Today we’d like to introduce you to Audrey Augustave.
Hi Audrey, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
Sometimes we don’t choose things in life, but rather they choose us. Looking back, I see a long standing theme of being someone’s confidant or listening ear. Better yet, many friends have referred back to a time I said something casually that stuck with them for life. I don’t consider myself uniquely wise, but I have recognized a willingness to get to the truth of the human experience and talk about it openly with others. Even though overt vulnerability was not normalized in my family system, I’ve always had a sense that we all need a place to open up honestly and unapologetically to evolve.
After spending some time in college being a group facilitator for diversity retreats, I quickly recognized my purpose in serving others as a psychotherapist. I believe that when God placed this purpose on my heart, He gifted me with the experiences that would allow me to draw from my own journey to help navigate others on their path. While, I no longer carry this burden, my late teens until my early 30s have had heavy conflict. Internal conflict surrounding self esteem, honoring myself, and loving myself outloud as well as interpersonal conflict based around family dynamics, romantic love, disappointing friendships, and the pain associated with unwanted attention when your light shines bright.
I do what I do because I have achieved a beautiful feat that I would love to share with others: peace. Many of us are living a life of expectations and routines. As someone who has broken free from both to achieve fulfillment, I’ve fallen in love with being an agent in helping others do the same by offering direct clinical care to my clients and providing psychoeducation through my podcast.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Overall I tend to look at the hiccups as necessary rites of passage in my journey as opposed to obstacles I had to overcome. I find that the grit and relatability that I have to offer as a therapist is because of difficulty I have endured so I try not to speak about them as a downfall, but rather as something that needed to happen to develop more insight about myself and compassion surrounding the human experience.
My challenges have often been rooted in how people treat me. The interesting dichotomy of life is that when you have a beautiful spirit that draws many people in, others can quickly resent you for that. I’ve had a few colleagues along the way that put tremendous energy into making my work environment as difficult for me as possible. Instead of seeing my obvious upward mobility as an opportunity to collaborate, it became the fuel for competition, which is not how I was raised to engage with other successful/talented people.
Believe it or not, being gifted and knowing you are will upset a lot of people. Confidence seems to give people the urge to knock you down a peg especially when you are in the early stages of your career surrounded by people who are stuck in a rut. Thankfully, I never internalized it and had a strong sense that some working environments are for building your skills and moving on instead of seeking promotions. I’m proud of myself for never behaving out of character in these spaces.
Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
A Nurtured Life Psychotherapy is a mental health private practice with 2 missions: 1) providing quality clinical care to clients 2) training the future therapists of tomorrow into expert clinicians in the field. We accept virtual clients across NJ & NY and do in-person sessions in Englewood, NJ.
While the clinical work I do presently has shifted, I have earned my stripes working at in-patient addiction facilities and methadone clinics. I’ve worked with adults and teens, volunteered therapy hours internationally and run therapy groups. Having worked with such a diverse community of clients with varied intervention strategies, it has become important to me to engage in clinical work in various ways.
As a conflict specialist I work predominantly with couples/co-parents in tumultuous relationships and help individuals going through major life transitions such as divorce, friendship breakups, or achieve long term sobriety. I am blessed to be entrusted by my follow clinicians to run a development group to help refine the skills of other couples therapists. I’m very excited to soon be transitioning my solo practice into a group practice so that I can diversify the kinds of clients we serve. Above all else, I am most proud of the supplemental education I provide through my podcast Un-Loc’d which focuses on mental health and identity related topics to normalize the culture of deep internal exploration.
In terms of your work and the industry, what are some of the changes you are expecting to see over the next five to ten years?
As a clinician with over 15 years in the industry across various modalities, I am clear on one thing: Good therapy is always safe, but it’s not always comfortable. I believe therapy is meant to be a process that leads to long term behavioral change and insight development. In a time when increased access to therapy has normalized outcomes that feel more like “a good place to vent” than an evolutionary experience, I am proud of my reputation as a clinician who challenges her clients and fellow colleagues.
I am not here to push you (we could all use a little tenderness in this life), but I would be doing a disservice to my clients if I watched them engage in self destructive behaviors and did not probe them into examining themselves further. I am not one who leans into the lattest viral clinical terminology that everybody is using. I am here to help you face the conflict inside of you or between you and someone else bravely.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.anlpsychotherapy.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/therapywithaudrey/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/audrey-augustave/
