Lisa Love, MSW, LCSW, CBIS
Therapist
Gina Thorne: Hi everyone, welcome to the Harmony Foundation podcast series. My name is Gina Thorne, and I’m the chief marketing officer here at Harmony. And I’m pleased today to be joined with Lisa Love, who is the owner-operator of foundations of Hope, Health, and Wellness out of Casper, Wyoming. Welcome, Lisa.
Lisa Love: Thank you Gina, it’s a pleasure to be here.
Gina Thorne: Very excited to have you here all the way from Wyoming. We’re going to talk a little bit today about the nature of your practice and your work that you do. You do have a pretty amazing story to talk about as it relates, and I think you brought this up a little bit earlier with some of our staff, but also on your website about this idea of discovering resiliency. And I was wondering if you could share a little bit about your journey of pain and recovery, and how resiliency played a part in that.
Lisa Love: I would love to. Really looking at … Part of my journey was, at 19 years old I was in a very severe car accident, being in a rollover and then ejected out, and then the vehicle impacted me. Spending two-and-a-half years in physical rehabilitation and recovery, and having a neurodegenerative condition as a result that’s going to be a lifelong process.
And really looking at pain management, and how people live their life with pain, rather than pain living their life is a process. And it is something that I came to about 10 years after my car accident. And I moved to the mountains, and I really had to wrap my mind around that this was going to be a permanent condition, and that because I’m not scarred, that people don’t see the painful process.
And so, resiliency is really looking at how you live your life with pain, and how you focus on the positive aspects of life, how you really focus on the positivity of, words have energy and being able to move forward and doing what you can, rather than succumbing to what you can’t.
Gina Thorne: Mm-hmm (affirmative). It’s an interesting concept because I’ve had several people that I’ve worked with in the past who have done more workaround pain, and one person referred to it as basically what you said, which is, “You’re never going to be completely absent of pain, however you can live with pain recovery.” There is an idea of having pain recovery, and how do you manage it, versus … And figuring out how to have a quality of life without recognizing that it may be a part of your life, it’s just a matter of how you shift the paradigm around that.
Lisa Love: Right.
Gina Thorne: And that’s what I’m hearing you say, is that a big part of that is just shifting the paradigm from, “This is going to be a part of me in a negative way,” versus, “How can I embrace this into a positive and make it a positive experience versus a negative experience?”
Lisa Love: Absolutely. Management is that, a holistic management. It’s about really realizing what pain does to the brain, to the mind, to the heart, to the body, the spirit and the soul, and really being able to encapsulate that and to regenerating and moving forward, again, with what you can do rather than what the deficits have resulted in, what you can’t do.
And so it’s a forward movement, definitely.
Gina Thorne: Always a forward movement, isn’t it? You can never go backwards.
Lisa Love: Yeah.
Gina Thorne: So, you shared on your website that you engage people to tap into their resiliency, meaning, balance, harmony, and growth. Which I loved. Do you feel this is something that we struggle with in the world today?
Lisa Love: I do, I feel like, with the uprise of technology, that there is becoming a disconnect with the humanness of people, and with relationships. Not only with their self, but others in the environment. And really looking at bringing that meaningfulness back in, that meaningfulness, the productiveness, and purpose and direction. And being able to look at challenges, adversities, traumas, and turning those into successes, victories, and triumphs.
Gina Thorne: Mm-hmm (affirmative), I like that, thank you for sharing that.
And so you also mentioned on your website, which I thought was interesting because I had never heard of this before, but it’s a concept called Logotherapy. A therapeutic approach that was developed by Victor Frankel, of course who is the iconic psychiatrist and neurologist, and a Holocaust survivor.
And he says, “The freedom of will, the will to meaning, and the meaning of life are the tenants of this therapy. Choice, values, and freedom. Life is a learning and changing process.”
Lisa Love: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Gina Thorne: So how do you take that concept of Logotherapy as a therapeutic approach with clients that you’re working with?
Lisa Love: Well, really looking at that process is really helping them to embrace what their challenge is, whether it’s a challenge in adversity, a trauma, a physical deficit. Really being able to help them embrace that, and how to turn that into a success. And how to extrapolate meaning out of that, but for the situation, then something else would not have transpired.
And so, most often times, out of trauma there can be that triumph. And so it’s really working with that person and the positive values, and helping them understand the power of words, nature, the holistic part of that is nutrition. And really being able to help them self-care and realize how important their self is, their self to others and to the environment.
And it really helps to change a perspective. And that’s what it is, is looking at learning, growth, and changing a perspective into a positive force.
Gina Thorne: It feels very much like a positive psychology approach that you’re taking. It really feels like you’re, like we talked offline about, that this concept of thinking about the future and feeling more forward thinking, versus living in the past of your trauma and your pain all the time.
Lisa Love: Right, right. Because, you know, when you’re looking at trauma and pain, you’re looking at a lot of emotions that are very negative. And when you’re stuck with that, there is … There has to be hope, there has to be a hope in order to overcome. And really, looking at making pain into white noise. Because we have white noise in our life.
Gina Thorne: All over the place right, it’s everywhere.
Lisa Love: Right, right. And so, really making pain into that white noise and being able to be present enough in the situation with another person, that the pain is going to be there. Pain free, especially with certain conditions, is just not possible. And so being able to make that white noise, and engage and connect with things that have more power.
Gina Thorne: I like that. Wow, that’s wonderful. So, we were talking offline a little bit ago about how you’re a big antique collector. And I guess you’ve been doing this for a long time.
Lisa Love: 20 years.
Gina Thorne: 20 years. So I’m going to ask you a tough question, what is your most favorite antique piece that you own?
Lisa Love: Well, my most favorite antique piece is my grandmother’s organ, and I believe it is an 1890 pump organ, and that is my most favorite piece. And it’s beautiful to look at, but it has more beautiful memories.
Gina Thorne: Did you play it at all when you were a kid?
Lisa Love: I did.
Gina Thorne: You did?
Lisa Love: I did play it, and my grandmother played it for many, many years before she had an electric organ. But she played it for many years, so it’s very special, it’s very cherishable.
Gina Thorne: Sounds like it’s got great memories.
Lisa Love: Yes.
Gina Thorne: What is it about antiques that you like?
Lisa Love: They have soul. They have soul, and they have spirit. And I think that’s something that’s really missing. As technology, again, is really sourcing us out of our soul and our spirit. And really looking at the depth of that, and how human that is, and the cherished memories, the cherished pathways, and the journey that they’ve taken.
And to look at things, and to repurpose, and to recognize that beauty rather than constantly looking at the new and the replacements.
Gina Thorne: I think you’re right. I have a fondness for antiques myself, so I can totally believe that.
So, just shifting gears a little bit, if I were to offer up the word harmony to you, what do you think it means to live a life in harmony?
Lisa Love: I think really looking at living a life in harmony is really being able to embrace, again, the challenges, the adversities, the traumas, and to be able to turn them into the successes, the victories, the triumphs. And looking at the learning, the growth, and the balance. And being able to put life in that perspective, and being able to live with peace, living with whatever the circumstance is.
What we experience, what we’re existing with, and putting that into a power of meaningfulness, and that there will be a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.
Gina Thorne: I like that.
Lisa Love: So, really living with balance and being able to have the knowledge of that positive and negative energy, the positive and negative values, and being able to bring those into balance.
Gina Thorne: Nice, thank you. Well, if someone wanted to access services at your practice, how could they get in touch with you?
Lisa Love: They can call me at my foundations of Hope, Health, and Wellness. It’s 307-333-2222. My mobile is 850-274-7299. And Psychology Today is a secured email, so they can look me up on Psychology Today, and it’s under Lisa Love.
Gina Thorne: Great, fantastic. Well, Lisa, thank you so much for taking the time to visit us up here in Harmony, we really appreciate that and we look forward to continued partnership with you.
Lisa Love: Thank you so much, it has really been a wonderful experience, Gina. I very much appreciate it.
Gina Thorne: You’re welcome, thanks.