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Stepping Up The Game - 8-29-07

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. ” -Marianne Williamson

Name: Jessica Grippo

Age: 24

Occupation: Holistic Health Counselor

Did you go to college?

Yes – I got my B.A. from New York University and then went on to the Institute for Integrative Nutrition, affiliated with Columbia University’s Teachers College.

What did you study?

I went to the Gallatin School of Individualized Study at NYU and my concentration was in Psychology, Sociology, and Gender Studies.

At the Institute for Integrative Nutrition I got my certificate in Holistic Health Counseling.

Where do you work?

I work at an amazing women’s health center called Laughing Sage Wellness, which offers a unique approach to women’s healthcare. As health counselors trained in holistic nutrition and women’s self-care, we offer women our simple five-step method for changing their diet and using food medicinally to balance hormone levels and eliminate menstrual and sexual health symptoms. We teach our clients to understand why their symptoms are happening and empower them with the tools they need to take charge of their healing process.

Where are you from?

I spent the first few years of my life in West New York, New Jersey and then my family moved to the small town of Wood-Ridge, New Jersey, where I grew up. Although I’ve lived in New York for the past 6 years, I don’t deny my Jersey roots!

Why did you pick this career?

It wasn’t really about “picking” this career, as much as it was about getting in touch with what I really wanted and then aligning myself with a career that fit. It took a lot of doing the wrong jobs to discover what the right one was.

My original intention when moving to New York was to become a professional ballerina. I was studying at the Joffrey Ballet School at the time and took a full year after high school to continue training, but soon discovered that the profession was too restrictive and that I wanted to explore other things.

And so I entered NYU with an “undecided” major. I knew that I wanted to help people, but I wasn’t sure in what capacity that would be. As I began taking classes in psychology and sociology, I wasn’t happy enough with either to decide on a major, so I transferred to the school that allowed me to design my own concentration. I chose to study what interested me and took a lot of interdisciplinary courses that focused on women’s issues and the body-mind connection.

After graduating, I started working full time in a 9-to-5 office job for a restaurant chain. I had been working part time for them during college, so it was the natural progression. But a few months into it, I was miserable. That’s when I started to realize I had my own health issues I needed to deal with, which would eventually lead me to my career in health counseling.

What are your future plans for your career?

I plan to focus more on working with young women who have body image issues. It’s really disheartening for me to see how girls at younger and younger ages begin hating their bodies and start dieting or engaging in more destructive behaviors in pursuit of molding their figures to fit unrealistic ideals. Without realizing it, destructive eating behaviors, which go along with lots of negative thinking, can have serious effects on women’s hormonal and reproductive health later on in life.

I’m really inspired to empower young women to love, accept, and see the beauty in their bodies while connecting with their cyclical natures.

How did you get involved in this career?

It was actually because of my own health issues that I discovered holistic health counseling even existed. When I was 18 years old, I was diagnosed with polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS) because I wasn’t getting my period. I spent the next 5 years on the birth control pill and other medication to “regulate” my cycle. It just didn’t feel good to me that I was ingesting these foreign hormones into my body everyday. I wanted to understand the underlying causes for my body’s imbalance, rather than putting a band-aid over it all.

This led me to meet Alisa Vitti, the founder and director of Laughing Sage Wellness, who guided me on my own healing journey and opened up a whole new approach to food and my body that changed my life completely. Not only was I feeling so much better physically and emotionally, but I had also found the structure from which I could build my own career. I remember sitting across from Alisa in one of the first few sessions we had, thinking to myself, “I want to be sitting in her chair someday.”

How did you prepare yourself for this career?

Without realizing it, I had been preparing for practically my whole life by taking on the role of a counselor with my friends and family – I just wasn’t getting paid for it! Once I realized that it could become my profession, I registered at the Institute for Integrative Nutrition and later started interning at Laughing Sage Wellness. Alisa was extremely supportive and encouraging and pushed me to just throw myself into it. Only a few months into my internship and she had me speaking on a women’s health panel at Baruch College!

In terms of more concrete actions that I took, my undergraduate studies in psychology, sociology, and women’s and body issues (which I originally had thought would have no relevance to anything in my future) ended up helping me a lot. Also, my background in dance taught me a lot about being self-motivated and being in tune with my body.

What are the downsides to this profession?

When you don’t have a boss that puts you on a strict time schedule and sends you a pay check every other week, you really need to be self-motivated and learn to manage your time well.

It also can be emotionally draining to counsel people and be exposed to different energies all the time, so it’s important to know how to breathe and separate yourself from others’ energy fields.

What is a typical workday for you?

Every day tends to be different, but it is usually some combination of having client sessions, working on administrative duties, marketing, and networking. Some of the highlights for me are the days when I see clients or run workshops. On other days, I do administrative work for Laughing Sage Wellness. The workday never really ends, though, because anyone I meet is a potential client or contact. Part of the job requires me to be out and about networking with people, whether I go to formal networking events or just attend my regular yoga and dance classes.

How might this job be a stepping stone to other professions?

Being a health counselor puts you in contact with people from all walks of life. You may work with a client who introduces you to a new field of work or you may decide to incorporate other skills into your own practice. It is a dynamic, open career that is constantly evolving along with you.

What is the single-most important piece of advice you can offer a person pursuing this career?

I believe that for anyone who wants to get into a healing profession, it must start with your own health and desire for personal growth and development. The best way to learn how to help others is to help yourself. But don’t think that you have to be 100% healthy to become a health counselor – It’s actually quite the opposite. The best health counselors have been through a lot themselves and never stop growing and adapting. Rather than trying to reach a goal of health, it’s about being engaged in the process of healing and continually striving for balance.

I would also encourage anyone pursuing any career to not get frustrated if you feel like you are lacking direction. I wasted a lot of time during college and after graduation being worried about finding the right kind of career because I thought I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life. I was jealous of my classmates who had more straightforward majors like nursing or accounting because they had jobs when they graduated. But the more I followed my desires – even if they seemed irrelevant in the beginning – the more I got in tune with what I wanted, and things began to fall into place.

What steps do you recommend to someone who is planning to pursue this career?

Continuing what I was saying above – If you want to be a holistic health counselor, the best way to start is to do a program with a counselor for yourself. Learning how to care for and support your own body will give you experience, give you clarity of mind, and familiarize you with what the profession entails.

I would also contact schools like the Institute for Integrative Nutrition and talk with people who work there to find out how to start your training.

What professional or community volunteer organizations are you currently a member of?

I volunteer with Step Up Women’s Network, an awesome non-profit organization that provides underserved teenage girls with empowerment and health programs. It’s great because it puts you in contact with so many amazing women and you also get to meet and mentor teenage girls.

If you would like to contact Jessica to find out more information on her profession feel free to contact her at Jessica (at) laughingsagewellness.com

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