16 Therapists and Life Coaches Provide Priceless Tools and Resources—All on Instagram
It’s the first day of April, and many of us are at home marinating in our own thoughts, having anxiety about the future, and wondering how to navigate our first pandemic.
We want to feel better, and we want to be better. We are urged to be productive during this time, and we are cautioned not to overwork. Mental health professionals are recommending walks outside, while experts on television are warning people to stay indoors at all costs. It is confusing and utterly overwhelming to be bombarded with so many contradicting messages all at once.
Having the luxury of speaking to a therapist or life coach regularly during times like these would be ideal for anyone.
And while you may not have a diagnosed mental illness, EVERYONE needs to take care of their mental health, especially as tensions and anxieties rise in the midst of these unprecedented times. Whether you’re in therapy, thinking about therapy, or simply cannot afford therapy at the moment, what you can do in the meantime is reflect and enact changes in thoughts and habits.
But where can you start?
These days, you won’t even need to put your phone down. The following therapists, life coaches, and social workers use their Instagram accounts to provide tools, resources, affirmations, insights, reminders, and a sense of community to their followers. Their pages are their platforms, filled to the brim with nuggets of wisdom; they serve as a reminder that resources are always available, and if you are willing to do the work, you can change your life, find purpose, and become the best version of yourself.
Their posts are not meant to replace therapy but rather to help normalize therapy, storytelling, and vulnerability.
We’ve rounded up the best. In no particular order, meet the team:
Dr. Alexandra H. Solomon is passionate about helping people show up for their relationships with compassion, integrity, and awareness. She is a clinical assistant professor in the Department of Psychology, adjunct faculty in the School of Education and Social Policy at Northwestern University. She writes articles and chapters for leading academic journals and books in the field of marriage and family, and also maintains a psychotherapy practice for individual adults and couples, teaches and trains marriage and family therapy graduate students, and teaches the internationally renowned undergraduate course, “Building Loving and Lasting Relationships: Marriage 101.” She lives in Chicago with her husband of 20+ years and their two teenagers.
Sara Kuburic is a Canadian Certified Counsellor (M.A., C.C.C.). She is a trauma-informed clinician with a person-centered approach that is grounded in existential analysis as well as somatic and experiential techniques. Kuburic specializes in areas of trauma/abuse, identity, relationships with self and others, life transitions, and anxiety. Her aim is to help you feel empowered, live freely and authentically, thrive in your relationships with yourself and others, experience healing and change, and uncover purpose in your life. Her approach to helping individuals is collaborative—grounded in openness, honesty, trust, and humor.
Dr. Mariel Buquè is an Afro-Dominican Counseling Psychologist and Adjunct Professor. Her work focuses on healing emotional wounds of intergenerational trauma and building healthier relational patterns beyond the trauma. She believes in the liberation of our minds and of oppressive systems as necessary qualities of our overall wellness.
Mastin Kipp is an American entrepreneur, best-selling author, renowned public speaker and the creator of Functional Life Coaching™. He is the author of the best-selling books Daily Love and Claim Your Power, and helps people dissolve the hidden trauma keeping them stuck and finally thrive in their life's unique purpose.
Dr. Jenn Hardy, PhD, is a licensed counseling psychologist in private practice. She completed her doctoral degree with specialized training in psychodynamic therapy, attachment theory, and career issues. Wanting to help a larger audience than could ever fit on a clinical caseload, she also addresses relationships, career-related issues, resilience, and other self-help topics. To see more of what she’s been writing and talking about, check out her website and consider subscribing to her quarterly newsletter.
Alyssa Mancao is a licensed clinical social worker who helps people with anxiety, depression, and/or trauma. She works with her clients to help them determine how their childhood and adolescent years have impacted how they experience themselves and their relationships. She teaches various coping skills to help improve their symptoms and interpersonal relationships, utilizing a mix between psychodynamic modalities, cognitive behavior therapy and EMDR, depending on each person's needs.
Mark Groves is a Human Connection Specialist. He is an emotional translator, writer, speaker and coach, whose clients range from businesses and leaders to couples and individuals. He helps each person understand their emotional matrix by mastering themselves through their words. He aims to find out what you really want, and gives you the tools to achieve your goals.
Elizabeth Earnshaw, LMFT, CGT is a marriage therapist in Philadelphia, PA. She also writes and teaches about relationships in her program Love Lessons 365. She supports individuals and couples learn how to navigate tricky relationships in a way that honors the self and others. She believes that healthy relationships are a catalyst for healthy lives and is passionate about supporting people in learning how to have them. When she's not teaching about relationships, she's working on her own at home by building connection with her husband, toddler, and dog.
More than a year ago, Nate Postlethwait began building the platform for many who had untold stories. He did this by sharing his own. The Other Side of Saved launched as a blog and podcast to remind other survivors that they are not not now, and never have been alone. Through frank discussions on complex trauma, mental health and sexuality, Nate helps others share and learn from their stories. Nate is also the founder of Story Connect Coaching, which his clients say has changed everything for them, in the best way.
Colie Taico is a psychotherapist in private practice specializing in working with people that have experienced trauma and also have abnormal eating behaviors or eating disorders. She also offers an online group coaching course, Done with Binge Eating, for people with binge eating or emotional overeating. Her approach is deeply rooted in inner child and reparenting work as well as EMDR and somatic modalities.
Sharon Peykar is a psychotherapist based in Los Angeles. She works with individuals who are facing challenges related to codependency, addiction, anxiety, and grief/loss.
Sarah Crosby’s therapeutic approach draws on aspects from humanistic and somatic theory, as well as the creative, the existential and the cultural. She currently works in private practice with people experiencing a broad range of issues such as depression, anxiety, trauma, relationship issues, body image issues, grief as well as matters specific to those in the LGBTQIA+ community. Drawing on the power of creating psychoeducation that’s both accessible and inclusive, Sarah uses her content to make mental health information accessible and interesting, while occasionally delivering hard truths in soft colors.
Natalie Gutierrez, LMFT, has worked with adult trauma survivors for over 10 years . Much of her work’s focus is on complex trauma and how attachment trauma affects the lives of children that grow into adults struggling with relationships, including relationship with Self. Natalie helps others to understand the different parts of themselves and how to show self-compassion for these parts, along with becoming more attuned to the body for self-regulation.
Seerut K. Chawla is a trauma-informed integrative psychotherapist that lives and works in London. She trained in the modalities of humanistic, person-centred, psychodynamic and cognitive behavioral therapies. As her clinical practice progressed she realized that there was a component missing in the lens through which we view people that are suffering, and this became the start of her trauma-informed practice. Seerut is a survivor too, and the trauma model was axial in her own recovery. She currently works therapeutically with individuals and groups. She is also trauma-informed coach, and incorporates a lot of coaching and solution focussed strategies in her work. The therapeutic coaching includes trauma-informed dating coaching, t-i life coaching, and self development.
Cassandra Solano, LCSW, is a licensed clinical social worker in California and a conscious relationship coach helping people get unstuck in love via online coaching in the US and internationally. She has been counseling since 2006 in various settings from drug treatment to mental health clinics. She’s been in private practice for more than a year helping people identify how their childhood trauma is impacting their adult relationships, break unhealthy patterns, and heal. She is sober over 15 years, a survivor of childhood emotional abuse, sexual abuse, domestic violence, narcissistic abuse and uses her personal and professional experience along with spiritual tools to help clients transform their lives.
Nicole LePera, PhD, delves a lot into how parents and their relationship dynamics (healthy or not) affect their children (you) later in life. Through reflection and adaptation, she helps you realize that if you want to take your relationships to the next level, some work needs to be done. Her insight can also help you make peace with relationships that haven't worked out in the past and excite you for healthier ones in the future.
You may feel that you connect with more than one therapist or life coach. Browse their pages and use their tools as you see fit. Therapist Lori Gottlieb says that “part of getting to know yourself is to unknow yourself—to let go of the limiting stories you’ve told yourself about who you are so that you aren’t trapped by them, so you can live your life and not the story you’ve been telling yourself about your life.” The pen is in your hands.
Nicole Behnam is the co-founder of Beyond The Interview. Her writing has been featured in The Hollywood Reporter, Jewish Journal, The Huffington Post, and Los Angeles Business Journal. She is also an instructor at General Assembly.