Jennifer Williamson, LPC
Recovery Services Administrator

Hindsight they say is 20/20. Well twenty years ago I would have never imagined I am where I am now, doing what I do. Looking back at life sometimes I think I have somehow snuck several into my one lifetime. I have certainly had a lot of different jobs. Summer fire fighter, dude ranch horse wrangler, starving artist, furniture repairwoman and crisis phone counselor are a few of the more, colorful ones. I have also had many homes. My brothers and I tried to count once, and before I graduated high school the count was around 13. I continued my nomadic life as an adult moving from Washington State to Hawaii, then to Phoenix. My husband chose Phoenix, I was agreeable to anything as long as there was a graduate school. We have lived here now for over 11 years. Phoenix may not be my birthplace but it is my home.

In Phoenix things started to change for me or more accurately, I started to change. One of the constants in my life had always been fear. I grew up afraid. I did not have a specific fear, I was afraid of everything. I was afraid of my dreams. I was afraid of life and afraid of death, afraid of relationships and afraid of being alone. I was afraid of moving forward and succeeding, I was afraid of moving forward and failing. I was even secretly afraid of something I loved all my life, horses.

With a strong belief, my husband supported me in buying a horse. I began owning and facing my fears. The more fears I faced the more I understood the role they had in my life. Each fear or crisis I survived I did because I was loved, supported and believed in. Each fear I conquered gave me the strength to face another. Eventually I gained clarity in what to do with my life and enrolled in graduate school with the desire to help others through their fear.

Now as an experienced therapist I find myself at META working with the Home Recovery Team. By learning first hand how crisis can be a period of amazing growth I now find myself in a position to pass that knowledge on to others (see what I mean about that hind-sight thing).  Life may never be without struggle, I can’t control that. I will however continue to struggle “well”.