Opinion: Hairstylists Need Therapy Too (4 mins)
Hey my beauties! Therapy is a topic that I believe society has become more open to dicussing. In my opinion, occupations that have direct contact, in the form of physical touch, with customers/clients/patients are in more need of therapy than the average person. Again, this is strictly my opinion, but careers such as doctors, massage therapists, hairstylist, makeup artist, emergency response providers etc have the ability to enter personal space/boundaries more frequently than the average person. As a result, not only are you listening, helping, and soothing your clients you are also taking on their energy. Some may not believe in taking on others energy, however, it is my experience that this is most certainly possible.
Lets take it back for a minute. Growing up in a Jamaican household, I was taught that therapy is for “crazy people”. This remained my view on therapy until 2006/07. I promise this circles back to being a great hairstylist but go down this rabbit hole with me for a sec. In 2006 I was dating a guy and it was a long distance relationship. As we progressed in our relationship, my feelings were…let’s just say I was attached. After one of his rare visits to the states (yup you read that correctly, he worked in Afghanistan, another story for another time), I knew his flight itinerary and he had a long layover in D.C. before his long track back to Afghanistan. During said layover I felt he took to long to contact me. In my mind, he met someone else and took them on a date in the airport and was cheating on me. When he finally called I went from “normal” to a Jerry Springer guest in point five seconds. I saw red and used every colorful four letter word I could think of to express my thoughts on him cheating on me…in my head…that he knew nothing about…or had actual proof. He calmly replyed that he had a long flight ahead of him and didn’t want to focus on anything negative and hung up. ***clutch my pearls*** THE TEMERITY!!!!! As soon as that happend I was shaken by my response I never saw myself as someone with so much anger. I immediately started to ask myself questions: why did I respond like that? Why did I attract someone that thought playing games was ok? If he was completely innocent then why am I putting a label on him that he didn’t deserve? No matter what this had nothing to do with him and this was a Rachel problem to fix.
Remember, this was during the early 2000’s so mental health and therapy wasn’t a popular topic, so while this was the bravest and best move to make, I had that thought in the back of my mind that I might be losing it…just a pinch. Once I finally made it to therapy I QUICKLY realized there were layers of past issues that were never processed. As I began to work through these issues, I observed that interacting with clients everyday felt lighter, it felt less heavy at the end of each day. I felt like it made me a more supportive stylist. I was able to focus and listen to the client in my chair and not mentally drift off into some distant world and completely miss out on chuncks of important information. I felt like I was more equipped to handle harder times with my clients. I felt more present and it made me a better lisener. So what does this mean from the client’s perspective? My clients felt like I was different in a great way. Some made the comment that they couldn’t put their finger on it but there was a different glow in me. I contunued therapy every two weeks for eight months and would just follow up here and there for a mental “tune up”.
Currently, I’m doing a different form of therapy called EMDR (Eye movement desenitization and reprocessing). According to Beyoncé’s internet, EMDR involves moving your eyes a specific way while you process traumatic memories. EMDR’s goal is to help you heal from trauma or other distressing life experiences. This part of my journey has been interesting because I’m processing memories that I have long forgotten about. This is helping me to see a clear path not only in my personal life but also in business. I’m making decisions from a better perspective with less distraction and mental clutter. If you have suffered frim trauma or other mental health complications please reach out to mental health professional, it has certainly made a big difference on me and by extension my business. Don’t forget to comment, share and subscribe. Until next time…SMOOCHES!!!!