Learn how art therapist Tori Force leveraged personal branding to transform her career path, leading to her dream role as a middle school counselor at Lakeside School. Discover the power of authentic self-expression in professional spaces.

Bio

Tori Force (she/her) is an art therapist, supervisor and licensed mental health counselor in the Seattle area. She currently works at Lakeside School as the Middle School Counselor. She is also a speaker, trainer, facilitator, and guest lecturer. She believes in art, healing, connection and spreading joy.

TRANSCRIPT

Bethany: Hello and welcome back. Today I have Tori Force, pronouns she/her. She’s an art therapist, supervisor, and licensed mental health counselor in the Seattle area. She currently works at Lakeside School as the middle school counselor. She’s also a speaker, trainer, facilitator, and guest lecturer. She believes in art, healing, connection, and spreading joy. Welcome to the show, Tori.

Tori: Thank you, thank you for having me.

Bethany: Yes, of course. So today is going to be a little bit of a two parter. Tori is a past branding client of mine back in 2022. I also know Tori from undergrad back in the day, at the very start. So we have a long history of working together in different capacities.

Tori: Yes.

Bethany: And I wanted to have Tori on the show because she has leveraged her branding and her personal brand in a really beautiful way next to her career. So we’re going to start there with the basics, and I’m going to hand it over to you and ask, like, what is art therapy? What drew you to it in the first place? If there is like a specific moment where you were like, this is definitely what I want to build my career around.

Tori: Yeah, so when I was in high school, you know, everyone’s figuring out where to go to college and I had no idea what I would do. All I really knew was that I wanted to help people and I was just super obsessed with art. I just wanted to do art and help people. Those were the two goals. But I wasn’t interested necessarily in becoming like ‘an artist’. I didn’t want to make art for other people necessarily. I just wanted to make art, but what do you- how do you do that?

And I ended up meeting some people from New York via being in a musical. And they, you know, I was telling them about wondering what to do with my life. And they were like, ‘You should look at art therapy’. Which, art therapy, you know, sort of started on the East coast and is far more prevalent on the East coast. And so it made sense that they knew about art therapy and I did not. And so I looked into it and it was like, ‘There it is, like helping people and doing art. This seems right.’ So I sort of started down that path right out of high school.

And art therapy is, I mean, as it sounds, it’s therapy but using art as like the therapeutic means for healing. So, you know, I think we’ve all experienced times that you just can’t quite express what occurred with words, good and bad, right? And so art is there to help sort of move through some of those emotions and understand them in a different way through artistic means.

Bethany: I love that. And what does that look like for you now working in a middle school plus, you know, being an art therapist? Like, what does that look like in general for you in terms of your overall practice?

Tori: Yeah, so I am the middle school counselor. We have 289 students at the middle school, five through eight. And essentially, I mean, I’m there for students for whatever they might need. Sometimes it’s just, “I’m having a real bad day and I need to talk to someone.” Sometimes it’s “That math test I just took went really bad”- you know, things like that. So students stop in, but then also we have students that have, you know, regularly diagnosed sort of challenges that they come in more regularly.

So yeah, I mean, it might look like…I’m trying to think of an example. I had a student that was just like, “A lot is going on.” And I was like, “Okay, tell me more.” And they were just like, “It’s just a lot.” So then I had them- we got paper out and markers and they chose a color for each thing that is going on and like separated it out and like drew a line and told me which of the things. And then they drew like how they all interact and how like this feeds into this and this feeds like my parents yelling at me feeds into my homework stress feeds into my lack of sleep feeds into my you know, and they started drawing the lines connecting. So we were able to start making some ideas of, you know, “Okay so if this is happening and this feeds this, then how do we undo this connection, you know?” And again they weren’t- all they were able to say with words was, “it’s a lot” and once we got markers out they were able to identify all of the a lots- and kind of parse them out so that we could start coming up with some solutions to help them.

Bethany: Hmm, beautiful. I love that. It’s like getting your brain onto paper in such an important way. I mean, isn’t that what art facilitates anyways, like an idea and a conversation.

Okay, so tell me a little bit about- I know you’re also a guest lecturer and you have a presence within the art therapy world. What does that look like for you?

Tori: Yeah, so it looks like a lot of things. What I originally kind of thought it might look like when I was going through school was being like a face of art therapy or helping people become art therapists in this really formal capacity, but it’s become far more informal. I talk about art therapy a lot, so then people might, their cousin is thinking about art therapy and they’re like, “Can my cousin call you and talk to you?” And I’m like, “Yes, you know?

I’m also the moderator of the Art Therapy Subreddit because again I was answering questions on there and they were like, “Do you want to be a moderator?” And I’m like, “Sure.” So it’s all these very informal ways, but they make sense to me and who I am. But yeah, I also guest lecture in a specific class at Antioch University. It’s called Diverse Settings. So she brings in different art therapists that operate in different settings to show this is where art therapists live. There used to be sort of the old guard of art therapy. Art therapists really only used to be like in a memory care facility, in a hospital, in a school. Like they were always in very specific places. It was like if you’re an art therapist you absolutely work in one of these places. Where now art therapists are just truly everywhere and you can be working in many different capacities and so that’s part of that diverse settings class is showing that art therapists are kind of everywhere now and it’s not sort of rigid as it used to be.

Bethany: Yeah, and just a more accepted approach to therapy in general. I mean, I’m seeing it more and more from my very outside perspective, even within, you know, private practices and just as like another approach or mode of communication right alongside other things, which is really cool. Okay, amazing.

So I want to switch a little bit into chatting about your brand journey. We worked together in, I looked it up, January of 2022 was when we put together your initial branding and started talking about your personal brand. So three years ago, which is crazy. So when you think back to those days, I’d love to just hear your perspective on your brand or presence then before we worked on putting your visual identity together, what was that like for you?

Tori: Rewinding a little bit, in November of 2021, I was feeling really lost. I was feeling very much like I had sort of conformed myself into a specific type of therapist and a specific job, and it was not being fulfilling and it was really draining. And so my solution was if I, so this job is draining and this is the job I’m going to do, whatever. But I was like, so what could be fulfilling? I was like I’ll make myself a separate piece that will be fulfilling to balance the non-fulfilling piece. And that was my solution. So that’s when I started my PLLC. You know, I was thinking I’ll make a website and I’ll sort of put myself out there and then maybe I can get, you know, speaking engagements and do workshops and help people in that realm and that will sort of feed me to sustain, you know, capitalism, job, you know?

Bethany: Yes, yep. We gotta pay the bills.

Tori: Yes, so I started putting it together and I’m a creative person, but like website and branding and all that is not the piece of creativity that lives inside me. And so, you know, I did my best, but it was still kind of like, meh, and I was like, “I don’t, I don’t like this. This isn’t helping.” And you know, and there was like moments that I was like, “I should show this to someone to see what they think, but I didn’t even want to do that much”  And I was like, okay, “Well, I can’t like make it public if I don’t want to show like my friend.” So, that’s when I reached out to you.

“I was like, okay, like I’m, it’s going to be better to get someone that is really skilled at this to do this and guide me through this instead of trying to fumble through it myself, with no success.” So that’s when I reached out to you. And then, I mean, it was just an amazing experience- I can’t say it enough. Just to have someone that like is in that mindset of like, you know, you like to start asking questions like, “What are your pillars? What are your values? Like how are we fitting this in? Why is this? Why is that?” And these were questions that I hadn’t asked myself. I was asking myself what page layout should I use, right? And so I was in the nitty gritty and that wasn’t filling anything because I wasn’t thinking about the like underlying purposes and that’s what you helped me do and then you know, used your amazing creativity to like actually create like a full brand and I was like, “This is it. This is what it needed to be all along. I just was not capable of it.” 

And yeah from there it’s, you know, I got my- so that was January- and in that month of January I was asked to be on a panel for a school. And I accepted and it was because they had found my website and I accepted. I was on this panel and at the end of the panel the lady that was running the panel was like, “We have an opening for a middle school counselor and you should apply.” And that was Lakeside. Now I work at Lakeside. Like it opened the door immediately to things like that, and now my job is so fulfilling and so amazing. I’m not having to play this game of not being fulfilled in the day and doing side projects to feel fulfilled- like working at Lakeside Middle School is the best.

So anyways, so it just like choosing to, or not choosing, but like being like made to go into the details of like why in your brand opened the doors for what is now my life and really amazing. It also opened doors, you know, I’m now on the board of a museum, Cascadia Art Museum. And again, it’s because they found my website, it drew them in. You know, my website’s filled with my why and they were like that fits so then you know invited onto the board. And yeah people find my website all the time and I’m like, “This would have never happened if it was the old website that I had made” and you know and because maybe I hadn’t even ever put it out because I didn’t- I was like embarrassed by it. So yeah, it really just opened a lot of doors and and made what I wanted my brand to be into like a real thing.

Bethany: I love that. Thank you for sharing all of that. That’s literally why I do what I do. So it’s always like so exciting to see and to see like, I think it’s important to for my work to be like years later, like this impacted your life in such a positive way and still has a lasting impact because I like to make things that do good in the world and like help other people do good. My ‘help other people’ looks different than your ‘help other people’, but I think that’s important.

Tori: Yes.

Bethany: And something else you had mentioned when we were chatting about this is that you were able to stay true to yourself and really find and lean into your brand voice, which I think is so cool. And now you’re gonna be sharing, if I can say, you’re gonna be sharing a little bit more about personal branding to your colleagues and people you work with so maybe just tell me a little bit about that evolution and how that came about.

Tori: Yeah, so I think there was a moment in maybe 2022/2023 or so after working with you when I realized that corporate America, grad school expectations sort of really dimmed me. I sort of started, I like literally changed myself a lot of pieces about myself outwardly to be accepted, I suppose, and to be respected.

And especially as a black woman, you really play this role of trying to always prove that you’re acceptable in whatever realms, especially in professional realms. So I just realized I was really dim. I mean, like, I love bright colors and I was like silly in middle school. I wore like mismatched socks and I was like super out there. And even in undergrad I was like that. But something about grad school and the professional world made me sort of start pairing that back. And I realized after you made the brand, I was like, “This is so colorful and wonderful and this is who I am.” And then I kind of looked at myself and was like, “Wait a second, this isn’t matching. It feels like it matches on the inside, but not the outside.”

And so yeah, so that’s sort of, I sort of committed to myself to get back to that piece and get back to my authentic self. And again, right, like back in November, I had decided like, “Well, I have to play this role. So then I’ll be myself out here.” And you know, and then I was like, “Wait a second, why am I not just accepting my full self all the time?” So I sort of started working towards getting back there and you know when I like interviewed at Lakeside I was like fully authentically myself and I was like, “If it’s not right then it’s not right, but I you know was not letting myself be less than I needed to be just for the sake of others or for the sake of a job or whatever.”

And yeah so the brand sort of like reinvigorated my brand, even though it was already there, it was inside, but it came back out. And yeah, it’s just like so many, I’ve seen so many examples of like when we’re our authentic selves, we get to a place that we’re supposed to be faster than we would have without that, or if at all. Like sometimes when we’re just like denying who we are as ourselves and our core beings, we’re not looking for the specific opportunities in the openings and so therefore not, you know, getting them and not accomplishing things that are actually meant for us. And yeah, I’m going to be sharing with my colleagues about some of this and about personal branding and just like how we present ourselves in the world and how we are a brand and, you know, we get to control like how we come into a room and how people see us and and how we live within our values and our strengths and all of that and how that can be a full part of ourselves. So it’ll be fun and then it’ll be a lesson that I’m doing with some rising ninth graders this summer.

Bethany: Yeah, I think that’s so exciting. It’s also exciting to think about your personal brand as something you have full autonomy over too because I think that’s like an important conversation of like- you get to choose how much of yourself and what parts of yourself you want to put out there. I think we all have kind of a professional persona in different realms. And so I think there’s a little bit of a fear or I’ve seen a little bit of a fear with like creatives or people in caregiving spaces of like putting themselves out there too much or like, well, if I do a little bit, I have to do all of it. And it’s like, no, you kind of get to choose what story you’re going to tell and what path you go down. And I think that’s just as powerful as choosing to not put yourself on the side, you know, like you were previously, like as a side hustle kind of thing too. I think there’s an interesting balance there.

Tori: Yeah, yeah. And I think, you know, for some people, like you’re saying, some people do want to have sort of professional persona and sort of leave the personal behind and just me as myself, like I leaving parts of parts of me behind is like heavy and like hard. I almost can’t help but show up authentically. And that’s what I realized was like the piece that was draining was holding part of myself back was what was actually draining me, not the job itself. Yeah, so the more I can show up authentically, the better. I, you know, and now in spaces that’s just where it’s at. Like it’s what I am and it’s who they are and we can just be that. And it’s hard for me to be in spaces where I can’t just be myself.

Bethany: Yo on that same like thread, because you’re going to be speaking to colleagues about embracing this, what would you say to like other therapists or other creatives who are really feeling unsure about how to show up on in their business and their professional sphere, whether they’re building a personal brand or a business or whatever it might be like, what would be your advice to them?

Tori: When we’re working with the right people and when we’re around the right people, you know, the phrase of like, ‘you’ll never work a day in your life’, like it is true that like when you are in sort of symbiosis with the people that you’re working with, it no longer feels like work. It no longer feels draining or taxing. It flows and it’s right and it, you know, builds energy as opposed to draining. So I think, you know, while it is, it is scary to like be authentic and be real and and like let yourself out there. But it brings forth the things that it needs to bring forth and in the end it is beneficial. And if you’re around the right people, it, you know, should feel less and less scary is kind of the hope, I suppose.

And specifically in the helping field, I think it’s changed a lot. Even when I started grad school, it was like, you know, you’re supposed to be a blank slate. Don’t bring your opinions into the room as a therapist. Like you’re there for the client. And I agree with that in some realms. But for the most part, therapy is about the relationship between the therapist and the client. And if you aren’t showing up authentically, how can you expect them to show up authentically?

And if you have things that put up barriers between you and the client because of beliefs or opinions or whatever, then you’re not actually able to help them and then the relationship’s not there and the success is not gonna come. So I think it pays off more to be authentic, to show up authentically, and then the right people will be in your chair and then the right people can get help from you. And we don’t need to be, I used to be like, everyone’s a friend, everyone should like me and…that’s not the truth. We don’t need to like everybody and we don’t need to be connected to everybody. We need to be connected to the people that are supposed to be in our lives. And then the people that were not supposed to be in our lives have other people that they are supposed to be in their lives. We all have someone and it’s okay to have these people and not those people, you know.

Bethany: Mm hmm. Yeah, yeah. I like to call it like finding your people or like our people. I think it’s just so important to know that that’s how it is. Also, this is such a segue, but I love what you said. But when you’re talking about the blank slate, I just had this conversation to do ever watch Couples Therapy, that show where like Dr. Orna.

Tori: No, I haven’t.

Bethany: Oh, dang it. Okay, well, she’s like so blank slate in her approach, like, you know, just like listens and doesn’t really guide, which I know is like a different approach to therapy. But I just had this conversation with another therapist who was like, “Yeah, that’s not my style. Like, I’m going to be sending some guiding phrases like through.” They’re like said that that’s very old school. It’s so needed now, like in every possible space of helping people is like listening, but also you know, having some sort of connection or guidance along the way, no matter what. If you haven’t watched it, it’s interesting. It’s fascinating, like to see it, to see couples therapy, like people like agree to be filmed. And I’m like, oh, my gosh, wow. I mean, They show up. They it’s full. It’s full.

Tori: I’ll have to check it out, yeah. Wow. That’s deep, yep.

Bethany: Okay, well, I’d love to just wrap up by having you share something that you’re super proud of, that you didn’t imagine possible. And then also what’s going on? What are you looking forward to? Like what’s happening for you in the near future that you’re like really excited about?

Tori: I was almost gonna like apologize for tooting my own horn, but I’m not going to apologize. I truly, I know you literally asked me to, it’s not just so funny. You asked me to tell you good things about myself and then I was like, I better be humble about this. Ridiculous. We don’t need to do that. I think that I’ve really transformed what therapy looks like in the middle school.

My goal last year was, like my first year there I was like, okay, I’m figuring this out. I gotta find my bearings because I wasn’t given anything like ‘this is how this job is done.’ It was just like, “We don’t really know how he did the job before you, so just do it.” And so I really had to kind of find my bearings, build some like formal processes for myself first. Then the second year I was like, there were times in the first year where I was just sitting in my office sort of waiting for students to come. And while that is what a therapist is mostly, like we sit in our office and then they make an appointment and then they come in to the appointment. I was like, at a middle school, it’s gotta be different.

And so I sort of set a goal last year to get therapy outside of the therapy office. And I started doing exercises with like the whole school, like the whole school talking about self care or the whole school talking about emotions or you know, the whole sixth grade talking about friendships or the whole seventh grade talking about identity and doing, you know, assemblies and activities and things like that. And it really transformed the students and how they talk about mental health, but also transformed the faculty and how they talk about mental health. I started talking to the math department about doing deep breathing before math tests and stuff like that.

Mental health was being integrated into regular classes and that was what I was hoping for. I feel really proud about that. Some of the activities at the beginning I was like, “Okay, self care.” But by the end of the year it was like, “This is so fun, this is so cool!” And we were like talking about like anger or like anxiety and they were like, this is great. So like the students also like, it’s less like of a chore to talk about therapy and it’s more of like this collective experience, which I think is really beautiful as well. So yeah, so I feel really proud about that.

You know, Lakeside’s going through a strat plan, like a short term strategic planning, and mental health is integrated in almost every pillar of the strat plan, which again, is just really amazing that they’re finally, it’s going from talk to action. They always talk like, “We have to care about our students and their mental health and make sure they’re good,” but now it’s actually integrated in some of these action plans and that to me is the biggest goal I think for any school and I know that I played a role in that so that makes me excited. Yeah, super, it’s just super cool. 

Bethany: That’s interesting.

Tori: Yeah, super, it’s just super cool. 

Bethany: It is super cool. Tori: Yeah, so I think that and then going forward, I mean, I’m still just gonna be doing this middle school thing, so fun. I’m teaching at a summer enrichment program for Seattle Public School students. And that’s gonna be really fun. And then, you know, I’m still in the process of writing a book. And so I’m working on that and, you know, it’s slow going, but it’ll get done someday. And then, yeah, becoming a supervisor. I’m excited about that too. As a more formal process of helping people get into the art therapy field and understand it. And specifically, you know, I really want to bridge some of the gaps with supervision. You have to pay for supervision yourself and it can get really expensive. And so I, you know, kind of want to try to offer different packages and deals and things like that to help people get on their feet and get their supervision to become licensed. So yeah, so just some future goals.

Bethany: Incredible. Okay, amazing. And if people wanted to follow along or find you, where would they do that?

Tori: Yes, on my amazing website, forcearttherapy.com.

Bethany: Perfect. Okay, amazing. Thank you so much for taking the time to share about your experience working with me, but also like how it’s gone. I think that these are important things for people to see and to see the evolution of a brand as it moves through like ‘regular jobs.’ Like I think there’s like this weird, you have to have a private practice or be an entrepreneur, but I think, you know, a brand can support you through all types of career moves.

Tori: Definitely.

Bethany: Yeah, so I just appreciate you sharing all of that.

Tori: Yeah, I’m happy to be here and share and I don’t know, just celebrate us two women doing the thing.

Bethany: Us two doing the thing! Amazing.