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Normalize Therapy ()

Episode 4

About the Episode

This week on Professional Troublemaker, Iโ€™m revisiting a topic I covered on the blog a couple of weeks ago โ€“ therapy. Today we’re talking about why it’s so critical and why I think we need to normalize therapy.

If youโ€™ve followed me for any length of time at all, you know that I talk about therapy a lot. A LOT. Therapy has gotten me together any number of times, and Iโ€™m a loud and fierce advocate for the fact that everyone needs therapy. Weโ€™re all walking around with some sort of baggage, and we need to work that out with someone who can reflect back to us what thatโ€™s all about and how we can do better. It carries such a stigma, but Iโ€™ve made it my duty to do everything I can to normalize having a therapist and going to therapy.

We talk on the podcast all the time about self-care. I always ask guests what they do for self-care, and one of the most given answers isnโ€™t a massage or a walk or getting their nails done. Itโ€™s therapy. Itโ€™s critical. Just like you do cardio for your body, you need therapy to work out your mind and get that in shape.

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This episode was inspired by and is dedicated to my therapist, Dr. Yvonne Patterson. I found out earlier this month โ€“ the day before my appointment โ€“ that she passed away suddenly. I didnโ€™t know how to process that news. Who helps you process the death of someone that helps you process life? In this episode, I talk through what that felt like โ€“ because I think itโ€™s something we donโ€™t talk about โ€“ and how I chose to process that news initially. Iโ€™m also sharing some of the wisdom I gained from our sessions.

Dr. P helped me become the woman I am today. She guided and shepherded me through the writing of my new book Professional Troublemaker. And Iโ€™m still sad I didnโ€™t get a chance to show her sheโ€™s quoted throughout and show her that I thank her in the acknowledgments. But I hope this episode โ€“ including the resources I share โ€“ gets you to a place where youโ€™re ready to start going to therapy. Itโ€™s life-changing, vital work.

Let’s normalize going to therapy. Let’s normalize talking about it.

And let’s normalize thanking our therapists.

โ€”Luvvie Ajayi Jones

Therapy is mind care because self-care is mind care.

Therapy is cardio for the mind.

โ€”Luvvie Ajayi Jones

“I know in times of crisis, people either sink or swim, and I don’t want to sink.” And Dr. P looked at me and said,

“Do you have to sink or swim? What if you just float?”

โ€”Luvvie Ajayi Jones

About the Guest

Luvvie Ajayi Jones

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Luvvie Ajayi Jones is a three-time New York Times bestselling author, speaker and podcast host who thrives at the intersection of humor, media, and justice. Her critically acclaimed books Professional Troublemaker: The Fear-Fighter Manual (2021) and Iโ€™m Judging You: The Do-Better Manual (2016) were instant bestsellers and established her as a literary force with a powerful pen.ย  Her newest book and first book for young adults Rising Troublemaker: A Fear-Fighter Manual for Teens (released May 17, 2022) debuted at #3 on the New York Times Bestseller list.

Wisdom from the show

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