http://www.whitneyshariati.com/

Whitney Shariati, MMFT, Franklin, TN (2025)

10/26/2022

Even the most beautiful changes can be hard ▫️▫️▫️
I recently made the tough decision to close my private practice and transition into a full time role at an adolescent IOP program! As I’ve been showered with support, encouragement, and incredible kindness from my clients and colleagues, I’m reminded time again and again just how grateful I am for the past 4 years and the beautiful souls I’ve encountered along the way🤍 As excited as I am for this new beginning, I want to close this chapter by acknowledging what a true honor it’s been to be witness so much growth and bravery as we all continue to figure out this thing called life together!

09/01/2022

CLOSED ▫️9/2-9/11▫️

06/10/2022

Headed south for some sunshine, sand, and waves☀️ I’ll be out of the office June 13th-17th and will return on Monday, June 20th!

04/06/2022

Let’s talk about stigmas. Even with more acknowledgement around the importance of everyone’s mental health over these past few years, there are still a lot of stigmas that might make someone hesitant to consider therapy as a resource (or not consider it at all). I think a lot of those ideas have centered around who goes to therapy/why someone goes to therapy.
Before my career in the mental health field, I had been to therapy a handful of times when challenging things were going on in my life. Thankfully I had great therapy experiences but to an extent it created this narrative that therapy was really for people who were unhappy, lacking skills to help themselves, feeling lost, or processing some kind of traumatic life event. Is therapy a great place to find support and gain tools for handling difficult thoughts/feelings/emotions? Of course! But does someone have to wait until they’re unhappy, feeling lost, or processing trauma to establish a supportive relationship with a therapist that they trust? Of course NOT!
Most of my clients would describe themselves as people who find happiness and enjoyment in aspects of their life, regardless of what they’re currently walking through. It’s never the wrong time to set yourself up with a strong support system helping you create a meaningful life, because that is truly an act of self-love. Life is hard and we all benefit from having safe people in our lives to walk with us through the good, the bad, and everything in between.
Does this resonate with you? I want to continue to challenge myself and you to keep asking questions around our former beliefs/ideas and giving ourselves the space to change our minds (or not) to align with our current values and highest self!

04/05/2022

When we aren’t living an authentic, values-based life it could be because to some part of us that concept brings up anxious feelings and fear to think about doing so. To make lasting, meaningful changes in our life we first have to address any fear, pain, or loss around what might happen if we actually become the most genuine version of ourselves and create a life that we love.
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Some good questions to ask yourself around this are:
~What relationships might have to change or even end?
~Who might be upset at me?
~What discomfort would I have to face or go through?
~What feelings would come up that I want to avoid?
~What am I scared of finding if I dig too deep?
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Talking through the answers to these questions is usually where our greatest work begins and therapy is a great place to explore our authenticity and so much more!

04/04/2022

Does anyone else get “should fatigue”? That’s what I call it when we catch ourselves saying things like, “I should really …”
… go to the gym today”
…get more organized”
…be more successful”
…make more money at my age”
…have more social plans”
…be more like that person I admire”
…keep up with current trends”
…know more about what’s going on in the world”
…parent my kids in this certain way”
…want to have a family”
…know what I want to do with my life”
…not be having these thoughts or feelings”
…and so on and so on and so on and so on
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Clients and I talk a lot about how we can “‘should’ ourselves to death” because it’s this sneaky thing that disguises itself as motivation or drive, but quickly takes us into a place of lack. What we’re usually saying is “I should ______ because that’s when I’ll finally be happy”.
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Here are some of the ways I’ve found helpful to combat “should fatigue”:
-connect back with my values to remind myself how I define a meaningful, fulfilling life
-take a social media break and clear my mind of what others are doing/how they’re living life
-identify any parts of myself that might more worried about what others will think of me and my decisions than I am about making myself proud
-explore that discomfort further to get to the root of why those parts are there
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Therapy is a great tool to help you explore things like this and so much more further, so that you can rid yourself of anything keeping you from being your most authentic self!

03/24/2022

This week marked the full-time beginning of the next chapter in my practice at my new office! I’ve already felt such a surge in energy and inspiration after officially closing the door (metaphorically and literally!) to the space I had been in for the past 4 years.
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As I said goodbye to that office, I couldn’t help but feel gratitude and appreciation for all of the growth that happened in that space-both for clients AND for myself. Inside those walls were breakthroughs, breakdowns, relationships rebuilt, insightful connections, hard conversations, seeds planted…and I thought I would be sad to leave it. But what makes this, and any, space meaningful are the people that have filled it.
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So, what I’m truly grateful for is every person that has walked through my office doors, whether once or a hundred times. Thank you for the work you’ve done and are doing. I’m so glad to live in a world with all of you in it. And to my clients, welcome officially to the Peach House!
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7105 Peach Ct. Suite 205
Brentwood, TN 37027

02/14/2022

Being invited into people’s inner work is a true privilege and I’m grateful for every moment that led to it becoming my career. Thank you for letting me share more about the work I get to do!
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https://nashvillevoyager.com/interview/conversations-with-whitney-shariati/

01/21/2022

Happy Friday! If you struggle with the pressure to have a “post worthy” weekend, take some time to reflect on these things and set an intention for yourself. Don’t allow negative thoughts to take away from the gift of time away from work that is meant to be for your benefit.
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Wishing you restful days of rejuvenation, reflection, & fun🤎

01/04/2022

To sit in the presence of another human and be vulnerable, talk about fear, get honest yourself (sometimes painfully so), not pretend everything is okay, challenge yourself, and give yourself permission to heal and mess up and grow and feel….this has become my definition of true courage over the years. I’m tremendously grateful and humbled to walk into another year of getting to witness these true acts of courage and strength daily with my clients. Wishing everyone a year of health, blessings, and discomfort for the sake of expansion. Happy 2022✨

12/16/2021

The best relationships are ones we go to feel supported, understood, heard, and comforted. It’s equally important that within those same relationships we’re held accountable and called to be higher versions of ourselves-even when those things are hard or painful to hear.
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Being called out when we aren’t acting in accordance with our values and goals, stings. As painful as it can be to hear (or have to say) those things, when it’s within the context of a safe, loving relationship with someone we trust, we must recognize those hard conversations as a loving response.
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It’s loving to…

▫️Let someone know when they’ve hurt us
▫️Be told that we’ve hurt someone
▫️Give/get opportunity to repair relationship
▫️Tell someone when they’ve violated your boundaries
▫️Be told that you’ve violated someone’s boundaries
▫️Point out discrepancies between someone’s behaviors and their values/goals
▫️Have someone point out discrepancies between your behaviors and your values/goals
▫️Be the recipient of a hard conversation
▫️Have a hard conversation with someone
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A relationship that reminds us that we deserve to be our best selves and encourages us to release/fix whatever is getting in our way, is invaluable. If you’ve struggled to make connections with people who will call you higher, or if you’ve struggled to healthily hold people in your life accountable-therapy is a great place to process your experiences and learn these skills so that you can have healthy relationships!

12/14/2021

con•flict / noun / a struggle or clash of interest, opinion, or principles
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Many of us have had experiences in the past that have led us to associate the presence of conflict with things like fear, resentment, doubt, and so much more towards our partners, family members, coworkers, friends, or whomever we find ourselves butting heads with. It’s important to remember that in a safe relationship, conflict is not only unavoidable, it’s NORMAL.
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Conflict itself is not the problem. Problems arise when things such as blame, contempt, or disrespect enter into the arena, and it’s important that we understand the difference between SHARING our thoughts/feelings/beliefs/perspectives/opinions/experiences WITH another person vs. IMPOSING our thoughts/feelings/beliefs/perspectives/opinions/experiences ON to another person.
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Healthy conflict looks like accepting that because no one else is you, you’ll always bring your unique experience to the table. And so will every other person you encounter or choose to do life with. It’s accepting that disagreements do not equal division. Disagreements are certain, but division is a choice. Remember: the more you cultivate safe relationships, ones that encourage you to communicate honestly and authentically, the greater the opportunity for encountering differences-but also more opportunity for true intimacy.

12/08/2021

An essential part of having healthy relationships with others is to have a healthy relationship with yourself. The way we cultivate love within ourselves will undoubtedly influence our ability to love and show up in our most important connections. Someone outside of ourselves, like a partner or a friend, is an important context in which we’re able to express and act out the love that we have always been the container for and have tapped into through our own journey of self-love. When we don’t show up for ourselves by practicing self-love, doing healing work, and taking care of ourselves, we limit our ability to show up authentically and fully present within our relationships. This is why it’s never selfish for you and your partner to tend to your individual emotional, physical, mental, and spiritual needs, and our most important relationships may even suffer when we neglect ourselves.
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Cultivating self-love is rarely a linear process. There are so many layers to unpack along the way and all of our journeys look completely different, which can make it feel overwhelming to know where to start. Because of this, therapy is a great place to work towards building strong connections within yourself and with others.
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🤎What are some ways you practice building self-love and taking care of your needs that help you show up well in your relationships?

08/16/2021

It’s easy to think through all of the costs associated with change...but what about the costs of continuing to live a life that you don’t love? We place so much emphasis on what we would have to spend on changing our lives for the better, that we don’t always think about how much it truly costs us when we aren’t living in alignment with who we know we are/want to be.
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Ever had thoughts like:
“____________ costs too much” ▪️“I have no time for __________” ▪️“I’ll start ____________ after this or that happens”...while spending hundreds of dollars a month, countless hours, and endless mental energy on things (or people) that not only don’t get us any closer to being the best version of ourselves, but that actually take us further away from it?? We’ve all been there.
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When you decide to be the healthiest and best version of yourself, there will always be costs involved to getting and staying there. Whether it’s going to therapy, strengthening your physical body, fueling with quality nutrition, spending time with mentors, expanding your knowledge through books or classes, going to the doctor, changing the way you think/act, sitting down with loved ones to have uncomfortable conversations, establishing boundaries so that you aren’t burnt out, putting yourself out there, getting real and honest with yourself, and anything else that helps you be at your best...we all choose where our resources are spent. And we have to consistently evaluate what we are prioritizing. Our health and wellbeing will always be our most important investment!
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What are some of the investments you’ve made in being your best self?

01/17/2021

Technology-1▫️Whitney-0

01/08/2021

I’m the actual worst with keeping plants alive. It took me many years of plant deaths in my home before getting the hang of caring for them. At one point I’d almost quit buying plants altogether...but, I just wasn’t willing to give up on the undeniable benefits that come along with greenery in our spaces:
▫️Decreases anxiety symptoms
▫️Reduces stress
▫️Purifies the air
▫️Fosters creativity & productivity
And so much more!
Plants may not be the only answer to increased mental health, but they play a supporting role that’s worth adding to your toolbox!
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If you have plants in your space, what contributions to your overall mental and emotional health have you noticed them providing?🌱

01/04/2021

I’m Whitney!
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A new year and several new friends around here calls for a brief introduction (and not a boring one like where I went to school and what I’m certified in...you can check my website for all that✌🏼). So, here are a few random answers to questions that no one asked about who I currently am and the life that I’ve created and love so far...
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▫️I’m a native-Nashvillian with no plans of leaving, although my heart is forever in New York City
▫️I’m a 3 coffees/day kinda girl
▫️I feel like my best self when I’m dancing to 90’s R&B (with some early 2000’s sprinkled in)
▫️My helpmate is the most genuine, consistent, fun man I’ve ever known and marriage is the best, hardest, most rewarding adventure I’ve ever chosen to embark on (*fun fact: my husband is also a therapist!)
▫️I love and adore my 3-year-old pup, Lola, but you’ll never catch me using the phrase “dog mom”
▫️I’m one of the funniest people I know
▫️One of the reasons I became a therapist was due to several positive therapy experiences in my childhood that led me to want to walk with others while they navigate life’s twists & turns...and I genuinely LOVE what I get to do
▫️I’m a human being still learning hard lessons, doing a lot of things wrong, and growing in uncomfortable (yet necessary) ways

It’s my hope that this new year is a continuum of tough but productive conversations, increased awareness, and a whole lot of empathy for ourselves and others as we learn and evolve together!

Whitney Shariati, MMFT

10/26/2022

09/01/2022

06/10/2022

04/06/2022

04/05/2022

04/04/2022

03/24/2022

02/14/2022

01/21/2022

01/04/2022

12/16/2021

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