EPISODE 38: DO I NEED THERAPY? COUNSELING IN MIDLIFE | Hot Flashes & Cool Topics Podcast

EPISODE SUMMARY

Episode 38: Do I Need Therapy? Counseling in Midlife

There are many ways that someone can benefit from therapy. Receiving that extra support and communication while handling life’s challenges can truly make the difference. Our guest today is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and is also the host of the Therapy Show, a podcast that helps fellow therapist learn new clinical skills and feel heard. In today’s episode, we are joined by Lisa Mustard who has reinvented herself a few times before finding her true-life passion. In this episode, we tart with the intent of opening a dialogue on why it is okay for women to go to therapy, especially in midlife. We discuss why it’s okay to work on your sense of self, people pleasing tendencies, and finding the right fit in a therapist all while giving yourself the permission to work on your own wellbeing.

Lisa Mustard

Lisa Mustard is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, podcaster, and coach from South Carolina. Lisa is happily married and has two daughters and admits that her family inspires her to live the best life she can every day.

Lisa Mustard received her degree in communications and after graduation worked in sports marketing and entertainment for the Goodwill Games and World Championship Wrestling. After a few years of being in marketing, Lisa got really interested in health, fitness, and wellbeing. She found herself not seeing a future in the communications industry anymore.

She then went back to school at the University of South Carolina where she received her Master’s in Public Health and Education. During this time, she was attending counseling sessions where she really fell in love with having someone she could talk to for an hour that would listen and challenger her to uncover unresolved issues.

Lisa returned to school again receiving her Master’s in Counselors Education and became a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist. The last couple of years she has worked for a military branch in South Carolina where she works with soldiers and families through things such as pre-deployment, deployment, post-deployment, PTSD, and more.

The Therapy Show

Working with soldiers and their families as a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, Lisa found the work to be fast pace and hold high expectations. She found after a couple of years she was burning herself out and finding it hard to continue at the pace she was going without setting some healthy boundaries.

Setting healthy boundaries, Lisa realized that part of her burn out was because she wasn’t feeling as challenged as she felt when she first started. She thought hard on how she could stay engaged in this work and enjoy it while also finding new things to do. This is when she decided to create her podcast, The Therapy Show.

Lisa became bored of traditional professional education methods and searched for a way to bring education in an interesting and easily accessible way. She could not find it and so she decided to create it!
Lisa’s aim of the podcast is to help fellow therapist who may be dealing with similar situations. She hopes to help therapist learn some new clinical skills that they can implement into their own practice.

Do You Have a Healthy Awareness of Self?

We talk about the affects of social media. You are in control with your exposure on social media and how much of it is absorbed into your sense of self. A healthy sense of self really comes down to knowing what your values are and are you walking in alignment with them. If you are determining your sense of self in the external, then that it not a healthy sense is self. It is also something that can be learned, it just takes some work.

Also, remember that you may not find the best therapist on the first try. You may have to meet with a few therapists before you find the right fit. Ask you friends who may have been to a therapist, word of mouth, or even google some local therapists. Growth can help with the right therapist and opening yourself up to the experience.

In this episode, we discuss…

[0:01] Show Introduction

[0:22] Introducing the Guest

[4:19] Start of the Podcast

[4:41] How Lisa Got into Her Career Now

[9:02] Social Media and Setting Intentions

[12:31] Having a Healthy Sense of Self

[13:46] Therapy for Creating a Healthy Sense of Self

[17:34] How Do You Find a Therapist?

[20:32] Unpacking for Midlife Women

[24:38] Why It’s Okay to Go into Therapy

[31:39] Connect with Lisa