Breaking Barriers: A Conversation with Marcken Volmy, LMHC and Trauma Stories Author. Insights on BIPOC Mental Wellness, EMDR, Flash Technique, and Healing cPTSD

hello there God's Masterpiece it's me Diana from through the valley therapy coming to you from the PO populi studio in boa Ron Florida thank you so much for joining me today on the holistic counselor podcast I am thrilled to have Mark and me who is a licensed mental health counselor an EMDR trained and certified trauma therapist and an EMD a consultant in training and the author of trauma stories you got it with over nine years of

experience his scope of practice involves helping people work through their trauma anxious thoughts and feelings of depression by incorporating EMDR therapy and EMDR intensives I first had the pleasure of meeting Market through a networking group called Christian mental health professionals after encountering him I was captivated by his insightful words and it became evident to me that he possessed a wealth of humble wisdom recognizing his expertise I extended an invitation for him to join the panel at

our inaugural event hosted by the mental Wellness Ministry at Grace Church called calm within the focus of this event was Stress Management a topic that aligns perfect with Marin's expertise for those interested you can find the link to the event in the show notes during one of our Network and Gatherings Markin introduced us to an Innovative technique called The Flash technique which was entirely new to me I felt a sense of trust in Marin and decided

to give it a try an uncommon feat for me the experience proved to be remarkably intriguing prompting me to dive deeper into it by signing up for a further expl ation the following weekend Marin is not only a fellow brother in Christ but also someone who like myself comprehends mental health through both Li lived experiences and extensive education Marin your presence here is greatly appreciated thank you thank you what an intro I appreciate it all right

so we're going to start with this quote that I love um that you you you have on your email okay and I also read the book and okay um and also Dr Gabor mon I could tell we're both big fans of that okay his quote trauma is not what happens to you trauma is what happens inside of you as a result of what happened to you can you explain to the audience what that means absolutely um

you know often times uh trauma causes an impact right and that impact is expressed and felt differently um between people take for example if you and I grew up in a home where our father was an alcoholic he beat on our mom U we were we both are somewhat traumatized with it by it but that expression will be different right so it's my job as a therapist is to figure out what happened to both siblings and

how is that manifesting today within them once it you can go on and live in and grow up forgive heal do the work and grow up to have a normal life with your family whereas I I replicate the same thing and I grow up to be an alcoholic i i i internalize all the pain I feel stuck I feel like I can't move forward um and there's no particular Rhyme or Reason like it's not because I

had a smaller brain or I or something happened at Birth it's just that um there there are complexities to the mind that we can't understand right so often times I tell people whatever is manifesting where there is the addiction where there is the reclusiveness the depression the anxiety um that's not really the trauma that that's an effect caused by the trauma the trauma is the foundational thing that led to that unhealthy Behavior which is just your

way of trying to break free from being stuck but you don't know how to so it's you end up living your life like a cat chasing his tail right right even in addiction I never say you know what my job here is to stop the drinking to stop the list of drugs I want to know Diana what happened y let's go back to eight let's go back to five cuz that's where the trauma started and then

what but often times people who are n and our field they focus on What's manifesting oh you're ruining your life you lost your career why why can't you stop doing this but that's not the trauma the trauma is that scared little boy little girl who's never felt a sent of sense of safety and connection and is still crying out for help even as an adult yeah okay I mean that's beautifully said and you're right it is

it is um understanding those wounded part of us that we all have I don't care how old you are I have seen 82y old men who I could still see their that wounded child that they haven't taken care of yet right and I know it sounds weird but at the same time it's true I mean we have our lived experience and since we were in the womb MH so so I want people that are listening to

understand what EMDR is and how does it work EMDR stands for IM movement desensitization reprocess I know it was a mouthful it it is a form of trauma Psychotherapy modality that's started by a woman by the name of Francine Shapiro back in the late 80s it started off as EMD and it eventually um evolved into EMDR she added the art realized that the mind was actually reprocessing it's a very safe way of processing trauma in a

nonintrusive and invasive way it started off as eye movements I always tell clients don't worry you're not being hypnotized but know that when you're in your realm sleep your eyes are moving laterally right because the brain is trying to reprocess whatever stress or traumas that you've gone through but because of our neural cortex and the prefrontal cortex on the front of our brains uh we get stuck we have an inability to do so that's why War

veterans wake up with nightmares because the brain is unable to recalibrate but if you look at animals animals have this ability cuz they don't have the the the neuro context like neuro cortex like human beings you know like if an animal is in a fight ORF flight situation and they survive that it almost seems like they're playing dead but they're actually in a frozen State and when they wake up they'll they'll shake it out like they're

seizing that's yeah that we don't have that ability so we wake up because we can't reprocess in real sleep so we wake up in Terror whatever that thing that's stored in our nervous system EMDR which is one of many trauma modalities is my favorite but I'm not going to pretend it's the only one okay right that uh helps us to process the trauma by it's like we're filling it through you have to fill trauma to process

it because it's store to your nervous system yes but the goal of an EMDR therapist is to minimize the discomfort minimize the sense of overwhelming emotions it's not like we're concocting these new discomforts they've been buried within us but we don't know because there are four responses to trauma fight flee freeze and fawning which is people pleasing and depending where you're at on that scale um you have trauma and most of the people who come me

have been in therapy for years me too right and and they're like therapy hasn't worked and I told I would ask them what kind of therapy and they usually say CBT or talk therapy and it has its place I'm not trying to discount it I hope not cuz I'm a CBT therapist and I do none I have I've had EMDR done to me yes yes and thank God I and that's why you're here CU I'm like

I need people to understand this but I usually say is that matter of fact some clients come to me they're they're currently they're still seeing their CBT therapist while working through their trauma because CBT deals with the prefrontal cortex that area in your forehead right but the trauma typically lies in the limbic system which is in the back of your head and then a brain stem talk therapy can't go there because talk therapy is a talk

down approach we we Engage The cognitive part of our brains we secondly second layer we we evoke emotions but we never hit that thir third tier which is sematic physically in the body EMDR is different it's a bottom up approach you first feel it physically then it evokes emotions and and and lastly you hardly ever Engage The cognitive side of things right so it's a safe way to process trauma with through bilateral stimulation you can do

that through eye movements body butterfly Taps some people follow a light bar they put headphones on um they tap left knee right knee uh whatever or sometimes you hold on the tappers these little video game controllers that's what I did I had the um too things in the hand and then the light at the same time wow so I had both it was just yeah they vibrate left hand right hand left hand right hand but why

why would that work because uh the research shows when you're doing when you're doing uh bilateral stimulation activating left right left right you're activating both hemispheres of the brain at the same time and when you're doing on your let's say the trauma processing is Daddy left when you were eight how'd you know wait did you hear my story you're you're actually starting to reprocess it so if you're in a session with me um every 30 seconds

or so I would stop whatever bilateral stimulation I'm doing I I'll say Dian take a deep breath what came up for you and you'll say it was raining that day I'll say and I and I won't try to lecture you I'll say okay let's go with that all right and then later on you'll say you know what um I thought he I was waiting for him to come back like random events things that you suppressed things

that you didn't even recall will start rising to the surface not just memories but also actual physical discomfort T pretty much everything that was stored in the nervous system because that's where we store trauma and when we we experience trauma there's a there's a disharmony between our bodies and mind because it affects us physiologically but also mentally as well and trauma therapy involves trying to teach the mind and body to both speak the same language again

so that you can connect wow that's why often times a symptom of trauma is an inability to connect with other people right whether that be our kids our our spouse because we have to first um f fix do the realignment within ourselves so that we can connect with others okay yeah I mean that and so let's talk about the flash technique that that right there you guys I'm telling you we were in the middle of Starbucks

and a meeting right and and I was like sure I'll do it and then you did it and I was like whoa and I went the next weekend and I've tried it on a couple of clients I just because I don't feel so comfortable in doing that yet that I haven't been practicing but go ahead and tell me about the flash technique flash technique was by the way all EMDR and Flash State KN these are all

evidencebased what that means is it's not something I looked up on Wikipedia and gave it a try or Google they've been vetted you know Dr Google everybody wants to Dr Google everything or one of these social media therapists who never got their degree but they're always giving you clinical advice yeah it's been vetted by all the top researchers um mental health professionals uh it was started by a gentleman named Philip Manfield who's actually still alive uh

and he actually still teaches the course out on the west coast California and it activates the same part of the brain the limic system while distracting you with the happy memory and you do these blinks um every couple of minutes every couple of seconds or so and typically you would think of a disturbing thing notice where you feel it physically in your body and then we'll jump from there to a happy memory like your wedding day

your favorite pet um the uh the day you got your dream job and and then when we're done it takes about five minutes we recheck the body and the mind see how you felt about that disturbance and you'll notice it lessen drastically um and now we usually do two rounds of it and people are like whoa and I tell them everything I do science could explain it there it's not some illusion or magic trick I pulled

out my back pocket but the research shows it activates the same part of the brain where our fight ORF flight response is at so that's why it's effective the benefit of flash technique is that um you don't feel the physical discomfort in overwhelming emotions like you typically would with other trauma modalities like EMDR um but it all depends on what the client needs at the time so I I kind of look at it like it's just

it's just another thing in my toolbx to help people push through because when helping people process trauma you run into a lot of dissociation which is the unhealthy beliefs and thoughts we formed along the way in order to help that helpless little child inside of us to feel a sense of safety and connection yeah I mean and that's where like I just had Dr Barnhill who's a did expert and I know that I tried to cons

consult with you with that too because you know I'm not a did expert I will never claim right now unless God's saying go do that but at this moment it's like trying to understand it even more because you know that where'd you go to school capella okay and so you and so it was a secular uh School correct yeah absolutely and so um it's like our training in in college like in the halls of the University

right yes does not truly prepare us in the mental health field with um the uniqueness of each client and their thumb print I agree okay and so that this this right now I think I'm talking to like the registered intern that's listening to us or someone really new in the field that might be overwhelmed or like what would you say to them what how can you encourage that listener that is wanting to be a therapist right

because it's just like it you know we have if we go into Community Mental Health cuz that's where we started so so just share with me a little bit about how you started in this field sure um well I think I I I talk about this in my book traum stories my master class didn't start in counseling school it started as a decade as a special needs Middle School teacher wow cuz I had a chance to

get a up close personal look at into generation of trauma all of my kids with their Merit of issues and comorbidity things I looked at the parents when I would meet with them and I said ah I see it it makes sense I didn't have all the counseling terminology yet but I saw the I saw the connection I saw patterns right so when I started school and left a lot of this was head knowledge it wasn't

really applicable how to use it in the real world I'll be honest with you it it almost felt like you're back in undergrad I'm trying I'm just trying to retain this information to regurgitated for these papers for this exam right but when I came into the field I had a great opportunity at the time this place is no longer open and in South County there's a there there's um a mobile mobile crisis unit right at South

County but on the North End in Palm Beach County there used to be one called Jerome golden center right and I wor I interned with them I did my practicum and internship with them so I was with the mobile crisis team I got some of the most wildest CS I I remember getting called out to my first murder suicide and we're helping to deef with the family I would get I would I would get called out

where there someone's having a schizophrenic um um episode and they they're getting Bak acted which if you're not in Florida listening that's that's a way to involuntarily hospitalize somebody that's either a danger to themselves or to someone else that's that's a Florida thing uh started by a woman named Mary Baker back I think in 1980 1981 right but um I got all these calls and and even at schools and it was like whoa right so it

really gave me an opportunity to really dissect what area field I wanted to go into I wasn't sure at the time but I didn't realize it was all trauma base right so I graduate from there and then I start uh I worked at a group home place for about two years where I saw a lot of traumas and the teens that were there with the Foster families still didn't really know how to help them right because

I noticed the encouraging advice I would give was not really sticking yeah right cuz the issues were deeper and then I bounced around Community Mental Health um several different agencies and and then I realized like trauma is what I want to go into when I started doing my own work at my last Community Mental Health stop at the time and I went to EMDR therapy for myself cuz in my book I talk about a lot of

things I went through that when I started healing and processing I realized okay God this is what I want to do the rest of my life oh I love it and I've been on the journey ever since and I highly recommend his book thank you okay I will put it in the show notes and the audio book will be out next oh how exciting oh my gosh good for you okay so here is a question that

I don't know like hopefully it doesn't all right as a black therapist your journey likely encompasses unique experiences and perspectives shaped by your upbringing yes okay could you share some of the significant insights or differences you observed growing up and how those experiences influence your approach to therapy today sure I think you know with within the black and brown Community you have a lot of subcultures and mine is more I'm more I'm of Haitian descent uh

so but being that a grew up in America it's like I had I've seen both cultures African-American and also my Haitian culture and I think the one thing that's synonymous within both C cultures is this sense of what what happens within this family we don't talk about it right because often times it comes with the stigma shame of what will others think about it so they knew the things uh Uncle uncle's dealing with or your aunt's

dealing with or your parents or your siblings right so there was this underlying rule NE no one ever said flat out don't ever go to therapy but it was it was almost like we knew because we were so taught to not say anything it's not like our family was harboring this deep secret but that was just the norm so this idea of vulnerability being a strength was very foreign to me it wasn't until I started doing

my own work so I noticed in whether it's the African-American culture or the Caribbean culture there's this sense of figuring it out by myself and when I do talk about my trauma is looked at as a badge of honor sometimes I would also see in our in in in whether it's africanamerican or Caribbean culture we don't even know it's trauma but the things we say and believe we've contextualized it into our personality you know we'll say

stuff like oh I don't do a lot I don't have a lot of friends cuz I just don't trust people you know you got to be ready you know and we justify it we justify the pain in a way right like cuz I'm a brown girl if you don't know that and even though I don't sound it sorry was that bad but I'm just saying like in my culture that's it and it was just like I

think because I grew up with a lot of spirituality and um in other episodes I I talk about that but it is it's like wait you have something wrong well you're you're not praying enough you don't have enough Faith or it's the devil absolutely so how do you like and that's the I mean that's the Caribbean side of me that I remember hearing that a lot um it one thing I do is I remove the shame

the shame for the person having to hear that and the shame for the person saying that cuz the person saying that if they have a faith background which you know I'm a Christian too so I get it they mean well yeah they're helping with the best that they have within their toolbox not realizing that um we we can't limit God to just you know let's just pray about it let's just get in the word and that

and that has its place is very helpful I'm not minimizing that but often times when I expand or perspective of how God heals um last time I checked if I have a medical need God never told me do not go to my doctor do not go to my surgeon like he he allows a place for medicinal care as well but we don't give that same Grace and respect for mental health cuz we look at it like

oh no this is all spiritual it can never be we we don't need no clinician you know and and sometimes that's out of a fear it's out of because there's a lot of things being integrated that um has other spirituality components and I think it's a fear of as a as a Christian what am I'm what am I'm embarking on is this safe God is this is this going to grieve you so there's that fear component

and I think what helps to push back against that is where there's more uh Christian therapists with a with a clinical background who could help with the psycho education piece not that we're telling them do this type of therapy but what if we L Ed educated you on everything and says this is what for your particular issue you should look for this type of therapist and this is what this type of therapy modality involves so I

think that this is why I love speaking because the educational piece really opens up someone's understanding and perspective on Mental Health um because I I say this whether you want to talk to a therapist or not you're still going to have to deal with it oh yeah yeah oh yeah I mean and and it's also like a lot of people and I know like culturally um when you talk about either mental health like even in my

own when I'm like I'm a mental health counselor and they're like oh oh you just deal with the crazies and I'm like oh my gosh that that's the stigma that's what gets me fired up that's why I'm here doing this because I need people to understand that what we do is not just about mental illness because ill just look at the word illness I you're alone right that's why it turns to Wellness when we're in community

when we're talking about it when we're having conversations like this to understand that there is a way to heal absolutely and for those who going back to Psycho education let's remove the word mental and just add physical mental health mental illness physical health physical illness it hits differently because at the end of the day we all have a mental health same way we all have a physical health either you're in great shape you're mod or you're

in horrible shape and with our mental health if you have a brain you have a mental health now mental illness is when the issues have gone from maybe moderate to severe or from mild to moderate right and you may need some other and some some other um interventions which is okay but most of the people with a mental who who needs to check in on their mental health you would never know they're working people go to

work every day take care of their kids they attend they sit next to you at church they smile but beneath that smile there's a lot that they're carrying yes and it but the thing this is where we can't hide trauma it shows up in all our relationships it shows up in how we parent it shows up it shows up on uh you know how people's it's not so much logical but it's mainly how things make us

feel okay so if we're friends and uh and and uh I and I promise that uh you know what Diana I'm going to come through for this podcast in an hour from now I call you and I text you like I'm sorry Diana and my kid has an emergency I got to take him to the ER right logically you know that's a legitimate excuse reason but inside it may bring up feelings of Abandonment that weren't really

processed from childhood so now you're you're you're preaching you're left you're left with this heaviness like I get it Markin but why do I feel so alone right now and hurt because something's activated within you a wound that wasn't really healed that has nothing to do with our podcast but now you're offended at me because you haven't made the connection yeah that you know what it's like road rage it is it is road rage had nothing

to do with who cut you off it's to shame that person when they were five or six right right so helping them see that perspective yeah I mean this is this is good stuff I mean we probably could sit here and talk all day you know um so what what hope is there for someone who has been stuck in a diagnosis okay or labels that Society puts on them and what encouragement can you give them you

know the the hope and encouragement I could give is that number one healing is not linear so don't ever compare your healing journey to someone else but I'm not I'm not really big on diagnosis I mean I know because I'm a licensed clinician we use that as a guide but I don't look at a diagnosis say oh you got borderline you're a lost cause you got bipolar ah you're not taking your medicine just you know there's

no hope for you I look at it like keep doing what you're doing and let's keep doing the work M and watch how you Blossom if you stay committed to the pro right and I've seen people blossom in ways that if I said it on this podcast you probably wouldn't even believe me so that's why I don't put a lot I I am so may maybe God made me somewhat naive when I came into this field

I don't care how Wild the situation is how hopeless it looks yeah bring it let's work with it let's see how far we get and they my clients almost lick at me like I'm this huge car salesman trying to sell them a Hustle but I mean it I truly believe whether it's schizophrenia borderline you bring the heaviest stuff as long as you're alert to know where you can Orient time place you know where you're at you

can somewhat function let's do the work let's see what happens right and sometimes I realize with some of my um cptsd clients that they might get wor and I tell them I'm like you might get worse because you've been hiding these things so deep within and you're just managing symptoms all these years and now we're going to get to the core issue of the symptom and it's going to hurt because it's like bringing out an infection

that we need to heal mhm and uh some go and do it the work and man you're right like I could talk about and then others are they they get stuck in the fight flight freezer Fawn and they're not ready and then maybe a year goes by and then they're like I'm ready now absolutely I want to comment on there's a huge difference between PTSD and complex PTSD PTSD for those who've never heard it but what

what he the initials don't know what it means post-traumatic stress disorder you we typically started seeing that a lot with War veterans but the research is showing most of the people with PTSD have never been to war they're not even the military they're average people who' gone through a plethora of issues that they never really dealt with but complex PTSD is like a salad bowl of a lot of different traumas right it's not just one major

thing that traumatized you and with the complex PTSD patients they sometimes feel like e EMDR is not working because they're immedate approaches why am I not getting better and I have to tell them this is this deep foundational trauma that a lot of it happened your early form formative years you got to be a little patient you know you're you're not going to go through something that had you stuck for decades and come out of it

in a month so I tell them be a little patient it takes a little longer but it'll work so that's what I want to say to for complex pts it's a little bit more tougher but you can still push through it I actually did an episode just on Aces and cptsd that should be coming coming out in two weeks awesome I'm going to look out for that one okay and also I just want the listener to

know because what happens is a lot of people are scared I see this a lot because I'm like you can hold both spaces in your hand where you understand that your childhood because they still want to love their parental or their caregivers and I'm not blaming them because it's intergenerational absolutely right and so I'm trying to get them to understand like no we're learning where these wounds happen you might have to go through a little time

of blaming and and being the victim just to heal and then we move past that and grow from what we went through and then that's the healing when you can be that wounded healer or yes you see what I mean so can you absolutely a lot of my clients especially I could speak from the the African-American and and Caribbean context there's a sense of not being honest with what happened with their caregivers or parents because they

almost feel like they're being disloyal rich and I tell them like all you're doing is telling the truth and two things could be true you love your caregivers and parents but they hurt you and damage you in a lot of ways the goal is not to shame them exactly right the goal is to say if you can finally say what you've been hesitant to say all these years right because they we have that natural attachment which

is connection to our parents as little kids and we don't ever want to lose that so almost feel like we're we're disconnecting that by being honest but what typically happen happens when you're honest with what occurred and you do the work there now you can see it from a different perspective not that you're condoning your parents Behavior but you could say they were traumatized too they've been through a lot mom was a single mom you actually

started um feel more compassion for them doesn't mean you condone whatever they did to you but you're seeing it from a different perspective cuz cuz now you're no longer looking at your experience like as a victim but now now you're healing there's more Victory there's more sense of purpose behind it and you never get there if you're not honest right because you got to be honest in order to heal and and it's because it's a scary

place to go it's Uncharted Trails right and and you're trying to figure this out and now you because most of us like if we I know I've have cptsd right and so it's like I want control because I had no control as a child right everything was so dysfunctional and so I want control and now I'm realizing no it's it's letting go and understanding that you know I'm not there anymore and what am what have I

learned from it and how can I help the Next Generation absolutely that you're you're right on point Diana with that I also wanted to say where that comes from as kids you know gbor mat talks about that our two basic fundamental needs is uh are uh attachment connection and authenticity not authenticity to just say and do whatever you want you know cuz everyone has a different definition with that word so I want to be clear what

I mean by that but but to authentically express all the god-given emotions you were created with whe even anger cuz anger has a place it could be it could be healthy right but often times as kids we're taught early on Markin why you crying Big Boys Don't Cry not in his family so I so if crying if emotions were a crayon box I take out crying I throw it away because I'm not going to lose my

connection to my parents if they don't want that then I got to get rid of it if I get angry and I'm scolded for it anger got to go too that so the kid learns to abandon their natural emotions for connection right so as they grow up there's this there's this sense of I'll do whatever it takes to not feel like I can't depend on my parents so when the parents become abusive or or start to

neglect them it's easier for the child to think it's their fault yeah because if I believe it's my fault I still have hope that my parents could change and I could work my way to perform better to stop it but if it's reversed and I'm like and I see it from the perspective I'm a helpless child stuck with I'm innocent but my parents are the perpetrators now I'm completely helpless and now you know everything's gone there's

a sense of helplessness there's a sense of um there's no purpose in living anymore and this is where the Mind begins to dissociate unfortunately and go into really dark places yes so so on that note like do you have any kind of like Bible verse or wisdom for The Listener to just to be really encouraged and understanding that there is hope yes you know I I believe Matthew 2237 says love the Lord your God with all

your heart soul and mind and love your neighbor as yourself yes uh why would God put mind in there oo he put heart and soul maybe he put mind cuz he cares about your mental health oh because he knows that the more this heals your your relationship with him will be better yes and your relationship with others will be healthier because now you're seeing everything through a clear perspective the fog is removed which is the trauma

the trauma distorts our view right uh so I'm I'm I'm really that that's one verse that really hits home another one I I I uh I believe is in 1 Thessalonians 5 Paul is writing to the Thessalonian church and he says something about uh that our whole spirit and soul and body would be made blameless kept blameless uh and that solish part really if you break that down as really the mind will and the emotions right

you know because when we're traumatized for for example if if I give my life to the Lord you know that relationship with Jesus that's my spirit right but I can still have a plethora of traumas which are still impacting my mind what the intrusive thoughts what I'm thinking about my emotions how I feel right so two things are true I love the Lord but there's a lot of things I'm wrestling to work with why not deal

with that so I could deepen my love and connection with the Lord so no that makes sense we can have Jesus and a therapist absolutely cuz we have Jesus with our doctor right true yeah true so Marin where can our lovely audience find you they can find me uh my first of all social media I'm on Facebook I'm at bck counseling uh and on IG Instagram I'm bck counseling and my name I have another handle Mark

inval me first and last name is a little unique um ma r c k e n as in no VY V as in Victor o l m as in money y as in Yankee uh and on those handles you'll find all my website information so I know social people are more likely to go to your social media handle then your website so if you go on my handle you'll find my website it depends on their age

honestly that's true so my website is bedrock like The Flintstones if you watch The Flintstones back in the ' 80s bedrock counseling.com and I have another one because I do also do EMDR consultation for other therapists looking to do consultation hours if you're trying to go further in your knowledge of it that's my website my name Markin me.com and I'll put everything in the show notes guys all right thank you so much for coming on the

show no problem thank you for having me and for you lovely L listeners remember 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 counselor 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 a holistic counselor podcast by commenting or posting and are a client 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