What if the version of you who feels the most unprepared… is actually the one being shaped into something powerful?

In this episode, we sit down with EMDR consultant, therapist and owner of Growing Glimmers: Childhood Trauma Therapy, Wendy Llamas LCSW, who didn’t even want to be a therapist at first. From being thrown into high-intensity community mental health work that fried her nervous system, to stumbling into school-based therapy with zero clinical confidence, Wendy shares what it actually looks like to grow into this work over time.

This is a conversation about the messy middle: the space where you don’t know what you’re doing, your nervous system is activated, and every part of you wants to back out… but you lean in anyway.

We talk about:

• What it means to grow grit when you feel undertrained and overwhelmed
• The early clinician experience no one prepares you for (closets, chaos, and all)
• How leaning into the "not knowing" builds real clinical confidence
• The hidden emotional weight therapists carry (and how it shows up in your life)
• Moving from “I’m not enough” to “I can be seen”
• Building a private practice from the ground up as a first-gen Latina therapist
• Why representation, authenticity, and showing up as your full self matters in this field

Wendy’s story is a powerful reminder that grit isn’t about having it all together, it’s about expanding the space between activation and response, and choosing to stay in it.

If you’ve ever felt like you’re faking it, falling short, or questioning whether you belong in this field… this episode is for you.

Because the truth is—
you don’t grow by avoiding the mess.
You grow by stepping into it.

Come as you are, as Wendy would say, and stay gritty.

Connect with Wendy:
@growing.glimmers.therapy

✨ Connect with us! Check out our freebies and our NEW Grit School:

• Therapist AF: Grit School for the Real World, practical skills, nervous system grounding, and the reps grad school skipped
• The Gritty Therapist freebies, tools, and support: thegrittytherapist.com
• The Cord Where Science Meets Connection attachment/trauma-focused therapy.

Follow along on Instagram @grittytherapist and go get your gritty on.

Connect with us! Check out our freebies and our NEW Grit School:

• Therapist AF: Grit School for the Real World, practical skills, nervous system grounding, and the reps grad school skipped
• The Gritty Therapist freebies, tools, and support: thegrittytherapist.com
• The Cord Where Science Meets Connection attachment/trauma-focused therapy.

Follow along on Instagram @grittytherapist and go get your gritty on.