Therapist, wife, mom, and horse lover, all rolled into one.
Who I am.
My name is Carissa Weber and welcome to my blog! For the last 10 years, I have worked as a licensed professional counselor (LPC) and a clinical substance abuse counselor (CSAC). I have always been drawn to mental health, especially ways to help us feel better. While I was in college, I studied nursing and how the brain works. This absolutely fascinated me. Ever since, I have been interested as to why our brain works, and why it sometimes doesn’t work. Through many years of education, training, and real-life experience, I have found many people struggle to seek out help for their mental health because of the lack of understanding of how everything works upstairs. Even in my own practice, I have had people doubt their own experiences because “mental health is just in your head.” Over the years, I have slowly integrated explaining what is happening in our brain when we are experiencing mental health. Through this explanation, people have felt more connected and relaxed about what they must do to take care of their mental health needs. It is my hope that through this blog, people will start to understand that this “thing in their head” really has some biological factors and the skills that many therapists suggest have biological factors as to why they work.
Not only does this topic have meaning to me professionally, but it also has personal meaning. Through my life, I have struggled with anxiety, depression, and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. For years, I thought the skills my therapist gave me were just a distraction from what was really going on. As I started to understand more how the brain works, and what the brain needed, I started to feel a connection to my coping skills. This really changed my life as it opened my eyes to the changes my brain was making versus thinking I would be stuck forever with these debilitating (and annoying) symptoms.
Now, as I wear multiple hats in my life (wife, mom, therapist, and aspiring equestrian), I want to share with the world the reason coping skills work. This is not just for prosperity’s sake, but for the understanding that if we use these coping skills, demonstrate their use on a regular basis, we may slowly impact those around us in a positive way. This means, we may change how we think about mental health. Thank you so much for reading and I hope this blog inspires you on your journey of emotional wealth!