45. PART 1: Not Interested in Private Practice and Rejecting Any Shame in That (ft. Nicole Garcia, LPC)

This week Karen learned that effective networking is just about being yourself, answering genuine questions, and talking about what you actually care about in public with others, even strangers! You never know where it will lead or who needs to know about you and your work!This week we are sharing Part 1 of our conversation with Nicole Uhlenbrock Garcia who is a Licensed Professional Counselor in Texas. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from Texas A&M University Master of Arts in Professional Counseling from Texas State University in San Marcos. Nicole currently works part-time as a school counselor in the San Antonio area and PRN (on an as needed basis) as a case manager and group counselor at an inpatient hospital for adults.Nicole shares how her interest in what she calls “the universality of human suffering” brought her into counseling and particularly into grief work. Nicole has some absolutely great insights to share about working with and supporting others experiencing grief. With Nicole we also talk about her consistent interest in wanting to work with kids as a counselor and how she chose the LPC route vs. the school counselor route initially. She talks about how important for her it has always been to have some variety in her professional life and how she knew from early on that working in private practice is not for her. Nicole also gets vulnerable and shares how the commonly heard messaging that private practice is the “gold standard” for counselors has impacted her. Nicole has figured out a way to make her license work best for her, which is awesome!Thank you for listening! By the way, if you're curious about how we produce this show, we use Alitu. It's straightforward to use and has made podcasting actually sustainable for us. Use code tea50 at Alitu.com for 50% off if you want to try it yourself!Thoughts? Questions? Email us at [email protected] to us on YouTube!: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjmM3_WRulJpvstPLZiKOBQFollow us on social media:Facebook: Therapy Tea Podcast https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61552953196482Instagram: @therapyteapod https://www.instagram.com/therapyteapod/Disclaimer: This podcast is not therapy and does not establish a professional, therapeutic counseling relationship. All statements made on this podcast by hosts and guests are their individual personal perspectives only and are not necessarily shared by anyone else. The hosts and guests on this podcast are not speaking on behalf of all mental health professionals or the profession as a whole.