Let’s welcome our first guest to the podcast! In this episode of Brave and Well, I’m joined by my friend and colleague Bernadette Chavez Piñon. Bernadette is an Austin-based counselor who supports individuals in their journey to have a healing connection within themselves so that they may have meaningful connections with others.
Tune in to hear us explore—
Bernadette even opens and closes our conversation with a grounding meditation, so all of us can get more comfortable in our bodies and clear in our minds.
I hope you’ll listen then get in touch to let me know what you think. And don’t forget to visit Bernadette’s website to learn more about her work!
Links
Let’s welcome our first guest to the podcast! In this episode of Brave and Well, I’m joined by my friend and colleague Bernadette Chavez Piñon. Bernadette is an Austin-based counselor who supports individuals in their journey to have a healing connection within themselves so that they may have meaningful connections with others.
Tune in to hear us explore—
Bernadette even opens and closes our conversation with a grounding meditation, so all of us can get more comfortable in our bodies and clear in our minds.
I hope you’ll listen then get in touch to let me know what you think. And don’t forget to visit Bernadette’s website to learn more about her work!
Links
Hi everyone welcome to the Brave and wild podcast I'm your host Vanessa Newton I'm a group practice owner in social worker I'm also a Latina entrepreneur mom and recovering perfectionist. On this podcast we teach mental health professionals how to build sustainable profitable and values align businesses here you'll hear all about decolonizing the business side of Private Practice. Music. Our time together will be raw honest vulnerable and held together by Joy if you like what you hear subscribe to our newsletter at Braven well.com / newsletter Dash sign. Thank you for listening. Music. 1 Welcome Back to the Braven well podcast too today we have a guest with us we have a good friend of mine and colleague Bernadette Chavez piñon who is a licensed professional counselor here in Austin Texas and she's going to be spending time talking with me about self-care what it's like to be a therapist what the past few years have been like and how we've been managing during this time she's one of my, people in the world and I'm really excited to just chat and kind of get to know more about, the way that she's been caring for herself and thought she has for us fellow mental health professionals in healers so Bernadette. Welcome hi Vanessa thanks for having me thanks for being here I'm excited to do this is the first interview for Braven well that I've done and so this is really exciting tell us about yourself tell us about you and who you are and the work that you do yeah well again my name is Bernadette and I use she her hers pronoun, and as you said I'm a licensed professional counselor and I have a virtual practice and an in-person practice in Texas work with individuals helping them, learn and understand what's going on in their body their feelings and support them and healing in whatever way works best for them so they could have, better relationships with themselves with other people, in essence like create more meaning in their lives I need that I'm still looking for a somatic nervous by the way yes yes yeah that's a whole other I'm talk to you about this a lot but. That just sounds really beautiful and something that I know that I am needed and as someone who leads a team of therapists I've just seen the greatest need for that during this time so I would love for us to just start with maybe a grounding exercise and invite all of you listeners to kind of get grounded during this time before you lean into this episode and join us. Awesome well I invite you to get into a comfortable posture so something that's going to help you. Be relaxed and alert that might tuning in to start with your feet. How are your legs feeling it's moving up the body allowing your as you tune in and move up the body allowing it to relax. Bringing your shoulders down lengthening your spine opening your heart. And you might even start to close down your eyes or lower your gaze whichever one works for you and I want you to do that. And as you turn in simply notice what the energy in your body is doing what you're working with today. Is it revved up or is it slow and expensive. Are things tight and tense are they loose and relaxed. Is there a temperature to things perhaps warm or hot maybe even cool or cold. Noticing the quality of your breath as you inhale and exhale. So whatever you're working with today see if you can be present with it Perhaps even saying that's interesting look at that. Taking a few more full deep breaths. Exhaling and letting go allowing your breath to have an audible quality to it as you inhale again. And exhale Let It Go. Start to bring some attention and awareness back into the space by bringing some gentle movement to your fingers and toes. When you open your eyes simply allow them to gaze at something for a moment so that they can Orient back into the space. And here we are and we're back and we're also in person with each other so I have the luxury of getting that in person and it's actually surprisingly very calm. I noticed that yeah and I feel like just meditation in general gives me anxiety and so. But I was feeling calm so that was nice, yeah sometimes you don't know what you're going to find yeah it so we're just noticing what we're working with but I was super revved up before we started yeah. Like I was feeling tense and a lot of parts of my body so but as we started I just noticed that I was relaxing yeah when you mentioned self-care earlier and about other like what we can do is like therapist and I think that's something that. I sneaked into my work as I do a lot of grounding with folks to help me settle. Yeah I was feeling wrapped up a little tense in my body and I was feeling that as I was as I was guiding us. It helps Miko regulate and help self regulate it helps me settle and I feel a little bit, a lot more relaxed ready to go yeah you know the reason one of the reasons why I wanted to have this conversation is because I feel like for me especially you know I think that. I've been having an extra maybe just difficulty regulating my body difficulty. Moving the energy that is in my body kind of outward or allowing it to kind of move and so I'm curious to know like what what have you noticed within your work. And the past few years that has been different than maybe pre covid or pre National crisis like what's been different. Yeah I think that's a great question so for me what's been different is a shift to focus and. Pay attention more to the body and the nervous system informed or trauma-informed and really understanding how our bodies experiencing things and so. Right before the pandemic I started a meditation training and following that didn't to a somatic experiencing training so I can get. Our experience or knowledge understanding about how people are moving through these really intense and, I don't know the situation so that I mean I don't know how to name it really but we're moving through big things and. Part of something that helped me was to have some like a grounding practice as something that brought me back to myself every time even though. I was just stressed out and anxious as a lot of folks you know so I think having something to come back to really helped me start to see like what can I offer to other people. And I started to notice you know they're they're slow it's like slow benefits right like a slow I don't know what to call it but. You know starting this kind of work was actually really frustrating in the beginning because I didn't understand like I thought it was supposed to be a certain way like if I'm doing meditation or if I'm doing therapy. If I'm working with my body I was like noticing all these expectations that I had in myself and other people I'm like wow that's really interesting and it wasn't interesting like while it was happening it was really frustrating while it was happening. I think these practices and these this approach has really helped me like open up over and over again because the tendency to tighten up and close down is just something that our body does to keep us safe and protected so I'm like okay, I don't really need to have all this armor up all the time. How can I support myself and staying as open as I can like stain on my Edge and softening to it. So it just takes practice it's interesting that you say like you were feeling frustrated because I think that's what I often feel is that, I've tried it right like I've dabbled in it and tested okay how do I engage with this practice of grounding or meditation and see rewards are benefits and I found myself just feeling frustrated because I wanted like a quick fix you know I wanted to feel like I was seeing results right away and. That's just not how it works no I don't know why it's not something that I've experienced I guess I think there's some like met you know if you sit for a practice or do like an awesome or practice that. I know you'll feel better you're like oh yeah this is what I'm looking for like there's relief there's openness you might even have like tears streaming down your face because you're having this you know release. Not every time is like that sometimes you might notice someone breathing next to you or you know sounds and distractions and. You know it's really interesting because I think like that's my practice that in there like whatever is coming up is what I'm working with like today I was like. Going to yoga and found myself not taking up a lot of space making myself small because there was just a lot of people in class and I was like this is interesting like when are times when I make myself small. When are times where I'm not taking up space and like what's going on so I think this practice of self-awareness like what am I doing and why am I doing it really comes into play so you can view with a frustration in a different way can be with. At self talk in a way that allows you to learn about yourself and how you're showing up around people. Yeah I mean what you know I guess we'll I want to go back a little bit to better understanding like how did you know that this was a work you wanted to be doing as a therapist, why kind of, figure it out that I think it was back in like 2014 I went to a trauma-informed yoga training so I'm not a yoga teacher I was doing all this backwards so I did this 60 hour, Retreat and. You know I realized I was breathing not the wrong way but I was realizing like oh I was reading a certain way that really Amplified anxiety and tension in my body. And so like throughout the week I practiced you know they fed us like amazing food and so you know everything was I even didn't drink coffee that week and I was like oh my God like I can, my body's feeling different I'm feeling different but then I returned home and I'm driving to work. And I start to have this awareness that my body's like tightening up and tensing up and my heart rates going up and it was the first time that I was realizing that I didn't know. How am I Drivin was as I was going to work and that really was like an aha moment for me that. I had a choice to either continue to be in that. Place of work or not and so I was like all right I'm not like I can't see myself doing this anymore continuing to like listen to my body and ignore my body at that point right. So I think that was like a big moment for me where I just started to shift more to like mindful awareness trauma formwork nervous system in formwork and. It's hard stuff because it's art it's hard to do but that really started to shape like how is showing up I was taking care of myself how much I needed to take care of myself to do the work. And we're doing that's really I mean it just shows how. I guess how in tune you are with your body I know that I joke with you a lot about that and I'm like Bernadette just like knows herself inside and out and it's a true practice you know because it's easy to also ignore it, yes you know like I'm I think I told you recently when we had lunch that I was realizing that what I would wake up in the morning like my right fist was clenched. Tight like I would wake up from a night sleep in the morning and my right fist was clenched. And it's been happening kind of off and on and I'm just you know. To me just thinking about like what is this mean like what's happening in my body and, not really doing anything about it and not responding to it because of fear of what, might come up for me and so I just think about you know us healers or people whoever is listening like, what do you do with that you know what do you do with that one if you don't have a practice that you engage in and to maybe you're too scared to engage. I had a not avoid how to get curious about it I guess I think that's a place to that's that's like a good starting place like you know being able to create. Space to be curious because if there's a lot of fear, then yeah anything you do is going to be scary and you're not going to really be curious about it so part of it I think is having a practice of like, settling your body and orienting to your space and you know we talk about like grounding exercises like looking around the room and I never really liked. Understood the depth of that until I started doing more like this thematic work we're looking around the room can really help. The body feels safe the heart rate starts to go down. Like and just giving yourself time to do that right so you know how does one starter practice like that I think being okay. With things looking messy at first are like looking different than you imagined it to look like. And then doing a little bit at a time so if you're working with a lot of fear like if you're avoiding something it's probably like you're avoiding it for a reason right or like you've been avoiding it for a reason so I'm probably just starting small. So like little check-ins like what I like doing right now I don't have like an elaborate morning routine or like I do have a regular practice of yoga and meditation and things like that but right now I'm honestly like just, picking it like a smiley face every morning or like a sad face to like check in with my mood and right now like that works for me but at least it starts to help me like to come back to myself so I think to whatever degree you can come back to yourself it doesn't have to be, an hour-long practice you know every day it could be just like let me just check in with this app to see how what my mood is like and then that's that. So I checked in this morning I'm like I've actually have like a happy face on and these are the reasons why and like that's it but it's just that turning towards it slowly, little bit at a time I think it's a good place to start yeah I love this idea of looking around the room because when you said that I started looking around the room well you have a beautiful office lots of like beautiful things to look at yeah it's something so simple and yet, I just noticed I never do that, you know because I'm always looking straight ahead at a computer or it like a phone or you know I'm so zoned into, things that are external for me that. Are likely the root of my Stress and Anxiety versus like this beautiful painting in front of me or these you know markers on the side table you know like things like that that I don't even recognize that are in my my surroundings you know that are part of me and I think that just like right there was something I never thought about. Yeah one of my anchors is to feel my feet and notice my breath because often times on my feet are like they tell a lot like you were talking about your fist and yeah isn't it. And a ball my feet will give me away like if they're curled and I'm sharing this in public so now every time you see me everyone's going to like look at my feet and like when they tuck in. That's like me going into protective mode. And it's interesting being aware of that and then having other people be aware of it's like I can't hide anymore right so when you're talking about your hand I wanted to just mention something to about that, like you're noticing right like what's going on in your hand that's step one write like notice it, and then part of it is like listening like you could even like communicate talk to your hand and like you had words what would you want to tell me. I do this with my thumb talks a lot to me and so when it moves I'm like okay I'm listening interesting. And it'll twitch and it'll freak me out because I'm like oh shit like what's up the shit is welcome yeah okay because it's like that kind of moments like you're listening to your hat you engaging with your body in a different way and it's like so wild. Yeah that you can't not do it anymore you're like oh my gosh like I have this access point and my body's a student and it knows I'm listening so it's this really cool Exchange. I love that like if you what did you say. If you were trying to if your fist had words oh is that what you were yes yes that's what I like what would it want to say yeah. Probably a lot of things yeah. So how do you I mean I think about like how do you do that right like hold space for yourself. Not just as a person right but also we are called to do very difficult work with our clients like you said like clients who are experiencing a lot and living through a lot and. How do we hold both like hold space for ourselves and then hold space for clients because that's the biggest thing that I've noticed that, my capacity has changed my team's capacity is change and maybe the amount of clients that they've been able to see before is drastically lower now you know because of just everything that is happening and I find that people feel. May be drained or inconvenienced by this act of taking care of yourself if that makes sense and just like like thinking about like how do you do both you know and what thoughts do you have about that. Well I do both because I know if I don't do, yoga and meditation my walks my baths my reading I like to do with you know if I don't I feel it and to me that I don't want to get to a point where. I'm just not doing anything because that's that's probably signaling that either really burnt out or something worse sure. But the balance I think it's a flow like there's a season 2 things you know like summer was it's always a surprise to me I'm like oh where, we're not slowing down this summer we're actually ramping up and maintaining my boundaries and you know we're like how I'm feeling every day after every session or every interaction that I'm having is something that I have to, keep track of. Because I'm I'm honestly not trying to find a balance I'm just trying to find like a flow that works for me my family the people are that are around me, so I think it might be different every week and I like adjusting to that. I have like a my practices like what grounds me is my yoga practice my meditation practice my. Quiet time I'm mostly introverted, for Enneagram for so that probably tells a lot to people that know what that is when I want I still haven't done it by the way the damn ideogram doing y'all that's have not like might like the way I recharges probably like just by myself. Having some quiet time and trying to get back in my body because I think that's what I. I don't really pay attention to it like defeat other things like I. Typically don't even though you would say like otherwise I go we're always doing X Y and Z it's like actually sometimes I'm just like in my mind. Thinking about a lot of things so it's a really nice practice for me to have to like go back into my body and check in with. How things are going yeah that's really helpful I mean I want to shift a little bit to talking about like you as an entrepreneur. Right because you are a business owner you have your own practice and you are your own boss and so most of the people who are here listening to this episode have either the same thing or they aspire to have their own practice one day and so I wanted to just get your thoughts about. Life is an entrepreneur and how things have been different for you or what things have been like on the business side of things in the past few years while I think I'm at this point. About four years into my private practice which I feel, I've learned a lot about what were you doing before so before Private Practice I was at University the university counseling level and then before that like non-profit. Learning how to be an entrepreneur and a therapist is really interesting so you know I think one thing that's important to me and we've talked about this before is to have like a solid Financial Foundation, and so I spent a good close to like three years working on. Business budget or you know how I was going to Outsource things like my accounting or my bookkeeping, my marketing stuff you know for me what I've noticed is you know always is kind of like, pressure to do more and I bought into that for a good while I was like oh I need to do this or I need to add this to my practice and. And I realized I was not doing any of that and so I just finally gave myself permission to not do it and I was that was really interesting, because it's such a shift it's like oh what kind of. Therapist entrepreneur am I if I'm not in the hustle so that's just like where I'm at right now it's like oh if I'm not doing those things if I'm not. Growing and expanding in this way what is what does that look like and I think, the first thing that comes to mind like oh it's sustainable right like I can keep moving at this pace because I'm not exhausting myself because I am not a great multitasker and I don't do a lot of projects you know all I want and that's not to say anything about anybody and I'm looking at you it works for me and I'm a lot less stressed and I think that's important for me it's like. I could but it wouldn't you know I'm not I'm not ready for that or I don't know if it's going to be part of my practice and just being okay letting things go, and so sometimes they'll be on my to-do list for like a month maybe sometimes a year and then sometime that one day will come well I'm just going to ask myself or say to myself like can we let this go do we need to hold on to this anymore. And I will and that has been really freeing and giving me. Permission to just let my practice be what it is so I feel really comfortable in that spot and I like four years in I'm like who I wonder what. Four more years will look like after that so I think being able to pay attention. To that for myself has been really helpful in reducing a lot of the stress and burnout but. You know life happens and sometimes I'll find myself and all week so he's in June yeah I'm like oh my gosh like I don't want to do this right now right like I'm avoiding a lot of things I'm I kind of think I did this, it's like oh this is what happens in its, I love everything you just said because I think you're right like you and I are so different and we talk about that all the time how I'm such a push push push produce produce produce like I'm very much I live my life in the hustle you know and I always have and I think that was just how I was raised like my mom definitely ingrained that in us and, I'm always conscious of it but it is who I am you know and I honor that part of me but I also am in a season now where I feel like. I don't want to live my life like that you know and. I hadn't shared this with you but like last week I let go of like three projects like they had been sitting I use a sauna. I had been feeling like really down, these past few weeks and I don't know why but this summer has felt really hard for me yeah it's felt like really stressful and just not easy and so I was just looking at everything and I was like. How much of this do I actually need to be doing. None of it none of it I don't I don't need to do any of it I'm putting that pressure on myself and so I just said I'm not going to do it. And I completely cut it out of my workflow and I'm just I'm really actively trying. Just slow down like I really am and I think it's the act of saying no is the hardest part about all of this yeah like pumping the brake yeah and you're gonna have to pump the brakes for because your you go pretty fast I go go back and you go hard, and I know you're a mom and I'm a new mom but my daughter is two and a half and so I feel like this there's like this guilt of like being a working mom and not I'm missing out maybe on like these parts of her life that are not we're not going to get back right but then there's this part of me that's like I also. And I like what you said about creating a flow that works for your family because that's what I'm trying to create like what is my flow right like what feels good that prioritizes my family and also still maintains what I've built and created because there's priority in both but it's just a new challenge for me yeah and as you're saying that you know there is since the beginning of June it's something that I've been struggling with it's like when work. Or other commitments bump up against family I that's there's tension there right and so it's not that I figured it out or that I'm really relaxed when those two things on bump against each other, it's that's my learning curve right there it's like oh how to soften to that tension right there and be okay with a little bit more. Flexibility or shifting gears or whatever it may be but. You know sometimes I'll just like be really stressed out and cry and like like bead really hard on myself because I'm like how did I get here. Like I even with my best intentions my practices like how did I get here and and then I'm like oh I just I just got here and I'm just trying to turn it around now and. Keep going yeah but it's really it's really trick it's challenging you just kind of get swept up in it sometimes I guess. Yeah and I think for me kind of growing up like being. Producing being successful I guess is equals to are you good enough. You know like there's this can you produce enough and do well enough to be worthy. And shedding that letting go of that, is really challenging you know like how do I sustain this good enough status if I'm not producing what does that look like, for me that's that's how I feel you know that's my struggle right now and I in my brain I can tell myself like I know I'm good enough right like that's not even a question but when I'm relaxing when I'm saying no when I'm resting when I'm with my family when I'm sleeping it can feel like you're not you're not doing anything which means you're not worthy right so. I don't know I feel like last week was like a big eye opening experience for me and still trying to sit with the discomfort of that. Right because there's not doing anything having that relationship with worth r as like if you just if you could separate that. And have a different meaning to not doing anything. And it doesn't necessarily have to be positive right now like oh not doing anything is great or like restful or like. This is equally as important like that's not going to be there but giving yourself a little bit of space from. The worst part and just allowing and no possibility to be there around not doing anything. Yeah could be helpful but I think about you and how you built this really beautiful practice you know I feel like you have a practice that. And this is how I perceive it I don't know if this is true but like you don't have to Market yourself and hustle for clients like I feel like you. You just have that right like who you are is. How you practice and how you live out your business and that's what I see when I think about you and when I refer people to you it's very much like this is just like a really grounded good person that. Guess she's not doing a million things but like. That's the beauty of it right that that you can still have a business and a practice without hustling for it, yeah you can yeah I appreciate you sharing that and yeah you're right my my experience is really different I think when it comes to marketing and networking like those are, terms that I've kind of moved away from so I like describing it as a community building or connection, even with those reframes like social media is still something that like scratch I know right like you don't have to do it it's like no it's because I don't know what to say and I don't really want to stress out about it and so I don't see anything and I like I'll check in there every now and then I'll be like okay like, you know but I actually do run numbers like I'll pull reports from the platform that I use that holds all my client stuff and. Like not a lot of referrals come from social media so I'm like okay like from a business perspective like do I need to keep putting this time and effort and energy and maybe money into that, if that's not where you know my referrals come from so it was an easy decision from that point to say like yeah I can I can let that go or let that continue to sit, I did notice more referrals from like you know my community and my connections and, that's something and that's you and that's really you get that baby out because of who you are yes not because of how you're presenting on social media no it's because of the community building it's because of the relationship building, and the connections that you build with other people in the community, that's what it's about yeah that was like another you know I mention finances being a foundation for my business it also Community like I think that's like we met when I started private practice and we just started to like do the you know like iestyn therapist of color stuff and meet ups and whatnot. And I it was like a like that gut instinct like I need it Community popped up and then you popped up after that and I was like okay like we're all set you know trusting you know those choices that you're making that make it a little easier and like open up the next right thing for you to do and I think connecting with you building Community was something that came there was ease to it and that is something that helps guide me in my practice like not what's easy but where is there he's like where I don't have to like push so hard for this or. That it comes with some effort but it's something that I enjoy and that's important to me and so I think something like that's helped guide me it's like, where is there he's you know there's some effort but where can I go with the flow like that's my flow that I'm finding so. She just dropped a lot of nuggets but I feel like yes like all of that and I, I think that's the number one thing when people you know come to me being like I really want to build a successful practice what do I do and it truly is relationship building, like it really is I mean I can't tell you how many coffee dates and just so much coffee so many gods of coffee so much lunch everywhere and, I mean some of my greatest friends and cheerleaders have come from Austin therapist color and just like meeting you know y'all and, have been my lifelines and constant supporters so and honestly I think about I'm like that's all I need really that's it. So yeah I just love that and I want to go back to the money piece real quick just to round it out a little bit because I know that that's something that's really important to you and something that you know a lot of people rightfully so it's stressful you know and thinking about. Like what are some of the things that you've done financially, as a business owner to feel secure in being an entrepreneur and just kind of supporting yourself and your family I got help, all right outsourced I asked for help because as, many things come from like the stress and anxiety of it like it was finances were things it was a topic that shut me down and just caused me like a great deal of anxiety and I just felt awful every time I tried to like do something about it so I got help, the art of Finance is a group I offer them to a few friends yeah yeah yeah they're amazing and it's like. Obviously like a proponent of therapy but if you don't really want to go to therapy about like just go to a financial coach like that'll help a lot it was great like me and my partner were like working stuff out and we're like oh my gosh like I didn't we didn't know that. How are you were treating money and how we were holding onto it or not and so something that was helpful was like asking for help, and being able to just like practice talking about it and we have like regular I think we're meeting up tonight too like a little budget yeah date and you said our budget for for the month but it was it was important for me because family history like my dad opened a business and I think end up ended up like bankrupt from it and just ended up going with like. And a very important but safe job for the rest of his life which you know really grateful for, all the work that he did but like he's tried to do to start this business and I think like for one reason or another like there's a lot of factors to like making a business successful and. I was just worried you know like what if what if something what if this doesn't work out. And so the emphasis on building. My business Foundation like with money financially was for that so I could feel more secure and, I feel like I could do things like, big trainings or workshops or you know anything that I needed to do like I gave myself permission to do it I would just have to like Z4 it or budget right. So that's been really nice like working with my finances just help create a lot more opportunities for professional growth and development that I'm like okay like yeah. I want to go do something let me just save up for it yeah let me set money aside or yeah so important and there's so many things to factor into it I actually scheduled a consultation with them you're right you will it'll be life-changing I promise you that it took about almost a year, yeah to get it set up and then working on its own and, I think it's like any new habit like I know other friends and family that have tried it out and they're like are you still are you still doing it. Are you there like no I'm like yeah it's hard sometimes it's really hard to stick to it but it's important yeah and there's considerably less anxiety and stress around it it's something that I feel really good about it's actually something that brings me a lot of Joy when I think about my practice because you're actively engaging in it right and you are, like you know where the money is yeah you know you have, that awareness around it and I as someone who like used to not look at their money and not know, when you know where that next dollar was coming from and whether I had enough to pay X bill you know that is really stressful and so. I think people often say like it's too stressful to look at my bank account and I'm like no I look at it every single morning when I wake up like that's one of the first things I do and it gives it empowers me, truly like it makes me feel like okay I have some control and obviously I'm not in control of everything but control over like, how much goes in and how much you know goes out and so, it is really empowering to have that knowledge and understand your relationship with money and how that. Impacts your journey and be able to ask for help around it yes. And to talk about it in therapy pass to get a financial coach or advisor or something right. That's something that helped me it's like I don't I need I need help yeah I need to learn. I took the factorial well Circle class that was really cool it's there's a lot of information and a lot of good like just knowledge share now it's I need help with someone to actually help me implement it you know because it was just a lot of like taking in information so I'm glad I did it but is ready for that next step so so what else do you want to share with us before we start wrapping up, I don't know if anything is coming to mine I think this is just such a nice opportunity to check in like we're you know this if there's any take away from this it's just checking in about these things that were talking about like not having the pressure to the leg, go into your budget or go and have this self care practice but just to check in and say like where it where am I at and what are things feeling like for me right now. What do I need to do or who do I need to ask for help to help me along, so I think you know just inviting people to see this as a check-in yeah I mean and the truth is is that like when we think about building relationships with other therapists or you know other people in the community that do similar work like this is what our lunch date sounds like a lot of time I mean there's you know there's a lot of other personal stuff that comes up lots of things we can't talk about here but you know we check in with each other about the real stuff yes. Yeah we're very straightforward with the yes stuff yeah, yeah and and so if you were thinking about like how do I build relationships with other people in my community like it's got to be authentic you know definitely authentic and you know earlier I mentioned like going to an edge it's like you don't have to we're not trying to like. You and I are really good friends but it's like you're that's not the intention of it either is that you're not trying to do that but. It's like how like vulnerability right like how much of yourself are you willing to share do you want to share. And then that kind of sets a piece for the other person right so you know vulnerability I think is a beautiful thing among colleagues and whatnot. But it's not it's not something that needs to be there needs to be so much pressure around yeah like yeah have as many coffee meetups as many as many as you need but because they're important yeah they are, I think for me personally when when I make time to check in with someone like you and my life it reminds me of the things that I'm neglecting in myself you know to and things that nobody else in my life can even understand or empathize with because they don't they just don't understand my struggle because of the type of work I do or you know and know me in a different way and so even for just that like we have we need that support and like when I check in with you I leave feeling like more creative like okay like. What like just possibility and so I think like. Right we share these think the exchange like you're you know you're checking it in your own way and I'm doing that in mind but, even if it's just that energy of like creativity and possibility or like checking in or what's happening what's going on like I think that's beautiful for two Beautiful Exchange think you yeah thank you for being here for chatting I just I just am always like full after we me too so where can people find you, share my websites Bernadette Chavez piñon.com, earlier we were talking about social media if you want to go my handles at BCP counseling ATX but yeah that you won't see much going on that's okay it's okay yeah you might see me in the wild to so like yoga meditation and I like, please say hi if you see me out and about like it hello I'm happy to chat I love like checking in in person to like that's really like exciting and like you like, I know you taking new clients right now I probably like in the fall okay we'll be opening up so I'm like on a summer schedule right now, perfect lie low until then me too oh that's low, okay so to close this out. Will you do a little something special for I will whatever absolutely what we're going to like bookend today and we're going to go back to that posture that we started with so. It might look the way it did when we first started or a might look a little different to see what you're working with now. It's inviting you to start at your feet feeling your feet against the floor. I'm in your seat to settle in your chair lengthening your back and opening your front leaving it soft. I mean at all proud posture you can close down your eyes or lower your gaze whatever feels good for you. At this point it's notice the energy that you're working with now. Is the speed a different or is it the same checking in with the temperature the tension of your muscles. Notice in the quality of your breath as you inhale As you turn in a notice what you're working with see if you can be with that just as it is staying with it for a few more breaths. Thanking yourself or extending gratitude to this moment to pause and check in. To notice what you're doing and why you're doing it. And a spirit of gratitude thank you for listening Anessa for inviting me space. And if there's a color that comes to mind when you think of gratitude right now mine is this bright yellow. Yours might be a different color. I mean that color to wash over you top to bottom front to back. Reading it in for a few more breaths. When you're ready you can start to wiggle and move in a way that feels good for you Awakening the body a little bit at a time. When you open your eyes just allowing your gaze to rest on something for a moment. Yes looking around the space. Thank you so much thank you all for listening today you'll find all the show notes at Braven world.com and. Music. Sneezing to the Braven while podcast you can find links and resources from this episode in the show notes at. Music. 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