Trust the Process and Let the Music Play

What’s one way to approach each day with a positive mindset? Counselors and patients address this in every session. It’s not always easy to focus on the fun stuff and forget about life’s challenges. Ups and downs come and go, but whatever makes you happy is what you should dwell on and work toward.

Way out West in Washington state, the natural beauty can be so soothing. And when it comes to calm, mindful mental health therapy, the Evergreen State is in good hands with Kathryn Willis, longtime LMFT with Supervisor credentials.

Kathryn (@emerging_strengths) treats patients through long-term trauma, relationship problems, eating disorders, LGBTQIA+ issues, stress, and self-esteem. With a career comprising community mental health facilities, recovery centers, and her own private practice, Emerging Strengths, Kathryn’s seasoned and devoted to guiding clinicians in establishing their own businesses.

Her take on supervision mirrors the same techniques she uses in therapy. “I value the process of building a positive support network, and using resources…to enhance your natural talents and skills…and shape your plan for maintaining and continuing to grow your achievements even after our partnership comes to a close,” Kathryn says. “Our goal in working together is setting the stage for your long-term personal flourishing.”

Kathryn serves patients and supervisees via telehealth in the top-left corner of our country. No matter which state you plan to practice, the supervision process is a major kickstart to your career in counseling. Find someone in your state for FREE on the CSD.

At some point in our lives, we’re likely to experience mental health challenges like trauma, grief, relationship issues, job stress, anxiety, or depression. Problems that persist take courage to address and patience to overcome. But righting the ship and finding happiness does not occur by simply flipping a switch. The more conscious we are, the more prepared we’ll be to persevere. It takes time, work, patience, and in many cases, professional counseling.

However one’s hurting, each individual has the liberty to steer their own path and navigate through their struggles. And whether one is all alone at home or entertaining millions on the road, mental health hits everybody and can really take a toll.

For bluegrass plucker and jam band phenom Billy Strings, mental health issues affected him long before he became a famous musician. While Billy’s well off with fame, fortune, and strumming away at summer festivals, how he feels backstage and deep down is often unknown and undermined.

Admittedly at first, Strings took a flippant approach to his anxiety and thought it would come and go, yet was always under his control. Until it wasn’t. It started impacting him more frequently, affecting his mood and relationships, and he struggled to fight through and face the day.

He once stood by the stigma of thinking people with anxiety were merely stressed and worried too much, until he started feeling it himself. Confessing he was totally ignorant, he says, “I had no idea how bad anxiety was. And then, when I got it, I was crippled by it and I started to have tons of sympathy for people that deal with it because when I have a panic attack, I am physically crippled.”

He reflects in this article from Guitar.com that he used to think the idea of “being a man” meant not showing your feelings or being too tough to have feelings. But now he couldn’t disagree more and adamantly encourages his fans to seek therapy and “reject the machismo of refusing help in order to ‘act tough’.”

He credits his recent strides in coping with anxiety to the professional therapy he’s undergone and his passion for songwriting, a form of therapy in its own right he explains. “I can write about some stuff that’s really personal for me, and put it out there and be vulnerable, let people see me for who I am,” he said. “That’s actually healthy and a very healing thing for me to put that personal stuff in the music. I can grow from it.”

Strings’ revelation can be a lesson for many of us. Harness your emotions, be vulnerable, talk about shame, and share your thoughts and stories with honesty and an open mind.

Follow Billy Strings on tour this summer throughout the US and across the pond. And if you find yourself facing similar struggles, find licensed therapists and committed counselors in the CSD!

Our mission at the Clinical Supervision Directory is to offer any and every resource attainable to help therapists succeed and set the framework for effective mental health treatment.

As the Directory evolves, so do its resources.

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