, someone would get it, it's not fair to compare, we have no idea where they're at with this and stuff, you know, it's just your thinking is different, you know, stronger. Yeah. And you said those three things, boundaries, self care and self love. Like, I'm gonna write those down on my whiteboard afterwards. And just be like, make sure I like got something set up for those because it's true. And I think I do. But I think making that explicit to myself is like a big key and making sure that I'm sticking to it. And I am biased when it comes to therapists, therapy, because I just like the idea of challenging, especially like emotional conversations, because I'm like, I don't know, I'm into. Well, I mean, yeah, or whatever, even a diagnosis, you got time, but but like, I do love when people are super open with their emotions, and challenge their own emotions and, like, in a safe way, with someone that they can trust. And I feel like it's one of the ultimate forms of self care. So with it sounds, you know, I'm just sounds almost obvious at this point. But I have to ask for one or for anyone listening, are you? You? You mentioned I don't think it was recorded, but that you work with people virtually? Are you taking clients? So someone was listening to this and Elisa? The sounds awesome. Well, you mean, like therapists, do you work with clients virtually right now? Yeah, I actually only work with clients virtually ever since the pandemic and stuff I close on the office. I've been a little bit of virtual before. But now I'm like 100%, virtual, which, again, is just the convenience and stuff like that, which expands my reach and stuff. So again, for clinical purposes for therapy, we can only see clients in the state we're licensed in. So I am actually taking the same for the exam to in January to be licensed also in Florida, because we just moved to South Florida. So I have both. Yeah, but you don't let for therapy purposes. You know, that's why coaching is more flexible. Yeah. There's no rules to that. But yeah, so So because you have been diagnosed. Yeah, so if someone was like me, I don't really need to be diagnosed. And they're like, I would love to see you for coaching purposes. Where would they find? Where could they go to learn more about working with you? Yeah, the the easiest because I have all my links is my website. It's called Universal Mind. therapy.com Universal Mind therapy calm as all my links to that I have, you know, there's links to my Amazon Author Page. So my social media, my email and phone number. So yeah, usually when I tell people that they hear from a club or something, if you email me probably easier to be honest, cuz I'm always in session. So it's either this email, and there's like, let you know, it's gonna be like, where do you hear from me because I always make an effort to fit those people in just because often, it just feels more special and stuff. I'll link to that in the show notes. I'm surprised like universal mind therapy wasn't taken to I feel like that's such a such a great name. Oh, I know, I took me forever really? Find that one like combination of words. Yeah, yeah, it was, again, my significant other helped me with that were two things that were big Marvel fans in my house. So very big Marvel geeks in my house. So the whole universal, you know, Marvel Universe thing, and then just universal mind, right. It's like our, how we are this higher energy? And is is coming because I believe in both. Definitely that one, you know, and, you know, just for SEO purposes, therapy. Yeah, you got to throw in therapy in there. Yeah. Yeah, it's so good. I would just like my like brain being work integrators like, how that's great. Also, how is that even available? Because it feels you know, like, 1998 someone would have bought it and then sat on it, and then try to sell it for a billion dollars or something. Thank you so much, Lisa, for joining me, I'm gonna link to all your your links in the show notes. And if you are thinking about therapy, I highly suggest just going for it and trying at least a couple sessions to kind of, you know, be curious about it, because I think anything can happen when you're doing it and it's one thing leads to another and then you go, Oh my gosh, I didn't even see how these two things were connected. And having someone even if you don't feel like it's super tangled, like if your mind doesn't feel super tangled and just having someone kind of like what's this Like just, you know, not like it's painful or anything because you're just kind of going at your own pace. It's just it's such a nice, like thing to do for yourself. And it's not painful, I promise. Oh, it's one of the things that maybe it's like massage. You know, maybe in the moment, it's like, ooh, that hurts. But then afterwards, yes. How awesome was that conversation with Lisa. Lisa, thank you again for joining me. I'm so thankful and grateful to have the chance to talk to you and share that conversation with everybody. I'm going to link of course, all everything Tulisa in the show notes. So make sure to check that out. And Digital Podcaster shout out make sure if you haven't already to make sure to hit the subscribe button. And yeah, next couple weeks, just a snapshot of what's coming up. Next, we have conversations with public speaking expert, blogging expert, and some other more good stuff underway. 2022 is going to be an amazing year. Happy new year. And I'm really excited to grow this year with you. It's going to be a great year. If you're looking to start your own podcast, simplify the whole podcasting process, all that good stuff, make sure to check the show notes or go to www dot Digital podcaster.com. Because that's how I can help you best. I've created a solution to podcasting called podcast Pro, it makes it really simple. All you have to do is record and then share that file with us. And we take care of the rest. It's the easiest podcasting solution out there. And I've had a lot of experience sharing people in all of in all different industries, their message with the world through podcasting, I think podcasting is a great format. And I was watching HBO the other day, something like that. And they had a couple of people on couple experts, I think it was a true crime thing. So it might have been Hulu, I'm not sure. And the way they talked about podcasters. I just got the sense that pod the line between podcasting. And authors are starting to blur a little bit like how they used to feature like on these documentaries, they'd be like, they'd show that person speaking. And then it showed their name, and then under their name, like the credential. And you know, before I just remember seeing so often before it say like author, and you see author and you go, wow, that's like someone who I trust, because there's like a legitimate Miss behind the name, author if you're an author. And I've noticed that now with podcaster, it'll say podcaster. You know, and I don't think that was there. Like a couple years ago, really, at least I didn't notice that a couple years ago, where, you know, people would be like, this is a podcaster. And that was an like, legit thing, of course. So all that to say my predictions 2022 and beyond, is that podcasting is going to get even more credible, and even more mainstream, I guess I know, it's already kind of mainstream, but I think it'll be more accessible. But it's it's similar to writing a book in the sense that there are a lot of steps involved. And my goal was podcast pros to make those steps as easy as possible. So that's why I made it. So digital podcaster.com To learn more about podcast Pro. And I hope you're having a great week. A great start to the new year. I'll see you next week. Bye.