Are you feeling burned out, overwhelmed, or isolated in your private practice? Many of us have been there. In this episode of The Traveling Therapist Podcast, I chat with Kara Cruz about how she found her way out of exhaustion by creating signature therapy groups that aligned with her passion, schedule, and ideal clients.
Kara shares her journey from agency life to private practice, how she began offering telehealth before it was popular, and why building therapy groups has been such a powerful part of her business. If you’ve been craving more flexibility, creativity, and connection in your work, this episode is packed with insight and encouragement.
In This Episode, We Explore…
Connect with Kara:
Website - https://www.karacruz.com/
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/karacruzwellness
LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/karacruzwellness
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100095693556020&mibextid=LQQJ4d
YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCGASQWXST6duGdNdo-GjvmA
Connect with me:
Instagram: @thetravelingtherapist_kym
The Traveling Therapist Facebook Group: www.facebook.com/groups/onlineandtraveling/
Signup to learn more about life as a Traveling Therapist: https://www.portablepracticemethod.com/free-training
Revolutionize Your Private Practice with AI Course: www.kymtolson.kartra.com/page/ai
Bill Like A Boss Insurance Billing Community: www.kymtolson.kartra.com/page/blab
Subscribe to the Podcast:
Apple iTunes | Spotify | Google Podcast | Stitcher | Amazon | Castbox
______________________________
Sponsored by Berries: Say goodbye to the burden of mental health notes with automated note and treatment plan creation! https://heyberries.com/therapists
Sponsored by Alma: Managing a private practice can be challenging. There are obstacles at every turn — from navigating the credentialing process, to managing finances, to finding new clients. That’s where Alma can help. Alma is on a mission to simplify access to mental health care by focusing first and foremost on supporting clinicians. https://helloalma.com/kym
______________________________
Transcript:
[00:00:00] Kym_: Hey everybody. Welcome back to another episode of The Traveling Therapist podcast. Really excited today to have our guest, Kara Cruz with us. Kara is doing all kinds of cool stuff on top of being a therapist.
[00:00:11] Kara, thank you for being here. I always start out with like, how did you go from being a traditional therapist to a traveling therapist?
[00:00:19] Kara: Thank you for having me. I'm happy to be here. Yeah, your podcast just is. I love it. I love the idea of thinking outside of the box and doing things differently, and I was really drawn to a different type of work as a therapist when I was still a graduate student and working on my hours. I was in community mental health.
[00:00:36] I worked at a great agency, organization. I love the people I worked with, but it was very overwhelming and I was very burnt out and I always felt tired and I always just felt like I wanted to have flexibility. I wanted to, you know, be able to help in my son's classroom. I wanted to be able to take vacations and have that freedom to, check email when I want without having to get permission from a supervisor.
[00:00:59] Kind of a little bit of a oppositional, right? I wanna be my own boss, and so even prior to COVID when a lot of people were going telehealth, I started just really getting to know different therapists online who were doing these sorts of things that were really outside of the box you know, back in like 2017, 2016 to 2019.
[00:01:17] It was a little bit controversial, but I was just so drawn to the therapists who were starting their own practices, who were doing things differently, were on social media, were having fun, were traveling and meeting different people. And I wanted that. And so I knew once I got licensed, I always knew I wanted to go into private practice.
[00:01:34] And the closer I got to licensure, I started exploring how can I have a business where I can have the flexibility to, if I wanna go to a training, I don't have to ask permission. I can go to a really cool place and go to a training, get CEEs, go to a retreat. And the way way I started was just I. Started my practice part-time and I started offering telehealth back before it was really popular.
[00:01:57] And the reason I did that was because I needed to work from home a little bit in the evenings. I already had a home office and I needed to work around my day job, you know.
[00:02:06] And one of the types of clients that I really wanted to serve were therapists who were in grad school who had to do their 20 hours of, over here it's 20 hours of personal psychotherapy.
[00:02:17] And in my cohort. I luckily was able to find a therapist and make it work, but it was really hard. I had to go on my lunch break. It was, you know, using lunchtime and sick time and feeling very like, busy and overwhelmed and rushed through the day, leaving therapy and then I gotta go right back to work and then be on for everyone.
[00:02:34] And so one of the things I wanted to do was provide telehealth to grad students who needed to do their own personal psychotherapy at a sliding fee. And so that's how I felt a little bit more safe doing telehealth with fellow therapists, because I knew they kind of knew how confidentiality works.
[00:02:49] They might follow rules a little bit more than somebody who is not in the therapy world. So I thought I was a little bit more safe because I was a little nervous about telehealth. And so I started and about six months later, COVID happened and then everything switched to telehealth.
[00:03:02] So by then I had built, I had some evening in-person clients that I was seeing. I was subleasing an office. I was doing telehealth. I had think it was two therapists I was seeing from the Bay Area in California who were in grad school. And I was really loving it. And then when, COVID happened, all of my clients switched to telehealth.
[00:03:19] And then I primarily stayed telehealth and I was able to really structure my schedule in a way that works for my brain, works for my neurodivergent brain. And gives me days off and time off where I can do my own admin stuff and my own time and I can travel if I want and I can work from wherever.
[00:03:36] Kym_: You're just like bringing me back, I mean, I'm just remembering like the agency and being in grad school, like bachelor's level agency work. Right.
[00:03:44] Kara: Yeah. I did that too.
[00:03:45] Kym_: Yeah. And having to do like, I mean, all of those hours, even after, you know, I got my master's degree, it's like, oh my God.
[00:03:52] And all those like the free work, like I literally worked all day, and I'm sure you can relate. And then had to, like, I worked an overnight job in a boys' home, a foster care boys' home.
[00:04:04] Kara: I did
[00:04:04] Kym_: to sleep there. Did you really? Oh my God. Had to
[00:04:07] Kara: in a group home.
[00:04:08] Kym_: Oh my gosh. Maybe everybody does that. I don't know. But it was like, oh my God. It was exhausting. You know? So of course you're not really sleeping, right? It's like there's an alarm on and these kids are like, not juvenile delinquents, but they just like, you know, they were like troublemakers in
[00:04:22] Kara: Well, we had to, we had to stay awake and we had to do, we had to clock in every 15 minutes at the job I had, so we couldn't sleep. So I was doing that while in school. Yes and working, it was kind of like a side job. And then I also did that at a, psychiatric hospital much later towards the end of my licensure to get experience with adults.
[00:04:39] The graveyard, again, I don't know how I did it at, I was like late thirties or something, but when I was doing the, yeah, clock in every 15 minutes, the positive side to that was that I was awake so they couldn't like, you know, do anything too nuts, you know, like sneak out or anything.
[00:04:54] But I got a lot of homework done because
[00:04:56] Kym_: All that is
[00:04:56] Kara: once, once the chores were done, you know, my supervisor there was like, as long as. You know, laundry's done and all that. The house is clean, which it already was before kids went to bed. You know, I don't, you just need to make sure that they don't sneak out and you need to supervise. And so I got a lot of homework done and papers written during that time, but it was exhausting yeah.
[00:05:12] Kym_: I just remember trying to sleep with one eye open pretty much, so just totally relating to hearing you talk about that. And then having to do a component where you had to do therapy hours. Like I didn't have to do that in my state of licensure, which is Virginia.
[00:05:23] We didn't have to do that. So that's like a whole next level and then you wanted to give back. So that's super cool to be able to create that container and give back sliding scale to other therapists having to do the same thing.
[00:05:34] Kara: Yeah. I really love, I, and I still work with therapists now. I have a few therapists. kind of ongoing, I always have some therapists or a lot of helping professions, mostly women in my that who I work with. But I love working with therapist. At first, I was very nervous about it 'cause I thought,
[00:05:47] oh no.
[00:05:48] And
[00:05:48] Kym_: are, they're gonna judge me. They know all the tricks, you
[00:05:51] Kara: Yeah. What if I mess up? Yeah. That, you know, overthinking it and then the more and more I got to know, those clients, it just, I love working with them.
[00:06:00] But I can remember just kind of going back to like those busy days when you're overwhelmed and overworked. I had to travel throughout the different schools in my county and I was always in my car. I was always going to a school. It just very exhausting. You're setting up your laptop at a new site to get your notes done and then you're getting kind of moved around from room to room because there's no room. And I just remember I would always on my way in the car I would be listening to, i'd have my phone, you know, like hooked up to my, so I could hear, and I'd be listening to podcasts like this, or I would be listening to other therapists, you know, when they're on Facebook and different places going live and talking about
[00:06:35] how they're building their private practices. And I just remember, that would entertain me because I would be hearing how I'm just so overwhelmed and burnout and they're, you know, building these really cool businesses and doing really cool things. And I knew that that's what I wanted.
[00:06:48] Kym_: So you knew, I mean, it sounds like even as an intern, I guess you knew like, okay, I definitely am not just gonna be in this one-to-one like private practice, brick and mortar model. I just wanna expand and have other income streams and a A creative brain it sounds like. And that's part of what you've done, right?
[00:07:03] Finding the freedom and creativity as a business owner and now you're figuring out ways to pass that on to other therapists, it sounds like to me.
[00:07:09] Kara: yeah. That's my favorite thing.
[00:07:11] Kym_: Yeah. Well let's talk about that. 'cause part of this podcast is like, how can I, you know, create other income streams or scale in a different way that's sort of outside of the box to give you that freedom to be able to, like you're talking about, go to retreats or travel whenever you want to or work from home or whatever you need to do.
[00:07:27] So can we talk about that? Like what was the process? What have you created? How did you go about it? I people just really benefit from that.
[00:07:35] Kara: I always loved teaching one of my favorite parts of my job when I worked at an agency, I worked in different programs. I worked in a shelter. I worked in schools as a bachelor's level providing support services. Before I was doing therapy, I worked in office as a supervisor. So I was, you know, 40 hours a week in the office, not at the schools.
[00:07:53] I kind of went through all the lots of different positions and one of my favorite things to do was to supervise and to work with brand new, whether it be, you know, support counselors, case managers, or therapists, just really, really new and green and, you know, nervous. That was my favorite thing, to watch them from the start and then watch them after their first year just to build their confidence.
[00:08:11] And so, teaching was really important to me and I helped teach some of the not basic training. I can't even think of what it's called now, but, you know, some of the core trainings that we had at our agency that everyone had to go through in their first, you know, 90 days to six months. And there were a couple different trainings, like boundaries mandated reporting, and then group facilitation skills was actually the one they always sent me to do.
[00:08:31] And at that time, I wasn't really into it. I liked to do in groups, but it was just a training that I really didn't like. I was like, okay, I have to do this training. Why does everyone in the agency, not everyone runs groups. I was always kind of confused, but I did it and I, you know, over time I kind of improved it and changed up the curriculum and I found it was one of my favorite things to teach.
[00:08:48] And it's, it's funny because I look back now and, and I wasn't always doing groups in my private practice, but now I'm kind of coming back to doing groups. I've come back to doing groups and now teaching other therapists to run groups. So, that was kind of just where I started when I went into private practice.
[00:09:01] I knew I didn't wanna be doing therapy five days a week, 30 hours a week, or 20 hours a week. I knew I wanted to have a really small group of clients that I worked with that were my, you know, the best type of clients that I do my best work with. I don't mean best clients, but the clients that I feel like I do my best work and I serve the best.
[00:09:19] Rather than just having anyone and everyone because that tended to burn me out. So I wanted the small group of clients. I wanted to do some clinical supervision, and then I wanted to teach, I wanted to provide either workshops, trainings, and continuing education was always something that I had a goal of doing.
[00:09:35] And finally this year, two of my trainings are approved for CEEs. And so, I just knew when I'm doing that, it's just a nice break for my brain from therapy. I get to, you know, being a private practice therapist virtually from home can be very isolating, and so it helps me to stay connected to colleagues and meet people who I would've never met.
[00:09:53] I, you know, it's so fun. When I'm in a training, I always ask people, where are they from? Where are they coming from? And when I see people. The East coast, you know, Texas. I've had some people from Canada and out of the country in my trainings and it's, it's so cool just to meet different people who I never would've without doing this.
[00:10:09] So, yeah. So I have my trainings that I do CEEs, and then I was getting I would get people reaching out, asking me, kind of like, to pick your brain, can I pick your brain about something? Question.
[00:10:19] And you get, you know, we're busy and we have a lot going on, and it can be hard to meet frequently one-on-one with people to do that.
[00:10:25] And so I thought, okay, these are the questions that people are asking me a lot, emailing me about wanting to know about how can I start my own group? You know, what platform do you use? What does your informed consent look like? How do you market it? And so, I just decided to do a bootcamp, like let's do a bootcamp
[00:10:41] and have a small cohort or a group of people and a therapist and kind of teach them what I've done and what's worked for me. So it's called Therapist Group Bootcamp?
[00:10:50] Kym_: Oh, that's perfect. Yeah. Therapist group boot camp. Perfect. So is it, teaching? 'cause I know like you specifically in your bio talk about signature wellness and support groups for women. is it teaching therapists how to do similar groups? Or is it like psychoeducation groups or like therapy groups or just like whatever type of group they want to create?
[00:11:09] Kara: Yes, any type of group they want. The first time I officially called it Therapist Group Bootcamp and kind of made it a thing was just actually recently, we just finished our first cohort. I was doing a lot of, consultation one-on-one, small groups. I didn't call it anything. It wasn't, you know, I wasn't marketing, didn't calling it anything, but what ended up happening was most of the therapist reaching out to me were wanting to know how to start mainly women's groups and mainly in the kind of realm of perinatal mental health or reproductive mental health perimenopause.
[00:11:38] And so I decided just to kind of, really niche it down that way. We have people in the room who are doing something similar, so if we wanna talk about clinical issues that's relevant, we're not just talking about the business side of forming a group. We can also address the clinical side.
[00:11:52] We can share resources. We know who's out there. You know, if, if somebody is running a group on perimenopause in New Jersey, but it's only limited to their state and someone else reaches out, they might know someone from their cohort in therapist group bootcamp. Oh, I know, I know someone in California who runs a group. I can refer you to my, my colleague.
[00:12:08] And they know, they know each other. They trust each other. When they're making those referrals, they know it's going, they, they know the content of the group. They, they can speak to what their colleague is doing. It's not kind of just this, I did this random search and found this flyer, and I think this might be a good fit.
[00:12:23] Kym_: So you're talking about such an important nuance, right? 'cause from somebody that's also created lots of like offers and other things, you know, to, sell people and to help people and that sort of thing. It has been kind of a journey for myself, just even to go from like really broad things to more specific things and like figure out you know that they say the riches are in the niches, that kind of thing.
[00:12:42] So what was that process like for you to finally realize like, okay, maybe I need to niche it down and make it more specific and about this particular thing. Like what made you decide to do that instead of keeping it real broad?
[00:12:52] 'cause I, I think, you know, a lot of people I talk to, they are do coaching with, they get into that thing. Like I just need to make it super broad, but it actually isn't as helpful as what I found. And it sounds like you found that too, and I just wonder like. How'd you figure that out? That that was a thing?
[00:13:06] Kara: It's, it's kind of like that old people pleaser in me. That's like, I wanna appeal to everyone. I don't want someone to say, oh, that's not for me. So if I make it really broad, then everyone will wanna join. But then it's so broad that nobody really feels like, oh, that's what I need. It's for me.
[00:13:20] And you know, I know like from the marketing side, anytime I've had any business coaching that's what they've told me is, you really need to narrow down. You have a lot of ideas you need to come out from like I'm in the clouds and lots of ideas and I wanna do a lot of things, but I spread myself too thin.
[00:13:33] that's been my like my down, not downfall, but like my problem that I think we all have to learn like what are challenges and that's been mine. And when I've made the switch to really being specific with my clients, with my women's group, 'cause I did a lot of different types of groups on even running my own groups.
[00:13:47] But really narrowing things down. it not only helped kind of attract the right people, but it also, I felt more settled and calm and I could breathe, like, okay, I don't have to have my brain going in a million different directions. I'm really focusing on one thing, and it's the thing that really lights me up.
[00:14:02] It's the thing I enjoy talking about. It's the thing that I have more training in. it allows me to be in the room with other people who, I learned just as much from the people who join the groups, from the therapist side of things, than I do from, you know, train. You know, I, I feel like I get to know and learn people and learn what's out there too. So I'm getting a lot out of it as well.
[00:14:21] Kym_: Yeah, it's hard. I mean, it's hard to pick a niche because like if you're like me and it sounds like you are like there are a thousand ideas and it's like, well yeah, but I also also see a need for this and maybe I could just stretch over here. But then I do find myself being stretched way too thin and having to pair back or, or offers that don't sell 'cause I don't have enough time to devote to it, you know?
[00:14:41] 'cause I'm already like inundated with all the other things I've already created. That kind of thing. Yeah.
[00:14:46] Kara: The strategy I've had, instead of telling myself, no, I keep a list of everything I wanna do and all my ideas, and I tell myself it's just not right now.
[00:14:54] And I pick the things that are really like the lowest hanging fruit idea with something in a, you know, I've heard multiple times when I've been in my own coaching of, you need to go with that and go in kind of like deeper with that and make that really good
[00:15:07] before you start to do a bunch of other things that it be, you don't have to say no to the other things. 'cause I think the idea of like, I can't do the other thing was what I was a little bit resistant to. So instead of saying, well, it's just right now, this is what I'm focusing on. I'm gonna focus on it till I, get it done. Get it good. Get it right.
[00:15:23] And if I lose interest in it, I don't have to do it forever. But for right now, I'm just gonna focus on this thing and that's helped me. And then I don't have to like, let go of my other babies on my interest list. It's like you're over there and so at one point maybe I'll come back to you.
[00:15:38] Kym_: Yeah. I love that. Yeah. Boundaries for ourselves. 'cause I mean, I could spend 24 hours a day just creating stuff, you know? If I
[00:15:44] Kara: Oh yeah.
[00:15:44] Kym_: myself, it's like bad.
[00:15:47] Kara: Getting lost in it and like, oh, hold on. What time is it? It's five o'clock. Oh no, I do, yeah. The Hyper focus Brain.
[00:15:53] Kym_: Exactly. so the, the groups that you're teaching, are they part of, 'cause you've got just this really robust bio, so they part of the women's support circle, or is that like a totally other thing
[00:16:04] Kara: they're all, yeah, they're different. So women's Support Circle is a community that a colleague and I started because we found that, we each have a very similar practice model, and we use each other as like we consult with each other. We're in a in-person consult group in our community. And we just kept saying that, man, we have all these clients who we be consultation and you're presenting a case.
[00:16:29] And a lot of us work with women and we're like, oh my gosh, my client with like, love your client. We can't introduce them. We can't break confidentiality. But, but we just saw that, you know, a lot of our clients didn't know how to meet new friends. They felt really isolated. They felt like they were the only ones.
[00:16:41] There's a lot of guilt around topics that have to do with women's issues like reproductive mental health postpartum and perimenopause. And so that's where I kind of knew groups are the ticket because you get people in the same room.
[00:16:51] But with women's support circle, we just wanted to provide something that was no cost. It was a sense of community. We could offer different, you know, workshops on topics that were common that a lot of our clients were talking about,
[00:17:03] and it would be more support based, community based versus, you know, not a therapy group. And so we started Women's Support Circle by doing monthly free support groups and, and different topic based workshops throughout the year.
[00:17:15] And from that we found that a lot of the people that were coming are wanting, are interested in our group or other therapists. So again, now we we're back in the room with other women therapists. And so from that we kind of expanded and we created the therapist night out where we meet with other therapists locally and we
[00:17:31] we go to small businesses or locally owned, sometimes we try to find female owned businesses like restaurants or little, you know, wine bars and different places like that and connect every other month we meet up and we just connect. We share our resources and business cards. You get to know people.
[00:17:45] So again, you know who you're referring to. You've met the person before. And women's support Circle, it kind of went from having this free online meetup where we had a designated time in place. It was online, but the consistent was like, you know, a little bit scattered with that was a free resource.
[00:18:00] We would get a group of people and then one month we would have less. And my colleague and I, we were committing our time. It was an afternoon time and it was like right in the middle of our kids' sports and things, and we thought. How can we still provide this community? But also give ourselves some freedom?
[00:18:15] 'cause we, we still have, you know, our practices and our businesses and we're very busy. So we decided to kind of change the model a little bit. So now organizations reach out to us when they want us to come out and do a workshop for a group.
[00:18:26] In May, we did um, the Stanislau County Office of Education in our area asked us to come out and do a workshop for a special day.
[00:18:33] They had called Day of the Educator, so it was educators, teachers, school staff that came out and they had free workshops for them and different, you know, goodie bags people were handing out. So there was yoga, we did the women's Support Circle workshop. There was a florist there, jewelry makers, all kinds of really neat things.
[00:18:49] And so we find a lot of joy in going to those types of things because It's not something that we have to commit to every single month, but we can still offer that free resource where it's needed.
[00:19:00] Kym_: That's so cool. So where are you? Like, is that
[00:19:03] Kara: Yeah, we're in Modesto, Sanso County, California area.
[00:19:05] Kym_: Oh, okay.
[00:19:06] Kara: And so we were doing our groups. When we did the groups virtually, we had people from all over joining. So they were open to anyone. And it was a monthly, we did it like on the first Thursday of the month in a different topic every month. But now that we're doing things more local, in person it's kind of, you know, it, we stay within the county, but it, we, we kind of travel to wherever they need us.
[00:19:24] So we did the one at the school office. We actually went to a local Pilates studio. They do this really cool event called Pilates Brunch Club for women. And we went And set up a table there and there were other female owned businesses that set up their own, you know, tables, vendors. And so we got to really kind of talk with different business owners in our area. We got to be at this really cool event that was a lot of fun. So we, we like to do fun things like that with, the Women's Support Circle community Now.
[00:19:50] Kym_: Oh, I love that. And of course, my entrepreneurial brain, I'm like, oh, how could you like franchise this and I know.
[00:19:56] You know? I'm like, do, do, do.
[00:19:58] Kara: it's funny you say that 'cause we, with our therapist night out, we actually wanna do something like that where we do something and then we get together once a year and do like a big therapist night out in one area.
[00:20:08] We thought that would be because we get like. Sometimes 30 therapists to show up to these events. And it's so fun. And sometimes we have a smaller group, and then that's great too because we get to really connect more intimately with, the small group. And we have a lot of fun with those events too.
[00:20:22] Kym_: Yeah, I keep saying if I could get my stuff together for the traveling therapist, like if I ever knew where I was gonna be, you know, like, way in advance, I could have nights out like that. It'd be so fun. But of course I never know where I'm gonna be like two weeks out, so it's kind of but. That's really cool that you're doing that.
[00:20:37] Kara: It's a lot of fun. It's, We really like, to do things that make our job fun and we have to look forward to and gives you a little break from just kind of the day to day, you know?
[00:20:45] Kym_: I love that. I love that. So the theme I'm talking about is obviously women and then, or that you're talking about is obviously women and perimenopause, menopausal, just different cycles and the life cycle, I guess, that affect our hormones and how we're handling stress and that sort of thing.
[00:21:00] So like over and over. We just keep hearing like why women are so stressed out. They're overwhelmed, they're burned out. It's like, why can't we find this relief? I mean, resources like what you have exists, but why are we still stuck in this? Like, do you have a theory on this? It sounds like you're an expert in this stuff.
[00:21:14] Kara: I mean my
[00:21:15] Kym_: Why do we keep doing
[00:21:16] Kara: some people don't wanna hear my theory 'cause my theory is that we're doing too much and we.
[00:21:20] Kym_: Yeah,
[00:21:21] Kara: I don't wanna say what people in need or should do, but I know for me it's doing less and saying no and having boundaries and being okay with not being productive all the time.
[00:21:30] And that's typically the answer is because, people wanna stay at this high level of productivity and busyness, and they wanna have like a tool that's gonna like take all that away. But the tool is the rest. Our nervous systems are either on and then they go to shut down or you know, or they go back and forth between that and they're never really at that place where we're in our window of tolerance, where we feel centered, we have enough, we're not relaxed, but we have enough energy to do the fun things we wanna do, but it's not in an activated state.
[00:21:57] So kind of, the simple answer is doing less, slowing down, being okay with saying no, being okay with a messy kitchen, you know, or if that, if you have to have a clean kitchen, then, then not going to every birthday party that you're invited to for your, you know, and it's hard. Those are hard decisions to make, so it's not an easy fix, but really it is, it is a slowing down the saying no.
[00:22:17] Kym_: Yeah. Do you have like some tips for how to like actually shift your mindset to think like that, especially like new therapists like listening to this. 'cause of course when you're new, right, it's like I could see 40 clients a week. I'm gonna help everybody and you know, I'm also gonna do this volunteer stuff on the side.
[00:22:34] Like, it's just that mentality. Right? Do you have like
[00:22:37] Kara: And you can do it for so long, and then eventually your body's like, Nope, we're not doing that anymore.
[00:22:41] Yeah, we're done. Um, You know what, when I'm working with my clients, what I usually start with because, you know, giving somebody like a tool or a, like, let's think about it this way.
[00:22:51] It's helpful in the moment, but it doesn't provide the long term. So I really teach them to, when we're talking about things like what is your body telling you about this thing you, you feel like you need to do, you have to, do, you want to do?
[00:23:01] Because usually our body gives us like a pull towards it or we're repelled by it. At least that's how I feel. That's the first cue is getting out of my head and into my body. So into the, out of the, I should or I have to, or someone's counting on me or it's my response or get into the body. And what is your body telling you about it?
[00:23:17] Is your body telling you you don't have the energy? Is your body telling you, I really don't like doing that thing, but I only do it because I think I should. Is my body telling me I feel guilt if I don't? Or do I really want to, but I don't have the energy so now I feel sad, you know,
[00:23:32] Maybe I really wanna go to the, yoga event on Saturday and I really feel sad that I missed out, but I had no energy to get up that day.
[00:23:38] So listening to the body is where I start with my clients because then we get. So much more information about the underlying, emotions, beliefs, what's going on, and usually our body tells us like, do we really wanna be doing that? No. And no's okay.
[00:23:52] Kym_: Yeah. I was just relating a couple episodes ago for this, we were, I was talking about with a human design expert and talking about like that sacral call like that innate like yes or no, that you get, and really like practicing listening to it is so important. So I'm just really relating to what you're saying right now.
[00:24:07] Kara: Yeah, I had never heard about human design and, it was funny because. About six months ago, another, a colleague I was working with, she said, are you familiar with that? I think that, whatever. I can't remember what, how you name it or whatever, but she said, I think you're this, you need to go do the whatever I did, and, and she was right. And I was like, wow, that's really, really cool.
[00:24:23] Kym_: generator, right? You're probably a manifesting generator or a generator. Yeah.
[00:24:27] Kara: that sounds familiar. I have to go. It's kind of like the Enneagram where it's like I was very, you know, when someone said the same thing to me, I'm like, I have no idea what the Enneagram is. Oh, I think you're a three or you're a nine. I can't decide. Go take a test. It's like,
[00:24:37] Kym_: I don't, I, I love tools like that, you know, just talking about mindset shifts and all that. I think it's just so helpful to get insight in different ways, different tools like that. If you're into that stuff, some people are like, oh, that's a bunch of crap, or whatever, but I think it's super
[00:24:50] Kara: Well, it kind of reminds me of the idea of like parts that, because the reason why it resonated was because it was speaking to a part of me that's really in control or really, you know, taking the lead. And so I'm like, that makes sense.
[00:25:01] Instead of shaming it or saying that it's bad, it's like, that makes sense as to why I'm doing this or that, because I'm really driven by this part of me, the achiever or the generator or whatever, you know? Yeah.
[00:25:13] Kym_: Yeah. Well, you've created so many cool things. Is there anything I didn't ask you about? Because I feel like there was one other thing maybe that
[00:25:19] Kara: Oh my. We, I mean we touched on groups. I do have the group I do in my practice is called, it Begins With Us, which is a newer group that I started this year based on some workshops I had done. And I was doing a lot of different topic based groups.
[00:25:33] You know, I was doing a postpartum group, the birth trauma group, perimenopause. I even, I had an idea of doing, a group for therapists, grad students. You know, I was like, I love working with grad students. It'd be really fun to have a, and then they can count that for their hours. Right? But I was like spreading myself too thin.
[00:25:47] And what I was finding is most of the people in my groups were women. And while that topic was, here's the topic of the group, the common issue had to do with a disconnection from self. Self abandonment. They were either people pleasers or they show up for everyone else, but they don't show up for themselves or they don't show up for other people, and then they have a lot of guilt about it.
[00:26:06] There was just this like disconnect. They often felt like they had to kind of wear a mask. They weren't very authentic. They felt like they wouldn't be liked if they're authentic or they were punished for it at some point in their life. And there was just like all, all these common themes. I thought, well, instead of having all these different topic based groups, I think that I should go with a theme because that's kind of where. I'm feeling really lit up in, in session with individual clients where I feel like I want to teach about, you know, how to reconnect to self. And so, I kind of, finished off all my other groups and just now I'm focusing on this one, which I'm just kind of calling like a signature group that it's called, it Begins with Us.
[00:26:41] And it's really about, you know, healing from self abandonment and reconnecting to self building, self-trust, and then finding authenticity and I'm really loving it. Yeah.
[00:26:51] Kym_: That is awesome, and it's, that's client facing or
[00:26:53] Kara: That's client facing. So that's a client facing. eight week group. It is you know, I don't, there's no diagnosis required or anything, so it's not a typical psychotherapy group. It is skill building support based. But I do use you know, EMDR, phase two resourcing. You know, we do a lot of mindfulness practices, some parts informed approaches.
[00:27:13] So I did kind of limit it to California because it can't, it just for me, from my comfort being comfortable with my license and everything, I thought that just makes it easier because if it, if it, you know, clear that this is not therapy, we're not entering a therapeutic relationship, but I'm teaching tools. But I just wanted to kind of, you know, keep it protected a little bit. So it's open to California residents online.
[00:27:34] Kym_: That's awesome. Well, how do people find you? They want to partake in all of these cool
[00:27:39] Kara: my, yeah, my website and Instagram are probably the best two places. My website, I'm actually, it's kind of in process we're kind of working on it, getting it really cleaned up and really clear and have a really great helper who's helping me do that.
[00:27:51] And so my website's a good place for therapist group bootcamp, for it begins with US Women's Group, to seek out therapy or even my continuing education events. That's all on my website, which is kara And then my Instagram I am active on Instagram, so I share, you know, whatever's new, whatever kind of is coming up for my clients.
[00:28:10] You know, not sharing client information, but here's some common themes and here's some tools. I share that on my Instagram, which is Kara Cruise Wellness.
[00:28:16] Kym_: That is awesome. Thank you so much for
[00:28:17] Kara: Thank you. Thank you for having me. I've
[00:28:20] had a lot of fun.
[00:28:21] Kym_: I love everything you're doing. Really
[00:28:22] Kara: Thank you.