From Adversity to Resilience: Cultural Identity and Relationships

hello there fearfully and wonderfully made human welcome back to the holistic counselor podcast it's me Diana from through the valley therapy as always I'm here to try my best to bring you real conversations practical insights and encouragement to support your journey toward whole person healing I am super excited about today's guests because this conversation has been a long time coming I first met Dr Juan Santos at the wise practice Summit where I attended his incredible Workshop

where to spend your dollars while growing your practice I really needed that Workshop his insights were practical actionable and so impactful that I know I wanted to get to know him better after the workshop Dr Santos came to hear me speak on cultivating cultural competence supporting bipot clients in private practice we had a great conversation afterward and I knew I had to invite him to the podcast and after months of working to align our schedules here

we are Dr Santos lives in Greensboro North Carolina with his wife and two children he's the owner of Santos counseling pllc an outpatient practice offering individual family and couples counseling his clinical Specialties include building and sustaining healthy relationships and conducting immigration evaluations in addition to his practice Dr Santos is a sought after speaker who's presented at universities corporations and conferences you might might have also seen him featured on platforms like huff post news2 wfm or 10

2.1 where he shares his expertise on Mental Health topics he's also the co-host of the couch podcast where he provides valuable insights into mental health and relationships so I suggest after you listen to this episode you go over and check out his podcast Dr Santos holds a PhD in counselor education and supervision and is a licensed clinical mental health counselor supervisor with certifications in rehab abilitation counseling and ADHD Clinical Services his dissertation explored professional counselor competencies

in writing extreme hardship waivers for undocumented Latino men a topic that's as important as it is impactful so as we dive into his journey his work and the unique ways he's helping individuals and communities Thrive I want us to welcome Dr Han Santos to the show thank thank you for being here yeah thank you I hearing all those things I'm like wow uh it's always an interesting uh moment when someone else speaks about the things that

you've done and you're thinking they're these are private things but no it's good it's good we share them we share them with the world yeah well well people they are private but honestly they're on your website that's true that's true it's like it's like when when we when I put them on the website you don't see everyone around you reading it true true and now you're gonna have the world hear it because I any but you

have your own podcast as well so you know that that stuff's out there and yeah you know well before we even start into your journey like can you tell me a little bit about your podcast because I really didn't know I honestly you know doing this work with having my own podcast and having different guests on I usually just study them right before they come or I've already met them and I've had a Rel like us

two like I kind of connect with you at the summit um just because I well first of all I felt like oh my gosh this is what my son should look like he doesn't he doesn't hopefully he's not listening oh no we have we have a lot of jokes but okay good anyway yeah tell me a little bit about yourself your journey the podcast whatever comes to mind yeah uh let's let's see so I I'll start

with um where we met at that com conference and I was really drawn to your presentation because it had a lot to do with culture with diversity with inclusivity uh and I think when it comes to mental health you know a lot of us were looking for a space to feel heard to feel valued to feel seen and and it highlights those words inclusivity uh culture openness awareness you know remove the Judgment uh the podcast that

you mentioned uh the couch um it's one through my practice um I co-host it with another clinician there and we sit like this it's chilled and relaxed and we talk about just different mental health topics uh I'm always interested in looking for ways to bridge that gap of that um financial hardship when it comes to seeking mental health support uh so so it's not a podcast to tell people what to do um or you know you

got to follow this script it's more of here's a resource we go into maybe how to navigate uh like seasonal depression during the winter months uh or how to uh work through overthinking um then we have a back and forth it's silly it's fun um educational and a lot of the patient to listen to it people in the community just gives them a little more support during some of those maybe uh um great times or challenging

times or when you're at home cleaning the house and you want to listen to a podcast for that one on yeah yeah I mean I was just listening to the overthinking one and even though I am a clinician honestly when you listen to podcasts of of mental health right and we have to both say because I know at the end of my episodes I always like this is not this is not yeah this is you know

you need to go get your own and here you go because you know you have that in Instagram therapist and everybody's like oh I I I have therapy and I'm like no that doesn't count like I mean it sort of does but we can't no you have to go to real therapist that have done the training it's like going to a surgeon yeah that never went to school or practiced okay anyway um the overthinking one I

was just like oh my gosh like I'm getting a lot of tidbits from this and it's a good reminder as well for me yeah right that that was a fun one yeah I bet so tell me how you've you know you've carved out such a unique path in mental health you have because when I heard your story when you first shared and I looked at you right and then you spoke and I'm like whoa where's that

accent from because I had no idea who you were really and where you were from and then you shared just a little bit of your story um tell me about that how you know why the mental health field I knew you grew I mean you grew up in Dominican Republic I've been there a few times and I and I know that is it's not Puerto Rico it's yeah people tend to say that um yeah continue yeah

so tell tell me tell me about like how you know you've been in the field for over a decade I just want to know how your cultural roots and your approach to therapy and your personal Journey all intersect you know this I think there was a time where I would answer this with a strong grounded response and I I've learned over the years that it continues to evolve and then I'm sure that a year from now

five or 10 years that response is going to once again on how those cultural Roots influence the work that I do um I I find that when we're asked about our story what what's for me what's neat about it is that there's so many stories around me that motivate me and at times it's just those people need a little bit of support to share that story and there was a time where I wasn't sharing my story

because of maybe limitations uh barriers insecurity so I know that many of us have stories and I I want to highlight that CU maybe your listeners they're they're listening in and instead of 100% focusing on on my story and so forth know that you have a story and there's so many people around you that if they heard that story they would be motivated and say you know I relate to that so I I share that item

as well for what drives my story I enjoy sharing it because I've had different individual um maybe you you you you'll connect with this this well they'll say hey I relate to that like i' I've been through that too um and that continues to be like one of those driving forces of I'll share a story and someone will say you know what that's that's like mine I grew up in a certain small town or I grew

up in poverty uh or you know I I my my family was separated or this happened that happened and then that little variable in your story right it can have such a tremendous ripple effect at least to wonderful conversation and interaction whether it's with a patient uh or just you know someone you meet and talk to at a grocery store yeah for sure short if I even answered your question yes you did and I want well

let's so people now know a little that you're from Dominican Republic but um can you tell me how old you were and and and I also know you know you have the country towns of Dominican Republic and then you have the city right yeah and so where did you grow up in Dominic yeah I grew up in uh Monte Christi which is a bit more rural I was about seven when I moved here we would go

back and four for several years through my tenen years because I've got two older brothers that are about 20 years older um from my mom's first marriage they had to stay back they weren't able to get uh documentation right away it wasn't until later in my I think early 20s that they were able to uh receive documentation and then come to the US so that that created strains just kind of made made it tough as a

child I remember with both of them they felt very much like a father figure so that was really cool to carry those experiences and then later reconnect with them of course there was what you would assume strain awkwardness but also a lot of intrigue and interest um as far as growing up there it it's what most would assume from a uh I believe is still considered a third world country where we didn't have a lot um

but we I I I have a lot of great memories like I have neat memories of my brother was my older brother was a fisherman and he would have this wooden boat and he would take us out and I'm talking about like what you would if you get on Google and you Google like scuba diving yeah scenes like I I remember jumping in the water and when it was like you know we did the ghetto version

so we would jump in the water and he'd have a spear gun and we'd go in and I would see like lobsters and all of these really amazing fish and I think about it now because if I go out to get a lobster I'm like this is expensive and it's tiny and I remember how huge it was and it didn't cost anything other than some sweat uh to to get there and to to enjoy that um

I also remember really painful memories like uh I wouldn't get um I wouldn't get peanut butter because it was expensive so we would would have to go to an Uncle's house from what my my recollection of that memory and he and he would have some peanut butter and this may be silly to some listening to it but I love peanut butter or like cereals yeah I I didn't grow up eating a lot of these tasty cereals

which are not healthy for us but they taste delicious so when I got here to the state and I was introduced to it I remember as a kid back then I would really want those and we just we just didn't have the money for them and and it's interesting a lot of those experiences they've definitely pushed me through life like you know go to school study show up for others um if someone says I need a

little more help stay after if if I'm hired for a job and it's 8 to 5 I'm coming in at 5:00 a.m.

I'm staying till 7 or 8:00 p.m.

I just really built a lot of that gratitude and work ethic of what more can I do and and I'm grateful for those challenging experiences because I do think they instilled uh those roots in me very well right it's a resiliency it's a resiliency of coming and I so just so you know a little bit of my story I mean the listeners know but for us in our conversation my mom's from Colombia and so I you

know was born in New York so I am an I'm you know I'm that privileged American child you know the one that was born here and so you know and I and my family made me not forget that like if okay we came we had a and it's okay like those are the things I had to work out in my own therapy and my own walk and my own Journey with my family which I am grateful

for now like back then it's like they don't understand because they weren't raised in this culture but the resiliency though is what I'm grateful for because they G you know my mom gave me the opportunity to really appreciate what we have here because when I would go back to her country she was raised in the country too like the country of her country like a farm yeah yeah yeah and and the first time I ever experienced

that I'm coming from Queens New York where everything you know you have bodegas you have this you have this everywhere and I got thrown in no electric no water no running water it's a farm it's you know Hower monkeys in the tree yeah so you could imag because that sounds like where you know it's a third world area it wasn't medin or bot it was like popayan in a little coffee farm and I came back being

so grateful going oh my good and and that's St you're right that's the roots that stay with you but I want to know well did you know any English or were you just thrown into these public school and and tell the listener what where what C like where like because the the Northeast is different than the southeast and different than the West Coast you know what I mean where were you thrown you know yeah look looking

back I I find that a lot of the um Hispanics I'll meet are we migrate to like Miami California Florida um up north and there's these hubs of Latino communities one reason or another um North Carolina Greensboro like Bible Belt um I get here with my family and I don't I don't speak a li a lick of English wow so I'm in the classic like ESL classes mhm uh English uh Second Language and which were pretty

neat I mean I like them because I got to be around other people that spoke Spanish uh and in the in the standard classes I were which I have a huge sense of humor so I'm very grateful for that in those classes I would spend my time laughing or feeling really shy and embarrassed um towards that bully category um but the humor I was I was very appreciative of because when when my when peers would speak

English it they would sound like funny Spanish words and then I I would think is that what they're saying did someone just say fart so then I'm having like this inside joke with myself and I think that kept me levelheaded during those years okay and when did you finally so you you you went to North Carolina that's where you ended up going to yeah ended up and still here y North Carolina the entire time uh my

dad middle school high school yep Elementary Middle High School uh um graduate school and all that um and go ahead I think you had a question yeah I wanted to know how was that for you growing up like you know were you like known as a minority because some people like they have their big group of people right were there other Hispanics or I don't know what Latinos brown people yeah or minority like where you know

did you have other a community or were you like the minority because there's people that are they get thrown into these other areas and they're just like the only person that's black or the only person that's Hispanic or the only person that's Asian or the only you see where I'm getting at so I got you yeah how was it for you uh in the beginning we uh when we migrated here it was to a lower economic

area um so there was a lot of um um persons of uh diversity um black brown um people from different parts of Asia which was really cool uh early on uh before my parents started to um financially level up if you will um had a huge diverse friends I mean friends from like Morocco Ecuador Ethiopia like all these really interesting places uh which was neat because later in life um I started remember when I met met

my wife she was like you have friends from like everywhere and I think I just naturally gravitated to being interested on you know where are you from oh you're from here so now I've got like friends around me from all these interesting places yeah later once my family started to do a little better financially we moved and then at that point uh there was less uh diversity okay and I know I've met other uh Hispanics or

persons of color um and in that I'll find some relatability there where you start to notice okay uh I think to going through higher educational programs I'm sure you're aware of that yes uh there's there's much less uh diversity there yeah I I'll never forget when I was introduced to Hash black in the ivory remember that I haven't but I'm adding it up yeah and so I'm like oh I wonder if there's Brown in the ivory

you know because that would be more for me but I learned a lot because basically it would be like understand in how and then me challenging the DSM constantly the DI diagnostical statistical manual because I always brought up like wait well people from other culture like I and some of my professors loved that I questioned it others were like well you're in the wrong field you know how it goes with ego yeah yeah in a college

so I mean it was just a really you know this was 20s something years ago um so let's just talk about a little bit about like navigating your identity and the connection because you're you are the a minority in a field like we were just talking about where I wish I mean I don't know if you have a license in Florida but people need to see themselves at times to trust right and so tell me what

you know where this has been influenced For You especially where those may not be feeling seen because and how do you navigate that do you get like are you the one known in your community of like oh no he's you know he's a Latin male here's one or are you I bet you're pretty busy you know because of because of who you are so how do you navigate that and how you know what do you suggest

for other clinicians that are listening because I do have people from all walks of life listening you know like what do you think Latin males need at this moment I'll try to answer that in pieces I I've learned and I think I've picked picked some this up during my doctorate study I think depending on where you're at in the US right there's a a shift in um diversity and color there so I've got some colleagues up

north in New York uh and speaking Spanish is not as a uh hot commodity if you will as where I'm at right so then here it's a much more needed service due to being uh to there being less of me individuals who are brown male um um able to speak Spanish English so I I think that's one um item that just to kind of keep an eye on um the other which I'm I'm really leaning and

growing into this is uh I try to learn a lot from my patients where I've had different ones share with me you know I want to work with you because um I I saw in your bio that your wife is Caucasian um and and we're in inational relationship right so there's there's items like that and I I get where they're coming from I I understand the ups and downs the cultural differences all all of those and

it's not something that's spoken as heavily within Academia when it comes to providing care to others or there's parents maybe and it could be a parent who says you know I'm looking for this for my child and then I think about myself growing up and I know that my parents look for those type of things uh one one memory and this person I'm forever grateful to I haven't ever met him again other than uh when he

was there uh but I had this uh y I think it was a YMCA Mentor early on in Middle School um and there was Zero relatability like he was a Caucasian male I believe he was in the medical field but I would sit with him and he would give me like these amazing talks uh of you know going to school what to look for just things that my parents didn't have you know my mom didn't finish

High School in Dominican Republic my dad did a little bit just after that they came here and went right to the field of work so and maybe you relate to this as far as the resilience it was be a professional but there was there was nothing else you know there was you know Juan you got to go to school and you got to be a professional right there was nothing else there was now how do you

navigate these things well it's the collective mentality like Juan you you're here now you better get do something with your life and then help the family exactly exactly yeah it's the collective mentality of okay yeah so go on I'm sorry for interrupting you no no no that's uh that's you know exactly right and that that either pushes you forward or Burns you out one of the two well it's it's a balancing act that many people that

are not from other cultures like if they're only from one certain culture they don't understand or they stereotype or they fear right and this is why we have a lot of different tensions around our country and like you know when you were talking about yeah like up in New York in that era they don't need Spanish Fe but guess what down here in Miami we have a lot of Latina therapists but when I'm trying to find

a Latin male therapist yeah I have one or two I could count on yeah you know what I mean and it's yeah and so to me it's like it depends on where you are um so back to you know how do you help like what do you think that you know depending on where they're from but the audience is listening and I want them to either if they're they are a Latin male or um you know

this is another thing latinx Hispanic like what's the big deal about those things do you know I'm not even going to dive into there because I don't know enough to okay uh to to to navigate that well yeah yeah well good thank you for your honesty and I really think it is just a cultural thing or the Dynamics of different uh Generations yeah you know yeah so there's yeah Al my two cents on that which I've

learned through the years uh I did a DNA test not too long ago and and forever growing up it was Juan I am Dominican right that is who I am that is my identity my roots and I've learned that there's parts of me from uh Congo um different regions in Africa from uh uh Portugal I believe and and all of these different places and I'm like this is where this nose comes from I knew it same

for me so that's I think that's where when I started to learn about latinx um some something in that I was like you know I bet there's more in here that I'm just not aware of so so that that that's helped me learn about my identity and learn how to communicate with others that before I didn't have and my parents didn't have it was more of you know Dominican and then that's it right I mean it's

the culture identity I get it to and for me I'm half and half like my dad's Puerto Rican and I grew up with that S without my dad because my mom was a single immigrant mom but my dad's family was involved in my life and my dad was sporadically here and there but and my mom's Colombian and so and then you know growing up in New York that a whole and I'm a New Yorker and then

you come in Florida and then I was like you know 12 years old when I moved down here to South Florida and that was probably one of the biggest culture shocks ever I bet W coming from New York you know Queens to South Florida and back then it was to me I was like I'm moving to the country you know I saw my first alligator and and lizards and these weird animals and things uh and and

a lot of racism you know um and that where I'm like wait well you don't even know me you don't even know me you're you're judging me because of my appearance and people always thought I was Middle Eastern ah yeah I get that a lot I bet you do yeah I put I put I put a hat on and people are like you're from the Middle East yeah yeah and so I mean some people were like

funny about it but other people were literally racist about it and I'm just like what are you talking about if you're G to like trash me at least do it because I'm Hispanic you know or whatever uh this is probably why we have to have a good senses of humor a nice protective mechanism I've developed over the years yes it's better to be like that than inwardly angry all the time and destroying and becoming Oppositional defiant

so yeah yeah exactly um but I wanna you know the importance of finding the right counselor I think um you might have mentioned that in one of your podcasts the importance of finding the right counselor you know um what's a key question that someone can ask when they're looking for the right fit in therapy it's a great question and then there probably so many key questions I like I like what we're doing though where there's like

you know we're talking about identity and who we are and what we've done I think that supports people that are looking for a counselor to like unfold us and look within our layers cuz you know who we are is going to spill out into the work and not in a biased way but it'll spill out in an informed way very similar to being trauma informed of knowing that let's say for me that I come from this

marriage uh or I was born in this country or I speak these two languages right outside of my title you know this is part of my identity and that's going to spill out to some degree in that clinical work so I think for persons looking for a counselor uh a question to ask yourself is you know who do you want to sit with that would make you feel comfortable that you would feel comfortable shedding those layers

with right cuz often we protect those layers I may not want to tell somebody this because they're not going to get it uh and it may not be a fault of that person right I may I may not get something um that has to do with blank culture because I haven't learned or lived it and maybe a textbook wouldn't teach me it right but I think if I'm if I'm a patient I'm looking for somebody I'm

thinking to myself you know what needs to happen for me to feel comfortable in that space right um from there I'm a huge advocate of trying to to some degree uh learn about that person whether it's like a 15minute consult uh reading their bio some sort of information that gives you a little bit more uh in uh this one I think I think one of the counselors shared it with me and at the practice and I

guess it's less of a question and more of a manner of introducing yourself to therapy and is being willing uh to fall uh and and that means that you know you're willing to go to this practitioner's office knowing that it may not work out right and and that's not due to any of your error and it's not due to their error just something in there D the line uh and that's okay there's many others in the

field that are ready to help yeah I mean that's great that's great advice or I mean great questions to ask you know because we're all on our own Journey we all have our own biology theology psychology and it also depends on resources too because you know you being raised the way you did and the way I did too right seeing that we didn't come from a lot of resources and that's something too like someone will listen

to a podcast because they cannot afford $150 an hour or or their insurance sucks oop sorry sucks but but you know what I mean like or or they want to see you but you don't carry that insurance like what would you say to someone like that like what are there resources or books especially for a Latin male or even like say you know you said your wife is a different culture right or from you know she's

a white girl right so I'm married to a white man by the way you know and I have had to teach him so much we've been together 30 years I've had to teach him so so much and he's still willing to learn and it's both of us facing ourselves in you know our own identity and then coming together and respecting each other yeah okay because you know his culture told him stories my culture told me stories

and now we're here sitting going what what does serve us and what doesn't help us like how what kind of human do we want to become and so for you as a as a therapist and having your own practice you know what resources do you utilize to open the mind of people that you're either serving or because you're a supervisor you're clinicians ah it's a giant question we try to tackle it all at once uh re

resources books um and and you know they they they can range like uh that NR Glover she's got a good book uh on boundaries emotional intelligence that's a good book there uh I think Daniel something has a book on power of habits uh man search for meaning that's a popular one in our clinical field so when when I encourage individuals to look at books um I I share try to use it as a exploratory process like

you know see what you can take in and then also see what you can apply and then micro do so just little by little apply and then the exploration the emphasis of that is to remove judgment like to just let yourself try versus I'm going to read it with an attitude of I already know that this won't work right in said in said you're just going to try even if you know it won't work you're going

to try and just see what this experiment this exploration process does YouTube I think that's growing a lot just like podcasts where there's professionals you know like you and I we went to school we know a little bit and we're sitting on here and we're sharing that uh I think that's another valuable resource with it keeping in mind uh PA patience and the amount of information that you take in I think that could be like a

barrier where you listen to 10 podcasts all day long and you're just like super high on that energy uh but you look around and you're like I haven't done anything right Le analysis analysis paralysis yeah exactly I fall victim to that plenty of times yeah so to me I would like to tell the listener if you're someone looking for a therapist or you're a Latin male you know it is it's listen to Dr Juan Santos don't

don't binge on 10 episodes take one and write down you know three thoughts or one little tiny thing you can do yeah right it's like how do I like the micro doing you know mentality of like it's or the atomic habits you know it's just yeah getting one thing and practicing it or like okay today or tomorrow I'm going to look up um I think there isn't there a website for Latin therapy or I believe so

yeah Latin mail I'll look it up and put it in the show notes but things like that you know or um what other books you're a marriage counselor too correct yeah I love uh that's that's one of my favorites there really and that came to me because I was thinking of gotman and I am not a marriage counselor I need one just kidding honey no I I'm not kidding but yeah so I would like to know

a little more about like that before we we wrap this up yeah um I I love the marriage work I think because it's similar to the to what we're doing where it's you're going deep into the roots right like a marriage is your story their story you have friction but it's not a quick Band-Aid that's going to fix it right it's these deep Long heavy not fun right challenging conversations but they're needed it's like needed confrontation

that we often spend our whole life avoiding and and then there's the aspect of repair which I absolutely love about a marriage or relationship and repair that that the emphasis of that is you will always have to repair elements of your relationship had one one individual I worked with a while ago and we're we're doing a Walkin talk so when I work withle I'll do sessions together I do them long like two plus hours so one

section is me and him we walking and then he says um am I always going to have to do this and what he was referring to was like is he can he get to a point where he's done enough and then she is satisfied so then I started laughing and he's like don't laugh at me I'm being serious and so then I was like all right we'll repeat the question so then he repeats it you know

is is there a point where it's it's just enough like I'm done and then I was like I want you to think about that do you know if she said that to you is there a point where she can do enough for you just to be satisfied and then you know you you she uh you leave her alone there's no more dates no more nice words no more gratitude no more coffee together no more tea and

and then he thought about it and he was like okay see the humor and and that was it was a it was a great moment um you know he he he grew from it and and we move forward but that that's the repair like knowing that the relationships are like waves you're going to have these elements and and points that there's friction there's struggle and helping people know how to repair that keeps a relationship really structured

and and healthy so yeah I could talk about this all day I I I thoroughly love relationships I try to implement as much of my cultural roots in there and what I mean by that is I approach relationships from a um identity a trauma a cultural informed position I look at the two individuals at a deep deep level and what are they bringing in and then from there we look at how does that um connect to

the challenges that you're H you're having okay wow that's really wonderful I I would love to have you I know that time is short and you have clients and I have clients as well and so to me I would love to have you on just to talk about couples things but are there any um books or podcasts or anything like that that is about couples like if someone's listening to and they're in a relationship that you

would recommend yeah um let's see um my my training is intertwined with gotman and Sue Johnson um so and hopefully I just said those names right um there's a book called Hold Me Tight that's a really good one okay um and there's seven pillars by the Gman uh so those those are really amazing books uh they have a lot of action oriented uh support and structure MH um podcast from time to time on I'm going plug

mine in um I'll do little episodes on uh relationship elements that could be helpful they're much very much action oriented you know this is happening try this uh or here's something to keep an eye out when it comes to a relationship yeah uh and then the the final Tool uh which I would put above every other tool and I say that purposefully because often the opposite happens with individuals when they're working on their relationship and that

tool is the individual work so when your relationship has a strain first look at just you right like can I plug myself into therapy can I plug myself into a self-help book and then work on as much as you can on just you right and from that a lot of positive can happen there's actually a therapist and I can't remember the name of it I wish I could that wrote a book on how to fix your

relationship uh without your partner like just you okay and it's neat because if you think about it there's things that you can actually do yeah right like you could go towards your partner and show a smile and that's probably going to be warm towards them but you could also show like mean face MH and then that's going to create some sort of friction yeah and both of those have to do with just you so a a

lot of the love the book is is on that but yes I'll if you'll have me I'll happily show up and we'll have a fun conversation about it yeah about marriage totally completely that would be wonderful I just wanted to get um the audience to get to know you and I was just I was just excited to have a conversation with you Dr santz are you going again to the W are you speak I mean I

don't know how connected you are the wise practice uh thing or not yep I got I got the invite um I don't think I'll be going uh this time around okay but maybe I'll see you in other things or who knows I'll get you back on here and and uh hopefully our pass will connect again yes I hope so all right wonderful anyway um listener thank you for coming and and putting your ears on this or

if you're on YouTube watching and uh don't ever forget to trust in the Lord guard your heart and renew your mind bye and now for the disclaimer to make sure you understand that you are responsible for you the content provided on the holistic counselor podcast is for entertainment and informational purposes only and is not intended as a substitute for professional medical advice diagnosis or treatment always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified mental health

provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical or mental condition never disregard professional medical advice or delay seeking it because of something you have heard on this podcast the views expressed on this podcast are my personal opinions and do not represent the views of any professional organizations with which I am Affiliated call your doctor 911 or 988 immediately if you have a medical emergency the holistic Council podcast does not recommend or endorse any specific

tests Physicians products procedures opinions or other information that may be mentioned on the podcast Reliance on any information provided by the holistic counselor podcast guests appearing on the podcast at the invitation of the holistic counselor podcast or other listeners to the podcast is solely at your own risk confidentiality notice if you engage with the holistic counselor podcast by commenting or posting and are a client please Please be aware that you may be revealing information that could

compromise your confidentiality please remember that disclosing your identity or personal details can be linked to your clinical material as a therapist I am Bound by confidentiality and will not respond to any disclosures of this type on this podcast I am committed to upholding the ethics and confidentiality of the therapeutic relationship which extends to all forms of communication in accordance with the laws and professional guidelines that govern mental health professionals I want you to know that your

privacy is of utmost importance and you are responsible for protecting it when interacting on this platform or any other public forum thank you