Today we’d like to introduce you to Erin Franklin.
Hi Erin, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
Therapy is the deep and meaningful work I am called to do. It is the highest honor to help individuals and couples experience more fulfillment, fun, purpose, and connection in their relationships with themselves and each other. For much of my adult life, I dreamed of becoming a therapist. I imagined myself sitting across from clients, asking them curious questions and helping them to heal, grow, and connect with the people in their lives as their most authentic, true selves. I owned an award-winning boutique talent agency and guided individuals along their creative paths for nearly two decades. But I often longed to help people in a deeper, more profound way and to experience more meaning in my work. My dad, a larger-than-life figure who gave the best bear hugs, used to ask me, “Erin, when are you going to follow your passion?” He was a successful entrepreneur who loved his work, and he envisioned the same for me. “Someday, dad. Someday,” I would say. I had pondered returning to school to get my master’s degree in counseling, but it never felt like the “right” time. When my dad died unexpectedly of brain cancer in 2016, it was the catalyst for me to follow my passion and make my dream come true. And so I did.
Can you talk to us about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
The six-year journey to becoming a therapist has been anything but smooth! It involved three years of graduate school, countless papers, final exams, burnout, textbooks, developing new brain cells, and a practicum. Pre-graduate internship, a grueling licensing exam, a post-graduate internship that began during a global pandemic, slogging along, weekly logging of hours, regular supervision, and stretching myself then snapping back, heartbreak and breaking open, helping other people find their voice, not to mention finding mine, frustration, friction, and tears. The long wait for board approval, learning how to set boundaries, feeling confident when setting boundaries, wrestling with disappointment, a thickening of the skin, a great deal of imposter syndrome, more imposter syndrome, and then figuring out how to open a private practice as a newly licensed professional. Phew! While each of these challenges felt somewhat insurmountable and overwhelming at times, they ultimately represent the culmination of a real dream come true – and the one accomplishment in my life that I am most proud of.
Thanks for sharing that. So, you could tell us a bit more about your business.
As a therapist, healthy, caring, safe relationships are the containers in which we can change, heal, and transform. That is how my brand – Relationships Heal – was born. Because I believe in the healing power of relationships, I show up in each therapy session as a real person available for genuine connection. One thing that sets me apart from my peers is that I identify as a human first and a therapist second.
I know firsthand that it is tough to find the right therapist. That is why I strive to be the kind of therapist I would want in my corner. I work hard to “get” my clients. I am endlessly curious; I am fully present. I pay attention to them rather than the clock. I take responsibility and repair if I get something wrong. While it is a professional, therapeutic relationship, the therapist/client relationship is still a real relationship where deep attachments and mutual care and concern occur. I acknowledge and cherish the powerful bonds that develop between my clients and me. It is a sacred, one-of-a-kind connection.
In the community, I am most known for my work with couples. Unfortunately, most of us were never shown how to connect with others in a healthy, rewarding, or meaningful way. So, we often feel confused, frustrated, mad, distant, insecure, stuck, or just getting by in our romantic relationships. In my own couples therapy, I discovered that a secure base is a foundation upon which partners can build trust, communicate better, repair conflict, deepen connection, increase intimacy, and ultimately heal. I found that by working together as a couple, you improve your relationship with your partner and the one you have with yourself. This felt like a revelation.
Couples therapy sparked my desire to help others have relationships that heal instead of hurt; to work with couples, specialized training is crucial. I have studied with Dr. Stan Tatkin, a renowned relationship clinician and creator of PACT, a psychobiological approach to couples therapy. I also have extensive training with Terry Real, an internationally recognized family therapist, speaker, author, and founder of Relational Life Therapy. I utilize the latest therapy models informed by attachment and developmental neuroscience research, which can help many couples achieve faster and longer-lasting results than more traditional “talk therapy” techniques.
Have you learned any interesting or important lessons due to the Covid-19 Crisis?
The pandemic reinforced the necessity of human connection. Humans are born with a social brain that is hardwired for connection throughout their lifespan. Our safety and survival depend upon other people’s support, help, and proximity. Research shows many people endured the harmful emotional and physical effects of prolonged lockdowns and social isolation during the pandemic. We are not openly talking more about these very real societal impacts. Many of my clients are rightfully feeling immense pandemic grief. Unfortunately, they often feel alone and confused by their emotional experience due to a lack of public discourse. I believe that acknowledgment, accountability, and repair on a global scale are needed to help heal the human population from the effects of this worldwide collective trauma.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.RelationshipsHeal.com
- Instagram: relationships_heal
