Meet Stephanie Bloodworth

We were lucky to catch up with Stephanie Bloodworth recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Stephanie, really happy you were able to join us today and we’re looking forward to sharing your story and insights with our readers. Let’s start with the heart of it all – purpose. How did you find your purpose?
This is such a wonderful and complex question. I feel like my work is a calling and find deep joy and achievement in knowing I am supporting others in healing, growth, and happiness. Sitting with someone through some of their hardest moments and providing a space they can unload in is something I realized I could do in my teens. I’ve pursued the education and credentials to support those skills to get to where I am. Even though I felt like I fit the role naturally, it’s still only a “purpose” because I chose to focus on it. I deliberately invested time, work, and attention in this role. I think a lot of purpose is about what we chose.

That said, I’ve also started considering what “purpose” means outside of occupation. I am 100% therapist in my sessions with clients, albeit in my own style and flavor. But I cannot be 100% therapist as a person. It’s too easy to just take the satisfaction from a job well done and coast. It’s also too volatile, because it means I’m personalizing how other people are feeling and that’s really not about me. If someone is having a hard time and all I can do is sit with them in that, it’s not good emotional boundaries for me to then feel negatively afterward. That doesn’t help anyone. I can support people in their joys and hardships but their lives still belong to them. Mine should belong to me. So, over the past few years, I’ve also been looking into what else my “purpose” looks like. Sometimes that looks like contributing to society in other ways. Sometimes it looks like connecting with people important to me. Sometimes it’s the everyday mundane and routines of life. And sometimes it just looks like hanging out with myself and not doing anything “productive.” Life isn’t just the work and the moments where we think we’re moving forward. Life is right now, and sometimes life is doodling for fun or enjoying some quiet.

Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?
I am a Doctor of Clinical Psychology and a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist in Texas. I love working with people who have been through a lifetime of difficulty and challenge, who often unsupported, and who want to feel more free to decide what their lives look like for themselves. I love helping people feel understood and like they have the freedom and ability to be themselves! Along the way, I’ve been a speaker for topics including trauma, supporting teenagers, the concept of strength for men and women, and the experience of AAPI professionals. I’ve also written a workbook for teenagers about PTSD, but I think it’s a fantastic resource for anyone who likes a clear and sensible explanation for things.

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?
Being resourceful, adaptable, and dedicated have helped me build to my journey. Resourcefulness requires curiosity: instead of focusing too much on what I already know, I am very aware and open to the fact that there is so much more that I don’t. Being willing to learn and consider a variety of perspectives has helped my own mind grow and develop, and it’s also helped me figure out ways around obstacles. Plans and goals are great starting ideas, but if they always panned out exactly like I’d expected, I would be in the field of future-telling instead. Being able to adjust, pivot, and explore different possibilities has kept the core and true meaning of my goals alive.

Adaptability is important for about the same reason. There are always unexpected details, no matter how hard you plan and guess and imagine for. What’s more important is trusting yourself to handle things when they happen and learning to say “yes, and.” While that’s a phrase that comes from improvisational comedy, it’s true in the rest of life too. We might not like something, but if we accept that speedbumps are inevitable, we can better figure out how to adjust for them.

Being dedicated has also been a big deal for me. I did a lot of schooling and worked a lot of jobs in and out of my field and had to find the motivation to push through a lot of difficulty. Even with the challenges of ADHD, anxiety, and depression over the years, I had to find ways to keep moving because I wanted what I wanted so much. Maybe a better word is “stubborn.” There have also been times when my driving force has been spite. That’s not a healthy way to live, and I now experience motivation from positive support and sources. But I would be lying if I didn’t say throwing my main focus into my education, with the goals of attaining my career, wasn’t instrumental. My recommendation, though, is to find and connect to healthy supports that help you care about yourself, your needs, and your dreams. That’s a lot more sustainable and will take you far.

We’ve all got limited resources, time, energy, focus etc – so if you had to choose between going all in on your strengths or working on areas where you aren’t as strong, what would you choose?
I’m going to say here what I say to a lot of my clients: what works for you?

At the time of me answering this question, there are 8.1 billion people on this planet. That makes at least 8.1 billion “answers” to this question, and I say “at least” because I don’t think your life has a set list of either or, right and wrong choices. There are these terms, in the field of psychology, of “equipotentiality” and “equifinality.” The first one means: from any one point of activation and, for the sake of this conversation, any one point in life, there is possibility for many different outcomes, choices, and options. The second one, equifinality, is the idea that many different routes and choices can bring you to the same concluding place.

I believe in these concepts. From this place in anyone’s life, there are endless possibilities of what life can look like. And, if the concluding place is a life you enjoy, there are many ways to reach that. There is no one “right answer” of, say, which skill trees in real life you should max out and which ones to ignore. To me, the question is: what do you want to do? What do you want your life to look like? Are you content with your strengths and weaknesses? Great! Would you prefer to build into some weaker skills instead or invest in your current strengths? Great!

The concept of being “well rounded” is a subjective opinion. Well rounded according to whom? By what margin? In what areas? What’s the prize? Does someone clap for that? There isn’t some video game metric that shows when you’ve reached maximum skills because the concept of a maximum is inorganic and made up. What matters, when it comes to your own life, is your own opinion. Set goals that you value, and also appreciate ways you have always been enough.

Contact Info:

Suggest a Story: BoldJourney is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.
Beating Burnout

Often the key to having massive impact is the ability to keep going when others

Where does your generosity come from?

Over the years, we have consistently been blown away by the examples of generosity we’ve

From Burnout to Balance: The Role of Self-Care

Burning out is one of the primary risks you face as you work towards your