281 - Cara Chae, Part 1 - Facing Doubts on the Road to Authentic Leadership
“If I only email you when there's a problem, you're not gonna wanna get my emails.” - Cara Chae
Cue the klieg lights and gift bags because THIS episode marks the seventh anniversary of Conversations With A Wounded Healer! Major thanks to everyone from the OG fans to the newbies. I couldn’t do it without you, which is the perfect segue to today’s episode.
Among the many things I love about my role as a consultant is that I get to accompany group practice owners and organization leaders on their transformational journeys. I'm not molding or shaping anybody! I'm simply shedding light on overlooked opportunities for personal and collective growth. The hard work rests squarely on my clients' shoulders––as do the rewards.
Cara Chae, LCPC, is a psychotherapist at Inner Voice Psychotherapy, a group private practice in Chicago. She focuses on issues related to attachment (parenting, relationships, childhood wounds) and, more recently, neuroplastic symptoms. Cara also spent eight months as a member of my Authentic Leaders Group. I thought it might be interesting to explore some of her a-ha! moments and group experience on the podcast.
So much of what Cara shares is universal to the profession and her position as a leader––the self-doubt that all new therapists navigate after graduation, the loneliness of being in an authoritative position, and the perfectionism that fuels practitioner burnout. You may even recognize yourself in her observations.
"I don't mean any disrespect, but anybody can get a Master's," Cara says, acknowledging the extreme amount of privilege associated with having access to higher education. "School was very intervention evidence-based type stuff, and that held me back a lot. I thought, ‘I'm not good enough,’" she recalls.
Cara has learned to identify those thought patterns that undermine her talents and intuition. "I truly have really good containment around the work I do, but it's a relationship," she confides. "The things that I'm good at are also very taxing." Not to get all NARM here, but…JK! I love to go all NARM on folks. So, what are we afraid will happen if we aren't constantly accessible or limit the amount of time we dedicate to being the nurturer-in-chief to our clients or team members?
Our fear of failure is contributing to burnout in the field. Expressing those anxieties is half the hard work that leaders must do. The other half? Practice.
Stay tuned for Part II of my conversation with Cara.
GET TO KNOW THE GUESTS FEATURED IN OUR ANNIVERSARY GIVEAWAY!
Loretta Pyles - Radical Self-Care and Rewilding in Everyday Practice
Virginia Castillo - Clairvoyance, Spiritual Development and Unexpected Career Paths
Mishara Winston - A Model for Communal Mental Wellness
Mishara Winston - Eat Snacks / Take Naps
Kira Macoun - Somatic Movement And Embodied Activism
Allison Staiger - Rage And The Emotional Labor Of Parenting
Annie Schuessler, Rebel Therapist - Make an Impact Beyond Traditional Private Practice
MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE
NARM - NeuroAffective Relational Model
GUEST CONTACT & BIO
Inner Voice Psychotherapy
Cara Chae, LCPC, (she/her) is a psychotherapist working in a group private practice in Chicago. Her professional interests include working with issues related to Attachment (parenting, relationships, childhood wounds), and, more recently, Neuroplastic Symptoms. Cara’s second full time job is parenting her two elementary school aged children while trying to simultaneously take care of herself, too.
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