Today we’d like to introduce you to Jane Webb.
Hi Jane, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
I sometimes say that being a therapist is the only job I could ever do—and after a semester in law school, a couple teaching courses, and a full doctorate program, I have considered more than a few paths that I hoped would use what skills and talents I have to make a more just world. When I experienced loss and grief in my own life, I had the opportunity to access therapy so that I could heal and become who I wanted to be as a human and as a mother. As a therapist, I am able to spend my professional life fulfilling my goal of reducing the suffering caused by the systemic injustice and cultural forces that cause pain in people’s lives and relationships. For my early career in academia, I believed if I could understand these systems and forces that I could reduce their impact—but that’s not where my talents lie and certainly not where my joy lies. I trust there are many other people doing good work on a macro level. Now, as a therapist both in the urban core of Kansas City at Operation Breakthrough and in my private practice in Lee’s Summit, I have the opportunity to devote my career to understanding the person brave enough to join me in the therapy room so that we can learn their story together—and then I get to witness individuals who have experienced the worst in this world decide how to live the rest of their lives. Perhaps it’s more accurate to say that being a therapist is the only job I would ever want to do.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Colleagues and clients often ask me how I hold all of the traumatic stories that people share with me in my work. And when I began practicing as a therapist, the world did seem very dangerous—until I realized that I have the honor of witnessing the magnitude of the healing potential in all of us. That has anchored me through the struggles in this vocation and given me the permission to take care of myself so that I can show up for all of the people in my life and myself as who I want to be. When I look back on being in my late twenties finishing a dissertation while pregnant with a toddler and concurrently enrolled in a MSW program, I am often baffled at how I managed to get through each day. Eventually, my health no longer allowed me to proceed at that pace and that gave me the opportunity to see that I can live a fulfilling life outside of “survival mode.” Those tendencies can be persistent in all of us and are fiercer when I am under stress, but this work has given me the very experiences of awe, hope, and gratitude that I have needed to keep moving toward releasing them.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
Stories and words have always been my first love, and that drew me to working with adults because words are how we first get to their stories. I think my clients would probably tell you that they understand something new about themselves or their lives in our conversations, and that’s something I am proud to be known for. In technical language, trauma treatment specialists would call that making “novel connections,” or recognizing a new way of thinking about beliefs and experiences that disrupts what has felt automatic or predetermined. Yet I quickly realized when even considering becoming a therapist that words and stories are not enough without the body and emotions. My favorite moments in psychotherapy are when clients feel connected to their present experience of being in the chair across from me as well as to younger parts of themselves so that we can integrate the healing work physically, mentally, and emotionally. I am most proud of working with individuals and couples because the changes they make to be healthier for themselves creates healthier families, communities, and future generations.
Clients would likely also say that I am known for regular reference to some book or article, whether that’s a novel or clinical material or memoir. I always have a suggestion for further reading.
Risk taking is a topic that people have widely differing views on – we’d love to hear your thoughts.
There are times in my life when following my gut felt risky and so did ignoring my internal wisdom and living according to what I thought was safe and expected. Both feel like risk, but only one feels like authenticity and so I have tried really hard to make the choices that align with who I am and how I want to honor that. Starting a private practice completely terrified me even if intellectually I knew that filling out LLC paperwork or applying for a business account were not dangerous activities. I learned then that I could make one step each day and that would not overwhelm the parts of my brain that thought this might be too big of a change. Each step brought me closer to building a practice that I really enjoy; and that process helped me be able to discern what is impulsive—when my internal workings are “I’m going to do this thing now regardless of what might happen,” which rarely turns out well—versus what is taking a risk, which can be scary and just might turn out well and I can handle the consequences either way.
Pricing:
- $135/individual session
- $165/couple or family session
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.janemwebb.com
- Other: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/therapists/jane-webb-lees-summit-mo/1046871
