Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Laura Walton. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Laura, sincerely appreciate your selflessness in agreeing to discuss your mental health journey and how you overcame and persisted despite the challenges. Please share with our readers how you overcame. For readers, please note this is not medical advice, we are not doctors, you should always consult professionals for advice and that this is merely one person sharing their story and experience.
On both sides of my family, we don’t have much cancer, heart disease, diabetes, or any other physical illnesses. But we do have mental health challenges, and lots of them. I have multiple family members on both sides who have committed suicide, and many others who have struggled with mental health.
I personally have experienced a lot of trauma, a lot of death, a lot of grief, and related mental health challenges, including being neurodivergent.
I am also a mental health therapist, and I have heard repeatedly from my clients over the years the shame, doubt, and misunderstanding in knowing what is and is not normal in the context of mental health.
Thus, I have found that the best way to normalize mental health challenges, and to therefore diffuse any stigma associated with them, is to talk about it. Naming it takes away some of its power, and makes the challenge a little less scary. If enough people talk about it, we also realize that we’re far from alone in the experience, and we can lessen the stigma around these already difficult topics.
Although I don’t love being in the spotlight, I find it SO important to bring these conversations to light. Whenever I second guess myself, I remember that I am talking about it for the younger me who didn’t have someone talking about it and had to navigate mental health on her own.
Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?
For the last 13ish years, I have been a mental health therapist. I became a therapist because in my 20’s I had 2 significant deaths (my dad committed suicide, and my then-boyfriend died of a heroin overdose). I was not able to find much in terms of support for myself when I was heavily grieving, and this is what inspired me to become a therapist.
Through my years as a therapist working with death and grief, I have learned from my clients where there are significant gaps in the market in terms of support for grieving people. There are SO many ways that we can do better to support grief (especially since it is something the will affect every single one of us).
This is what inspired me to build lovelew, my newer business. Lovelew offers grief and trauma self-paced online courses, group grief coaching cohorts, and the logistical support needed to close out an estate after someone dies. We are building to become a one-stop shop for all things grief-related. Our current focus is on supporting young (20s-40s) females who have had their partner suddenly die.
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
I’ve leaned on so many different qualities over the years, that it is really hard to name just three, but I’ll make an attempt here:
1)Authenticity — I am good at what I do because of the adversity, trauma, loss, and pain that I have experienced in my own life. The moment I start to lose connection to my own experiences is the moment I lose connection to my work and my ability to do what I do.
2)Perseverance — when I decide I am going to do something, not much can stop me. This can be both good and bad for me, but I do believe that without it, I wouldn’t be where I am today.
3)Sense of humor — the work I do is hard and heavy, but also sometimes it’s also funny and ridiculous. I give myself permission to laugh, even at the times when laughing seems borderline inappropriate. I see having a sense of humor as a necessary means of survival in my work.
One of our goals is to help like-minded folks with similar goals connect and so before we go we want to ask if you are looking to partner or collab with others – and if so, what would make the ideal collaborator or partner?
Yes! I’d love to build partnerships or collaborations with other people who either work within the space of grief, death or dying, or people who have experienced a significant death and grief and are ready to do something with their grief. I can be reached at laura@withlovelew.com
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.withlovelew.com
- Instagram: with_lovelew
- Facebook: lovelew
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