Picture a psychologist with 25 years in perinatal mental health — burned out from holding space for loss and trauma for decades.She needed something that was just hers. No clinical notes, no disclosure risk, no empathy fatigue. She chose floristry.And then her perinatal colleagues found out. And asked her to bring it to conferences. Then to teach it online. Now she has a waiting list of clinicians who want in.Today's guest, Carla Anderson, is a clinical psychologist who built two very different s...
Picture a psychologist with 25 years in perinatal mental health — burned out from holding space for loss and trauma for decades.
She needed something that was just hers. No clinical notes, no disclosure risk, no empathy fatigue. She chose floristry.
And then her perinatal colleagues found out. And asked her to bring it to conferences. Then to teach it online. Now she has a waiting list of clinicians who want in.
Today's guest, Carla Anderson, is a clinical psychologist who built two very different streams inside one business — perinatal mental health training for healthcare clinicians, and floristry-based therapeutic programs for clinician self-care. She didn't plan it. She followed her gut. And the market responded in ways she didn't see coming.
HERE ARE THE 3 KEY TAKEAWAYS:
1️⃣ Your Burnout Might Be Pointing You Somewhere — Carla needed something that shut her brain off after 25 years of perinatal loss and trauma work. Floristry did that. What started as self-preservation became the foundation of an entirely new program. Your burnout isn't a problem to solve. Sometimes it's a signpost.
2️⃣ The "Weird" Idea Is Often the One That Takes Off — Carla kept reverting to her safe perinatal niche because floristry felt too new, too hard to package. Then perinatal conferences kept asking her to run the floristry sessions. Fellow Incubator members asked when they could join. The market told her what it wanted — she just had to listen long enough to believe it.
3️⃣ You Don't Have to Explain Everything Upfront — People come to Carla's workshops thinking it's about flower arranging. By the end they're doing deep reflective work through metaphor. You don't need a ten-paragraph explanation. You just need to get people in the room. The experience does the convincing.
YOU'LL ALSO HEAR:
- Why healthcare clinicians (GPs, midwives, doctors) are desperately under-resourced when it comes to psychological support skills — and how Carla fills that gap
- What therapeutic horticulture actually is and the science behind why nature-based practices work
- How she structured her first beta launch (including the Valentine's Day flowers disaster that became an accidental metaphor)
- The internal flip-flopping between the safe niche and the exciting one — and how she finally stopped reverting
- What it looks like to let market feedback build your confidence instead of waiting for certainty first
- Why everything is figureoutable — including how to teach flower arranging online
RESOURCES: Connect with Carla Anderson:
- Website: www.carlaandersoncliniciantraining.com
- Facebook & Instagram: @carlaandersoncliniciantraining
- LinkedIn: Carla Anderson
Therapists Rising Programs:
- Caseload to Course Bootcamp: https://therapistsrising.com/bootcamp
- The Incubator: therapistsrising.com/incubator
- Instagram: @dr.hayleykelly
SUBSCRIBE & REVIEW: If this episode made you look at your "just for me" hobby differently, subscribe and leave a review on Apple Podcasts. Your reviews help other therapists find conversations that give them permission to build something unexpected.
You don't have to abandon what you're good at to build something new. You don't have to have it all figured out before you start. And you definitely don't have to ignore the thing that lights you up just because it doesn't fit the obvious mould.
What if the thing you thought was just for you is exactly what other clinicians need? What opens up when you stop treating your own joy as a liability?
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