We recently connected with Teal Flanigan and have shared our conversation below.
Teal, looking forward to learning from your journey. You’ve got an amazing story and before we dive into that, let’s start with an important building block. Where do you get your work ethic from?
Probably from my parents. My parents divorced when I was young. Thankfully, both maintained good relationships with each other, which I’m grateful for to this day. The arrangement they decided on for how to raise me ended up with both of them being single parents, more or less, at various points throughout my childhood, as I lived with one or the other. Throughout that time, I always watched both of them work really hard to take care of me and pursue their various career goals. Somehow they both managed to find the balance of the importance of family and career. I’ve hung on tightly to the value of balancing work and life outside of work to this day.
My parents have always taught me to do the right thing, be kind to other people and always do your best. It was never really an option to not try your hardest; whether it was in my school work, being a friend to others, playing clarinet, or in my first job. While expectations where high that I do well, I was never pushed to do things I didn’t want to do. When it was time to let something go (I couldn’t do piano, clarinet and school at the same time or I just wasn’t any good at volleyball) they would talk through with me what felt important to me and then supported my decision.
This work ethic gets carried through to my work as a therapist in my private practice today. I don’t expect myself to do anything less than my best; for my clients, in my continued learning, in partnership with other colleagues in the field. I am constantly learning and getting consultation from others in the field not only because I love to learn but because my clients deserve to have a therapist who is up to date with their knowledge, expertise and skill set. I know some people choose to coast through life or do the bare minimum to get by but that’s not me. While I have compassion that sometimes we might be going through something in life, and what we are able to give during that time might be less than at other times in our life, I always strive to give my best in the moment. I feel better within myself when I work this way and I hope it is felt from those I interact with in my life.
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 Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW), Licensed Addiction Counselor (LAC), Certified Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) therapist and Somatic Experiencing Practitioner (SEP). A lot of acronyms, I know!
I have been a therapist for over 10 years and focus primarily on working with adults and teens related to trauma, complex trauma, stress, anxiety and depression. I take an approach that is different than typical talk therapy with my clients. I use techniques from EMDR and SE (Somatic Experiencing) as well as IFS (Internal Family Systems) informed techniques to work with attachment wounds. These types of therapy work much more with the brain, body and nervous system to help clients process things that may feel “stuck” emotionally or somatically within their bodies.
I started my own private practice in 2020 and have loved every moment of it. I love getting to work for myself, not feel boxed in by agency rules, and the ability pursue continuing education that is relevant for my clients and what I feel interested in. While it sounds weird, I LOVE working with clients who are dealing with trauma or other stressful life events. The opportunity to help them heal and feel better (especially from certain events where people may feel like they will never be the same again) really brings me joy.
The more I learn about how our bodies and nervous systems work and that we can work with the body and nervous system to bring healing to people, the more excited I get to work with clients. We are naturally designed to be able to recover from stressful and traumatic events but sometimes we just need a little assistance to get our nervous systems back to stabilization.
Recently, I have started offering EMDR Intensives to clients and have absolutely loved it! Typically, this is offered as a 12 hour (spread over 2-3 days) retreat style therapy. We cover everything from deeper history gathering, resourcing and grounding techniques and reprocessing and desensitization of disturbing events. The ability to support a client to move through a lot of traumatic material and get to healing quicker has been amazing.
I am licensed to see clients in CO, IN, FL and NV. I offer online therapy in all states and in-person in the Denver area.
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?
Flexibility, following your passion, and learning boundaries.
As a child, I was privileged to travel around the world with my mom. I was exposed to many different people, languages and ways of life which helped me learn that not everyone does things the same way I do. It also taught me that not everything goes as planned. While anyone who knows me well knows I love a good plan, I have developed the skill to be flexible and roll with things. This has been vital as I navigated my career path; dealing with ever changing rules at agencies, working with different personalities, and being able to shift to meet the needs of my clients.
My path to becoming a social worker, and ultimately a therapist, was a meandering one but one where I was always following what I enjoyed and felt good to me. I went to college knowing I wanted to speak Spanish and left with a BA in Spanish Literature. I left college knowing I wanted to speak Spanish and help people and ended up working with an AmeriCorps program in a community clinic doing outreach to those who were unhoused. This led me towards the path of pursuing my Master in Social Work (MSW) which ultimately led me to becoming a trauma therapist. Throughout the entire process I never knew exactly what I wanted out of a career but I knew what made me feel good inside and that allowed me to figure out what ultimately feels like an excellent career.
Boundaries. Something I think most people are constantly learning to navigate. I’m generally a pretty nice person who likes to say yes to others and help out. I also have learned to manage taking on a lot of work at one time. Sounds great for an employer and potentially problematic for me. Over my career, through trial and error, I have learned the balance of what I can take on in terms of work load and when I need to say no. I now know when I say no it is because I am working to maintain my own sense of balance and am aware of my emotional capacity. The ability to maintain this over the long term is what will continue to allow me to be a great therapist, colleague, friend, partner and family member to those in my life.
In the world we live in curretly, sometimes it’s hard to be flexible, it feels like we can’t always follow our passions and boundaries can be hard. For me, I have learned the value these hold in my life and work to hold on to them as best I can. For anyone else trying to find out where they want to go in life I recommend finding the values that feel important and true for you. If you can keep that as the guiding purpose for your life choices, then you can evaluate if each step along the way moves you towards your values or away.
How would you describe your ideal client?
I love working with clients who are reaching out for therapy for the first time or who are looking for deeper work that they haven’t been able to achieve with other styles of therapy. I have been a therapist for over 10 years and in that time have really developed a love for working with clients who have gone through quite a lot in their lifetime. Sometimes this looks like abuse or difficult things that took place in childhood or more challenging things that have happened in relationships or other events that took place in adulthood. These events can impact our emotional state, our ability to connect with others or how we view ourselves.
I meet many clients who have been considering reaching out for support through therapy for a long time but just haven’t made the leap. I really enjoy getting to be their first experience in the therapy space. I strive to provide a safe and comfortable space for people to begin to open up and heal. I also use therapy modalities, like Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) and Somatic Experiencing (SE), that are different than the typical talk therapy experience, to really help the body, mind and nervous system heal. Many people I work with have done talk therapy and want something deeper to help them heal even more profoundly and I enjoy getting to provide space for that with my clients.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.calmingseascounseling.com
- Phone Number: 720-551-9133
Image Credits
Image Credits: Charlie Toche
