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Episode 1: Called to...The Beginning
35 Plays4 months ago
On this episode, meet your hosts Dr. Ksera Dyette (she/her) and Blanca Torres (she/her), two queer, intersectional, feminist clinicians at different points in our career journey's. Hear who we are, what brings us to the podcast world, and how addressing the injustices in the mental health field have long been a part of our clinician DNA. Please note that we recorded this episode in January 2025 and we are very aware, as we expected, a lot of nonsense has happened since then. Please note, there may be some strong language at times and topics might be triggering, so episodes may not always be suitable for tiny ears.
You can e-mail is your burning questions or suggestions for future episodes: calledtohealingpodcast@gmail.com.
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Transcript
Introduction and Podcast Focus
00:00:03
Speaker
Well, welcome to Call to Healing. We are two mental health practitioners at different parts of our professional journeys who answered the call to healing. We're here to have conversations that we're sorely lacking in our training, like for example, how our cultural identities shape our approach mental to mental health, how white supremacy is deeply embedded in our fields, and how we show up despite it, despite it.
Orientation Towards Social Justice
00:00:29
Speaker
We are social justice and liberation-oriented clinicians who center the needs of Black, Indigenous, and people of color, trans and non-binary intersex, ACE plus intersections.
00:00:40
Speaker
We are intersectional feminists who integrate queer theory into our work, and we center neurodivergent and disabled communities of color, and we desire liberation for all communities.
Blanca's Professional Journey
00:00:51
Speaker
ah My name is Blanca. I'm a licensed marriage and family therapist. My pronouns are she, her, and I'm currently in a mix of private practice and agency work.
00:01:01
Speaker
um I've been practicing, gosh, I guess... Oh my God, three years post-graduation, ah five years if you include pre-graduation.
00:01:16
Speaker
And I'm located in Las Vegas, Nevada. I am a settler on the traditional homelands of the Nuuwu, Southern Peyote people, colonially known as Las Vegas.
00:01:28
Speaker
um I work mostly with women of color um and I provide psychotherapy more than really anything else. I've been doing some immigration evaluations here and there, but mostly I'm doing the talk therapy.
00:01:41
Speaker
um Some of my identities, i am a brand new 38 year old. I am currently able bodied. um i have some neuro divergencies, um mainly depression that comes and goes depending on what's going on in life.
00:01:58
Speaker
um I'm a first-generation um Mexican-American. my parents My parents immigrated here from Mexico in the 80s. um And yeah, I think that's that's about it, right?
00:02:12
Speaker
Kacera?
Kacera's Professional Journey
00:02:13
Speaker
Sure. ah So my name is Kacera Dayat. My pronouns are she, her. And I am a licensed clinical psychologist um located in Massachusetts. that's I am a settler on Turtle Island on the unceded land of the Pawtucket people.
00:02:33
Speaker
I have, i always, um I try to think about like how long has it actually been? So I graduated in 2016
00:02:41
Speaker
Oh my gosh. Yeah. Did a postdoc, was licensed by 2018 and i opened my private practice in 2019. um We'll get into a little bit more of the stories around that, but for ah good seven years, I've been doing specifically mostly talk therapy um in my private practice and then ah forensic work in the juvenile court system in Massachusetts doing forensic assessments.
Identity and Practice Adjustments
00:03:09
Speaker
So, And written recent two years or so, I've titrated down on my practice in part because of chronic health issues and i am dynamically disabled.
00:03:23
Speaker
And so I've made some adjust and adjustments to my practice to suit that. ah But other important identities for me is that I am an immigrant from the Caribbean, from Trinidad, and am i I'm queer. I identify as Caribbean, Black Caribbean.
00:03:41
Speaker
And I'm trying to think what else is important. I think that's everything for now. If I think of some more things, I'll add that later. Oh, as Blanca indicated, in terms of age, I am 35 years old, ah not newly minted, ah but in sort of the middle stage of And I...
00:04:05
Speaker
and i um I definitely think a lot about issues of race and social justice as part of my work. um I primarily work with ah folks across the spectrum in terms of children all the way up to adults, specializing in trauma, complex trauma, developmental disabilities and delays, as well as neurodivergent.
00:04:31
Speaker
And I am myself quite neurodivergent. ah So that is um everything that I would name right now for our identifications.
00:04:45
Speaker
Well, so many more are going to come out throughout our journey on this podcast. so Yes. And so we want to acknowledge that it is not enough to name just our occupations and some of some of these statuses.
Land Acknowledgment and Initiative Support
00:05:00
Speaker
um We want to take a moment to really be intentional about acknowledging the lands that we're on. So we both named those lands for where we are located. um But you can check our show notes for additional information about educating yourself on the unceded territories you may be on, as well as land-back initiatives ah that may be in your area that require advocacy, both your voice, but also financial support.
00:05:30
Speaker
And as we gain momentum, it's our intention that are a portion of our Patreon um income, which you'll get to see, will go to b land back initiatives.
00:05:44
Speaker
And so we want to just take that moment to really pause and highlight that land back initiatives. is a cause that everyone should take up as a part of their work. And it's not enough to just acknowledge the lands that you're on.
00:06:00
Speaker
You want to be thinking about how you can direct some of your efforts, whether it's time or money ah to those initiatives. Yeah. So it's really important to us that are podcast in every way possible ah aligns with our values. And we also recognize and grapple with the way that, you know, some of those things may misalign.
00:06:24
Speaker
And all of that is important because we created this podcast because we have shit to say, but we want to say it with intention.
Podcast Purpose and Meeting Story
00:06:35
Speaker
And so this episode is really all the things we want you to know about us to kind of set the table on the stage for this, because I think it'll help you as you listen to subsequent episodes.
00:06:47
Speaker
ah If you are listening to the podcast for the first time, you don't have to. listen to this episode necessarily ah to be able to dive into other episodes.
00:06:59
Speaker
um But if you are really thinking about getting to know us, this is a great place to start. So where would would we like to start? I guess really the beginning. So you and I met, which is, it's kind of, I mean, it feels like an interesting story to me even now. How many years later? 11? 11?
00:07:22
Speaker
12? Wait, what's math? No, it's not 15 years. yeah It was 2011. 13. Oh, So, and I because sarah and i actually met um through my first journey in grad school
00:07:43
Speaker
In 2011 in Chester, Pennsylvania, we both went to Widener University, but for different programs. So I was um in graduate student housing and i had two roommates, um one which didn't last very long because she like wanted to outfit the whole house with TVs and decor and couch. And I'm not saying we didn't need that stuff.
00:08:06
Speaker
I'm just saying... I had to make choices and and a big TV was not on my list and neither it was for our other roommate. This girl moved out and we had an open space and ah my other roommate came to me and she starts talking about this girl she met in her program and about how she's got such a great aura and she dresses so beautiful, all this stuff. She was S-A-N-U-R-D.
00:08:35
Speaker
Before I even met you.
00:08:39
Speaker
And then Kassara came by and like looked at the apartment and I think you took it like right away, right? Like there wasn't a question.
Influencing Perspectives on Sexual Health
00:08:45
Speaker
Yeah. um And then Kassara moved in and it was an interesting experience, I think, with our other roommate. But Kassara and I always kind of.
00:08:55
Speaker
understood each other i don't know like she's a virgo and virgos do get a bad rap but to be honest they're my favorite i think like they're the most underrated sign in the zodiac and this is why because cassara wanted the milk to be in a certain place in the fridge i didn't give a shit where the milk went i just wanted to know where you wanted the milk to go right and so as long as you tell me where you want the milk i don't give a shit i'll put it there um and so it just kind of i don't know it just always flowed with cassara and so we lived together how long did we ultimately live together was it a couple of years because i moved to d c early like like around mid-february three years almost
00:09:41
Speaker
okay yeah Yeah. And we lived in that first apartment for, I think it was just a year. Right. And then a little over a year until there was an attempted break in and you were like losing shit.
00:09:58
Speaker
Yeah. Well, I hadn't been broken into before. So it was just, yeah. I remember. I know you were like, i can't like the, like you were, I was coming down the stairs in the middle of the night checking for things because you were so scared. So we were all like, okay, we have to go.
00:10:15
Speaker
i And we ended up in the next town over. ah and that was a cute little little apartment with our slumlord. um but I still love that apartment.
00:10:28
Speaker
I dont know. Yeah, yeah. But definitely Blanca and i were always similarly aligned in terms of values and ways of thinking about things. But, you know, one of the things that i always talk with you about is I learned so much from you about like different ways to look at the world, open up just my values and thinking, especially around sex and sexual health because of the studies that you were doing. And ryan yeah, I had come with all of this ah religious baggage ah from growing up in church and being a part of youth group and all of these different things. And um you really forced me to think about things differently and learn about things that I had never really thought about before yeah had done.
00:11:18
Speaker
talk to me about. And so that's always been an important part of our friendship. And I think like when I approached you about doing this podcast, it was because I'm like, we align a lot.
00:11:31
Speaker
um And that doesn't mean that we don't have different opinions about things or comment things from different angles, but we've always been able to kind of work that out and and talk it out.
Blanca's Career and Fellowship Experience
00:11:41
Speaker
Yeah. And I guess, you know, I mean, I i miss this and or we're going to talk about it a little bit, maybe ah about our journeys, but and we were in different programs. So because Sarah, she was in her PsyD clinical psychology program and I was getting a master's in human sexuality education.
00:11:57
Speaker
um i had wanted to be a therapist um when um I was a freshman in college, but for whatever reason, it just didn't appeal. I think maybe, no offense, Kassara, but maybe it was like the the psychology perspective was, like, it was, I loved it. I found it really interesting.
00:12:16
Speaker
Like, I loved it. And it wasn't quite right. So um I was just trying to do something different. So when Kassara means, like, when she talks about the religious baggage and the perspectives on my studies, is i i was studying him I was studying sex.
00:12:32
Speaker
And I was bringing um classmates who were also studying sex. And so there were always like really open conversations about sex, sexuality, identities of all kinds, sexual behaviors, et cetera.
00:12:46
Speaker
um So that's kind of what she's talking about. And for me, I think, has said it and even to this day, Kassara, even our conversation before we started recording, like the thing I learned about Kassara is like standing up for myself, asking for my needs to be met and give it getting what I need.
00:13:02
Speaker
right for myself this morning. Well, it's morning for me. But you know, before we started recording, it was like, how much are you charging? How much do you need to be charging to live the life that you want? um Why are you staying in your office if you want to do mostly tell like all of these wonderful questions that Yeah, I mean, they sit in my brain, but it's different when Kassara is like, you know, why are you doing this?
00:13:26
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Well, and it's funny because i I feel very passionate about both not having people I care about make the same mistakes that I did or suffer for as long as I did potentially. And that's also partly the Virgo nature, right? We're like, just listen to us. We we know what's best.
00:13:47
Speaker
yeah But also like if I have the knowledge, I've never feel like I should covet it or it belongs especially to me. I think Some people guard their draw their knowledge jealously. Yeah.
00:14:02
Speaker
It's not to the benefit of the people around them. And Blanca and I talk a lot about community and the importance of that. And this is just another way of like supporting the community around me. It's like, if I have that support to give, then why would i Like, it doesn't serve me to keep it to myself.
00:14:24
Speaker
Yeah. Oh, for sure. And that has actually been my philosophy ever since going back to grad school to become a therapist. I noticed so many people were gatekeeping all of this information. And I saw much information about private practice and insurance and and making a living as a therapist. And I'm like, I don't think so. There's enough to go around.
00:14:45
Speaker
There's more than enough to go around. But i maybe we'll get a little bit more into it. Yeah. When we get into what brought us to this podcast. But um just a little bit about, you know, post grad school. So um my program ended way faster than Cacera's. Mine was only two and a half years.
00:15:03
Speaker
um So right after grad school, I started working full time. Well, was I? No, that was why I left because my jobs were all part time. Right. Yeah. um I had a bunch of separate little part-time sex ed jobs after graduating, which I did love, but I needed a full-time job. um um And then um I ended up moving to DC for a full-time sex ed job at a very large, very white reproductive health nonprofit. um And then I worked there for
00:15:37
Speaker
So let's see, I started in 2012 and I quit 2023. So how many years is that? Almost 10 years, more than 10 years?
00:15:48
Speaker
I'm making us do math. I know. Yeah, that is about 10 years. So I spent about 10 years working on sexual and reproductive health and rights um in the U.S., but then also in Latin America. So I spent the last, I think, so 2015 to God, really with the math, 2015 2023, eight years working in Latin America um with sex education, rights to reproductive health, mostly focusing on abortion access and restricted environments.
00:16:20
Speaker
um And it was kind of, you know, towards the end of that journey that I was like, I i i love this, but it's not quite what i want. Um,
00:16:31
Speaker
um First, I was tired of working for other people. I was tired of office politics. I was tired of you own this project and I own this project. And it's just it was just it wasn't good for my mental health. And I was more the further I got in my career, the more removed I was from the people.
00:16:54
Speaker
The people. Right. And I think in that I was like, you know, maybe my dream of being a therapist was the right one to begin with. um So I decided to move back to Las Vegas and live with my parents at like 32 years old. And I went back for my master's in marriage and family therapy.
00:17:11
Speaker
Um, I graduated in 20 late in December, 2021, and I started my private practice almost immediately. And so now here we are. um I will say, I meant to say this in my intro, but I am a licensed marriage and family therapist. is That does not seek couples or families, um um, which maybe we'll get into when we talk about our individual grad school experiences, but it's a purposeful choice and which were I'm allowed to make, which again is what we'll talk about as, as as you answer, maybe your call to healing as well.
00:17:41
Speaker
um But yeah, I think that's what I've been up to for the last 13 years. Did miss anything? I guess. Oh, I was a... oh I guess this is little colonial for you, but I was an AAMFT minority fellowship, um minority fellow. And so what that means is I got additional ah training and then also scholarship um because a lot of my practice focused on um access to mental health for marginalized folks. Yeah.
00:18:13
Speaker
And for anybody who doesn't know what AAMFT is, can you like? Yes, it's the American Association of Marriage and Family Therapists. So it's just our professional association for my particular license.
00:18:26
Speaker
Yeah. it So just in case anyone's not familiar, because there's a lot of sub designations and organizations and things like that. So many. And they all start with A. yes that's true that's true yeah for me ah that's true ah's true yeah um yeah so what have you been up to Yeah, but I ah graduated in 2016, so five-year program and largely five years for everyone unless for some reason you got stuck along the way.
Kacera's Career Path and Podcast Ambitions
00:18:54
Speaker
And i kind of did what was the next natural step, which was look for postdoctoral fellowship, which you were required to do for hours for licensure.
00:19:07
Speaker
um And I ended up in Massachusetts. um Boston area. And I did that postdoc at Cambridge Health Alliance Harvard Medical School.
00:19:22
Speaker
And, you know, I have to say the Harvard Medical Very fancy.
00:19:27
Speaker
um And I ended up, as I i say, getting stuck in Massachusetts and maybe more about why in other conversations. But my first job was terrible.
00:19:44
Speaker
i was It was at a large group practice that, again, we will talk about. And after that experience, ah following which they did fire me, I was like, do I leave the state or do i make my own practice?
00:20:03
Speaker
And I decided to start my own practice. And I also said, you know, I don't know if I'm ready to go full time into private practice. I'll work part time. ah for an agency. And regardless, I knew I would never work full time for anybody else ever again.
00:20:21
Speaker
And i ended up getting the job at the juvenile court. um And I'm assessment and testing coordinator and oversee psychological testing, our inventory, all of that training for postdocs and staff and other trainees.
00:20:37
Speaker
And in my private practice, as I said earlier, it's been therapy until more recently. And I really got burned quite a bit like many clinicians did doing the job during COVID, especially abysmal reimbursement rates from insurance companies.
00:20:54
Speaker
this The expectation and demand did not match the compensation. it does not match the compensation. And with just my health issues and everything else, I've had to make a lot of adjustments so that I'm not like dreading my work day and that I can show up fully for the people who I work with. So primarily at this point, I'm doing psychological testing and I also do individual coaching and consulting services where um I'm not restricted by location or in longer which is really nice because I can actually offer people everything I want to offer them in a very robust package.
00:21:42
Speaker
and in an intensive way that isn't drawn out. um That it coaching is not the same as therapy, but I use a lot of my skills a clinician, as an assessment psychologist to really give people what I think, what I believe is really intensive support in short spaces of time.
00:22:06
Speaker
but so that's where I am now in terms of my practice. um Yeah. and And part of that, I've been thinking a lot about what I haven't been able to do as a result of how much time has been spent working in my business rather than on my business.
00:22:28
Speaker
And one of those things was actually I wanted to do a podcast for a really, really long time. know She's been talking about this for a long time. Years. And I had run the idea by other people and People were just flaky about it ah And I think at the time I wasn't entirely sure what I wanted to talk about.
00:22:52
Speaker
um But I did always know, regardless of the podcast, that one of the things that I always wanted to be able to talk about is what it's like to actually do this job. What it's like to not realize that you aren't making ah an informed choice.
00:23:11
Speaker
to do it. um The trauma of our training. oh The unlearning post-grad and decolonizing of the practice.
00:23:23
Speaker
All of these things have been things I've been thinking a lot about and talking a lot about, but I wanted to have conversation in a different way. So I approached Blanca, I approached to you, about doing this podcast.
Challenges and Advocacy in Professional Life
00:23:37
Speaker
and Spoiler alert.
00:23:39
Speaker
Yes, and you had some hesitations around the social media piece, which I'll let you talk about, but otherwise you were enthusiastic about the idea. Yeah, for sure. I mean, there's just so much in our trainings, and that includes a graduate.
00:23:58
Speaker
I mean, no, honestly, when I say training, I mean graduate program, I mean practicum, I mean... the trainings you pay for after you graduate. I always joke that being a therapist is a fucking MLM because there's always just like another, right.
00:24:17
Speaker
We'll get into that. um But there is a lot missing from those conversations. um You know, I don't know if what I was doing before impacted it or just who I am as a person, but there's just, it's so therapy programs, therapy training. And again, meaning all of it is so deeply
00:24:42
Speaker
entrenched in whiteness and white supremacy ah and colonialism and there's not room to ask these questions in any of those spaces so despite my hesitation that's why i'm enthusiastic about it and you know i'll talk a little bit more about why the specific reasons why i am hesitant when when i talk about my experience in grad school but for the most part like after my graduate experience in my therapy program, I've been really scared to speak up, really scared to use my voice.
00:25:20
Speaker
It almost feels like not worth it. Like and I would rather just be quiet and then do the work I want to do with my clients and just not speak on it because it's just not worth the pushback.
00:25:33
Speaker
um And even as I talk about it right now, right? Like my heart starts beating faster. Like I feel like I feel like i'm going to be in trouble. Like I've had multiple conversations with my therapist about this podcast and how I always feel like I've done i've done something wrong and like something, something's about to catch me and let me know that I've done something wrong.
00:25:57
Speaker
um And so despite again the hesitation i'm just like fuck it let's fuck it let's do it and part of it is because we do get the chance to work for ourselves and that's a privilege in and of itself and if someone's mad at me be mad be mad listen to the podcast and record it and share it with your friends thank you for the engagement haters we love it right yeah But anyway, so yeah, so it it felt really important for us to fill that void somehow.
00:26:31
Speaker
um And a podcast really felt like the way to do that. Yeah. And similarly you, Blanca, definitely get that feeling of trepidation around speaking up.
00:26:49
Speaker
And i
00:26:54
Speaker
However, I've always had the the problem or, you know, i'll put that in air quotes, of not
00:27:03
Speaker
and sort of ignoring that. Like the the urge to speak up or do something or advocate is almost like a compulsion. Same. For me, it is a little bit of a compulsion. i think about kind of a random but related aside.
00:27:18
Speaker
was a Rihanna concert. ah That we went to? Yeah. And we went into a grocery store to get some things ah before the concert. I don't know if you remember this.
00:27:32
Speaker
And um there was this guy who was helping an older woman who was cashing out at the register. And he was being really nasty to her, like bummer.
00:27:45
Speaker
just a straight bully. And it was clear that she was struggling because she was older, she was moving slower. and he just, he seemed like the type that maybe somebody had also bullied in his life, but he was picking on someone who was like weaker than him.
00:27:59
Speaker
and I remember witnessing this whole thing as I was checking out and then coming back to the car and I was thinking about it. And I said, I'm so sorry, y'all. I have to go back inside. Like I made you, I made everybody wait and I went back inside And I said something to him about it.
00:28:18
Speaker
And that is kind of what the experience is like for me because i will I will keep thinking about the fact that I did nothing or I said nothing for days and days and days sometimes. yeah and a die And so even if it would be in my quote best interest, especially in the black body that I am in,
00:28:43
Speaker
to do or say nothing, i often end up sticking my neck out because I'm like, I can't live with myself if I didn't. Yeah.
00:28:55
Speaker
And balance. Yeah, sorry. No, it's okay. And it's the same for me. It is the same for me. I cannot not say anything. But my grads, like, they just silenced me so much in grad school 2.0 that it just, I just, I,
00:29:13
Speaker
Well, you went through some serious, like, really awful, awful, awful, awful stuff. like and so did So did you, to be fair. So did you. We'll get into it. But, all you know, all of it to say is the field doesn't want us to talk about this shit.
00:29:30
Speaker
So we're gonna. Yes. And, though, I think it's important. And we'll talk about this when we sort of contrast our experiences. think some of the difference, though, for me at least is, yes, I went through awful things and I also had a lot of external support.
00:29:49
Speaker
So I had access to a lot of outside supervision, like every single year of my program and like amazing mentors. And I'm lucky to say I had a lot. And we know from the research that people who have that tend to do better post-grad.
00:30:06
Speaker
And so Yes, it is true. I went through some really awful things. And I also was lucky to have significant external support in the form of people in the field. And so I was able to see not everyone is like this. Not everyone is going to treat me this way.
00:30:23
Speaker
There are people who will not only encourage me and support my voice, but also actively invite me to contribute to presentations or write with them. And I do think it makes a difference.
00:30:36
Speaker
when you're going through those experiences and you're isolated in every single way professionally. Yeah. Well, you were that for me. You were my person in
Support and Personal Reflections
00:30:45
Speaker
the field. So was my therapist.
00:30:47
Speaker
um So I knew that it could be different, but yeah, they, they successfully silenced me. yeah I was in the program. And also, you know, cause Sarah's talking about like how she was impacted as a therapist, um,
00:31:00
Speaker
burnt out through COVID, I became a therapist through COVID. I saw my first client in either May or June 2020.
00:31:10
Speaker
um So I came up in it. um So anyway, it it was, up we'll get into it. We'll get into it at our next episode because um it's a lot and that we both went through and it, for both of us, it's a major,
00:31:27
Speaker
contributor to us wanting to set up this this podcast yes and there certainly is and going back to what you said earlier blanca about like the field doesn't want us to talk about it there is an element of Well, everyone has dealt with this. This is not trauma.
00:31:47
Speaker
and um And I'm not just saying that. It's been said to me, you know and when I use the word to describe the experience, there's a reason why a ton of people in my program went on antidepressant medications in their fourth year of the program.
00:32:03
Speaker
right It was just the thing to do. And i i remember him using the word trauma and they were like, oh, it's not trauma. Like to everybody, you know, and and so there's this sense of almost cavalier like, well, I went through it. What's the big deal?
00:32:18
Speaker
And I'm like, well, all of y'all who went through it are also engaging in incredibly harmful behaviors towards the people that you are supervising or training. and or potentially that trickles into how we treat our patients or clients. And so I've heard too many horror stories, even just from clients about things that have happened to them at the hands of other clinicians.
00:32:41
Speaker
Yes. Believe that this, this institution or the way in which we are trained, um doesn't does not engage in things that then end up being harmful, whether we intend to do it or not.
00:32:58
Speaker
So it is worth talking about for this reason, because it is still the case. It continues to be the case. ah Yeah.
00:33:09
Speaker
And so now we're here. Now we're here. Yeah. No. Is there anything else? I don't know. i think that's it for now because I feel like we could keep talking about this for forever, but we have like our specific trauma dumps.
00:33:28
Speaker
Yeah.
00:33:30
Speaker
yeah I don't believe in trauma dumping as a concept. Okay. So I don't mean that, but I, you know, we'll get to it.
Moments of Joy and Thriving
00:33:38
Speaker
But so one thing we do want to do in every episode is a segment that we call ah moment of breath, joy and thriving.
00:33:48
Speaker
So um we are going to take a moment to breathe. And for those of you who find breathing dysregulating, ah you might place your hand on your heart. and just notice it um while we take this moment.
00:34:03
Speaker
So if you are breathing with us, take a deep breath in through your nose. One, two, three, four. And you're gonna exhale slowly through your mouth as you're breathing through a straw, as if you're breathing through a straw.
00:34:18
Speaker
So one, two, three, four. Feel free to cycle through this one more time or as many times as you need while we transition to our moment are of joy and thriving for this week.
00:34:35
Speaker
So some moments of thriving or joy for each of us this week. think for me, Even though there's a little bit of stress, I'm giving myself a raise this year.
00:34:47
Speaker
a So that's my moment of both joy and thriving, I think. um Well, I'll add another moment of joy later today. I'm going to be building some much anticipated Lego sets.
00:35:00
Speaker
yeah um And I'm very excited about that. What about you, Kassara? um I think my moment of, I'd say, ah joy is that I made it through, knock on wood, ah holidays without getting sick.
00:35:21
Speaker
oh Which was a huge deal for me, especially because to people in the tiny apartment in Brooklyn were very ill and a one due to negligence.
00:35:36
Speaker
And I had to mask the rest of the time i was home visiting family inside. And i was like, I will be lucky if I don't get sick.
00:35:47
Speaker
ah given my chronic health issues and so i was just really happy to make it back here and be okay because that's a big deal for me uh everyone is sick everyone is sick right now uh so as we're recording this podcast uh it is unfortunately january six
00:36:14
Speaker
guess why that's unfortunate. I was just thinking it's the first Monday of the year, but no, I just remembered. I just remembered what it is. Yeah. Yeah.
00:36:26
Speaker
Yeah. um No, that's been on my mind all day. So i think for me, just continuing to pace myself is the way that I'll keep thriving, especially as we are moving into whatever things are going to look like in the next week, weeks, months, four years, right?
00:36:51
Speaker
um So yeah, this is important. It is, it is. I mean, you know, i I'm just really reckoning with the fact that our podcast, the tone of our podcast is,
00:37:03
Speaker
might be very different and going forward than it was when we first conceived this back in like June.
Ongoing Social Justice Reflections
00:37:09
Speaker
um But because of the election results and who knows what's coming. Although, and then let's see, it's what I tell my clients, right? Like who knows what's coming is true no matter who the president is.
00:37:20
Speaker
No matter the president is, the most marginalized will remain the most marginalized. um And we just returned to community and self-care and all those things. But Some maybe not, but... Yeah, I mean, obviously some things are going to be very, very different and like significantly negatively impacted. But i as I'm like, well, this this is always what it is for us, right?
00:37:41
Speaker
Like the social justice issues, the issues of oppression, and like all of that and the way in which it shows up in our work, that that's always been true. And they were the same under Obama.
00:37:54
Speaker
They were the same under Trump the first time. they were the same under Biden. And yeah. yeah Exactly. Like we, the you know, the real people out here in the streets know like the day to day is what it is.
00:38:07
Speaker
So we're just keeping real.
00:38:11
Speaker
That's all. So.
Engagement and Future Discussions
00:38:14
Speaker
We hope that to you continue to tune into our podcast. um And we're going to be having some conversations in the next couple episodes about our respective grad school experiences.
00:38:31
Speaker
So you'll hear from me a little bit more. You'll hear from Blanca a little bit more. And um we'll dive in deep. So we hope to see you on those episodes.
00:38:41
Speaker
All right. See you next time. ya. It's a very millennial. Yeah.
00:38:52
Speaker
Thank you for joining us on our journey. You can find us wherever you listen to your favorite podcasts. Please leave a review and subscribe. You can email us at calltohealingpodcast at gmail.com.
00:39:04
Speaker
We're on YouTube and Instagram at calltohealing. You can sign up for our mailing list, book us for speaking engagements and consulting, and donate to support this endeavor at our one-time donation link in the show notes.
00:39:17
Speaker
You can find even more goodness from us on Patreon at patreon.com slash calltohealing. Keep in mind our views are our own and do not represent any organization we may be a part of. Even though we're both clinicians, listening to this podcast does not constitute therapeutic relationship or clinical contract.
00:39:34
Speaker
If you hear anything that resonates with you in crisis, please seek the help of a trusted provider or the crisis resources provided on our social media page. And remember, you're made for more than just healing.
00:39:46
Speaker
You're made to thrive. Until next time, rest easy.