Today we’d like to introduce you to Erin Pruett.
Hi Erin, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
There are so many aspects and parts to my story that led me to where I am today. Early on in my life I spent time abroad and was exposed to a lot of tragedy and hard things in the world. I also met helpers and those showing up in the most difficult of spaces. These early experiences shaped me and many years later I found myself seeking therapy to sort, understand, and integrate all the parts of my life. I began to recognize the ways that people could impact others in both hurtful and helpful ways and I knew I wanted to be a helper. As I was in process to become a licensed mental health counselor I felt drawn to working with those who had experienced complex trauma. This led me to working with survivors of sex trafficking, those incarcerated, those who were refugees, and those with complex trauma. Within that time period I was learning so much from my time sitting with individuals and groups and began to recognize the importance of quality trauma-informed comprehensive care. I realized that survivors of complex trauma were often receiving the lowest levels of care by those with the least amount of training so I began to pursue advanced training in crisis counseling, experiential modalities, somatic therapy, nature-based therapy, and EMDR. Today I incorporate experiential methods and spend a lot of my time facilitationg group therapy, providing intensives, leading retreats as well as providing supervision. I do also still provide individual therapy services. I believe in doing for one what I wish I could do for everyone and am grateful for where my journey has led me. While the role of therapist is an important role in my life it certainly is not the totality of who I am. I am also a mother, wife, aunt, daughter, sister, advocate, coffee lover, scuba-diver, adventurer, and so much more.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
The road to where I am has not been a smooth road but rather full of challenges and twists and turns. When I was 19 I faced enormous challenges while attending college and working multiple jobs. Not only was I facing financial difficulty but I was struggling to pass math and science and felt that it might be a barrier that I would not be able to overcome. After multiple failures with little support system in my life I finally made it through those difficulty classes and some difficult years. Another struggle was more generalized but it was in my own personal healing journey and going back to face some of the difficult memories I held within me. My nervous system needed time to heal and finding the ways to heal and access to resources was a tremendous challenge. As my career progressed I certainly hit other struggles along the way as well including a difficult working environment and the loss of a friend. With each challenge I learned a lot about myself and learned how to lean into internal and external resources to help me continue on the path.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
What I do in the day to day is provide individual therapy, individual intensives, group therapy, retreats, training, and supervision to individuals and groups. I specialize in working with those who have experienced trauma including grief and loss and am known for utilizing experiential modalities including psychodrama, nature-based therapy, and sandtray as well as somatic therapy and EMDR.
What sets me apart from others I believe is how I have specialized in group therapy and have provided as many group therapy sessions in my career as individual therapy sessions. I find that many therapists have less experience in group therapy and this is something that I believe sets me apart. Further I incorporate experiential methods and am trained in nature-based therapy and psychodrama which is something I find that fewer clinicians have training in.
I am most proud of the time I spent working abroad in a refugee camp.
Do you have recommendations for books, apps, blogs, etc?
I love the Calm app. In terms of podcasts I bounce around based on what I am interested in or learning but tend to listen to the Living Centered Podcast frequently.
The resource I utilize the most in my life is an ongoing supervision group and connection to my ongoing psychodrama training group. Being connected to a therapist community where I can show up fully as me has been a resource that has sustained me in this work.
Pricing:
- $200 an hour
- One day intensive-$1500
- Some sliding scale options.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.theubuntuprocess.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/reflectionsofatherapist/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/erin-pruett-80b86213/
