Meet Christina Sieren

We were lucky to catch up with Christina Sieren recently and have shared our conversation below.

Christina, so good to have you with us today. We’ve always been impressed with folks who have a very clear sense of purpose and so maybe we can jump right in and talk about how you found your purpose?
It’s more honest to say that my purpose found me and I’m finding ways to maintain my sense of purpose moving forward.

Growing up, I was perfectionistic, controlling everything around me and I had a clear-cut plan on how I was going to reach my goals. Private practice was always the goal, yet my younger self envisioned working with younger kids, something more play-based and what felt like an easier age group. The summer following my junior year in college, I signed up for a practicum class that required me to work at a residential setting across the country with at-risk children, ages 5 to eighteen. I was assigned to work with the youngest girls’ group and once my summer finished, I had no plans of going back, yet still felt pulled toward this younger age group. I ended up returning for 3 more summers and was asked to supervise a clinical team of 10 staff and 10 adolescent girls my third and fourth summer. Needless to say, working with high-risk adolescents wasn’t my initial plan, but it’s the age group and population that found me and to this day, it feels like the perfect fit.

Working with adolescents means engaging parents and caregivers in the child’s treatment, something anticipated, yet something that feels more personal, especially being a Mom myself. Parenting was never my anticipated purpose, but working with caregivers to magnetize an out-of-the-box parenting approach that aligns with the parent they hope to be, while saying goodbye to the parent they no longer wish to embody spiraled into existence in 2018. When I started looking beyond, and questioning everything I had been told about parenting and started identifying for myself how I wanted to exist and be as Christina, Mom of two, my clinical approach to helping parents shifted too.

Here’s what I learned about maintaining purpose; the more I let go of an expected outcome and focus on what brings me joy, personally and professionally, the more purposeful I feel. I’ve had to practice being brutally honest with myself and owning my emotions, which means saying no to experiences or projects that don’t align with my current priorities, and learning to trust my choices. Trusting oneself feels vulnerable, especially for those of us who have experienced control as a safety net, so what’s helped me is having a regular yoga and meditation practice, sitting in silence and journaling, and taking daily action on my goals. Purpose can be tricky, even unexpected, yet when we give ourselves permission to release and let go, the outcome has the opportunity to reveal something exciting.

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’m a Licensed Psychotherapist, specializing in mental health services for high-risk adolescents and their families. The adolescents that I work with need help with different concerns including difficulties regulating emotions, trauma, self-harming behaviors, suicidal thoughts and/or previous attempts to complete suicide, and severe forms of anxiety and depression. I also provide yoga for mood management as part of therapy, which supports the landscape for clients to clear the mind, explore the body, and invites us to work with, feel through, and regulate our shifting moods and energies. Working with parents is a huge component of my work, and I believe that each parenting journey is individually unique, therefore part of my work is helping parents break free from a one-size-fits-all parenting approach, and welcome intentional parenting from the inside out, honoring values over trends, and instincts before impulses.

From a young age, I knew that I wanted to be in a helping profession and I’m especially thankful for the continued opportunities that have allowed me to fully engage and immerse in the lives of others. Therapy is an incredibly vulnerable experience, yet to bear witness to the stories in front of me, I’m not only grateful for the trust that clients continue to instill in me, I’m reminded how much personal and professional growth I’ve experienced through these interactions. From working in residential settings and community mental health, to now serving clients in a private practice setting, I can see the ripple effect that takes place when individuals are compassionately seen and heard; systems begin to change, clients find meaning and purpose, and collective healing starts to shape. And this, is by far the most amazing part about what I get to do.

More recently, my career has shifted to reach more people in ways that I never anticipated. I’m extremely proud to be a Published Author, having written my first book titled, Parenting Teen Girls: A Positive Parenting Approach to Raising Health, Independent Daughters. This book is a collaborative, and interactive approach on positive parenting principles that guide and support caregivers on various topics. Chapters address cultural factors that impact teens, brain development, communication, biological and social influences, body image, bullying, social media, s*x education, gender expression and identity formation, and drugs and alcohol.

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?
The most impactful have been 1) Own Your Narrative, 2) Release What Isn’t Working and 3) Dream Big; Don’t Settle.

Owning Your Narrative is all about insight and self-reflection. How well do you really know yourself? This isn’t just about strengths or ways to improve; it’s about taking a deep dive into your history and understanding the choices and experiences that got you here. Often times, we lead with the positive moments, the things that make us look good, yet there’s a lot of knowledge gained in the challenges faced and those not-so-pretty moments we wish we could erase. I recommend taking time to get curious and self-reflect. Ask yourself some questions, What experiences have shaped who I am today? What have I learned or gained from the experiences that have been the most difficult? Who are the people or what experiences have influenced me throughout my lifetime? I’m a huge fan of insight and awareness, which means I’m consistently taking time to self-assess my thoughts, how I engage with others and where I need to bulk up, so to speak, with new resources and knowledge.

Release What Isn’t Working. I think of this as the square peg in a round hole. With all the information available to us at any given moment, it’s easy to get caught in a cycle of I need to do this or getting stuck attempting to do things a certain way because it’s worked well for others. The risk, we’re overwhelmed, rigidity takes over and we start to question ourselves, I must be doing something wrong. This has a been a big one for me and sometimes the most loving thing I can do for myself, is bravely say, This isn’t working for me; Let me try something different. More often than not, the permission in these statements is enough to give me the gentle nudge I need to re-direct my energy. This has taken a lot of practice over the years, yet what’s helped most is tapping into my body’s cues. When I feel stuck or I start to question myself, my body responds with a stomach pain or a surge of frantic energy. This is when I know it’s time to count my losses and switch directions. So, what can you learn from your body’s physical cues? What physical sensations signal to you that it’s time to take a step back and re-assess your progress? Are you in an energy of trying to force an outcome or is your energy more flow-like or calm?

Dream Big; Don’t Settle. I know this one seems pretty basic, but I wonder how many of us limit ourselves from holding the biggest picture in our mind, an image that feels so palpable we can feel it. For me, this wasn’t taught in any of my formal education and I’ve been lucky enough to be surrounded by a circle of close friends and colleagues that have pushed me to think, Why not me? Dreaming big requires a road map and a concrete plan, where visualization meets daily action. I recommend writing down a concrete goal and taking time every day, to not only read your goal, but also visualize that goal as if it already exists. How would you feel? What would it look like? How would you move throughout your day or interact with others? Then take action, what action steps are needed to reach this goal? Write them down and complete one task every day. Tasks can vary, whether it’s learning a new skill, gathering information, completing a to-do, or setting a much needed boundary.

What was the most impactful thing your parents did for you?
Besides being my biggest cheerleaders, it was instilling the notion that I could do, be or create anything with hard work. It wasn’t just a verbal message but a modeled behavior that I observed from a young age. It also came with a learned understanding that hard work took on a different edge depending on what you wanted to focus on or create, and knowing that failure was a natural part of learning, but also an area to own mistakes and be accountable. My Mom was more detail-oriented, organized in her work and each to-do had a specific step-by-step plan, while my Dad was heavy on creating relationships and maintaining connections, and he was famous for pushing the limits with a simple response, well why can’t you? While they both had their way of operating, I’ve found my own style and fit that’s undoubtedly a mix-and-match of both, but more so it’s given me countless opportunities to push beyond the limits of what I thought I knew and expand in ways that I could only dream of. What I love most about their notion of hard work is that it’s given me permission to ebb-and-flow with life’s shifting priorities, whether that’s with my kids, family and personal relationships, my career or embracing a new creative endeavor. What’s more, I get to instill this value with my own two kids, showing them the beauty of hard work that comes in different shades, and for that I’m grateful.

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Image Credits
Lindsday Schlick – SchlickArt- A Visual Marketing Company Ashley Burns Photography

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