You Should Be A Therapist (Apparently)

I’ve rebuilt a lot of things in my life. The easiest ones required tools.

November 18, 2025

Twice in one week, people told me I should be a therapist.

The first time, a woman overheard a close friend of mine—a powerhouse leader of a major organization—and me casually talking about our lives, lessons, trauma, growth, healing, and our shared dream of writing books that change people’s lives… all while folding over 200 cloth napkins for a community event.

She looked at us and said,

“You two are in the wrong industry! You should be therapists!”

My friend and I laughed and said, “We know,” then went right back to folding napkins and philosophizing about the world.

A few days later, I had lunch with a woman I’ve known since childhood but hardly know. Another powerhouse. Another self-made leader. The kind of woman who became a Mary Kay leader at nineteen and has been building successful businesses ever since.

Over lunch, she shared everything she’s been carrying—her recent separation, raising two young kids alone, the exhaustion of getting everyone fed and out the door, running a business, and trying to manage the emotional storms (hers and theirs) after being abandoned by the person who was supposed to stand beside her.

What struck me most was how much she was holding without realizing how heavy it truly was, or how much her kids were absorbing too.

So I talked with her.

I shared what I’ve learned from growing up without a mother—what abandonment and neglect do to a child’s sense of self, and how kids internalize pain they can’t name. I told her about raising my own three kids mostly alone after divorce, even though ours was amicable and we worked hard to co-parent well. I shared the insights I’ve gathered over the years—the immediate things to pay attention to, the medium-range work of rebuilding stability, and the long-view goal I held for my own children:

Emotionally healthy, well-adjusted humans who know they are loved.

It just poured out of me.

In the middle of it, she stopped me and said,

“You should be a therapist!”

And it hit me how rare it is to be recognized not for what I do, but for what I know—the kind of knowing you only earn by surviving, healing, and growing.

If she’d had a notebook, she would’ve been taking notes. She even texted me the next day asking me to repeat everything I said—but by then I was so miserably sick I didn’t respond for four days.

The truth is:

I have no desire to be a therapist.

But I love connecting with people at that level.

I love sharing my life, my lessons, and the wisdom I’ve picked up along the way.

So therapist? No.

Transformational presence?

That feels like home.

I don’t know exactly what it will look like yet or how it will take shape.

But I know it’s what I was made for.

And it’s where I’m going.

This blog is part of that journey.

Thank you for being here.

It means something to me.