We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Lovinda Dabo. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Lovinda below.
Lovinda, we’re thrilled to have you on our platform and we think there is so much folks can learn from you and your story. Something that matters deeply to us is living a life and leading a career filled with purpose and so let’s start by chatting about how you found your purpose.
I believe that my purpose was found in three experiential progressions. Firstly by my family observing me and speaking out loud what they were discerning in me. I feel it all began with my parents whom named me Lovinda Joyelle. Lovinda meaning “love” and Joyelle meaning “she brought joy”. My mom always coined me to be her “helper girl” so at a young age I learned that there is a lot of love, joy, and helpful qualities within me so I moved in the Earth that way and it felt very natural; which was a huge clue that these characteristics were inner gifts meant to be expressed.
Having these verbal characteristic blessings spoken over me gave me identity and all throughout my academic journey my close friends and professors hinted to me to go into the psychology field because one way or the other I most likely had a very deep conversation with them that resulted in a positive exchange of energy.
Once I had outside confirmation from other’s I received confirmation from God and myself through the form of a sense of complete peace, excitement, deep curiosity, alignment, and success even through the “failures” while pursuing my purpose as a mental health therapist.
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?
I am a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (LMFT) in both the States of California and Texas with over 8 years of experience working with adults, teenagers, children, and couples facing depression, anxiety, and life changes.
Since completing my master’s degree, I have had the pleasure of opening up my private practice The Core Counseling Services, PLLC. I named my practice The Core (Center of Real Essence) because it speaks to my therapeutic style- compassionate, direct, creative, and effective. I believe that having a relationship with your core self creates personal alignment for all the things you find important in your life (career, family, love, health, etc.)
What makes The Core Counseling special is that I work with a diverse pool of people of all ages and backgrounds to therapeutically address how their present-day experiences intersect with their childhoods. I believe that at my mental health clinic you will get a unique experience of being able to deep dive into all your life (past and present) to break old patterns behaviorally or narratively, get out of survival mode, and live again!
The essential goal of therapy with me at The Core Counseling is to provide you with a safe space to build a healthy, secure, emotionally attuned attachment with yourself so that you don’t have to work in ultimately unhelpful ways to receive what I believe all living things need, LOVE. Once there is an anchored identity source beaming from within you, I believe that the abundance of limitless possibilities becomes your reality and even when life challenges you; the anchored relationship you have built from spending time with yourself equips you with the tools and resources to face the adversity. In my eyes everything begins and ends with our core!
We are expanding our services at The Core Counseling, and I am excited to share that I am offering speaking and consultant services to the public. I have a huge passion for running workshops and groups and enjoying consulting with other mental health professionals so check us out at our website for more information on these services.
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?
Looking back the three skills that were the most impactful in my journey were the gift of intuition, the patience to pace myself and be consistent, and lastly networking/building community.
I would advise folks who are early in their journey to develop in these three categories by considering the following: When developing intuition, you must create that experience in a way that you most resonate with. Why? Because we are all different and attune to intuition differently. For me developing a close connection with my mind, body, spirit sharpened my intuition. Intuition is important because it is the closest confidant you will have to discern what/who is and isn’t for you and your goals.
Pacing myself and being consistent have been huge tools that have kept me realistic with my goals yet accountable not to stay stagnant. There is so much power in pacing out your goals because having too much on your plate can overwhelm you yet having too little will keep you from growing. Consistency is key because you will lose motivation at times, but having consistency when your motivation is no longer present will breed results. I believe consistency is best friends with disciple. Together those two characteristic traits will eventually help you reach your goals.
Lastly, I am a huge believer that iron sharpens iron, meaning that to reach your goals you must have a good quality community that you can pour into and that pours into you in return. We as humans get further along with our goals when we have great quality partners (whether that is personal or professional). They help us enjoy the journey and not just focus on the destination. They call out our blind spots and speak life into us when we loose motivation. They open doors we didn’t know existed. In return we provide the same experience for them and it is through that positive energy exchange of giving back and not just soley receiving that we experience happiness. Build community with like-minded people of all backgrounds and you will grow.
How would you describe your ideal client?
My ideal client is the person or the couple that is experiencing highs and lows in life, but lately they have been experiencing more lows.
Depression, anxiety, or life changes have caused a wedge between them and their peace. Activities that used to excite them no longer matter. They are just floating through life with no purpose or clarity; ultimately negatively affecting their self-esteem, confidence, boundaries, or ability to connect/grow with their significant other or family/friends.
Whenever they try to get on track and build the life they want, life in general or their inner thoughts seem to take them two steps backwards. They could give up but the fighter in them will not. They want to build on that determination but don’t know where to start? They know something has to change.
I work with people like them- determined, stressed, resilient and in need of a safe space to do their inner work. Their goal is to break old patterns, get out of survival mode, and live again!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.thecorecounselling.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thecorecounselingservices
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thecorecounselingservices/
Image Credits
DZN Creatives- the company that created my logo
