We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Dawn Smith-Theodore a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Dawn , thanks so much for taking the time to share your insights and lessons with us today. We’re particularly interested in hearing about how you became such a resilient person. Where do you get your resilience from?
Resilience is something that I believe comes from facing adversity in your life. You can choose to succumb to adversity or you can figure out how to deal with it and move through it. I believe that with each issue you are faced with, you can learn more about yourself and how you are able to rise above it. In my own life, I have dealt with family secrets, anorexia nervosa, being bullied as a child for being born with no enamel on my teeth, divorce and much more. I found out through all of this, that I was strong and able to survive. What I needed to learn was not only how to survive, but also how to live. Each problem allowed me to know more about myself and that I could trust my own instincts and use myself as a compass through life.
Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?
Dawn Smith-Theodore, is a respected psychotherapist, author, and eating disorder expert with over twenty years of experience as well as being recovered from anorexia herself. She was a professional dancer, a former flight attendant, and owned a dance studio in Los Angeles for twenty-five years. An esteemed author of the book, “TuTu Thin” and host of the show “TuTu Thin: A Podcast for Dancers,” Dawn provides insights from a dance professional’s perspective, helping dancers and parents around the world navigate healthy living. Dawn’s most recent book, “Mother, Men and Me” A Memoir of Anxiety, Anorexia and Affairs raises critical questions about family, love, and truth, leaving readers to question: How do the secrets held by those we love most shape our lives? How do we navigate the most complex relationships, like that between a mother and a daughter? Can we break free from the chains of our past? Dawn shares her strength of survival and how she learned to live.
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?
Determination Discipline
Trust in yourself
Tell us what your ideal client would be like?
I really enjoy working with all types of clients, but especially those who want to open new doors in their life, whether in relationships, career or healing the past. Self exploration can be an amazing journey and I fell so lucky to have the opportunity to witness the changes that individuals make first hand.
Contact Info:
- Website: dawntheodore.com
- Instagram: @tutu_thin @mothermenandme
- Facebook: @tututhin
- Linkedin: Dawn Theodore
- Twitter: @tututhin
- Other: Podcast – TuTu Thin ….. A Guide to Being a healthy dancer and athlete in mind, body, spirit
