Since high school, Jessica Sinarski knew that she wanted to be a therapist. She found that empathy was a strength of hers and she wanted to lean into it. She originally didn’t want to work with kids but that all changed during an internship she had in graduate school at Boston College. She thought that she would work in the marriage and family counseling space or in premarital counseling but then everything shifted when she had a couple of kids in foster care on her caseload. Jessica recalls, “I found my calling.”
Jessica is a Licensed Professional Counselor of Mental Health (LPCMH) and a highly sought-after therapist, speaker, and instigator of hope. Her extensive post-graduate training and 15+ years as a clinician and educator led her to create the resource and training platform called BraveBrains which is “a resource and training platform for K-12 educators and beyond. Using innovative solutions rooted in brain science, we empower children and adults to reach their full potential.” In this podcast, Jessica discusses her academic and professional journey, how the mission and vision of BraveBrains has transformed over the years, and how she makes Social Emotional Learning (SEL) practical, available, and easy to understand for parents and professionals.
During her internship at Boston College, she was at the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (MSPCC). Jessica shares “there were several kids in foster care on my caseload, and it was just heartbreaking. Growing up’s hard enough. And then there not only was there instability at home, but these seemed to be the kids that got passed around professionally as well and that broke my heart.” Her first job out of graduate school was at a foster adoption child welfare support agency in the South Bronx in New York City “and it became very clear, very quickly that I didn’t know what I needed to know to be helpful” so she studied to become certified as an adoption therapist. She also learned about attachment in the brain and Dan Siegel and Tina Payne Bryson’s work around The Whole-Brain Child and making brain science really accessible. Jessica worked alongside Jonathan Baylin who is ”just a brain nerd, he just loves neuroscience. He’s a clinical psychologist and the author, co-author of a couple books and we would, we would talk about this stuff.”
Jessica is the author of multiple books including Your Amazing Brain, the award-winning Riley the Brave series, and Light Up the Learning Brain. One of her newest books is Riley the Brave’s Big Feelings Activity Book: A Trauma-Informed Guide for Counselors, Educators, and Parents. She admits “it’s kind of funny to me that I’m a therapist who writes kids’ books now. I mean, I write other books too, but I didn’t like therapeutic kids’ books. I very rarely found one that I liked. There are more out now that are great, but I struggled to find things that kids could relate to and so, I guess, that’s part of my passion now is how do we make the tough stuff a little less tough?”
Jessica offers a multitude of advice to those interested in the field of psychology, social work, and especially those interested in opening their own practice or business. She points out “I haven’t seen a school yet that actually talks about or has a course on how do you open and run and maintain a business or a practice.” So, she says don’t be afraid to ask for help. She states, “You don’t have to have everything figured out” and remember “the value of collaborating and networking, especially if you’re going into private practice like solo private practice because it can be so lonely.”
What other advice does Jessica offer? Pay attention to what lights you up. She says, “Pay attention to your passion because you’re much more likely to be persistent with it if you are passionate about it, that’s grit 101, right?” In response to my question “what’s one of the most important things you’ve learned in your life thus far?”, Jessica responds “we can’t give what we don’t have and so doing the healing work ourselves is essential…I think it’s just essential that we know and heal ourselves if we’re trying to be people who know and offer healing presence to others.”
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https://vimeo.com/855875080
Interests and Specializations
Jessica Sinarski has extensive post-graduate training and over 15 years as a clinician and educator both, of which, have led her to create the resource and training platform called BraveBrains. Jessica makes social emotional learning practical, equipping parents, and professionals with deeply trauma-informed tools. Jessica was awarded the national Voice for Adoption Drenda Lakin Memorial Award in 2021 in recognition of her valuable post-placement support and services to families who have achieved permanence for children in the child welfare system.
Education
Bachelor of Arts (BA), Psychology and Spanish (2003); Taylor University, Upland, IN.Master of Arts (MA), Counseling Psychology (2005); Boston College Lynch School, Chestnut Hill, MA.
Other Sources and Links of Interest
Jessica Sinarski @AmazonJessica Sinarski: National Center Youth IssuesDr. Dan Siegel's Hand Model of the Brain
Podcast Transcript
00:00:14 BradleyWelcome to the Master’s in Psychology Podcast, where psychology students can learn from psychologists, educators, and practitioners to better understand what they do, how they got there, and hear the advice they have for those interested in getting a graduate degree in psychology. I'm your host, Brad Schumacher, and today we welcome Jessica Sinarski to the show. Jessica is a licensed professional counselor of mental health, author, speaker, instigator of hope, and founder of BraveBrains. Weaving user-friendly brain science into everything she does, Jessica ignites both passion and know-how in audiences. She partners with school districts and child welfare agencies around the world to unlock resilience in children and adults alike. Today, we will learn more about her academic and professional journey, more about BraveBrains and her new book, as well as how to make brain science accessible and understandable for both parents and children. Jessica, welcome to our podcast.
00:01:13 JessicaThanks for having me, Brad. I'm. Glad to be here.
00:01:15 BradleyWell, thank you for taking time out of your busy schedule to be with us. I'm excited to talk about your journey. The first thing I want to ask you is can you tell us a little bit more about your journey and what led you to become a Licensed Professional Counselor in Mental Health (LPCMH)?
00:01:32 JessicaSure. So, I am one of the rare people I feel like who didn't change majors. I kind of knew from, from toward the end of high school that I wanted to be a therapist, that really appealed to me. I think as is true for many in the helping fields, my own trauma background probably played into it. And I had gotten some help as a kid. And found that, you know, empathy was a strength and so just was excited about leaning into that a bit. I think if I had to do it over again knowing I didn't know that I wanted to work with kids necessarily. In fact, I thought I didn't want to work with kids. And if I had known the path, I would end up on, I would have gone the licensed clinical social worker route. But we don't know these things when we when we're on our journey and it's been fine.
00:02:34 BradleyAnd I don't think, you know, where you ended up, whether or not you had one or the other, probably wouldn't have made a huge difference.
00:02:43 JessicaNo, I think the only reason I mentioned that is particularly in the child welfare field because and moving states a couple of times as I did as an adult, that the license as a as a master's level mental health professional master's level counselor is different from state to state whereas the clinical social work license is much more widely recognized and uniform. And I think that that sort of red tape hoopla would have been a smoother experience.
00:03:21 BradleyNo, that's a very good point, because what, what some states view as an LPCMH may view as a different certification as well as some other certification. So, let's return to your academic journey. I did notice that you received your BA in psychology and Spanish from Taylor University. So, tell us a little bit more about your undergraduate experiences and when did you know that psychology was for you? Was it even before your undergrad?
00:03:48 JessicaIt was. It was so in high school it really. This is like the little-known fact at one point I wanted to be an actor, singer-songwriter. As happens so but I'm also like super practical. So, I didn't I decided I didn't want the busy lifestyle that would be needed for that. I wanted a more flexible career and that was one of the things that appealed to me about being a therapist in particular is that sort of like, to some extent, make your own hours, and I knew I wanted a family, and so thinking ahead about what that could all look like factored in. So, then I went into undergraduate right out of high school with psychology and Spanish as majors. I have had, I had wanted to learn Spanish well since I was a kid, my best friend in kindergarten spoke Spanish and I you know little me just wanted to learn. I had a little notebook that I would write down words in, so I took Spanish in high school and then again in college and continued to in my adulthood, try to become fluent. I wouldn't say so. I speak Spanish, you know, I get rusty when I'm out of practice for a while and all of that, but that was also important to me.
00:05:11 BradleyYeah, it is true, especially with the languages use it or lose it…
00:05:15 JessicaSo true.
00:05:16 Bradley…because if you don't use it on an everyday basis. So,
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