Mind, Body & Spirit: How Counseling Changes Lives – Lindsey

Lindsey is a career mom of three with a high stress job in pharmaceuticals. She was a single mom when she began counseling, before she met her husband, and needed help managing the stress of working full-time while raising her kids on her own.

Why did you begin counseling?

“When we talk about micromanaging my life, and having all the stress in the world, I’ve kind of been there, done that. I have always had the worst problems sleeping. And I think a lot of it goes hand in hand with stress and dealing with as much as I deal with on a daily basis. So, with the stress and lack of sleep and my brain just having to be constantly on with the job that I am in, and then having three kids on top of that, it got to the point where I was sleeping maybe 1-2 hours a night. And I was just like, “I cannot sustain this.” So I sought out medication, and my primary care forwarded me on to Danielle at Christiana Care at first and then she shifted over to JFS. And I just adore her. She’s just an amazing person to work with. She listens, she’s engaged. When you talk about trusting someone with your life story and why you’re feeling the way you’re feeling and needing the help that you need, she made me feel like I could trust her and tell her anything and wasn’t judging me; she was there to help me. So she was the reason why I shifted over to JFS because I just love her to death. Then it was just one of your policies that I had to start seeing a counselor when you’re on certain medications and undergoing medication management with JFS, so I started meeting with Jackie. And she too is also amazing. So I’ve had nothing but positive experiences with JFS.”

What improvements have you seen since starting counseling?

“Well, I’m sleeping better. But also, just knowing that I have somebody to talk to that is a non-biased person that is there to listen to me for me, that’s been the biggest change for me. It’s always just a very trusting and open conversation with my counselors. I’ve laughed with them, I’ve cried with them, I’ve never been angry with them, but I’ve been angry in my interactions with them, and they just listen and offer up excellent advice and opinions and thoughts, and it just makes you feel better when you have somebody you can talk to.”

Is it important to find the right therapist?  

“Yeah, I feel so strongly about that that I even sent my daughter to JFS. My oldest daughter sees Danielle, also. She has bi-polar disorder, depression, anxiety, and with all of that I felt so comfortable with Danielle that I thought my daughter would love to talk to her too.” 

Would you recommend therapy? 

“I always tell people, if you are feeling stressed or anxious or depressed, start therapy. I recommend therapy to all my friends and family. If you have the time and the desire to make yourself feel better and improve your mental health, go talk to somebody. Even if it’s a one-and-done, at least you experienced enough to know if it is or isn’t for you.”

Any final thoughts?

“It’s been a very positive experience. Even outside of Danielle and Jackie, the other staff at JFS have been fantastic too. They are very responsive to emails and phone calls. If I’m scheduling something and I need to make a change, everybody is super friendly, they’re on top of it, and I rarely have more than an hour or two between me engaging them and them getting back to me with whatever I need. You all have a super buttoned up facility and I really appreciate that, because not all places are like that.”

This interview was also published in the January 2024 issue of Jewish Living Delaware Magazine. Click here to read it.