04/19/2026
I came on today to talk about something different than I normally do. Since I opened up Hollie Browning Counseling, I have been eternally grateful. Sitting with clients has humbled and inspired me in ways I just don't even think I can describe. The courage, dedication, resilience and perseverance I have gotten to witness have been strikingly unforgettable as well as life changing. I can't tell you enough how inspired by people I have been throughout the years. I also can't express how happy and grateful to be the choice you've made if you are or have ever been my client. I sincerely mean that and always will.
With that being said, I am going to make some very real statements about us and what we do because it seems, clients often forget that therapists are human just as human as they are. We sit in the same room you do and at times feel the same powerlessness you do because we know you are the only one that can fix you. We live daily just as you do. We have our hardships just as you do. We make mistakes just as you do. We say the wrong things just as you do. We have bad days just as you do. We are not perfect people. We as therapists are not supposed to be perfect people. We may forget things from time to time, not because we aren't listening. Our interventions may not always make sense, not because we have stopped learning. We can't always take time off when we are having hard times because if we don't work we don't get paid, please leave common decency and room for error in the way you look at us. Most of us do attend our own therapy and have strict self care regimens (myself included) which are tremendously important to us because we want to be able to continue to hold a space for you.
Some of you naturally put us on pedal stools and hold us to unrealistic expectations. Sometimes you become frustrated or angry with the process and instead of telling us, we never see you again. Some even choose not to pay us as if our time and space was not truly worth a second glance. The one thing we try to teach you to do is face those difficulties with us, give us the constructive criticism as it comes up, it is so much more healing when we can work through those difficulties But often, we never see you again and we become some story you share amongst strangers in some facebook room. We deserve better as therapists. Therapists are held to standards you can't even begin to understand, we have a 75 page book of ethics and each one of those ethics can be interpreted 100 different ways depending on who you are asking. All of those are there to protect you so when we put forth boundaries it is to protect you because maybe no one ever has and we have to be the professional in your life. But give us some grace. The same grace we give you. For clients who want appointments, it isn't our job to reach out to you, you are supposed to reach out to us. Reason being- outpatient therapy is 100% voluntary-- you have to want to do it and if you truly don't want to, you're not going to call and that is why we don't call you because you have to want therapy. We are not in the business of forcing people and we don't want to be. You and I both know therapy is hard enough without all of that added to it. We are running a business- a business of framework and boundaries where people are not forced to get help-- they come only if they want to come. If we don't hear from you then we don't know. If you were supposed to hear from us but haven't, don't make assumptions, nasty facebook posts and/or reviews, you can absolutely reach out to us. Our doors are ALWAYS open! Human error is human error and I assure you, we want to help. At times it may be confusing and you may mistake us for friends because the relationship is a relationship and it becomes close like many others but we are still the professional in your life and always attempting to do what is best for you and when we fall short, it does bother us, we do consult, we do take our own inventories and we do try to never do that thing or those things again.
We chose our careers because we love what we do --not for praise or monetary value because we believe in people and their abilities. We choose the career to hold the space because we don't want cycles of sickness to continue. We want a happy, healthy world for all. The therapeutic relationship in itself can be very healing even if nothing else is happening -- the sacred consistency of a judgement free zone is like nothing else and nothing else is really better. But remember, we are human too and we have respected you in every space you have been in. Please remember to respect us too.
