We were lucky to catch up with Jamie Heimos recently and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Jamie, really happy you were able to join us today and we’re looking forward to sharing your story and insights with our readers. Let’s start with the heart of it all – purpose. How did you find your purpose?
I always knew I was meant to help in some capacity. I identify with being a highly sensitive person, meaning I am deeply sensitive to certain physical, emotional or social situations. From a young age, I recall always being the child that would cry when others would cry or need to check on someone when they seemed sad. My mom has told me the story previously when I was young (around 4 or 5) I mistakingly saw something on the news where people were sad. She tells me I immediately grabbed some paper and crayons and began drawing hearts, “to make the people feel better.” I think that story describes my innate ability to help and sit with others in their emotions. While I had a difficult time finding a career that stuck and helped me find my work-life balance, being a therapist has been the career that fills my bucket and allows me to help others in the way my heart needs.
Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?
I am a person who wears many hats. Personally, I am a Mom, wife, sister, daughter, aunt, and friend, and professionally a Licensed Professional Counselor, owner of Balance and Bloom Counseling LLC, and an aspiring children’s book author. I relate to many of my clients in having been an anxious child/teen, but in the 90s, we didn’t know what we know now about anxiety. I am very open about my own anxiety and what helps me manage my symptoms. I find joy in sharing information with parents, my clients, and community through my social media platform @balanceandbloomstl (on Instagram). I find this to be a great creative outlet for me, but also a way to create quick and easy information that can help others understand themselves or their kids more. One thing I hope to communicate to parents, is that I’m on this journey with them as a parent. Not only am I a partner with them in navigating their child’s anxiety, but I’m also trying to figure out parenting too, with a toddler. I always hope my brand portrays real life parenthood, but also a sense of hope. We CAN balance the necessary things with the right tools and village around us.
Some things I really hope to work on in my business for this year include working on publishing my children’s book and focusing on supporting parents with their anxious children through an online course, support groups and workshops. Professionally, I also hope to complete my Play Therapy Certification, this has been a big undertaking and I’m finally nearing the end. In my family life, I do hope to be able to take a vacation with my family and spend more time outdoors.
Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
A few things come to mind when I think about skills or qualities that are impactful in my journey in my career. The first, is being in touch with your inner child. I truly believe in order to work WELL with kids, you have to meet them where they are. If that is spending 10 minutes talking about Pokemon before we talk about some hard stuff, that’s okay. In order to relate to kids and be in touch with my inner child, that requires me to play. As adults, we need to play more. For me, play looks like getting on the floor and coloring, making funny voices with puppets with my daughter, sensory play, painting, and my personal favorite, building legos. Another quality that I find important in my journey is flexibility. When I set out to begin my career in private practice, I was deep in post-partum and going back to education just did not seem like the right choice. I had worked 10 hour days, 5 days a week and 3 of my 4 school years involved covid and it was just very difficult on my mental health. Add on being a new mom, I just knew my heart needed something different. One of my mentors told me, “you can always change your mind.” I felt being flexible was so important for me to be where I am. I knew I could shift gears if I needed to for my family. I continue to work to try to find new and innovative ways to be flexible to my client’s needs while also being present for my family.
Lastly, I don’t believe you can be effective in the helping field if you don’t have empathy. Empathy is what has lead me on this path. I’ve always wanted to help in some capacity. I feel it is a privilege to hear the stories my clients share with me. I have the honor of being a trusted person in their mental health journey and have the opportunity to help them self-reflect and education them on the importance of expressing their emotions. That is a true privilege and not something I take lightly.
Before we go, any advice you can share with people who are feeling overwhelmed?
As a mom, mental health professional, wife, daughter, sister, aunt, friend, etc, I am often overwhelmed. One thing that I have a hard time with is knowing I can only do so much for others before my body and mind force me to pause and rest. I cannot give my best care to others if I am not giving the best care to myself. When I’m overwhelmed, I make sure I show up for myself in my own therapy work. Even as a therapist, I know when I don’t want to go to therapy is when I need it the most to manage my own anxiety and innate need to balance it all. My biggest advice to others who are feeling overwhelmed, is to recognize that you cannot show up for others if you don’t show up for you. If we don’t rest and pause, something will force us to like illness, anxiety, depression, or self-doubt. I think if you are a parent, it is also a great idea to show our children what rest and taking care of ourselves looks like. We don’t have to have full weekends. We don’t have to have an activity every night of the week. We can rest. I do believe we really need to prioritize rest and stillness more.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.balanceandbloomcounselingstl.com
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/balanceandbloomstl
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BalanceandBloomCounselingSTL
Image Credits
alexa hecksel photography
