Today we’d like to introduce you to Erin Lingle.
Hi erin, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I’ve always known I wanted to help people and have really been drawn to people my whole life. I wouldn’t have known to call it this then, but the psychology of people was very intriguing to me. And, so, since I was young, I’ve been noticing, observing, paying close attention to the ways people behave, how they interact. Relationships in particular were very important and inspiring to me. When I was a teenager I was a camp counselor (still the best job I’ve ever had) and really loved working with the campers. And, then I spent about twenty years working as a volunteer with adolescents. The main thing I was doing with these youth was being in relationship with them, listening to them, being a mentor to them, and really just being involved in their lives. I also spent thirteen years as a stay-at- home mom raising my three children, which was great preparation for the job I do now. Then I went to graduate school when I was thirty-nine years old. It seemed that life was giving me a new opportunity, a new chapter was emerging, and I decided to study Marriage and Family Therapy as someone who was always interested in relationships. I realized I wanted to support people in that way, too.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
Definitely, no, the road has not been smooth, but I think I’ve been lucky to have lots of good people pave the way for me. When you go to school to become a therapist, you finish graduate school but you’re not even half way there actually. What a lot of people don’t know is that you can work as a therapist but it’s years until you can act independently and become licensed. You have to do really some of the most difficult work with some of the clients who are struggling the most because of how the system is built. Which makes it a great learning experience but you really are kind of thrown into the deep end. I’ve always said you feel like you’re working in the trenches for probably the first two to four years. After that, many people become eligible to take the big exam and get licensed and that’s when they can niche down if they want to become a specialist, which is what I did as someone who works with couples and people in relationships. Marriage and Family Therapy is already considered a speciality in the field of psychotherapy. In 2021, after so much shifted post-COVID, I started my own business. In that time of major transition, it became more available to me because I could work virtually and I was licensed in a couple of states at that point. So, instead of being limited to the local market, I could see people from all over the state and that really helped.
Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about East River Couple & Family Therapy?
I work with individuals, couples, and families. Sometimes people think a Marriage and Family Therapist only works with people who are married or only works with families but that’s most likely because the title is misleading, but it really means we’re trained to work within systems. So, in my work I see quite a few couples, some families, and a lot of individuals. All of my clients are working on their relationships, so, relational intelligence for example is a big part of the work I do. Helping people to understand the differences between emotional intelligence and relational intelligence and how to be more savvy in their relationships so they can be fulfilled and happy and content in those relationships. I do traditional work in the sense of a weekly therapy session, but I also offer what’s called intensive therapy. That’s when we do longer sessions less frequently and I offer that in-person in Richmond. That’s where you can do a really deep dive, really deep, rich work. I would say it’s a model that is less known but seems to be growing in popularity and that can be a great offering as well. Because of some of my early training, I’m really comfortable working with what we might call multiple constellations of relationship structures and that can look like a lot of different things, but it’s not limited to monogamy or marriage, per se. Though I do work with many clients within more conventional relationship structures, too. I also really love working with people who identify as neurodivergent; I’m really comfortable with that. Especially people who feel like they don’t fit in. Life is difficult for them on many levels and I try to really normalize that experience for them and help them to know that they belong; that this world can work for them, too. Since I call myself a relationship therapist, I work really hard to develop a strong relationship with my clients. It’s a particular type of relationship, of course. But, I live what I teach and coach my clients to do as someone who holds my relationships as the most important thing in my life personally. And, so, I think that’s always helpful when the person running the thing actually lives that way, too.
Can you talk to us about how you think about risk?
I’m generally not much of a risk-taker actually, so I even surprised myself in starting a small business and it was a really scary step for me. It is inherently risky, I think, to start a small business, especially when there’s a lot of competition. For sure, with therapists there are a lot of big conglomerates that we are up against. But, of course, the main thing, the most important thing is that people get good therapy; that everyone has access to good therapy. So, if that comes through one of those groups, or comes through me or one of my colleagues who owns a small business, well, it doesn’t really matter to me where it comes from, but it is challenging. It makes it a bit harder for the small business owner. So, you’ve got to be willing or able, both I guess, to take a risk. And, there is risk. So, work hard, get a lot of support, network with people and you can be successful, you can make it work.
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