Keisha Saunders

Without getting emotional, it would be God first, always. My parents, who didn't let my different abilities define me - I'm a person with different abilities, and other articles talk about that, but they didn't let my different abilities define me. And so I didn't let them define me as well. And I would say my children - they're the ones that do life with me. I have to be a mom, and they too afford me the space sometimes to just say, hey, mom, we'll stay here and do our homework while you do your interview, and they're somewhere in the background, just kind of doing homework and listening and providing feedback. So I would say, you know, between God and my parents and my children, that is kind of what I could attribute my success to.

The best career advice that I've received so far would probably be to treat your career like a marathon and not a sprint. Every day is not going to be easy, but if you show up with the intention of making one change that is supportive to your growth, then that is a win. And the thing about the career, I think, and I truly believe, is who you were when you started is not who you are when you end, and you have to give yourself grace. The grace to know when you're changing and you're being flexible and adapting to your new values and your new window as a person. You have to be flexible in that change.

Take a deep breath. It is a journey, and enjoy the journey. There are going to be days in which you don't know if you chose the right path, but if you can go back to your why - why you said yes to this - then that will give you fuel to keep going. Understand that the circle in this industry is small, so the same people you see going up will be the same people you see going down, so don't burn bridges. Learn how to continue to build the bridge in every area. You don't have to be the loudest person in the room, just be the clearest.

Challenges that we face in our industry is that there is a shortage of counselors. I'm an adjunct professor at Northwestern University, and I've been doing that since 2020, and my hope is that we produce maybe a thousand counselors or more coming out of that program to support the shortage and the need. Another challenge I feel like we face in our career is there's still a stigma associated with mental health. We're getting better, but we still have a long way to go. When we talk about mental health and those initiatives or interventions associated, it still feels like it's taboo. I always struggle sometimes when celebrities talk about mental health, because of course it'll highlight it for that moment because their platform is so important, but what about the voices that you don't hear, that are not in the spotlight? This needs to be a universal conversation, not just one with the public eye, or we pick a month to recognize it. Mental health challenges are going on every day for somebody. And because of that, as long as it's not highlighted by those who deem important, then it doesn't naturally get highlighted enough that this is a daily struggle for somebody. But until it becomes your front row at the funeral, due to somebody's mental health challenges or concerns, the world seems to be grief-adjacent, not grief-stricken.

Self-preservation versus self-care is really important to me. When I think about self-care, it's a billion-dollar industry and a buzzword, but self-preservation is really about regrounding yourself and your nervous system. Self-care is like, oh, I went and bought a lot of things, or I went to the spa, but how are you restoring your nervous system? So a value would be self-preservation. A value is family - cultivating that, not only in my work, making sure that the family, when I speak to couples with children, I'm not just doing this for you, I'm doing it for the little people that you're modeling the behavior for. And then I feel like a value is clear communication, because clear communication is kind communication, and when it's not clear, then you become unkind to somebody. So communication, I really value communication, family, and just self-preservation.