Good Neighbor Podcast: Fort Collins
Bringing together local businesses and neighbors of Fort Collins. Good Neighbor Podcast hosted by Nick George helps residents discover and connect with your local business owners in and around Fort Collins, Colorado.
Is your business serving the residents of Fort Collins? Then, we need to talk! Visit gnpFortCollins.com to schedule your free interview.
Good Neighbor Podcast: Fort Collins
Healing Through Passion: Geek Therapy Explained
Have you ever wished therapy could incorporate your passions instead of asking you to compartmentalize parts of yourself? That's exactly what Vonie' Stillson and the team at Equilibrium Counseling are pioneering with their "geek therapy" approach.
The Good Neighbor Podcast sits down with Vonie' to explore how Equilibrium Counseling evolved from a solo practice into a thriving group practice over the past decade. What makes their approach revolutionary is their commitment to incorporating clients' passions and interests directly into the therapeutic process. "If you're passionate about something, why would we not include that into part of what you're working on to navigate and figure out your world?" Vonie' explains. This philosophy extends to their explicitly affirming stance for LGBTQI+ individuals and what they lovingly call "neuro spicy" or neurodivergent clients.
Vonie's personal journey adds depth to their practice. After experiencing serious car accidents as a teenager that left them with chronic pain, Vonie' discovered healing through aquatic therapy. This experience now informs their unique therapeutic approach combining dance movement therapy with aquatic rehabilitation. They've found that physical injuries almost always have emotional components - a connection often overlooked in traditional therapy settings. Beyond clinical work, Equilibrium reaches their target demographic of "geeky people" by presenting at Comic Cons about the intersection of fandom and mental health, and Vonie' even leads a multigenerational Steampunk social group.
The most powerful takeaway? "We want people to show up as your whole self," Vonie' emphasizes. Whether you're seeking help from Equilibrium or working with another therapist, bringing your complete self - with all your passions, interests, and identities - creates space for more meaningful healing. Ready to experience therapy that embraces all aspects of who you are? Connect with Equilibrium Counseling through their website or by calling 970-599-1314 to begin your journey toward wholeness.
This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Nick George.
Speaker 2:Welcome to the Good Neighbor Podcast. Are you in need of some unique counseling that some might refer to as geek therapy? Well, one such counseling company might be closer than you think. Today I have the great pleasure of introducing your good neighbor, vinay Stilson of Equilibrium. Counseling. Vinay, how's it going today?
Speaker 3:Very good, thank you.
Speaker 2:Good. Tell us all about your counseling service and where we get this word geek therapy from.
Speaker 3:So Equilibrium we've been around for about a decade now and one of my running jokes is I accidentally started a group practice. Equilibrium started out as me, myself and I, and then Steph Lamplin came in as an extern and then stayed on with us. And then Jennifer Nash came in as an intern and then became an extern and stayed on with us. And then Jennifer Nash came in as an intern and then became an extern and stayed on with us, and now I have a group practice that has three licensed providers, two candidate providers and currently we have one intern working with us. Geek therapy is where we take the things that a person is passionate about and we bring that into working with people as part of their healing journey. Our stance is if you're passionate about something, why would we not include that into part of what you're working on to navigate and figure out your world? Um, and one of the a couple of other big things about equilibrium is we are explicitly lgbtqi plus affirming we are also neurodivergent, or, as we like to say, neuro spicy affirming.
Speaker 2:Nice. Tell me how you got into this business in the first place.
Speaker 3:So I was eight when I decided I wanted to be a therapist.
Speaker 2:What did that look like?
Speaker 3:I was like I want to help people and one of my running jokes is I was definitely a care bear kid and I think everybody needed to know that somebody in the world cares about them, and so that was very much what my path was. The only thing that shifted from the time I started college is my specialization shifted from being general counseling, and then I was going to double major in dance education and psychology too. I found out dance movement therapy is a field, and I actually came out to Naropa to do my undergraduate degree in 2002, to do my undergraduate degree in dance movement therapy, and went on to get my master's at Antioch in dance movement therapy and counseling psychology.
Speaker 2:Wow, I'm very familiar with Naropa. It's a pretty cool school. So what are some myths or misconceptions in your industry? That are probably some artificial anxieties that people have before they call for therapy that you can dispel in this podcast.
Speaker 3:One of the things that I think is interesting is I don't know if everyone realizes what those terms I used just a few minutes ago licensed provider, extern and intern are. So to become a therapist you have to get a master's degree in counseling or psychology you know, mental health therapy, one of those types of degrees and that's a two to three year master's degree and that usually includes a two semester, one year internship. So when we have an intern, this is someone who's in the final stages of their schooling with their master's degree and is finishing up that learning process. And then what we call an extern is someone who has completed their master's degree, has received that, has received that finished school and is working towards getting their licensure. So you have to be in the field for approximately two years full time to get enough hours to become licensed as a therapist. And so people think, oh, oh, I have to see a licensed therapist to have anyone who knows what they're doing. By the time someone gets their license, they've been doing therapy for three years.
Speaker 2:Wow, that's like trying to make an avocado tree produce avocados.
Speaker 3:Yes, and so I know a lot of people are nervous when they hear like, oh, this is a pre licensed person or this is an intern. They're like, well, does this person know what's going when we start as that process with an intern or extern? That's where some people are already. Yes, we're in the field, fully licensed, because they have that master's degree.
Speaker 2:Wow. So we know that marketing is the heart of every business. Who are your target clients and how are you marketing to them now?
Speaker 3:Geeky people, neurodivergent people I think that's probably like our core demographic and part of our marketing is a little different. It does overlap with some of the stuff that we do like individually and collectively for fun is. One of the things that I've done is I've been involved with Fort Collins Comic Con since the first year that it began and we present and talk about the intersectionality of fandom and mental health and what does that look like in presenting panels not just with Fort Collins Comic Con but various different pop culture conventions around the state.
Speaker 2:Have you thought about trying to do that in a podcasting format? I have not. What do you do? For fun, I go to Comic Con.
Speaker 3:What do you do for fun? I go to Comic-Con. That's a big part of it.
Speaker 2:That's not work.
Speaker 3:No, I assume it's the piece of it's, the overlap of, like this is work and what is it to bring these pieces together? I also run a. I don't know if everyone people know what Steampunk is, so it's the way I describe Steampunk. Is it's Victorian science fiction or the history that never was?
Speaker 2:You mean like a steam engine.
Speaker 3:Yes.
Speaker 3:And so we talk about yes, we talk about. Without science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics, you have no steampunk. And so I I run a Northern Colorado based social steampunk group called Airship Iron Opal. So there's a lot of cosplaying, creating, making, and it's a whole family affair. I actually have there's three generations within our family that actively participate in this group. Our oldest member is actually a retired alcohol and drug counselor that I used to work with in Mississippi, who lives in another state, who comes here to do Comic-Cons with us, and she's 79 this year, and our youngest member is, I think, six months old now, so whole lifespan that joins in as part of this group.
Speaker 2:I typically stopped asking this question about 40 episodes ago, but it seems appropriate now. Is there a hardship or a life challenge that you overcame, that made you stronger and brought you to be the person that you are today? Because you don't seem traumatized.
Speaker 3:I appreciate that. One of the examples that I talk about that is part of the pieces and parts that we bring into is we also do a lot of work with people who have chronic illness and physical health concerns. I was 17 when I got t-boned by a car and I sprained everything from the base of my skull to my tailbone. Two years later, at 19, I lost control of my vehicle, I hit a light pole and I walked away, and so I've had chronic pain since I was 17.
Speaker 3:And aquatic physical therapy is a lot of what brought me back to being able to function, and that's actually one of the other pieces that I do is I'm an aquatic rehabilitation specialist and I combine aquatic physical therapy with being a dance movement therapist and I put people not all of my sessions, but I do have where I put people in the water and we do therapy like a therapy session in the water, working with people, because the water is a lot of what helped me brought back to functioning. I said I was. I was a junior in high school when my when my first car accident happened, and so my whole world changed.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, every time I twisted an ankle I threw my back out, and the only thing that stopped that Tom and Jerry cartoon of playing a game of whack-a-mole with injuries was to stop making excuses about the injury and jump in the water. The water helped me heal, no matter what was damaged. I was able to do that and find balance again, so didn't see that coming. But I strongly agree with with what you just said.
Speaker 3:And it's a huge piece and a part of how that became part of, like, my integration with what I do personally as a therapist because what I do as a therapist is a little different than what each of our other providers do as a therapist, because we all bring in our own stories and our own passions and the types of therapy that we do. But I was finding that a lot of people were having physical injuries and the connection between the emotional impact and the physical injuries didn't have a space to be talked about and I've never met someone that had an injury that there wasn't an emotional component to.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I only hear that kind of stuff from hypnotists. Do you do that too?
Speaker 3:No, I do not do that.
Speaker 2:Yeah Well, that's deep work for someone. That's not not digging that, you know that's done. Digging into hypnosis for you to tackle those types of attachments is a it's a big deal.
Speaker 3:But it all shows up. It all shows up in our bodies and the other piece that I've seen that comes up when we talk about neurodiversity and you know different ways people's brains work and communication styles work is I know that's a huge piece that comes up is when you look at the world differently, your experience in your body is differently, and trying to help someone else understand your perspective of how you experience the world, how your experience in your body is, can be challenging, and that's such a huge, important piece that we encourage all of the people who work with us to show up as their whole self. A lot of people we've talked to feel like, oh, I can't talk about that I've had this injury, or that I have ADHD, that I'm part of a polyamorous relationship, or that I'm a giant geek who cosplays and is part of the Star Trek group, and people feel like they have to leave those parts of themselves outside of the room. We can let our whole selves be present.
Speaker 2:Healing is very different and makes our experiences more complete because we're not separating and cutting ourselves apart before we even walk in the room. Yes, deep, I agree. That's amazing, bonet. What can our listeners take away from this interview, this podcast with you about equilibrium counseling? What's the big thing that you want them to remember? About what you do and different?
Speaker 3:I hope they remember that we want people to show up as your whole self. Whether you're coming to see us personally as equilibrium, or if you already have a therapist that you love that you're working with, please be your whole self when you're working on your journey, because you're worth your energy and your time.
Speaker 2:For now, what are all of the different ways that people can find equilibrium counseling in social media, on the website and the old fashioned way by phone number.
Speaker 3:Our website is equilibrium counseling servicescom and on there you actually get to see our bio for all of our amazing providers that we have and some other fun stuff. There's some different local artists who show their artwork in our Loveland office and you can see some of their information there as well. On social media, we're on Facebook as Equilibrium Counseling Services and phone number is 970-599-1314.
Speaker 2:Well, Venae, I really appreciate you being on our show and we wish you and Equilibrium Counseling the very best moving forward.
Speaker 3:Thank you so much for having us.
Speaker 1:Thank you for listening to the Good Neighbor Podcast To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show. To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to gnpfortcollinscom. That's gnpfortcollinscom. Or call 970-438-0202.