What does it take to move through imposter syndrome, trust yourself as an EMDR therapist, and build a private practice that reflects your strengths?

In this episode, we sit down with Carly Costello, EMDR consultant, private practice owner, and the therapist behind EMDR with Carly. Carly shares how she went from using Instagram to attract local therapy clients to building an EMDR consultation business and receiving EMDRIA’s 2025 Social Media Influencer Award.

We have an honest conversation about taking risks, showing your face on social media, finding your clinical niche, and building confidence as a newer therapist. Carly also explains why many clinicians experience a difficult “hump” after EMDR basic training and how quality consultation and mentorship can help them move through self-doubt and begin trusting the EMDR process.

In this episode, we discuss:

• Overcoming imposter syndrome as a new therapist
• Building confidence after EMDR training
• Finding your niche as a mental health therapist
• Starting and growing a therapy private practice
• Using Instagram to connect with clients and consultees
• Becoming an EMDR-certified therapist and consultant
• Taking calculated risks in business
• Recognizing your strengths and outsourcing your weaknesses
• Managing big ideas, ADHD, and the less-exciting “micro tasks”
• Letting go of the belief that you must specialize in everything

If you’re a new therapist, EMDR clinician, consultant-in-training, or private practice owner who feels overwhelmed, behind, or unsure of your next step, this conversation will remind you that you don’t need to have everything figured out before you begin.

Sometimes building confidence looks like doing it scared, posting it, and moving forward anyway.

We created The Gritty Therapist to help other mental health therapists like us gain clinical confidence, crush imposter syndrome and connect within. If that's you, share the show, subscribe and give us a review!

Now go get your Gritty on!

Connect with us! Check out our freebies and our Gritty Academy for Provisional Therapists:

• Therapist AF: The Gritty Academy, practical skills, nervous system grounding, and the reps grad school skipped
• The Gritty Therapist Check out our EMDR Therapy for Children Certificate
• The Cord Where Science Meets Connection attachment/trauma-focused therapy.

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

When a child lies, it’s easy for parents and even therapists to focus entirely on stopping the behavior. But lying is rarely just about the lie.

In Part 2 of our Behavioral Math series, (Check out Part 1 HERE) we explore how child and family therapists can look beneath lying, dishonesty, and other challenging behaviors to understand the thoughts, feelings, body sensations, attachment needs, and relationship dynamics driving them.

We discuss why sticker charts, reward systems, and consequences may create short-term compliance without addressing the root of the behavior. We also share practical, attachment-based strategies for helping caregivers build trust, respond with greater regulation, and use less shame-based language with their children.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

• How to use “behavioral math” to uncover what’s underneath a child’s behavior
• Why children and teenagers lie from a developmental perspective
• How changing “lying” to “inaccuracy” can reduce shame and then reduce lying over time
• Why caregiver involvement is essential when addressing dishonesty
• How attachment disruptions and trauma effect a child’s ability to trust
• A real-life homework intervention that helped reduce conflict and increase responsibility
• How EMDR-informed and relationship-based approaches create deeper, lasting change

If you work with children, adolescents, parents, foster families, or adoptive families, this episode will help you move beyond managing the behavior of the week and begin addressing the relationship and the unmet need underneath it.

Because behavior isn’t just behavior. And building trust requires more than earning another sticker on a chart.

Stay Gritty!

Connect with us! Check out our freebies and our Gritty Academy for Provisional Therapists:

• Therapist AF: The Gritty Academy, practical skills, nervous system grounding, and the reps grad school skipped
• The Gritty Therapist Check out our EMDR Therapy for Children Certificate
• The Cord Where Science Meets Connection attachment/trauma-focused therapy.

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

In this episode of Gettin' Gritty for Mental Health Therapists Podcast, we sit down with therapist and entrepreneur Jen Zorb, founder of The Pearl Project, to explore grief support, meaningful human connection, therapist entrepreneurship, and the courage required to bring a deeply personal vision into the world.

After years of working as a mental health therapist in private practice and a hospital emergency room, Jen found herself wishing she could offer people something tangible to carry home during seasons of grief, loss, transition, and emotional upheaval. That desire became The Pearl Project: a collection of thoughtfully designed mental health and bereavement gifts that combine therapeutic guidebooks, reflection questions, comforting sensory items, and meaningful objects to support healing beyond the therapy room.

Jen shares the vulnerable decision she and her husband made to leave the security of their established careers and build The Pearl Project together. She opens up about overcoming the fear of rejection, learning how to market a mental health business, navigating entrepreneurship as a therapist and mother, and redefining work-life balance through the idea of “seasonal balance.”

You’ll also hear the powerful story of how Jen challenged herself to collect ten rejections and how a conversation she expected to end in a “no” became her first business partnership and an unforgettable moment of grief, connection, and shared humanity.

In this episode, we discuss:

• How therapists can provide meaningful support for grief and loss
• Why grief affects the whole body and deserves more than superficial encouragement
• The value of tangible, sensory resources in mental health and bereavement care
• How handwriting, reflection, metaphor, and physical objects can support therapeutic learning
• Therapist entrepreneurship and transitioning beyond private practice
• Overcoming the fear of failure, visibility, vulnerability, and rejection
• Building authentic professional connections without feeling like a salesperson
• Work-life balance, motherhood, marriage, and running a business
• The difference between daily balance and seasonal balance
• Why human-to-human connection remains essential in an increasingly digital world
• How grit, courage, and perseverance help therapists bring meaningful ideas to life

Whether you're a mental health therapist, grief counselor, trauma therapist, social worker, private practice owner, or clinician considering a new professional path, this conversation offers an honest look at what it means to create, connect, and keep going before you feel completely ready.

Learn more about Jen Zorb and The Pearl Project at thepearlproject.com and follow @jointhepearlproject on Instagram.

Because sometimes grit looks like opening up, allowing your work to be seen, and remembering that rejection isn’t the only possible outcome. Sometimes, on the other side of vulnerability, we find connection.

Connect with us! Check out our freebies and our Gritty Academy for Provisional Therapists:

• Therapist AF: The Gritty Academy, practical skills, nervous system grounding, and the reps grad school skipped
• The Gritty Therapist Check out our EMDR Therapy for Children Certificate
• The Cord Where Science Meets Connection attachment/trauma-focused therapy.

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