Life and Work with Kim Page

Today we’d like to introduce you to Kim Page.

Kim, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
Living Vine Counseling was birthed after my husband and I quit our jobs and moved back to the state we loved- Colorado. We were burnt out and looking to rekindle the passion we had for helping others as well as- of course, support ourselves financially. We had moved in with family and loved the idea of a flexible schedule, being our own bosses, and being selective in our clientele. Thus, Living Vine Counseling was birthed. Our first attempt at renting office space was a leap of faith! We rented with no clients scheduled (except for two virtual clients) and one month later, our space was filled with water when Boulder experienced its big flood in 2013. In addition, I got pregnant three months later and we decided to forgo this opportunity in lieu of a more pragmatic money-making option. Living Vine was put on pause.

Fast forward 1 1/2 years and I found myself again burnt out from motherhood and lost because I still wasn’t following my drive to counsel others. Counseling is a calling and a passion of mine, and I had no idea that when I started this business what a life-line it would be for me! Coming alongside others in their stories and helping them manifest their greatest purpose was my calling and passion. I had two expressions of my identity. Motherhood had become my life- but what I was discovering in the midst of this was that another part of heart was laying dormant. I didn’t exchange counseling for motherhood- I had two purposes! My wise husband saw my post-partum depression and anxiety and said to me one day, “You need to start practicing again.”

It was like someone had given me permission again to be fully me. How was I going to be a mom and a counselor? I didn’t know, but I knew God would show me.

I started networking and, through that, found a small group practice where I could rent space. I quickly launched a profile on an online therapy referral website and began looking for opportunities to plug back into the counseling world.

Soon, the clients began trickling in and thus began the work-life balance. I found myself truly alive again. Tired, yes- but truly alive.

It wasn’t soon after my daughter was born that my husband and I decided to adopt internationally. We began the long and arduous process of paperwork, waiting, fundraising, more paperwork, and more waiting. All along, I continued to work and try to meet the needs of my family and my clients. Hiring babysitters and trying to escape for work at nap times or in the evenings when my husband could be with my daughter.

Life was fulfilling and hard. But I liked hard. I liked being challenged.

When we brought our son home from China, life seemed to stop and the universe told me to take a step back from counseling. My focus was to be on my son and the major transition we found ourselves in.

Living Vine Counseling got started because of the dream in my heart to help as many people as possible know their truest identity and live free from unwanted behaviors that keep them from living with joy and peace. Love was my motivation. My own story of battling an eating disorder, anxiety, and depression fueled the fire in my belly to sit with people in their hard things and tolerate the distress of trauma, hard stories, and unfair circumstances. My empathy had grown and was growing and I knew if I didn’t continue to practice, something in me wouldn’t be complete. I also knew I wanted to model for my children what it looked like to follow your promptings and not bury your talents. I was a vessel and I needed to keep flowing so unconditional love and acceptance could touch as many people as possible. It was exciting because that love was touching me too. My client’s stories were touching me and I was finding that we all are truly connected.

Two months after my son was home, I started practicing again. Instead of renting a space, my husband and I decided to use an extra bedroom in our home as office space. I was so nervous about this and wondered if this gut decision would actually bring in clients. However, my doubts dissipated as I got call after call and started to have to turn clients away! God was truly honoring my mission to be personal in my approach but also faithful in not burying my gifts and talents. I was following my gut and it felt great!

Since then, we’ve moved homes and my practice has moved with me. I’ve learned to juggle working around my husbands work schedule- working evenings and weekends so I can also be with my kids who are not yet in full-time school.

I’m currently loving my position as a business owner and a full-time mom of now three! I’ve had to embrace the shifts and the changes and I couldn’t be happier!

We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc. – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
No way! After bringing our son home from China I not only now had an adopted son, but I had two kids nine months apart and my other calling was to be the best mom that I could be! My heart battled these two passions and I wondered if I was doing “enough” in these two areas.

I started developing an unhealthy relationship with alcohol to cope with the stress of managing a home, postpartum symptoms and trying to keep my business afloat. My physical, emotional, and spiritual health suffered. Thankfully, I had many trusted friends come to my aid in this season of drought and pain, who helped walk me through to the other side. I didn’t know that even then, God was still using me and refining me so I could have a greater impact in both areas of my calling.

I was being transformed. Changed. Refined. I can’t fully describe the pain experienced, but I can tell you that without it I wouldn’t be the therapist that I am today.

The advice I have for other women who are just starting out is to never give up. Never give up when it gets hard. Especially never give up when you struggle with shame or feelings of incompetence. Never give up when you fail or feel like a fake or feel like your world is falling apart. Love still wants to use you. Right there in the middle of your mess- love shows up through you and speaks a powerful word to another hurting person or sets a person free from addiction or pain, while you are in the middle of yours and you realize- “Wow, just wow, God is big and His love is so huge and His grace is so far-reaching!” You realize this and then slowly you begin to change, and you watch that unconditional acceptance that you’ve preached to others start to transform you. Then, even another layer of healing happens to you, and you step back and see the big picture: Love is refining you so you can see even more clearly how to join with love to refine others.

If you’re just starting, just keep going. Follow your intuition and really notice if fear is playing a part in you taking that leap. Fear of what others may think, fear of failing, fear of financial hardship or ruin. I truly believe we were meant to embody our passion and not just do a 9-5 job we dislike. Find your identity, and be who you are made to be, and what brings you joy. Fight upstream to do what you think you should do or not what others have told you to be and seek to be you. I believe the Universe will have your back and you will be successful if you show up on the planet exactly the way you were made.

Lastly, make sure you implement boundaries in your life. I’ve had to learn, and am still practicing, how to say “No” and when to say “Yes” so that it is aligned with both of my purposes- family and others. It’s not been easy to hold two different passions- sometimes I feel stretched like there is not enough of me to go around. This is when it’s important to step back and re-evaluate your boundaries so you don’t reach burnout. It’s been critical that I become structured with my time so I know when to work and when to rest and play.

So, as you know, we’re impressed with Living Vine Counseling – tell our readers more, for example, what you’re most proud of as a company and what sets you apart from others.
My work as a counselor is very personal. As I’ve shared before I believe my personal inner work has shaped the counselor that I am today. My earliest training was in the attachment. Thus, my lens is very relational. I believe sitting and attuning (the ability to pick up on the nuances of someone’s responses and to respond in a way that accurately captures the sense of how you were feeling in that moment) and providing empathy and validation is the foundation to trust and the building blocks to actual change. Without these ingredients, people don’t feel safe or seen.

I believe in empowering the individual or family unit. Client’s are seeking me out because they are unhappy with their current situation or inner world. Creating a safe space to begin to identify thoughts, feelings, and behaviors that don’t align with their best self and core calling is central to what I do.

I believe behavior is a symptom of a person’s motive and needs. Through using various tools and techniques to get to the root of these motives and needs, the client is then free to implement healthy coping skills for distress and increase the capacity to be with difficult emotions. Resilience is then developed and begins to increase. The individual is then able to reduce the need for unhealthy coping skills and live more aligned with their actual identity.

I specialize in treating girls and women age 12 and up who are struggling with anxiety, depression, eating disorders, addiction, or relational discord.

I’m proud of my personalized and holistic approach. I have a mind, body, soul, spirit approach and seek to discern how to address each area of the person.

There’s a wealth of academic research that suggests that a lack of mentors and networking opportunities for women has materially affected the number of women in leadership roles. Smart organizations and industry leaders are working to change this, but in the meantime, do you have any advice for finding a mentor and building a network?
I spent a good number of years in my teens and ’20s being mentored for personal growth and I recently hired another business coach/mentor, for this current season. This decision was based on my past experiences of always experiencing breakthrough and exponential growth of coming into a greater awareness of my thoughts, feelings, and actions and how that was interfering with my deep desire to change somehow. Relationship is important to me and I truly believe that we can’t grow all on our own. We need others. As Brene Brown so aptly states, “Courage starts with showing up and letting ourselves be seen.”

In the past, I have found my mentors through people who knew me well. The people in your inner circle know you best and I have found those connections to be extremely accurate when helping people get paired with someone who can launch their growth. I’ve also trusted my intuition in selecting a mentor. Examining their experience and skills is important, but I believe chemistry to be equally, if not more vital. You have to be able to develop trust and be vulnerable with your mentor. I choose my current mentor because I knew her as a friend, and also because I knew she would challenge me with empathy and love and speak in a way I could hear. Her personality and temperament was a good fit for me. She has overcome in areas of her life that I relate to and haven’t yet conquered personally. She could take me places I hadn’t been.

Because I’m in private practice and work from my home, networking has been a challenge for me. I live my calling and passion outside the four walls of my office and I often find myself in conversations with others, maybe a mom at a park, or my massage therapist- wherever I have the opportunity to share what I do. My advice to anyone trying to network is to live your calling. Embody what it is you do and the opportunities and the connections will come to you. I don’t even have a website and I have not failed to have clients come to me! The biggest referral source is other clients- it snowballs when people have a good experience with you. Finding that special business that is honest, fair, and great at what they do, naturally makes people want to share about it with their friends.

Pricing:

• I provide individual and family therapy for $110 an hour.

Contact Info:

• Phone: 303-968-4023
• Email: livingvinecounseling@gmail.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/LivingVineCounseling/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LivingVineCounselingLLC/

Image Credit:
Scheer Photography

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