Resilience: A Building Inner Strength Journey

Welcome to the Resilience Podcast! Our guest today is a Licensed Professional Counselor and works out of our Midlothian office, April Smith. Through her ongoing training and education, April has learned much about Internal Family Systems theory, as well as the relationship between the vagus nerve and our mental health. We hope you enjoy April’s insight into these topics on today’s episode! Continue reading below to learn more about April! April Lynch is a Licensed Professional Counselor who, with passion and purpose, embraces her empathic abilities to guide others to meaningful intention. April obtained her Bachelor of Science in Psychology at Virginia Commonwealth University while being employed at the Faison School for Autism, developing and modifying Applied Behavioral Analysis instruction, assisting in Functional Behavioral Analyses, and implementation of Positive Behavioral Support interventions for children and young adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder. April received her Masters of Science in Clinical Rehabilitation and Mental Health Counseling from VCU while being employed as a Vocational Rehabilitation Counselor and Research Associate at VCU Rehabilitation Research and Training Center. April’s background as a Certified Rehabilitation Counselor has shaped her overall integrative, collaborative and strengths-based approach to supporting individuals with physical, mental, developmental, cognitive, and emotional disabilities to achieve their personal, career, and independent living goals with evidence-based practices. April has a wide range of experience in facilitating groups such as Outpatient Interpersonal Process and Motivational Interviewing Group Therapy at the VCU Center for Psychological Services and Development, Peer Social Skills at VCU RRTC, Authoritative Positive Parenting Skill Building groups and Teens Motivational Interviewing groups for behavioral change at the Healthy Lifestyles Center at the Children’s Hospital at VCU. April believes that group therapy links diverse individuals together to promote perspective change and hearing different versions of your own experiences. Through April’s lens, she envisions the therapist and client relationship as an alliance established through warmth, trust, and collaboration. April’s approach is person-centered by fostering the strengths of an individual based on evoking their values, beliefs, and motivations. April believes that our perception is our reality and sometimes it just takes digging a little deeper to put our thoughts and feelings into action to reach desired momentum and change. April is a believer in the mind, body, and soul connection to help promote cognitive insight and somatic awareness to identify the parts of an individual that become integrated together to make the unified whole. Human existence is an incredible process of exploration that April would like to join you in. Resources: The Way Forward (The Inward Trilogy): Yung Pueblo No Bad Parts: Healing Trauma and Restoring Wholeness with the Internal Family Systems Model: Richard Schwartz Ph.D., Alanis Morissette The Complex PTSD Treatment Manual: An Integrative, Mind-Body Approach to Trauma Recovery: Arielle Schwartz Set Boundaries, Find Peace: A Guide to Reclaiming Yourself: Nedra Glover Tawwab.