Her Story
About Ingrid
I've been passionate about mental health since I was a freshman in college, and I knew this was what I wanted to do with my life. I started in the behavioral health field back in 2003, and I've worked with all different populations under that behavioral health realm - from chronically mentally ill patients to people dealing with depression and anxiety, to those struggling with substances and alcohol from all walks of life. I've always felt like I could be a helping vessel to those folks who are struggling with any type of mental health disorder. As the Executive Clinical Director at Hanley Foundation in West Palm Beach, where I've been for about 7 years now, I have oversight of the entire clinical operation - all the therapists, the clinical directors, and the day-to-day behavioral health tasks and recovery advocates. What I love most about my work is being able to sit with someone in their darkest time and help them navigate their own mental health wellness. I serve as a sounding board for people who are so bogged down in their day-to-day stressors that it's difficult for them to sit down and ask themselves what's really going on. Whether someone is beating themselves up, questioning why they're not a good enough mom, or reaching for a bottle of wine whenever they get stressed, I help them work through their personal mental health process. The biggest accomplishment for me is really just the ability to help people - to sit with someone in their darkest time and say, 'It's okay, I'm going to help you through it, we're going to figure all this out.' When someone comes back and tells me they remember our conversation and how I helped them see things from a different perspective or find healthy ways to cope, and now they're living a better life and making better choices, that's what makes it all worth it. I don't just help - I help people find their own strengths and use them.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Ingrid
01What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
I would say, honestly, learn as much as you can from as many people as you can. Being open to new perspectives and new experiences is good - it will help shape you as you go on in your career, and you will discover what you like, what you don't like, what your strengths are and your weaknesses are. So the more that you put yourself out there in those professional experiences and learning from as many people as possible, that's something that would definitely be beneficial. I also want to say that as women, and not just in this field but in any field, you're going to have setbacks. There's going to be times where you have to start over - if you worked your way up an organization and all of a sudden there's a layoff or you get fired or whatever the reason may be, yes, there might be times where you will have to start over. And that's okay, because even that is an experience in itself, and you learn so much about yourself through those hardships and hard times and disappointments. But it's not the end. Because we feel so much, I think it sometimes becomes overwhelming, but keeping things in perspective is that you've been there before, you've done it, and you can do it again. Reminding yourself that even when things aren't going the best in your life or in your career at the moment, it's going to get better, and you've done it before, so you can do it again. You can reinvent yourself, and you can start from the ground up, and it's a challenge, but you can do it. It can be done.
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