We recently had the chance to connect with Janet Heilbronn and have shared our conversation below.
Good morning Janet, we’re so happy to have you here with us and we’d love to explore your story and how you think about life and legacy and so much more. So let’s start with a question we often ask: What is something outside of work that is bringing you joy lately?
writing. I am currently re-exploring some past musings and poems with a coach to see if I want to bring this more ‘forward’ in my life!
Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
I am a psychotherapist in private practice. I love working with people as they explore the various portals that appear in their lives leading them to some known and unknown territory. I travel alongside them, offering relfection, presence and curosity as they navigate these threshold moments. I bring years of training and life experience, and I use a variety of navigation modalities to support this unfolding, drawing from experiential somatic, and relational approaches. My role is not to direct the journey, but to walk with them as they reconnect with their own inner wisdom, heal old wounds, and uncover new possiblities for living, relating and being!
Currently I am working on further training in adult attachment work!
Great, so let’s dive into your journey a bit more. Who were you before the world told you who you had to be?
I still remember feeling free and unguarded. I played a lot outside as a kid and had magical relationships with trees and water. I knew how to listen and trust the pull of my own longing. I asked big questions with a wide open heart ready for what was there to teach me. I fully believed in the invisible and I knew at a deep level I was never truly alone. I felt my belonging in a very real way.
Was there ever a time you almost gave up?
I think I would say that when I was an adolescent, I felt pretty overwhelmed and at one point hopeless around my family system. I didn’t have the skills at that time to navigate difficult situations with family and so try as I might I often felt in a continuous swirl of unresolved conflict there. I remember at one point wanting to give up mostly just to get away from the pain. I remember calling on the school guidance counselor and he came to my house to try to have a conversation between myself and my family member. That was another moment of wanting to give up as that family member couldn’t hear about my pain or my fear. I recall a friend’s mother putting her arm around me sometime after all that happened and didn’t ask me to talk, but could tell that I was hurting. I felt seen and cared for in that moment and somehow found some hope in that interaction to keep finding more of the resilience I needed to continue to move forward. I then sought out what was considered free counseling at the time and I would periodically drop in and just talk about what was on my mind to the counselor on duty. While it may not have been the most skilled therapy I ever had it was a place for me to go and start to tell the story.
I think our readers would appreciate hearing more about your values and what you think matters in life and career, etc. So our next question is along those lines. What would your closest friends say really matters to you?
My closest people know that it is important to me to see and understand them as well as to feel seen and understood.
Before we go, we’d love to hear your thoughts on some longer-run, legacy type questions. What will you regret not doing?
There are a few things I regret not leaning into earlier in my life. They include; deeper trust in my own voice, letting myself be fully seen, making MORE art, setting clearer boundaries in my personal life, more travel, more self forgiveness and saying YES more often even if others didn’t understand. I think some of these areas are getting better and continue to be a work in progress. Some days are better than others.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.janetheilbronn.com
Image Credits
Sam Angel
