Today we’d like to introduce you to Liz Gilbert.
Hi Liz, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today.
It’s been a long and windy road to arrive where I am today – I am grateful to say I am fulfilled in my work as a psychotherapist in private practice and am enlivened in my personal life with a connective community and creative projects. 13 years ago, I was a recent college graduate living in the San Francisco bay area. I didn’t know myself well or what I wanted to do with my life and felt quite lost. Without much consideration, I applied to law school- many of the adults in my life were doctors and lawyers, and I felt I was supposed to follow one of these two paths.
It soon became apparent that law school was wrong for me. I dreaded class each day and counted the minutes until it was over. My body broke out in hives from the stress. I hated the majority of the hours in the week that entire year. At the end of my first year, I knew I needed help. I began seeing a therapist for the first time in my life, and I began to listen to the internal voices and pressures that had been ruling me. I noticed that I felt envious when I left my therapist’s office each week – it seemed so wonderful that she got to listen to people’s stories and support them in discovering what was the truest for them in their lives.
After my first year in law school, I decided to take a leave of absence to work in community mental health in San Francisco. I sensed there was a more aligned path for me working in the counseling realm. It was a terrifying move at the time, leaving a clearly defined path that looked good to everyone on the outside. But inside, I had to leave and knew I couldn’t stay. It was the first move I ever made in my life where I listened to myself and my body. I’ve dedicated my life and path to this same listening ever since- and now, years later, as a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist in private practice, I support my clients in listening to themselves and their bodies to determine what is right for them in their lives.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Hopping off the path that was wrong for me and onto this path instead has led me to some challenging, uncomfortable, gut-wrenching, joyful, and amazing places. Big lows and big highs. I often say to folks “I’ve been on a ride,” and that feels like the best way to describe it. After shifting my professional path in 2010, I recognized that it was time to invest in my inner work- if law school was so wrong for me, then what is it that is right for me?
I’ve been answering this question ever since. It began with developing a yoga practice as a way to connect with my body and access spirituality for the first time. I attended weekly therapy, workshops, retreats, and joined a women’s group. After some years of intrigue, I attended Burning Man for the first time in 2013 and was deeply inspired by the art and creativity there-I have attended most years since.
I began a personal health journey of healing my relationship with food and with my body. I’ve connected with dance and other forms of movement that spark joy for me. It hasn’t been a solo journey- I’ve been inspired and guided by friends, family, and mentors and I am so grateful for all of the support I’ve had along the way. My life has been an evolving process ever since, and while it hasn’t all been pretty or looked good, it’s all been right. At times my life has been a mess, but every part of this path has been crucially important for my growth. I know I will continue this inner listening for the rest of my life.
Professionally, after leaving law school, I worked for 3 years in community mental health and education in San Francisco before determining it was time to go back and get my master’s degree in counseling psychology to become a therapist. In graduate school, I studied Mindfulness, Gestalt Therapy, and Somatic Therapy. The uphill climb of a 3-year master’s program and then 3000 supervised hours before licensure in California nearly broke me at times. But at the top of that climb in 2019, I passed the licensing exam for Marriage and Family therapy and began my private practice.
People had told me how difficult it was to become licensed as a therapist and to build a successful private practice, but I couldn’t have understood this fully until going through it. It often felt as if I was climbing a massive mountain, and then the mountain just kept getting taller with no end in sight. Starting a business from scratch came with many growing pains too, and I struggled for years before all the pieces came together.
But now, as I stand here today with a life that I love on most days and a private practice that fills me up, it all feels worth it. I am licensed as a Marriage and Family Therapist in California and Colorado and see clients virtually who are residents of either state. I see individuals, couples, adult families, and teens. I specialize in working with anxiety, panic attacks, and relationships and family dynamics. In my practice, my mission is to support clients in bringing their lives into more alignment. I love working with clients on softening the inner critic that rules so many of us. Also in learning how to communicate wants and needs and to set healthy boundaries in relationships.
Additionally, I support clients in learning how to listen to the signals in their bodies to access a greater understanding of their emotional world. I see the lives of my clients shift when they commit to their inner work, and I believe in this work in my bones because my inner work has allowed me to know myself and has led me to where I am today.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I’ll now speak to a creative endeavor that’s separate from my professional life but has held equal importance and value in my life. As mentioned above, I went to Burning Man with close friends in 2013 for the first time. We’ve since been involved with a few camps and projects, including creating a small camp called Lamp Camp at Bequinox, Los Angeles’ annual regional Burning Man.
Lamp Camp began in 2014 when my friend Yaz had the silly idea for us to bring 9 varied thrift store lamps and plug them directly into the dirt. Tagline: “No Lights, Just Lamps.” Each lamp has a name and elaborate backstory and we give tours of the lamps. On Saturday at sunset, we raffle off the finest lamp of the collection. It began as a joke- just the two of us with an underwhelming set-up and no camp-mates, taking our lamps very seriously and creating hype, interactivity, and laughs with any adult or child who was willing to stop by and play with us.
But in our 5 years at the festival it has grown- our friends have joined and have added their creativity and flair. It’s ridiculous to say but we’ve gained a cult-like following at this small festival. This project, and the burning man community in general, has given me access to play, connection, silliness, and depth. These are things I didn’t know how to come in touch with until my adult life, but they now are guiding principles for me in everything that I do.
This past year, for our 5th anniversary at Lamp Camp, we decided we needed to light the lamps for the first time. Anyone who has followed Lamp Camp over the years knows what a big deal this is. We planned an anniversary party- gave speeches, and held a ceremony to light the lamps- initiating a new tagline “Let Your Light Shine.” What we realized was that this was what Lamp Camp had been about over the years: in the silliness of connecting over light-less lamps, we had created a container for improv, laughter, joy, creativity, and shining a light on ourselves, each other, and anyone who was up for joining in.
At the ceremony, many folks in the audience were in tears. It was quite a moment. I met a new friend there who was inspired by our camp and our speeches. He flew me out to Austin Texas that next month for an event to lead a Lamp Camp experience. We began by breaking out in small groups to do a “Show and Tell” team-building exercise with lamps that were gifted for the event, and then we processioned with the lamps to light them in a ceremony, creating an art installation for the night.
It was incredible to see that the magic from Bequinox could translate in a very different container with new people. A number of attendees came up to me after and expressed how meaningful and memorable the experience was for them, noting that it allowed them to access child-like creativity and play, while grounding in the greater meaning of the project through sacred ceremony.
The crisis has affected us all in different ways. How has it affected you and are any important lessons or epiphanies you can share with us?
The Covid-19 crisis taught me that nothing is predictable and we can’t take anything for granted. Life will continue to shift, and we must roll with the punches. Like so many, I was terrified and sidelined by the pandemic at the start. In December 2019, I had just become licensed as a psychotherapist and got my own office in San Francisco- something I had worked towards for many years. I pictured myself in that office for 30 years.
But everything changed- my work was no longer able to be done in person. I held onto that office for months, imagining we’d go back, but as the pandemic rolled along, I began to see that we were not going to be meeting in person for quite some time. I grieved the loss- and especially grieved the change in not seeing my San Francisco clients in person with regularity. But I took it as I sign that it was time to execute a vision in the back of my mind to move to Denver, Colorado.
At that point, I had never left California for longer than short stints of travel, and I was ready for a big adventure and to step into the unknown. In many ways, it felt like an insane move- I was leaving friends, family, and clients in the Bay Area who I love so much, but something inside told me that I had to make this move. I was drawn in by a few close friends in Denver, as well as the access to outdoor adventures and my sense of a more easeful life and pace. I took that leap of faith- and it has been so fulfilling and rewarding.
In Colorado I love to hike, camp, backpack, ski, snowboard, see friends, go to shows, and go on adventures with my puppy Oreo. The freedom I’ve gained in showing myself that I could make a massive move not knowing what was on the other side, and land in a beautiful life has given me confidence in what lies ahead. I don’t know where it may lead me, but I know it is going to be a wild adventure, and I’m excited to see how it unfolds.
Contact Info:
- Email: [email protected]
- Website: www.lizgilberttherapy.com
- Instagram: @lamp_camp
Image Credits
Erin Shine (www.erinshinesphotography.com) and Mark Okoh
