“Can we stop signing up for learning through pain and suffering?” - Virginia Castillo

If you’re a baby therapist (or a seasoned pro) looking for a sign, this is it! Lean into moments of extrasensory perception. Take leaps of faith toward alternative career paths. Trust that your current discomfort heralds growth. My longtime friend and one-time coworker Virginia Castillo, LCPC, is a chill, uplifting study in clearing space for all three. Our convo is such a gift for this quiet time of year. It’s the season of turning inward, exploring our options, and assuming that our seemingly “out there” choices will have a positive ripple effect.

“I had no intention of being a therapist,” Virginia says of the career she now enjoys. Originally from the world of finance, she eventually realized that, regardless of the successes she had in that field, the work didn’t fulfill her, so she searched for something that did. “I didn't even know the difference between a social worker and a counselor. I was like, ‘Okay, well, it sounds the same. Which one's easier to just get done?’”

Spoiler alert: the therapy profession isn’t an easy path to tread, especially when you enter the field ready and willing to do your own work. Few therapists-in-training receive that message from their professors or case supervisors. Virginia agrees, “They didn't talk about it enough in school. They didn't say, ‘Do your own work! Make sure you're getting your own stuff taken care of.’” I say it all the time: better support of our clients begins when we acknowledge those parts of ourselves that require deeper exploration or healing.

Virginia has recently taken her intrapersonal work to a deeper level with clairvoyant training. Clairvoyants have a highly developed capacity for receiving the information, then distilling it into a more accessible format. “I've been sprinkling that in here and there and in the sense of what I find that's helpful is, like, grounding, helping people just become a little bit more grounded, more embodied,” Virginia says. “All of a sudden, there's this other avenue that brings us even closer.”

As her studies progress, Virginia’s coming out more as clairvoyant to friends and a few family members. It’s a challenging process as some find her pursuit too woo-woo to take seriously. Virginia has come to accept that she might lose some people as she taps further into her abilities. And, that’s ok. Her clairvoyance may cause waves in her personal life, but it’s the ripples she hopes to extend to her clients. “If you can create that space in the therapy room with people and guide them into learning how to heal themselves, that's the healing.”

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE

You Are The Answer- by Michael J. Tamura

The Gateway: Teal Swan Erin Diedling

Green Light Yoga

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Silver Lining Psychotherapy

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Virginia Castillo LCPCis a licensed clinical professional counselor, owner and founder of Silver Lining Psychotherapy, LLC., in Chicago. She is a first-generation Mexican American and proud Latina.

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