November 6, 2024 • 32 mins
In this heartfelt episode, Celeste, a therapist from Boston, shares a personal milestone as she celebrates her 42nd birthday and the grand opening of her wellness center. Reflecting on her journey, Celeste takes us back to 2012-2013 when she was working at a shelter. Despite having her master’s degree, she faced a significant setback when she was unexpectedly demoted, resulting in a pay cut and a change in responsibilities. Through this candid recounting, Celeste emphasizes the importance of resilience, transparency, and hope. Whether you’ve been following her journey for years or are a new listener, this episode is a testament to perseverance and the power of believing in oneself. Tune in for an inspiring story of overcoming challenges and achieving dreams.
https://www.celestethetherapist.com/episode492
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Episode Transcript
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(00:01):
Hi, my name is Celeste. I'm a therapist from Boston and
this episode is being released on my birthday, November
6th. I am turning 42 years old
and I just celebrated my grand opening of
my wellness center. So I wanted to take time out to
record an episode about the journey because I
(00:24):
always am very transparent about how I've
Been developing things over the years and I
know I have people that's been rocking with me for a long time But I also have some
new people and so I want to use like share
my story and so that people can You
know have hope that's why I created this podcast. So I I'm
(00:45):
gonna rewind a little bit, right? So probably
in about 2012, 2013, I
was working at a shelter and I was
there at that point for about 10 years. I had my master's, I
wasn't making a lot of money, but I really enjoyed what I did. And
(01:08):
I remember I got demoted. So, I got demoted and
I remember they took $5,000 from my pay and
my hours changed. So, I
was a supervisor for case managers and they demoted me to a
case manager. No real explanation. I've
always been a non-conformist. I've always asked questions. And when I say non-conformist,
(01:30):
not disrespectful, I'm not
someone that is rude, but I'm going to
ask questions, right? If something doesn't make sense, hey, or if I
feel like something's not right, I'm going to ask questions. And I was working
in a nonprofit space, and I understood the assignment that
they wanted you to just say yes, sir, no, sir. They
(01:50):
don't want you to ask questions, right? So I got demoted at that point.
I didn't have my license for my degree. So I had got my master's
in counseling and I didn't get
my license at that point. So then
because I got demoted, I said to myself, oh, snap Celeste,
(02:12):
you're disposable. So it propelled me
to go and get my license. So I studied for
my test, half studied, failed it. And then
I said, you know what, Celeste, you barely studied. So
then for the next three months, I locked myself in the basement one hour
a week minimum. I mean, one hour a day. Cause I have to
(02:33):
study hard and I passed it, right?
So I passed the test and I got my license
and I was working at another nonprofit. It was fine, but
I felt like I was putting Band-Aids on things and I had this passion to
want to do more. And also during that time,
I had a
(02:56):
supervisor that was a black lady and she would talk about, oh,
you should do a private practice. And I said, you know, like, why would
I do that? You know what I'm saying? I got sick time, vacation time. I'm
on salary. The job was fine.
There was no pressure. I didn't feel pressure from the
top. I just knew my assignment and I'm going to get my work done. But
(03:18):
I was like, Celeste is more, right? I feel
like God has driven me in this direction. As I'm sharing this story, as
you can see, I never had this grandiose plan. So
now I decide, okay, let
me work on creating a private practice. So
when I started to have the idea, it took me about eight months to start
(03:40):
it. I actually, in September,
2015, I decided to do part-time. So I would rent space
for $10 an hour here and there and see clients. And
then April of 2016, or I would
say March of 2016, I was talking to this white
man. He owned a pharmacy and he said to me like, Celeste, when are you going to
(04:02):
have your own? Cause he knew I was doing private practice on the side. I
was like, you know, I need everything to be put together. You know what I'm saying? And
he said to me, Celeste, you know, people like you will never have
their own because you're waiting for things to be in a nice, neat package. I
felt challenged. One thing about me, if you say I can't do it,
I'm going to show you how I can do it. I've always been that way. And
(04:25):
I went home that night, and there was this platform called Craigslist. It's
still around. It was more popular back in the day. And I
went on Craigslist, and I told my husband. I was like, oh, this is what
he said. I'm just going to look and see what's out there. And so I found space
in Roxbury, which is in Boston. And I
found space for $1,200 a month. It was a one-room suite.
(04:47):
And I decided I was gonna get it and I was gonna call it
the Uniting Center. I had a vision and a plan
of creating a center where people can come
do meditation, do all these different things, right? So
I had the office, I had a bathroom and had a waiting room. And
so that was my vision. That's why I called it the Uniting Center, because I
(05:09):
wanted all these different things to unite and come together to
help people with their healing process. So April, I
got the space. I started practicing. And
then what happened was around May,
I said to my husband, I was like, oh my gosh, there's a lot. Like I was inundated
with clients. advertising or
(05:32):
trying to find clients wasn't an issue because once people see me, they told their people,
their people told their people. And before you know it, I had a full caseload.
Now, my husband said to me, he's a man of few words. He
said, well, if you're going to really do this
entrepreneur thing, you got to pick one or the other. And
so within a month, I thought I was going to keep my little salary job and my practice.
(05:54):
No, within a month, I was like, yo, he's right. I quit
my full-time job. And at
the time, I had been working
at the ER per diem on the weekends. So I
still had the per diem job, and I quit
my full-time job. So I'm doing my private practice.
(06:15):
I'm doing fine. I got the per diem job at the
hospital. Now I'm at the hospital, I'm working with
people and I'm seeing people that look like me and
I'm seeing the systemic racism that's taking place within
the hospital systems because of how my white counterparts would
talk about cases that involve like black kids or
(06:36):
black people. There was no patience. There was no grace. I
seen the way my black people that look like me would
share stuff with me that they wouldn't share with my white counterparts. And
I'll never forget. I always talk about this on the podcast in different ways, but
there was a guy and I remember he had came in with
symptoms of, um, he, his chest was hurting and
(07:00):
you know, they ruled him out medically. So when they rule people out medically, then they
will call me in for the psych piece. And so I was
meeting with him and I come to learn that he had been sober for about a
month and had been using for about 15 years. And
what I've concluded from his story is that he probably
started using because he was having symptoms of anxiety. And
(07:21):
I was sharing with him as I was hearing his story and talking about
how things worked. And I remember thinking
like his face lighting up like, oh, like he was
like, oh, shoot. OK, that makes sense, right? Because you only know
what you know. If you don't know it, it's going to freak you out.
So now I left that room and I said to
(07:42):
myself, dang, I got to start telling the people, right? So
then I started going on YouTube, doing little videos here and
there. And then there was a platform called Periscope where
you can live stream. Um, it's no longer there, but people that,
um, there's been people that's been following me since my YouTube and Periscope days. Also
in the meantime, I would put quotes up on social media, right?
(08:06):
I never really wanted to show my face. In fact, I
hired a coach to help me with Brent, like the
practice and stuff. And I remember he looked at my website. He was like, where's your
picture? And I was like, I don't need my picture. It's not about me. I'm
just doing the work. He said, well, how are people going to know who they're going to work with? So I reluctantly
put up my picture. But in the meantime, I'm putting up these
(08:27):
quotes on social media. I would find quotes that spoke to me because I was
a big quote person. And then I would write something underneath of
it. And that was kind of like my little social media thing. And
because I was so passionate about helping people, that's why
I was like, I'm going to get on YouTube. And then after that, I'm like, OK, there's
this thing where you can live stream. Because at the time, I don't think YouTube had a live streaming
(08:48):
component. So I'm on Periscope. And I
said, I'm going to create a schedule. So I created a schedule Monday through Friday. I
would come on 12 PM Eastern Standard Time, talk about a subject. Fridays,
I would let people ask the questions. And over time,
the community grew where people was looking forward to
it. I've even had gotten clients out of it. I've had a lot of testimonials
(09:10):
on how people was able to learn some things, right?
So I'm on Periscope, I'm doing this. And during that
time, someone has shared my
live stream where I talked about depression. with an actor
named Romney Malco. And he at the time was studying for
a role called A Million Little Things, where he was going
(09:33):
to play a depressed person. And so through
that interaction of him sharing, of him
seeing my stuff, we kind of
connected, right? And so I started watching
his stuff, because at the time, he would go live a lot on Periscope. And
one of the things he preached about was creating your own, right? We
(09:55):
met I met him a few times. I remember the last time I met him in new
york and it was me and my husband and um,
oh, let me back up a little bit because now i'm doing these
live streams on periscope and then uh people
would learn about different ways to work on themselves,
right? Because therapy is not always accessible to everybody. It
(10:17):
may not work for everybody, right? So I'm teaching people all these other cool
ways of healing. One of them is journaling. And
people would be like, what's journaling? How do I start? And I'm like, you just start. Because
when I was younger, I would always write. At the
time, I wasn't like, oh, I'm writing because it's therapeutic. I knew when I
write, I felt better, right? I
(10:38):
was doing these quotes on social media, right? And
then I was listening to this lady, her name happened to be Celeste. She was
saying how she wanted to write a book and her friend told her, Oh,
you should journal. So she journaled for 40 days and she sent her friend the
journal. And the friend was like, Oh my gosh, this
is the book, right? I heard that now
he's talking about creating your own and stuff like that. Um,
(11:03):
Romney Mackle was, I am talking
about journaling. And then I had probably
about 370 posts at the time. And
I don't remember exactly what clicked, but I
was like, oh my gosh, I got to create a journal where
I would ask people questions. So under the quotes I would post,
(11:23):
I would write a statement or a question based off of that post. And
then what I did was I took 365 of those
statements and I've made them into the book. And that's where
I have the book, 365 Days of Intentional Living.
It is a book with a different question or a quote that
is supposed to help you really think about things I
(11:46):
think about people that really struggle with getting things out
and where to start. And so that journal was
created in 2018, and it was extremely instrumental
for people. No, I'm sorry, in 2017, that
journal was created. So boom, I
remember I met Romney Malko in Florida. I gave him the journal
(12:08):
and then he checked it out and he loved it. And
then me and my husband, we met him in New York. I had recorded
something with him. And then I
remember he said to me, he said, Celeste, it's bigger
than the book. And I just didn't get it at the time,
right? So on Periscope, they
(12:30):
started creating this thing where you can get paid with these, it's
called stars. And as long as you had a
good account, I felt like I had a good account. I'm talking about mental health.
One time I was live streaming while I was getting a
tattoo and somebody like reported my page. It
was my arm, it wasn't nothing crazy. That was
(12:51):
like a while ago, right? Also, I just want
to say when I started going on Periscope, my name was the
practice. It was the Uniting Center. And people will always say,
like, what's the Uniting Center? And I'm like, oh, I'm Celeste. I'm a therapist. So
then I changed my name to Celeste the Therapist. Celesta
Therapist was not something I was like, oh, I'm going to brand myself. No, I
(13:12):
did it because people didn't know who I was. And so it became catchy.
It was a thing. I was like, OK, I'm going to name myself Celesta Therapist. So
then Romney was like, oh, it's bigger than the book or
whatever. So I didn't understand that. When I applied to
get these stars on Periscope, they denied me. They
said they denied me because at one point my account got flagged and
(13:33):
I couldn't go and appeal it. Now
I remember when he said something about creating your own. So
then I'm like, all right, I'm going to create my own platform. And this was in
2018, so probably about March. I remember I told Romney,
I was like, yeah, I got the computer or whatever. He was like, hold on
for a second. You need to read this book. So he told me about this book called
(13:56):
Profitable Podcasting. He was like, don't just jump into it. Read
it. And so I'm a very slow learner. I read that book twice. I took notes. I
still got the notebook, right, where I highlighted the
things that they say, blah, blah, blah. And it was like, you got
to pick a date two months from now. So, um,
so it must've been may 2nd, cause I launched on July 2nd. So may
(14:17):
2nd, right. I saw, I start advertising for
this podcast. That's going to drop July 2nd, 2018. I'm mad
nervous. I'm like so nervous, but I'm somebody I'm
going to keep stepping out of my comfort zone. So. What
I did was I got everything together. And then
July 2nd, 2018, I launched this podcast, Celesta Therapist.
(14:40):
And it was going well because I had already been building my
brand and the following from being on Periscope and
doing all these amazing quotes, right? And so
I do the podcast, I start getting speaking engagements, and
I'm still doing my practice. This is
(15:01):
in 2018. 2019, I talk about relationships a
lot, right? I love talking about relationships because They
feel so complicated because a lot of what's going on
is that we're responding from all of these feelings. And I
made so much growth in my relationship just
through my own self-awareness. And I have a really healthy relationship.
(15:22):
And I just want to tell people about, because I always see relationship goals,
relationship goals. And I said to myself, people
really don't know what relationship goals are because they look at a picture. They
look at a kiss, they look at somebody giving somebody something, and they're like, oh
my god, relationship goals. It's like, no, you don't know what's going on behind the scenes. So
in 2019, I created a book called Relationship Goals.
(15:45):
And it was basically, on Thursdays, I would talk about
relationships on Periscope. And I just took the content from what I
talked about and made it into a book. So now 2019, I
dropped the book and then I still have this
office. You remember earlier, the plan I had about the United center
that kind of vanished a little bit because now I'm
(16:06):
speaking, I'm doing podcasting. Now I have
this office and paying $1,200 a month for, and then in
the middle of 2019, probably like June or July, I
was like, I don't really need this office. I can start
doing telehealth back then. Telehealth wasn't a thing. But
I started to prepare my clients and let them know that I'm going to
(16:27):
start seeing people on video on zoom. Right.
And, uh, and December of 2019, I,
uh, decided I was going to close the
office. And then January of 2020. I
started to see my clients online
full time. Some people didn't want to come, which I understood because it
(16:48):
was weird. Right now, it doesn't seem as weird to me on
camera, but I respected it. I got it. And
obviously, as we know, March 2020, the
pandemic hit. And so I'm on
there. Prior to the pandemic hitting and I'm home January, February,
(17:09):
I'm like, oh, I have more time now. I'm not traveling into work. I
want to do some supervision stuff because I enjoy teaching.
I love working with clinicians. I feel like we're so dope, but
I feel like we sometimes do too much and we're not taking care
of ourselves. And I really want to teach people how to do the work and do
the work on themselves. So I
(17:31):
went to an interview in February, no, it was in March. And I remember,
because I remember I was going to sign and then she wiped the pen, right? Because
during that time, we didn't really know what was going on. We were just wiping things down. And
then maybe two days later, everything shut down. So I was like, yeah, I'm not
going into nobody's office, right? So now I'm home. I'm
seeing clients. Everything's fine. In
(17:55):
2023, I'm like, all right, I'm seeing clients and I have
the capacity to supervise. I want to supervise again. So
started working at this agency and I have a whole podcast on this. I'll
link it about the systemic racism that took place there. I'm not going to
go into it, but I started working part time, not because I
was like, oh my gosh, I need to make more money. But it was like, oh my gosh,
(18:15):
I really want to do this. And I just felt like it's
easier to go work for somebody else. The infrastructure is already there. So
I'm seeing interns on my own.
So my supervisor at the time, she left. And she
left about two months into me being there. So we didn't get a chance
to work on curriculum for the interns. And so I developed
(18:38):
it on my own. And it went really well. I really enjoyed the
passion. I enjoyed teaching them, both of them. They did
not come from any background of working with people.
So I was literally, it was all brand new. And
I remember the CEO, it was so bad where
like, I wanted to leave. And at the time, I
(18:59):
just, I literally wanted to walk out, but I had clients there and I had these interns and
I didn't want to leave them. So I told myself I would try to stay
at least until May when they left just to get them through
this, this school year. Then a new supervisor came
in and she was very intimidated by
me for no reason. I told her when she came, I
(19:19):
don't want this job. I have my own practice. I'm literally here
because I enjoy teaching clinicians. And
she made my life hard and basically wanted me out. And
prior to her wanting me out, I actually
gave my notice. So I gave my notice. I told the interns, I
was like, yeah, I'm going to leave at the end of January. This is in December. I
(19:42):
told them I was going to give my notice and I was going to
leave in January, but I would get them through the holidays. And I wanted to get the clients
that had through the holidays and, um, December
20th, the day after Christmas, I was working three days a
week. I remember it was Tuesday. I came in and mind you, at that
point, I already gave him my notice. I have about four weeks left. Right. I
(20:03):
already gave my notice. They know I'm leaving. But I think they
didn't want me to leave on my terms, which
was fine, because they paid me out. December 26, I
came in, and the human resource lady was in there, and
then my supervisor. And she
was like, oh, she said you're not doing this. And I showed her the stuff.
(20:23):
And the human resource lady was just looking like, I
don't get it either. And I said to them, so this was Tuesday
morning. I was working there Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday.
So I said, all right, it's clear. Cause they had a check. They're paying me
out to January 31st. So, you know what I'm saying? Your girl's not
losing. I'm about to get payday. But
(20:46):
me and understanding mental health, I said, if I
leave here without saying bye, without closing out, I said, it's really not
fair to the clients. I said, you guys, I
get it. You don't want me here. I said, I'll leave, but
if I can please just finish out today and tomorrow so I
can try to wrap things up. The human resource lady
was like, I'm cool with it if you are. And the supervisor, I
(21:10):
know she was heated because she was like, all right, you
can stay. So if I did something egregious
that was that bad, who gets fired? And then they
say like, okay, you can stay for the next two days. It
was clearly their ego. They were pissed off that I decided to leave,
right? Which was fine, you know? And
(21:31):
even prior to me leaving, when I decided I was, I
mean, prior to them firing me, when I decided
that I was gonna leave, I remember something happened in
the meeting with the CEO and I was just like, God, why am I here? This
is wild. What's happening? And I felt in my spirit where
it was like, I want you to create your own. And then I
(21:53):
remembered my thoughts about the practice and how
I really wanted to create a wellness space, right? I
actually applied for this grant in Boston. I didn't get it. And
so I didn't get it. So I'm like, all right, I'm going to
just start stuff online. And I
visited this lady who had a private practice. And I
(22:15):
was like, oh, wow, this is nice. I think I can try
to make this work in person. And so from
December and on, I started doing
research, listening to books, writing out
a plan, and then I found the space that I have, and
I created the Wellness Center. And as I, oh
(22:37):
my gosh, like, As
I, I can't believe like this is making me feel emotional right
now. I think because I'm going through the whole story. And
as I'm creating this space, I'm
so, so nervous. I'm so anxious, right?
(22:59):
Because I've never done anything like this before. And
I kept reframing stuff in my head. I kept telling myself, I
kept telling myself, like, this is for the people. I
kept telling myself that this is why I
didn't want to do this live because this is not live because
(23:19):
I'm like, oh my gosh. I
kept telling myself, this is for the people. This is not about me. I
kept thinking about all the Black people that are in these spaces
and there's so much microaggression and there's so
much systemic racism that goes on.
And people think that they are dealing
(23:42):
with all of this imposter syndrome when it's really the environment that
they're in. And so, you
know, the way that I was treated and
for no reason, because I had knowledge and
because, you know, I'm Black, it was wild.
And I'm sure years ago when I was working in
(24:04):
spaces it was happening, but I wasn't aware back then. And
then remember, I had been out of a workspace from
2019 up until 2023. I'm hearing these stories as I'm talking to
people, but now I'm back in
this space in 2023 and I'm feeling it heavy. And
every time I think about it, I'm like, I know like, it was like,
(24:26):
yo, so like me going into that space needed to
happen in order for me to like really start to put
this into action. So now
we have the Wellness Center and my first podcast
ever, episode one that I released, I
was listening to it and it said, my name is Celeste and I just want
(24:49):
to help you shift the way you think, right? Shifting the way you think is
something I've been saying and doing for so long and it's not something
that I It's not something that I
said, oh, let me try to figure out a name. It
was just something where I realized we need to shift. People
are feeling stuck. And I always say, I
(25:12):
didn't choose this work. God chose it for me. When I was at the shelter
at 19 years old, when I started working there, I went there because
I needed money. I didn't go there because I'm like, oh, I want to help people that are struggling
with homelessness. And then from there, I realized like,
oh my gosh, I'm really good at talking to people. It just comes so natural for
me. And so, you know, from
(25:32):
there things continue to build, but it was
important for me to share that because, you know, people
look at the outcome, they look at where it is now. And
I just wanted people to know that like, it was so much that
went on to get to this point. The first thought
about this space was in 2015, and nine years later it's
(25:54):
happening. And it was because I kept putting one
foot in front of the other, and I did it scared, out
of my comfort zone, like this is something I've never done, and
I have so much hope for the future. And
when I said I kept reframing my mindset, It
was because the more I started to look at the
(26:14):
possibilities, the more I started to look at what it could
be, then what happens is my mind starts
to show it to me. So then that anxiousness just turns into
so much excitement, right? And because I work
with people, I understand how people allow the negativity
of their thoughts to get in the way. And I want to challenge you to like
(26:36):
work on reframing it. If you can work on reframing your
thoughts, your mind will start to show you the possibilities. If
you can put one foot in front of the other, your mind will
start to show you the possibilities. It wasn't social media,
being on social media, like vegging out all day that
got me here. It was me being intentional about the things that
(26:56):
I wanted to do and being diligent about
it, right? Being consistent about it. So
whatever it is that you want to do in
life, I want to encourage you to work on it.
There was a lot of hiccups. That's just part of my story that
I shared, but there was a lot of hiccups. And so I
(27:17):
seen it, I acknowledged it, I grieved it,
and I went back to the drawing board. All right, Celeste, what's next? So
I need you to tell yourself that. I want you to hear my story. And
what I want you to take from my story is that it's possible as
long as you're still breathing. I always say there's room for change, but
you got to start to write down your vision. You got to make it plain. You got to do
(27:37):
your research, whatever it is you want to do. Okay,
that's it. So happy birthday to me. I hope
this story was helpful. I really did. I really do. Um,
I hope you enjoyed it and until next time,
beautiful people. Um, I will talk to you later. So
(27:58):
don't forget also we have programming now, if you
go to S T W Y T and that stands for shifting the
way you think as T shifting the way
you think. S-t-w-y-t, yes, dot com.
And you can find me on social media at that same
name. But if you go there, you can find the different events that we're having,
(28:20):
really cool stuff that are going to be going on. And
I'm really excited. And if you do want to donate, so my goal
is to make the cost low, right? And
I wrote, if you can't afford it and you wanna come, email
us and we will make it happen. I don't want finances to
(28:42):
be a barrier to people getting stuff that they need. And
so I'm stepping out on faith, right? I'm putting that donate,
hook a sister up if you can, wanna donate a class, right?
I'm trying to make the classes like between 20 and $25. so
that I can pay the people that are gonna be running the class, cause I can't do
everything. You know, I got four kids, but
(29:05):
thank you all so much. I really appreciate the
love, the support and until next time, I
Hi, my name is Celeste. I'm a therapist from Boston and
this episode is being released on my birthday, November
6th. I am turning 42 years old
and I just celebrated my grand opening of
my wellness center. So I wanted to take time out to
record an episode about the journey because I
(00:24):
always am very transparent about how I've
Been developing things over the years and I
know I have people that's been rocking with me for a long time But I also have some
new people and so I want to use like share
my story and so that people can You
know have hope that's why I created this podcast. So I I'm
(00:45):
gonna rewind a little bit, right? So probably
in about 2012, 2013, I
was working at a shelter and I was
there at that point for about 10 years. I had my master's, I
wasn't making a lot of money, but I really enjoyed what I did. And
(01:08):
I remember I got demoted. So, I got demoted and
I remember they took $5,000 from my pay and
my hours changed. So, I
was a supervisor for case managers and they demoted me to a
case manager. No real explanation. I've
always been a non-conformist. I've always asked questions. And when I say non-conformist,
(01:30):
not disrespectful, I'm not
someone that is rude, but I'm going to
ask questions, right? If something doesn't make sense, hey, or if I
feel like something's not right, I'm going to ask questions. And I was working
in a nonprofit space, and I understood the assignment that
they wanted you to just say yes, sir, no, sir. They
(01:50):
don't want you to ask questions, right? So I got demoted at that point.
I didn't have my license for my degree. So I had got my master's
in counseling and I didn't get
my license at that point. So then
because I got demoted, I said to myself, oh, snap Celeste,
(02:12):
you're disposable. So it propelled me
to go and get my license. So I studied for
my test, half studied, failed it. And then
I said, you know what, Celeste, you barely studied. So
then for the next three months, I locked myself in the basement one hour
a week minimum. I mean, one hour a day. Cause I have to
(02:33):
study hard and I passed it, right?
So I passed the test and I got my license
and I was working at another nonprofit. It was fine, but
I felt like I was putting Band-Aids on things and I had this passion to
want to do more. And also during that time,
I had a
(02:56):
supervisor that was a black lady and she would talk about, oh,
you should do a private practice. And I said, you know, like, why would
I do that? You know what I'm saying? I got sick time, vacation time. I'm
on salary. The job was fine.
There was no pressure. I didn't feel pressure from the
top. I just knew my assignment and I'm going to get my work done. But
(03:18):
I was like, Celeste is more, right? I feel
like God has driven me in this direction. As I'm sharing this story, as
you can see, I never had this grandiose plan. So
now I decide, okay, let
me work on creating a private practice. So
when I started to have the idea, it took me about eight months to start
(03:40):
it. I actually, in September,
2015, I decided to do part-time. So I would rent space
for $10 an hour here and there and see clients. And
then April of 2016, or I would
say March of 2016, I was talking to this white
man. He owned a pharmacy and he said to me like, Celeste, when are you going to
(04:02):
have your own? Cause he knew I was doing private practice on the side. I
was like, you know, I need everything to be put together. You know what I'm saying? And
he said to me, Celeste, you know, people like you will never have
their own because you're waiting for things to be in a nice, neat package. I
felt challenged. One thing about me, if you say I can't do it,
I'm going to show you how I can do it. I've always been that way. And
(04:25):
I went home that night, and there was this platform called Craigslist. It's
still around. It was more popular back in the day. And I
went on Craigslist, and I told my husband. I was like, oh, this is what
he said. I'm just going to look and see what's out there. And so I found space
in Roxbury, which is in Boston. And I
found space for $1,200 a month. It was a one-room suite.
(04:47):
And I decided I was gonna get it and I was gonna call it
the Uniting Center. I had a vision and a plan
of creating a center where people can come
do meditation, do all these different things, right? So
I had the office, I had a bathroom and had a waiting room. And
so that was my vision. That's why I called it the Uniting Center, because I
(05:09):
wanted all these different things to unite and come together to
help people with their healing process. So April, I
got the space. I started practicing. And
then what happened was around May,
I said to my husband, I was like, oh my gosh, there's a lot. Like I was inundated
with clients. advertising or
(05:32):
trying to find clients wasn't an issue because once people see me, they told their people,
their people told their people. And before you know it, I had a full caseload.
Now, my husband said to me, he's a man of few words. He
said, well, if you're going to really do this
entrepreneur thing, you got to pick one or the other. And
so within a month, I thought I was going to keep my little salary job and my practice.
(05:54):
No, within a month, I was like, yo, he's right. I quit
my full-time job. And at
the time, I had been working
at the ER per diem on the weekends. So I
still had the per diem job, and I quit
my full-time job. So I'm doing my private practice.
(06:15):
I'm doing fine. I got the per diem job at the
hospital. Now I'm at the hospital, I'm working with
people and I'm seeing people that look like me and
I'm seeing the systemic racism that's taking place within
the hospital systems because of how my white counterparts would
talk about cases that involve like black kids or
(06:36):
black people. There was no patience. There was no grace. I
seen the way my black people that look like me would
share stuff with me that they wouldn't share with my white counterparts. And
I'll never forget. I always talk about this on the podcast in different ways, but
there was a guy and I remember he had came in with
symptoms of, um, he, his chest was hurting and
(07:00):
you know, they ruled him out medically. So when they rule people out medically, then they
will call me in for the psych piece. And so I was
meeting with him and I come to learn that he had been sober for about a
month and had been using for about 15 years. And
what I've concluded from his story is that he probably
started using because he was having symptoms of anxiety. And
(07:21):
I was sharing with him as I was hearing his story and talking about
how things worked. And I remember thinking
like his face lighting up like, oh, like he was
like, oh, shoot. OK, that makes sense, right? Because you only know
what you know. If you don't know it, it's going to freak you out.
So now I left that room and I said to
(07:42):
myself, dang, I got to start telling the people, right? So
then I started going on YouTube, doing little videos here and
there. And then there was a platform called Periscope where
you can live stream. Um, it's no longer there, but people that,
um, there's been people that's been following me since my YouTube and Periscope days. Also
in the meantime, I would put quotes up on social media, right?
(08:06):
I never really wanted to show my face. In fact, I
hired a coach to help me with Brent, like the
practice and stuff. And I remember he looked at my website. He was like, where's your
picture? And I was like, I don't need my picture. It's not about me. I'm
just doing the work. He said, well, how are people going to know who they're going to work with? So I reluctantly
put up my picture. But in the meantime, I'm putting up these
(08:27):
quotes on social media. I would find quotes that spoke to me because I was
a big quote person. And then I would write something underneath of
it. And that was kind of like my little social media thing. And
because I was so passionate about helping people, that's why
I was like, I'm going to get on YouTube. And then after that, I'm like, OK, there's
this thing where you can live stream. Because at the time, I don't think YouTube had a live streaming
(08:48):
component. So I'm on Periscope. And I
said, I'm going to create a schedule. So I created a schedule Monday through Friday. I
would come on 12 PM Eastern Standard Time, talk about a subject. Fridays,
I would let people ask the questions. And over time,
the community grew where people was looking forward to
it. I've even had gotten clients out of it. I've had a lot of testimonials
(09:10):
on how people was able to learn some things, right?
So I'm on Periscope, I'm doing this. And during that
time, someone has shared my
live stream where I talked about depression. with an actor
named Romney Malco. And he at the time was studying for
a role called A Million Little Things, where he was going
(09:33):
to play a depressed person. And so through
that interaction of him sharing, of him
seeing my stuff, we kind of
connected, right? And so I started watching
his stuff, because at the time, he would go live a lot on Periscope. And
one of the things he preached about was creating your own, right? We
(09:55):
met I met him a few times. I remember the last time I met him in new
york and it was me and my husband and um,
oh, let me back up a little bit because now i'm doing these
live streams on periscope and then uh people
would learn about different ways to work on themselves,
right? Because therapy is not always accessible to everybody. It
(10:17):
may not work for everybody, right? So I'm teaching people all these other cool
ways of healing. One of them is journaling. And
people would be like, what's journaling? How do I start? And I'm like, you just start. Because
when I was younger, I would always write. At the
time, I wasn't like, oh, I'm writing because it's therapeutic. I knew when I
write, I felt better, right? I
(10:38):
was doing these quotes on social media, right? And
then I was listening to this lady, her name happened to be Celeste. She was
saying how she wanted to write a book and her friend told her, Oh,
you should journal. So she journaled for 40 days and she sent her friend the
journal. And the friend was like, Oh my gosh, this
is the book, right? I heard that now
he's talking about creating your own and stuff like that. Um,
(11:03):
Romney Mackle was, I am talking
about journaling. And then I had probably
about 370 posts at the time. And
I don't remember exactly what clicked, but I
was like, oh my gosh, I got to create a journal where
I would ask people questions. So under the quotes I would post,
(11:23):
I would write a statement or a question based off of that post. And
then what I did was I took 365 of those
statements and I've made them into the book. And that's where
I have the book, 365 Days of Intentional Living.
It is a book with a different question or a quote that
is supposed to help you really think about things I
(11:46):
think about people that really struggle with getting things out
and where to start. And so that journal was
created in 2018, and it was extremely instrumental
for people. No, I'm sorry, in 2017, that
journal was created. So boom, I
remember I met Romney Malko in Florida. I gave him the journal
(12:08):
and then he checked it out and he loved it. And
then me and my husband, we met him in New York. I had recorded
something with him. And then I
remember he said to me, he said, Celeste, it's bigger
than the book. And I just didn't get it at the time,
right? So on Periscope, they
(12:30):
started creating this thing where you can get paid with these, it's
called stars. And as long as you had a
good account, I felt like I had a good account. I'm talking about mental health.
One time I was live streaming while I was getting a
tattoo and somebody like reported my page. It
was my arm, it wasn't nothing crazy. That was
(12:51):
like a while ago, right? Also, I just want
to say when I started going on Periscope, my name was the
practice. It was the Uniting Center. And people will always say,
like, what's the Uniting Center? And I'm like, oh, I'm Celeste. I'm a therapist. So
then I changed my name to Celeste the Therapist. Celesta
Therapist was not something I was like, oh, I'm going to brand myself. No, I
(13:12):
did it because people didn't know who I was. And so it became catchy.
It was a thing. I was like, OK, I'm going to name myself Celesta Therapist. So
then Romney was like, oh, it's bigger than the book or
whatever. So I didn't understand that. When I applied to
get these stars on Periscope, they denied me. They
said they denied me because at one point my account got flagged and
(13:33):
I couldn't go and appeal it. Now
I remember when he said something about creating your own. So
then I'm like, all right, I'm going to create my own platform. And this was in
2018, so probably about March. I remember I told Romney,
I was like, yeah, I got the computer or whatever. He was like, hold on
for a second. You need to read this book. So he told me about this book called
(13:56):
Profitable Podcasting. He was like, don't just jump into it. Read
it. And so I'm a very slow learner. I read that book twice. I took notes. I
still got the notebook, right, where I highlighted the
things that they say, blah, blah, blah. And it was like, you got
to pick a date two months from now. So, um,
so it must've been may 2nd, cause I launched on July 2nd. So may
(14:17):
2nd, right. I saw, I start advertising for
this podcast. That's going to drop July 2nd, 2018. I'm mad
nervous. I'm like so nervous, but I'm somebody I'm
going to keep stepping out of my comfort zone. So. What
I did was I got everything together. And then
July 2nd, 2018, I launched this podcast, Celesta Therapist.
(14:40):
And it was going well because I had already been building my
brand and the following from being on Periscope and
doing all these amazing quotes, right? And so
I do the podcast, I start getting speaking engagements, and
I'm still doing my practice. This is
(15:01):
in 2018. 2019, I talk about relationships a
lot, right? I love talking about relationships because They
feel so complicated because a lot of what's going on
is that we're responding from all of these feelings. And I
made so much growth in my relationship just
through my own self-awareness. And I have a really healthy relationship.
(15:22):
And I just want to tell people about, because I always see relationship goals,
relationship goals. And I said to myself, people
really don't know what relationship goals are because they look at a picture. They
look at a kiss, they look at somebody giving somebody something, and they're like, oh
my god, relationship goals. It's like, no, you don't know what's going on behind the scenes. So
in 2019, I created a book called Relationship Goals.
(15:45):
And it was basically, on Thursdays, I would talk about
relationships on Periscope. And I just took the content from what I
talked about and made it into a book. So now 2019, I
dropped the book and then I still have this
office. You remember earlier, the plan I had about the United center
that kind of vanished a little bit because now I'm
(16:06):
speaking, I'm doing podcasting. Now I have
this office and paying $1,200 a month for, and then in
the middle of 2019, probably like June or July, I
was like, I don't really need this office. I can start
doing telehealth back then. Telehealth wasn't a thing. But
I started to prepare my clients and let them know that I'm going to
(16:27):
start seeing people on video on zoom. Right.
And, uh, and December of 2019, I,
uh, decided I was going to close the
office. And then January of 2020. I
started to see my clients online
full time. Some people didn't want to come, which I understood because it
(16:48):
was weird. Right now, it doesn't seem as weird to me on
camera, but I respected it. I got it. And
obviously, as we know, March 2020, the
pandemic hit. And so I'm on
there. Prior to the pandemic hitting and I'm home January, February,
(17:09):
I'm like, oh, I have more time now. I'm not traveling into work. I
want to do some supervision stuff because I enjoy teaching.
I love working with clinicians. I feel like we're so dope, but
I feel like we sometimes do too much and we're not taking care
of ourselves. And I really want to teach people how to do the work and do
the work on themselves. So I
(17:31):
went to an interview in February, no, it was in March. And I remember,
because I remember I was going to sign and then she wiped the pen, right? Because
during that time, we didn't really know what was going on. We were just wiping things down. And
then maybe two days later, everything shut down. So I was like, yeah, I'm not
going into nobody's office, right? So now I'm home. I'm
seeing clients. Everything's fine. In
(17:55):
2023, I'm like, all right, I'm seeing clients and I have
the capacity to supervise. I want to supervise again. So
started working at this agency and I have a whole podcast on this. I'll
link it about the systemic racism that took place there. I'm not going to
go into it, but I started working part time, not because I
was like, oh my gosh, I need to make more money. But it was like, oh my gosh,
(18:15):
I really want to do this. And I just felt like it's
easier to go work for somebody else. The infrastructure is already there. So
I'm seeing interns on my own.
So my supervisor at the time, she left. And she
left about two months into me being there. So we didn't get a chance
to work on curriculum for the interns. And so I developed
(18:38):
it on my own. And it went really well. I really enjoyed the
passion. I enjoyed teaching them, both of them. They did
not come from any background of working with people.
So I was literally, it was all brand new. And
I remember the CEO, it was so bad where
like, I wanted to leave. And at the time, I
(18:59):
just, I literally wanted to walk out, but I had clients there and I had these interns and
I didn't want to leave them. So I told myself I would try to stay
at least until May when they left just to get them through
this, this school year. Then a new supervisor came
in and she was very intimidated by
me for no reason. I told her when she came, I
(19:19):
don't want this job. I have my own practice. I'm literally here
because I enjoy teaching clinicians. And
she made my life hard and basically wanted me out. And
prior to her wanting me out, I actually
gave my notice. So I gave my notice. I told the interns, I
was like, yeah, I'm going to leave at the end of January. This is in December. I
(19:42):
told them I was going to give my notice and I was going to
leave in January, but I would get them through the holidays. And I wanted to get the clients
that had through the holidays and, um, December
20th, the day after Christmas, I was working three days a
week. I remember it was Tuesday. I came in and mind you, at that
point, I already gave him my notice. I have about four weeks left. Right. I
(20:03):
already gave my notice. They know I'm leaving. But I think they
didn't want me to leave on my terms, which
was fine, because they paid me out. December 26, I
came in, and the human resource lady was in there, and
then my supervisor. And she
was like, oh, she said you're not doing this. And I showed her the stuff.
(20:23):
And the human resource lady was just looking like, I
don't get it either. And I said to them, so this was Tuesday
morning. I was working there Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday.
So I said, all right, it's clear. Cause they had a check. They're paying me
out to January 31st. So, you know what I'm saying? Your girl's not
losing. I'm about to get payday. But
(20:46):
me and understanding mental health, I said, if I
leave here without saying bye, without closing out, I said, it's really not
fair to the clients. I said, you guys, I
get it. You don't want me here. I said, I'll leave, but
if I can please just finish out today and tomorrow so I
can try to wrap things up. The human resource lady
was like, I'm cool with it if you are. And the supervisor, I
(21:10):
know she was heated because she was like, all right, you
can stay. So if I did something egregious
that was that bad, who gets fired? And then they
say like, okay, you can stay for the next two days. It
was clearly their ego. They were pissed off that I decided to leave,
right? Which was fine, you know? And
(21:31):
even prior to me leaving, when I decided I was, I
mean, prior to them firing me, when I decided
that I was gonna leave, I remember something happened in
the meeting with the CEO and I was just like, God, why am I here? This
is wild. What's happening? And I felt in my spirit where
it was like, I want you to create your own. And then I
(21:53):
remembered my thoughts about the practice and how
I really wanted to create a wellness space, right? I
actually applied for this grant in Boston. I didn't get it. And
so I didn't get it. So I'm like, all right, I'm going to
just start stuff online. And I
visited this lady who had a private practice. And I
(22:15):
was like, oh, wow, this is nice. I think I can try
to make this work in person. And so from
December and on, I started doing
research, listening to books, writing out
a plan, and then I found the space that I have, and
I created the Wellness Center. And as I, oh
(22:37):
my gosh, like, As
I, I can't believe like this is making me feel emotional right
now. I think because I'm going through the whole story. And
as I'm creating this space, I'm
so, so nervous. I'm so anxious, right?
(22:59):
Because I've never done anything like this before. And
I kept reframing stuff in my head. I kept telling myself, I
kept telling myself, like, this is for the people. I
kept telling myself that this is why I
didn't want to do this live because this is not live because
(23:19):
I'm like, oh my gosh. I
kept telling myself, this is for the people. This is not about me. I
kept thinking about all the Black people that are in these spaces
and there's so much microaggression and there's so
much systemic racism that goes on.
And people think that they are dealing
(23:42):
with all of this imposter syndrome when it's really the environment that
they're in. And so, you
know, the way that I was treated and
for no reason, because I had knowledge and
because, you know, I'm Black, it was wild.
And I'm sure years ago when I was working in
(24:04):
spaces it was happening, but I wasn't aware back then. And
then remember, I had been out of a workspace from
2019 up until 2023. I'm hearing these stories as I'm talking to
people, but now I'm back in
this space in 2023 and I'm feeling it heavy. And
every time I think about it, I'm like, I know like, it was like,
(24:26):
yo, so like me going into that space needed to
happen in order for me to like really start to put
this into action. So now
we have the Wellness Center and my first podcast
ever, episode one that I released, I
was listening to it and it said, my name is Celeste and I just want
(24:49):
to help you shift the way you think, right? Shifting the way you think is
something I've been saying and doing for so long and it's not something
that I It's not something that I
said, oh, let me try to figure out a name. It
was just something where I realized we need to shift. People
are feeling stuck. And I always say, I
(25:12):
didn't choose this work. God chose it for me. When I was at the shelter
at 19 years old, when I started working there, I went there because
I needed money. I didn't go there because I'm like, oh, I want to help people that are struggling
with homelessness. And then from there, I realized like,
oh my gosh, I'm really good at talking to people. It just comes so natural for
me. And so, you know, from
(25:32):
there things continue to build, but it was
important for me to share that because, you know, people
look at the outcome, they look at where it is now. And
I just wanted people to know that like, it was so much that
went on to get to this point. The first thought
about this space was in 2015, and nine years later it's
(25:54):
happening. And it was because I kept putting one
foot in front of the other, and I did it scared, out
of my comfort zone, like this is something I've never done, and
I have so much hope for the future. And
when I said I kept reframing my mindset, It
was because the more I started to look at the
(26:14):
possibilities, the more I started to look at what it could
be, then what happens is my mind starts
to show it to me. So then that anxiousness just turns into
so much excitement, right? And because I work
with people, I understand how people allow the negativity
of their thoughts to get in the way. And I want to challenge you to like
(26:36):
work on reframing it. If you can work on reframing your
thoughts, your mind will start to show you the possibilities. If
you can put one foot in front of the other, your mind will
start to show you the possibilities. It wasn't social media,
being on social media, like vegging out all day that
got me here. It was me being intentional about the things that
(26:56):
I wanted to do and being diligent about
it, right? Being consistent about it. So
whatever it is that you want to do in
life, I want to encourage you to work on it.
There was a lot of hiccups. That's just part of my story that
I shared, but there was a lot of hiccups. And so I
(27:17):
seen it, I acknowledged it, I grieved it,
and I went back to the drawing board. All right, Celeste, what's next? So
I need you to tell yourself that. I want you to hear my story. And
what I want you to take from my story is that it's possible as
long as you're still breathing. I always say there's room for change, but
you got to start to write down your vision. You got to make it plain. You got to do
(27:37):
your research, whatever it is you want to do. Okay,
that's it. So happy birthday to me. I hope
this story was helpful. I really did. I really do. Um,
I hope you enjoyed it and until next time,
beautiful people. Um, I will talk to you later. So
(27:58):
don't forget also we have programming now, if you
go to S T W Y T and that stands for shifting the
way you think as T shifting the way
you think. S-t-w-y-t, yes, dot com.
And you can find me on social media at that same
name. But if you go there, you can find the different events that we're having,
(28:20):
really cool stuff that are going to be going on. And
I'm really excited. And if you do want to donate, so my goal
is to make the cost low, right? And
I wrote, if you can't afford it and you wanna come, email
us and we will make it happen. I don't want finances to
(28:42):
be a barrier to people getting stuff that they need. And
so I'm stepping out on faith, right? I'm putting that donate,
hook a sister up if you can, wanna donate a class, right?
I'm trying to make the classes like between 20 and $25. so
that I can pay the people that are gonna be running the class, cause I can't do
everything. You know, I got four kids, but
(29:05):
thank you all so much. I really appreciate the
love, the support and until next time, I
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