Today we’d like to introduce you to Colleen Froehlich.
Hi Colleen, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today.
My story is marked by both intentional evolution and unexpected change. I learned about art therapy while I was in high school and, fueled by determination, I spent seven years getting an education and moving across the country to be able to enter the field as a counselor and art therapist in 2017. My breakout into the field proved to be a time of struggle for me. I was working in a stressful mental health crisis environment when what I really wanted was to be in the private practice setting. What I didn’t expect was to meet a few kind people who hired me into a group private practice and told me about a modality I had never heard of before that would change my career trajectory in a major way.
When I first heard about Internal Family Systems (IFS) from a few colleagues, I wrote it off.
Eventually, I came to learn about this theory which changed the way my entire worldview and my beliefs about healing. These two modalities of IFS and art therapy, time, and experience all slowly grew confidence inside of me which eventually led me to open my own practice in February of 2022. Looking back, it’s a beautiful blend of planned and unplanned experiences that got me where I wanted to be.
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?
While my career journey has been extremely rewarding, it hasn’t always been smooth. The most difficult time for me was the transition out of school into the field and getting my feet under me as a new therapist. My first job was in a psychiatric hospital where I was humbled by working with people in extreme mental health crises. I saw some difficult things in that setting and I found the treatment approaches to be pretty harsh.
I felt really vulnerable when I first broke into the private practice world, and I dealt with anxiety stemming from intense imposter syndrome, aka that nagging voice that tells you you don’t really belong and you’re going to be found out. It’s a tough one to drown out and can be quite debilitating when the nature of your job is to be in the present moment with people! One thing I wish I had known then is how relatable those feelings of anxiety actually were.
Now that I’m more established in my field, I’ve come to realize that therapists tend to be incredibly hard on themselves because they care— a lot— and new therapists often struggle to give themselves permission to be imperfect and in the process with their craft.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I am most proud of and passionate about my expertise in Internal Family Systems (IFS). To give a little background, IFS is not necessarily geared towards families but is an evidence-based therapy that asserts we are all made up of parts. Frequently, we are taught to identify with certain parts of ourselves and hide or ignore others, keeping us stuck in fracture. The parts we are conditioned to hide are often parts of us that most need to be felt, witnessed, and honored. These hidden or shameful parts of ourselves often mark places in our lives where we’ve made sacrifices and hard choices to protect ourselves when there were no better options.
It is key to integrate these parts if we want to live in wholeness. I hear a lot of messages out there about “loving yourself,” which is great, but I think people often wonder how to actually do that. I would offer that the most powerful way to love yourself is to get to know the parts of you that you are most afraid of, ashamed of, or perhaps even unaware of. This compassionate approach gives people a way to change unwanted patterns without using shame or judgment as strategies. What I love most about IFS is the way it welcomes you, perhaps truly for the first time, to be all of who you are.
Can you talk to us a bit about the role of luck?
This is an interesting question! I don’t resonate much with the idea of luck, since I associate luck with coincidence and I tend to believe there is an order and design to the way things happen. I’ve heard many people scoff at the phrase, “Everything happens for a reason,” and I will admit that there are limits to what we can understand about life and I’ve found that mystery needs to be embraced, too. At the same time, I gravitate toward the idea that our lives have meaning behind them. Meaning is what builds a story, and the story has been a major determiner of my life direction.
For example, there have been times I’ve lived inside painful stories about how I’m not worthy, or I don’t belong, or I shouldn’t take a risk. I’ve been able to shift those stories over time by getting curious with questions like what parts of me are holding that story? What might those parts of me need in order to believe something different? Shifting my story has helped me navigate big decisions, including whether to stay at a job I felt unsettled in or build up the courage to go after a dream that stirred up hope and excitement in me.
Even some of the breaks I got in my career that were beyond my control felt like they were part of a bigger plan, rather than luck or coincidence. I’ve always been hopeful that there is something good at work in all of our lives continually inviting us to be whole and be loved.
Contact Info:
- Website: Www.abidetherapies.com
- Other: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/therapists/colleen-froehlich-colorado-springs-co/936220
Image Credits
Parker Seibold
