My name is Kimberly Polsen and I am thrilled to announce the opening of my new practice, Intuitive Wellness Counseling. I truly believe in, respect, and honor the power of the therapeutic relationship and my hope is to share a bit about myself in order to create safety and model the bravery and transparency that I aim to bring out in my work with clients. Through this blog, I intend to share wisdom, hope, humor, and information as I strive to continue learning, growing, and witnessing healing in myself and others.
I arrived at becoming a counselor in a roundabout way and it took me some time to trust in and follow my true path. I have learned about myself that I tend to stay busy and have worked since my teenage years, holding positions including a barista, legal assistant, raw vegan chef, nanny - and many others in between. I have always found empathy to come naturally and known that I was a “helper” though it took time and connecting to myself to discover the route that helping would take. I initially planned to become an elementary school teacher but halfway through my college experience, I knew that psychology classes were where my passion lied and I took a leap of faith and transferred to an out-of-state school to pursue a psychology degree.
However, an intense and challenging internship my senior year caused me to re-think my plans to become a therapist as I was unfamiliar with how to work with those who were suffering while remaining connected to myself and the present moment. During this time, I struggled with anxiety, uncertainty, and self-doubt and focused on continuing to stay busy rather than trusting in my instincts and following my path. Due to my personal history, I also thought that helping others meant overextending and stepping outside of myself; this was a lesson that took many years to come to fruition but it would be a powerful turning point for me.
After graduation, I knew that I still wanted to help others heal though, again, was uncertain about how. I found that focusing on a holistic and healthy lifestyle was one way to “help” and I spent a few years in the culinary world. While I felt rewarded by the improvements I saw in my customers who struggled with allergies, food restrictions, diabetes, and disease, at the end of the day when I had space to slow down, I knew something still didn’t feel quite right. Ultimately, it was a series of problems at the business I was working at and continuous roadblocks that helped me see that my energy and enthusiasm had dimmed and when I was truly present and connected to myself, something was telling me that this route was not working out. Through these experiences, I tested my limits, patience, and creativity and after a few years of soul-searching in my twenties, knew that counseling had called me back. In retrospect, I now understand that I was continuing to stay busy and disconnected from my own intuitive knowing of my true path.
Throughout my training in graduate school, internship, and initial job at a counseling center in Chicago, I grappled with balancing my sensitive and empathic nature with some of the hardships of daily life, oppression, trauma, and illness that I witnessed. Through these experiences, I worked to steadily become more connected to my own emotional experience and gained coping skills that helped me to be present with others and myself in order to anchor to a steadiness that I struggled to find in college and early career choices. One significant turning point was attending the Sensorimotor Psychotherapy training; I will be forever grateful for the impact that this training has had on my own connection to myself, my body, and my experience as well as the transformative tools that it taught me to wield in my work with clients.
Through these experiences, I have continued to be passionate about working with those who have experienced and are working to overcome low self-confidence, anxiety, and trauma. I feel honored to be a witness to healing every day and firmly believe in the resiliency of the human spirit. I hope that the work that I have done to connect to my emotions and body while honoring my natural sensitivity and empathy and the balance that I continue to find in being genuine, kind, and brave will guide me in my work with clients. As someone who has experienced anxiety, overwork, perfectionism, and overwhelm at times, I can empathize with many of the difficulties that challenge my clients including struggling with connecting to a genuine sense of self, battling anxiety and self-doubt, and grappling with taking up space and using your voice.I feel passionate about supporting others in healing from childhood wounds, connecting to emotions and experience, and overcoming trauma. I look forward to and am exceedingly grateful to be on this journey.
