Meet Emily Winesberry

Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Emily Winesberry. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Emily, so great to have you with us today. There are so many topics we want to ask you about, but perhaps the one we can start with is burnout. How have you overcome or avoided burnout?

I see burnout as something that is a part of life and will come up now and again. Burnout is a marker that your life is out of balance with too much energy going to just one aspect of your life and feeling stress and overwhelm from this. One of the strategies I offer to clients around managing burnout and alleviating its effects is to double down on self-care.

When I say self-care I am not just talking about maintaining the physical body and managing health issues. What I mean by self-care is intentionally engaging in activities that bring joy and a feeling of peace, grounding, and stability. It is important to engage in the things that relieve stress and bring feelings of wellbeing, but it can be hard to prioritize these when there are so many demands, due dates, emergencies, and responsibilities that can’t be put off until tomorrow and need to happen now. Though this is often the reality of life, if you are not able to be functional and think critically because you are overstressed it makes the demanding tasks harder and more difficult to complete. Self-care can be getting on the yoga mat or taking a hike, visiting a library or bookstore, taking a scenic drive, playing with or taking naps with the animals that live in your house, attending a religious or spiritual service, taking a few deep breaths, and so on.

Carving out time, even if it is just 5 minutes a day, to put focused energy towards an activity or engagement that brings you joy, fills your inner well/ cup, or offers love and light to others can disperse some of the stress and feelings of overwhelm that come with experiencing burnout. I also encourage my clients to be creative and curious as every time burnout happens will not be the same and there may be some tactics that are more helpful than others depending on your capacities and what is accessible in the moment. If you are overtired an hour of hiking may not be the best thing for you and your energy level, but maybe sitting outside coloring with a beverage may be perfect.

Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?

I have had the pleasure of combining my passions into two focuses; being a Marriage & Family Therapist with an Expressive Arts therapy (EXA) lens, and a visual artist. As an EXA therapist I support clients in processing their feelings in traditional talk therapy, but also through the use of the client’s creative expression. By utilizing various artistic modes interchangeably from visual art, movement, narrative therapy, and music therapy it creates a space to process the client’s feelings, emotions, and trauma experiences that might be hard to address directly. As in therapy, my artwork strives to highlight the beauty in relationships and examine the connections created between the subjects in the picture. I have recently been creating artwork that emphasizes peaceful spaces that can nurture calm, restoration, and healing. I work in many media, depending on the overall emotional and pictorial effect of the piece I am striving for.

There are similar threads in the focus of how I hold therapy and the themes in the artwork I create. In my artwork and in providing therapy what I am most excited about is the healing powers of art and how the individual’s personal connection and relationship with their own creativity can bring about profound healing.

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?

When reviewing the qualities, skills, or area of knowledge that were most impactful in my journey I am reminded of the quality of curiosity, the skill of observation, and the knowledge that you only have to be good enough and not perfect.

Holding curiosity is a quality that has greatly impacted my journey. I have always enjoyed learning and exploring new to me things. Being curious has kept me eager to better understand myself and the world around me without judgement or expectation for a specific outcome.

For me observation is vital both to my work as a Licensed Clinical Marriage & Family therapist and as a visual artist. In both fields it is essential to be able to view either clients or subjects carefully and fully to be able to reflect back accurately what is present. Whether is delineating accurately the curve of a line, the color of a petal, or the inflection of a statement that moves from sadness to hopefulness and vice versus.

Because we are human we are changeable beings who are not always able to replicate performances at their optimal every time. For me holding the knowledge that all I must do is be the best I can be in the moment and that is enough can be hard to internalize, but it is reality. Some moments I am practically perfect and other moments I am the worst in the world, but what matters is that I show up and do what I am capable to the best of my abilities.

For advice to those who are in the early stages of their journey what I would offer is the importance of patience and self-compassion. The journey will probably take longer and be more difficult than you imagine, but I encourage you to trust the process. It may not be easy though there will be spots that are easier to traverse. It will take a lot of time, effort, and care. If you do not complete the journey on the first try that is Ok, as it can often take several tries to complete the journey. Be patient with yourself and try to not feel that you should know how to do everything asked of you on the journey. This is a learning process. Be kind to yourself as you make mistakes, have setbacks, and full on fail. It is all about the learning and growing that is done on the journey rather than getting to the destination.

What would you advise – going all in on your strengths or investing on areas where you aren’t as strong to be more well-rounded?

When looking at whether it is better to go all in with focusing on and using your strengths versus developing and improving on areas that are not as strong, I feel both tactics should be considered depending on the situation. I believe leading with your strengths, especially in areas where you are called to spearhead or be a support to others, provides a place to be confident in your abilities and offer support to others through mentorship and guidance. However, it is often acknowledging and developing our frailties that bring about mastery, growth, and insight into challenging situations.

We do not learn from our successes, but from our failures. By being open to sharing and investing in developing our challenges in areas we are not as strong in we become better equipped to meet the needs of the moment by creating new methods and strategies to the challenges faced. Spending time nurturing our vulnerabilities allows us to offer ourselves grace and model self-compassion to others. Sometimes the most powerful thing to witness is not someone in their full power being brilliant but seeing someone being fully engaged in solving a problem with the tools they have available and making it work even if it is not perfect. We are human and fallible and not always at our best, but we are still called to meet the moment and to be the best we are capable of; and that is what really counts.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.creativehealingcounseling.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/VitisViniferaStudio
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/emily-winesberry-lcmft
• Other: https://linkpop.com/vitisviniferastudio

Image Credits

Photo of Emily Winesberry by Donisha Hoffine, Digital Life Reflections

All artwork by Emily Winesberry
The Fool Tarot Card. Colored Pencil on Rag paper. 2020
Tea Rose. Oil on Canvas. 2002
Sunflower. Oil on Canvas 2024
White Trillium. Oil on Canvas. 2023