Ep 43 Embracing Transformation and Healing: A Journey with Wellness Advocate and Founder of Grounded Wellbeing Ryan DeVane, LCSW

When Ryan DeVane entered the recording room, his presence radiated the kind of calm assurance that only comes from someone who has navigated great personal transformation. In our heartfelt exchange, you'll discover how Ryan, as a transgender man channeled his life experiences into Grounded Wellbeing Practice, offering an oasis of support and affirmation for the LGBTQ+ community. Our conversation meanders through the diverse services Ryan's practice provides, including talk therapy, yoga therapy, energy healing, and even parenting coaching. Each modality is tailored to the individual, ensuring that every person who seeks out Grounded Wellbeing finds a path to wellness that resonates deeply with their unique journey.

A highlight of our discussion is the exploration of hypnotherapy's transformative potential. Ryan unveils the intricacies of this practice, from building a foundation of trust to guiding clients into a trance state where profound emotional connections can be made and healed. If you've ever wondered about the mechanics of reinforcing positive beliefs or the power of accessing buried emotions for therapeutic progress, Ryan's insights shed light on these processes with clarity and compassion. By the end of our conversation, it's clear that Grounded Wellbeing is more than just a practice—it's a community, and Ryan extends an invitation to anyone seeking solace and growth to reach out and join this collective journey to wellness.

Connect with Ryan and Grounded Wellbeing!
(Accepting new clients in Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, and Wisconsin)
https://telewellnesshub.com/listing/ryan-devane/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EKm4zkrX3g4
https://www.groundedwellbeing.org/



Hey there, future parents living in CALIFORNIA! Are you on the journey to conceive and looking for support and guidance along the way? Conceivable Psychotherapy is your trusted partner from conception through parenthood. Veronica Cardona, Licensed Clinical Social Worker, at Conceivable Psychotherapy, specializes in infertility, perinatal-postpartum struggles, and grief & loss.  They offer online therapy throughout California. You don’t have to do this alone; Conceivable Psychotherapy is here to help you. Connect with Veronica through her TeleWellness Hub Profile: https://telewellnesshub.com/listing/veronica-cardona-lcsw/

Transcript

Marta Hamilton (TeleWellness Hub) : 0:04

Hi, welcome back to another episode of The TeleWellness Hub podcast. I'm Marta Hamilton, your host, and today I get to speak with DeVane from from Grounded Wellbeing Practice.

Ryan DeVane, LCSW: 0:15

Welcome, Thank you so much. I'm so happy to be here. Thanks for having me.

Marta Hamilton (TeleWellness Hub) : 0:19

It's exciting to have you on here because I've hopped on a Zoom call with you before just to learn a little bit about your practice and what you're doing for the mental health and wellness community. I just knew I needed to interview you because you're just doing some really amazing things. To give you a little bit of a background for those listeners, ryan Devon is a licensed clinical social worker In Georgia, Florida, South Carolina. He is also a clinical hypnotherapist, a meditation teacher, a vibrational sound therapist. He does this as the founder and clinical director of Grounded Wellbeing, which specializes in providing mental health therapy and holistic wellness services to the LGBTQ plus community. He leads a team of providers who provide traditional talk therapy, yoga therapy, energy healing and parenting coaching. So a little bit of everything. I think I actually left out of a state right.

Ryan DeVane, LCSW: 1:19

Yes, Wisconsin too.

Marta Hamilton (TeleWellness Hub) : 1:21

Wisconsin. Yes, I'm sorry.

Ryan DeVane, LCSW: 1:23

That's okay.

Marta Hamilton (TeleWellness Hub) : 1:24

That's amazing, because that's exactly. I just thought, oh my gosh, here's this person just spreading mental health and wellness across states, you know, across the borders and in so many ways like truly just spreading so much goodness and healing, and so I knew I needed to talk to you in depth and just record it for the world to hear. So I want to start with asking why do you do the wellness work that you do?

Ryan DeVane, LCSW: 1:56

Yeah, no, I'm so glad you asked and thank you. I mean. Yeah, as you can see, I stay busy. I love what I do, though, and it truly is a passion, it's a joy, and it doesn't feel like work to me, and so, for the listeners, yeah, I mean, I am a transgender man and I am a queer person too, and so it meant a lot to me to have supportive, safe spaces when I was growing up.

Ryan DeVane, LCSW: 2:18

It was something that I needed, and so I really approached this work, and I embody this idea of be who you needed when you were younger, and I just really try to create that space for people to be able to thrive and identify what wellness can be, even if it's some of those more non-traditional methods that we might not always go to or think of, and recognize that it's not one size fits all. I think that's what we aim to do is just provide options and opportunities and then really let clients have their autonomy and choice and what kind of aspects of health and wellness they want to engage in. And, yeah, just wanting to center community and heal within community, that part is really big and important for us, and, yeah, it's a little bit about me and I love what I do.

Marta Hamilton (TeleWellness Hub) : 3:03

Yeah, I mean. Well, the passion is very clear in talking to you and the times that we've talked before and just hearing a little bit about what brought you into it. I always love connecting that, that people's why and the story behind what they're doing. It's always so fascinating because I think that passion shines through clearly in the work that you're doing and just hearing everything from parenting, coaching and energy modalities that you're doing. Talk to us a little bit about if a client comes to you, because I think a lot of people are curious and do I need more of a clinical perspective? Like, do I go to therapy or do I go to energy work? And social media and TikTok and all that is full of just a lot of information in this area and sometimes so I just want to empower listeners to know what would it look like to go to Grounded Well-Being, for example, and how do you know which modality of work would be best for you.

Ryan DeVane, LCSW: 4:02

Yeah, no, that's great and I think really a lot of it is just listening, kind of understanding, hearing what is showing up for someone or what they're looking for help with, and we have a fantastic intake coordinator and team who really helps specialize in figuring out what aspects people might be interested in and sharing what the opportunities are, and so we assess for risk and things like that and, of course, if there's mental health things showing up that we really feel like that's the primary concern, then we make sure that we get someone connected to a therapist and then, throughout the course of working with them, the clinicians can share about other opportunities that exist that are in addition to some of the other services that they are working on in individual therapy, but that they have the opportunity to join the yoga therapy group classes if they want, if they are interested in going to some of the sound healing group meditation sessions that we have.

Ryan DeVane, LCSW: 4:56

I think what's so important for us is recognizing that when it's in our space, we can confirm it's an affirming space and that it's a safe space. And I think, too, we really function from an attachment and relationally-styled lens as therapists, and so we know that that safe, secure base is really, really important in creating that. Safety and autonomy for clients is super-duper important and, yeah, they feel safe here. They know that they can come here and engage in some of these other things that they might not feel like they can do out in the world. It's anxiety-inducing for me to even walk into a yoga therapy or yoga studio, something like that, and I have lots of skills and I've done my own healing work and lots of resourcing and so, of course, for a client, that could be even more anxiety-inducing. So we just want to remove barriers and increase access in ways that we can.

Marta Hamilton (TeleWellness Hub) : 5:48

No, I just think that creating that safe space is so key, like you mentioned. I think that's everything I could imagine a very warm, inviting place and I think you said something in the beginning that I think is so helpful is for listeners out there. It's so hard to take that first step sometimes for seeking support in your healing, but to know that there are places like Grounded Well-Being that have someone who's a first step, like an intake coordinator. They're trained, they can share all that they're offering and they can help guide you in the process. You're not alone. I guess is what I'm trying to say that there are people whose whole role is to help you feel the best support possible. Before you even step foot or, I guess, sign on if it's virtual, before you even step foot into an office or sign on to a session, you're going to have support and I think that's something to just look out for.

Marta Hamilton (TeleWellness Hub) : 6:48

I know not everybody can have an intake coordinator, but just that first step people asking questions and being curious, a clinician who is curious from a point of compassion and support it's just something that's so valuable.

Marta Hamilton (TeleWellness Hub) : 7:03

Okay, someone comes in to the, because I remember when I spoke to you I said I wish I could go into your practice. I was trained from the perspective that to be a clinician, you should do some of your own work too. You should actively be working. If you're helping people with their mental health, you should maybe go in and talk to a therapist and do your own work too, similar to if you're helping people with their physical health as a personal trainer, you should be doing your own workouts and different things too. So I wonder from my own perspective, in seeking a provider for myself, I always get excited and curious when I see these really amazing opportunities and different clinicians with different backgrounds and offering. So talk to me about energy modalities a little bit, as they can blend and support wellness, because I feel like I have a really unique opportunity. You have a clinical background and you lead a team that offers energy healing. Talk to me a little bit just about that, what you've seen.

Ryan DeVane, LCSW: 8:21

Yeah, absolutely Sure, and I think this is such an important conversation too, right, Because I know it comes up when we think about ethics and, you know, legally and all of these kinds of things, right, and so I think it's helpful, yeah, to just kind of share you know how I've approached it and what we do in that kind of a thing. And then, yeah, just knowing that, yeah, I'm a big proponent in doing our work too, and I think I mentioned, you know, some of these things. The reason I'm passionate about sharing it with the world and incorporating it into wellness is because, for my own personal journey, I found it incredibly helpful. You know, yes, of course, big believer in therapy, love therapy. I've done a lot of therapy in my life that has been incredibly beneficial. But me personally, I've also found a lot of powerful shifts that I've experienced from you know, receiving Reiki or having Reiki sessions done. From you know, being in sound healing group sessions or doing one-on-one sound and vibrational therapy. I mean, I have experienced those shifts in my body. I know how powerful it is, right, and I think too, just having done it myself, it creates safety for clients too to know like, okay, yeah, this is healing too.

Ryan DeVane, LCSW: 9:29

Healing doesn't have to just look like this. It can also be like this, and I just I'm really passionate about somatic work and body work and, you know, moving those things in and out of the body, because we store that energy, energy gets stuck. And so when we think about energy work right, like that's all it is it's just trying to create more balance energetically and to put your body back into alignment, to move that energy through, because it does get stuck. It's like stagnant water, right. If a river's not flowing, it becomes stagnant. Just ease builds. And so we want to think about energy in that way too, where everything is energy, everything resonates at a certain frequency, right, and so if we're misaligned or something's out of alignment or not flowing the way that we want it to be, then we can incorporate some of these other things that really help get your body back into balance, and that's what it's all about. So, whether that's through movement, through yoga, or it's through a Reiki session, like we provide, we're just aligning that energy and, yeah, getting things flowing again.

Ryan DeVane, LCSW: 10:26

And so, you know, I am trained in Reiki. I am trained in Reiki one and two. I don't utilize it in my practice, though, just because, like I said, you know the ethics of everything. I'm trying to keep everything pretty separate and so the way that I've structured it is, you know me doing the therapy, us having our therapist, our team of therapists, and then we've got our energy healers and you know our Reiki masters that work alongside us and the yoga therapists who are able to provide some of that additional support to us. But we can keep it very separate in that way and not overlapping, right. So keeping that distinction of you know, if this is one of my therapy clients, and I'm doing therapy with them, but if this is a, you know, an energy healing client, they're seeing their energy healing person, right. So I think that's kind of how we've structured it and I hope that's helpful for people to hear. And then, of course, you know that there can be overlap. We're just not providing everything directly, if that makes sense.

Ryan DeVane, LCSW: 11:18

And then the group healing sessions that I do, the sound healing. I mean it's open to anyone in the community, so anybody can come. If you're a client, you can come, and if you're not, you can also come. It's an open space and we see ourselves as kind of a wellness center in that way.

Ryan DeVane, LCSW: 11:33

And then in terms of the clinical hypnotherapy work that I do. I mean that is absolutely amazing and such powerful stuff. I love it. It was, you know, the best training I've ever done, and so I've seen amazing shifts utilizing that with my clients, you know, doing work with trauma and anxiety and depression and utilizing trance and the subconscious mind to, you know, really go back to some of these past painful experiences, do a lot of that powerful healing work. And then what I love so much about it is the client actually gets a recording of my voice and the positive aspects of the session that I then share with them and then they use that outside of session for reinforcement. And so of course, you know, as a psychodynamic person, I love that transitional objects component. But, yeah, just amazing shifts. I absolutely love that.

Marta Hamilton (TeleWellness Hub) : 12:26

So Wow, I'm so, I'm so I'm even more curious now. So so so my background also. I love therapy. You know I'm an LPC supervisor. I love working on the clinical aspect of therapy. I think there's so much value in it. In my own personal life, I also have experienced just incredible healing and, and just like you mentioned, the release, you know, of just stuff going on in the body, just in our emotions, our memories that are stored through therapy Reiki, acupuncture I just I think there's a lot of support.

Marta Hamilton (TeleWellness Hub) : 13:08

I'm a registered yoga teacher because I just found it so, so amazing. I had to, you know, intellectualize it and learn more. I wanted to dive into it, but I think it's an amazing for some people, an amazing opportunity to support clinical work that they're doing right. I love that you're open to the public too as a wellness center. What an incredible. So I mean, you're a safe space but you're an inviting space too, I sounds like, and I love that. But I got so curious about the clinical hypnotherapy aspect because I'm wondering what kind of areas of support would you recommend hypnotherapy for? So people struggling with what type of issues you mentioned maybe like going back to a difficult memory, is it? Yeah, I'm just curious. You know who would maybe benefit from from hypnotherapy?

Ryan DeVane, LCSW: 14:02

Yeah, I mean it's great stuff really, truly.

Ryan DeVane, LCSW: 14:05

I mean it could be utilized with lots of different things you know, and there's different techniques too that you learn throughout the training that you get to use for different things, but it's great for behavior changes.

Ryan DeVane, LCSW: 14:16

So if you're trying to stop something or start something, it's really helpful for that and also helpful for trauma. It's a gentle way of like revisiting past traumatic experiences and there's different techniques that you can utilize. Whether it's a discrete trauma kind of like you know very definitive beginning and an end, there's a technique you can utilize for that where, again, the therapist is with you revisiting the there and then, but in the here and now, and so you're safe, you're supported, you're kind of told in that space and in trance and the subconscious is really coming in to do a lot of that work, connecting with your higher self, your wise mind, you know whatever you want to call it. You know that is also there with you, supporting you, and I think it's just really powerful and it's really gentle. I mean I just love the approach, I love the technique and then, yeah, great for anxiety, great for stress, there's techniques that you can utilize with.

Ryan DeVane, LCSW: 15:11

You know OCD type behaviors and you know CBT type approaches that you can utilize in trance to that. It's just incredible stuff. I mean, it's really wonderful, lots of things that it helps with.

Marta Hamilton (TeleWellness Hub) : 15:23

Wow, I had no idea. You know, when you brought up the changing the behaviors, I had heard that it makes sense in terms of anxiety and things. What about the process of letting go? Oh, yes, having that, oh, absolutely Like I, you know, like letting go and let someone else kind of talk them through, that I mean, I'm sure that's a, that's a kind of exercise and in itself, I mean it's not like you have to provide a recording, so that's kind of reinforcing probably too right of the positive rib.

Ryan DeVane, LCSW: 15:51

But I mean I would imagine, oh yeah, there's so much releasing. So much releasing, yeah well, and you know there's techniques to that you know are helpful with pain. So if there's somatic pain that is showing up in body but doesn't have, you know, necessarily like a physical origin, that has been identified with physical health doctors or things like that, then maybe it's more somatic base and psychosomatic and so you can actually work with that, with the hypnotherapy as well, and in trance to release kind of what that's related to. And then also, you know emotions, things like that. Yeah, lots of releasing that is done during that trance state, and then you're just reinforcing the positive. So when you're shifting the beliefs, that's the part that you're reinforcing for the person.

Ryan DeVane, LCSW: 16:36

But what's really powerful about it is that you know, through the process you're learning. You know you might start and I'm sharing this as a personal example because as part of the training you experience this yourself and so you might start by saying, oh yeah, I want to quit drinking coffee first thing in the morning, and then you find that it's actually related to something that happened in childhood and you're like, wow, I did not think that we were going to get there, but of course it's rooted in some childhood stuff, right and so. But I think that insight is so helpful to for clients, but also for you as the clinician, because as you befriend that subconscious and you're working with it, you learn a lot about the client. They learn a lot about themselves. I mean, it's just wonderful. It's just great. I can talk about it all day.

Marta Hamilton (TeleWellness Hub) : 17:19

I have to do a different segment where I just pick your brain on it Because I'm picturing it's like a light speed opportunity to kind of gain gain insight into things that you're not aware of in so many ways. I mean, it just sounds so incredible. How long is a session typically Like? Is there a preparation session? I've never done hypnotherapy, so now I'm also really curious Is there really?

Ryan DeVane, LCSW: 17:42

really curious, yeah, so. Yeah, so it's structured different ways. You know my existing clients have access to it. So if I find that something is coming up and I'm like, oh, you know, this might be something that we want to try with hypno, you know we'll talk about that and I'll introduce it so you can do it in that way. I can also see people for, you know, kind of shorter duration type treatment sessions. So you know, depending on what they're showing up with, what they're wanting to work on, we can structure it in like four to six sessions. We try to really move through a lot of what's showing up.

Ryan DeVane, LCSW: 18:11

The first session is typically, you know, rapport building, like we always do, right, and then just kind of learning more about the present and concern, doing a resource state so part of hypnotherapy, you know and to practice it ethically, you want to make sure that the client has, or the person has, resources, enough resources to be able to tolerate the trance state and things that come up for them, and so you just kind of want to assess ego strength and resources, and so you'll do that in the first session. It's really just kind of like a very gentle kind of guided meditation is what it's like, but introduces them to trance. You see how they tolerate it, how do they respond to it, is it something that they like, right? And so I think, again, getting back to that client choice and autonomy, that part is really important before you get into the deeper stuff, and so you kind of build out the tolerance in that way. So, yeah, does that answer your question?

Marta Hamilton (TeleWellness Hub) : 19:01

Yeah, no, that's nice. And then, oh, very kind of a gentle approach. It's not just kind of you show up and you're going to go into I don't know the term, I guess trans, trans and just be lost, yeah, which can feel really scary. Right, that's what I'm picturing.

Ryan DeVane, LCSW: 19:23

Because, yes, you're like, oh my gosh, am I giving up my control, Am I gonna have access to these things? You know, I think when we think about a stage hypnotist right like that's what we think of, like, oh my gosh, somebody's gonna make me cluck like a chicken, and it's really not like that at all. You do have much more control. You know, everybody is hypnotizable to an extent, and so I think that's a big part of it too. There's a lot of informed consent that goes into it and just kind of sharing what to expect, what it's like, cause, yeah, you wanna create that safety.

Ryan DeVane, LCSW: 19:49

I mean, it's so important and it's so needed, you know, because it is vulnerable. It's a vulnerable state to potentially be in, and so you want to really make sure that they feel very supported, that it's something that's gonna work for them. And you know, again, getting back to that, client choice is just, yeah, incredibly important. And then, in terms of the you know, the session time, most everything can be done within a 50 minute kind of standard therapeutic hour. Some of the, you know, deeper work, the regression techniques where you're really going back to some of these past memories or really stuck emotions, those you need a little bit more time, so like 75 minutes to 90 minutes for the session. Yeah, so.

Marta Hamilton (TeleWellness Hub) : 20:29

And how many sessions typically? I know it varies, I'm assuming. But you know EMDR, for example, might have a recommended kind of structure. Is there a recommendation when it comes to hypnotherapy?

Ryan DeVane, LCSW: 20:42

So yeah, it kind of depends on like what the presenting concern is and how much resourcing you feel like you might need to do. But I would say most things can typically be addressed within like four to six sessions, depending on what the client is presenting with. And then you know, in my long-term kind of relationships with clients will work on a particular issue and you know they see shifts after just that one thing. If it's an emotion that we're working on, like shame, for example, you know the insights that we gain from doing that regression and the reinforcement that they do outside of the session really helps and we often don't have to revisit it, but sometimes we do. It just kind of depends.

Marta Hamilton (TeleWellness Hub) : 21:20

Wow, that's really incredible. What age? I'm assuming this is adults typically, or is it not? Maybe it's younger, I don't know so.

Ryan DeVane, LCSW: 21:27

I have not done it with kids, but I will say teenagers are open to it. They actually think it is really cool and again, I think it's just, you know, part of the consent process and you know kind of knowing and working with the kid and explaining it to them, also sharing it with the parents, making sure that they're open to it and that they kind of understand, and all of that kind of good stuff. But yeah, I mean, I've found that teenagers are fascinated by it and really do like it. So yeah, but most of the time it is with adults that we're doing it with.

Marta Hamilton (TeleWellness Hub) : 21:57

How incredible I mean I'm picturing being able to be a teenager which brings all kinds of different emotions and thoughts and struggles, be able to release so much at such a young age and go into kind of early adulthood with just a release and more freedom, imagining what an incredible gift and opportunity that would be.

Ryan DeVane, LCSW: 22:17

Yes, yes, yeah, absolutely, yeah, yeah.

Marta Hamilton (TeleWellness Hub) : 22:22

Well, it's very cool too that you mentioned that. It's really sounds like collaborative care where you can, I guess, refer in-house, and I'm assuming, if you need to kind of talk about maybe some psychosomatic things that come up, maybe gastro issues, and if it's connected and can be worked on through Reiki or whatever other sound bath work or whatever other modalities that you might offer I think might be best, do you guide then your clients typically? Do you typically say you know, would you like to consider this and offer it, or do you find that most people kind of want to try a little bit of different avenues within your practice, Since you do offer so much?

Ryan DeVane, LCSW: 23:04

Mm-hmm, yeah, so I think it kind of works both ways. I think one thing that's really great about us is we're a team. You know we work together, we help each other out. We have a weekly consultation, kind of interdisciplinary team meeting that we do. And you know, it's nice to have all of these different perspectives in the room, right, because we might be thinking about it in different ways and we can support each other in that way.

Ryan DeVane, LCSW: 23:26

And a yoga therapist can be like, oh my gosh, well, it sounds like this, you know, might be out of alignment, or maybe we can work on this chakra or something like that. You know, and we're talking about it and you know just kind of brainstorming together what that could look like and how we could support this person. And then, yeah, well, you know, sometimes, whoever the primary clinician is, well, you know, maybe discuss that or mention it and kind of see if they're open to it, how they feel about it, that kind of a thing, and then go from there. And then, oftentimes too, we have a newsletter that goes out every month and you know people see it and they're like, oh my gosh, well, can I go to this? I'm like, yes, of course you have access to it. It's yours if you want it, you know, and so I think it kind of works both ways.

Marta Hamilton (TeleWellness Hub) : 24:06

Oh my gosh, that sounds incredible. Well, if people want to join your newsletter or get in contact with you or your team because I know you have a team yeah, what is the best way for them to get in touch?

Ryan DeVane, LCSW: 24:21

Yeah, no, I mean, we love connecting with other people, we're big on community, we love building relationships, so I would love to hear from you, but please reach out to us. Our website is groundedwellbeingorg and you can follow us on Instagram. Our handle is at GWBHealing and, yeah, my contact information. I'm Ryan Devon and my email is ryanne at groundedwellbeingorg. But that will get you to the right place.

Marta Hamilton (TeleWellness Hub) : 24:46

Awesome. Ryan, Thank you so much for being a part of our wellness journey. Thank you.