Today we’d like to introduce you to Steven Bradshaw.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
I always wanted to be a therapist. I just never knew I was allowed to be one. I started out following the family script, which as a South African man, was to compete in everything and sacrifice your own needs to become a provider. I earned a Master’s degree in business and worked for six years in investment banking and private equity. At age 27, I had a successful career in finance and had “made it” in New York City and Los Angeles. But it felt hollow and false. My body was burned to a crisp and refused to get out of bed most mornings and I had frequent migraines and back pain. I later discovered that I had been walking around with a collapsed lung and almost every tooth in my mouth required dental work. To succeed, I had completely neglected my authenticity and health.
So, I announced a “quarter life crisis” and dropped everything to travel the world in order to “find myself.” Thankfully, my partner joined this adventure and we rock climbed, sailed, and did exactly what we felt like doing every day for half a decade. It was a good time. Well, the day came when I returned to civilization with my Chris McCandless beard but, alas, I was no more found than when I left. The answer had not been out there. For three more years, I lived outside the system as a visual artist and illustrator but I couldn’t explain how it was going to, you know, work out financially. I returned to work in the corporate world and discovered that I was now a round peg trying to fit a cubicle-shaped hole. I could no longer fake my old identity or overlook the ethical blindness that is routine in mainstream business. My life in the sheeple lane was over.
It was around this time that I committed to the nitty gritty work of inner change and started to rebuild my life around who I actually felt myself to be. Working through the grief of my mother’s passing was a big part of this process. Through somatic therapy, I got in touch with my sensitive emotional core and realized I had not been a very good steward of it. I learned to stop overriding my body and began to value my sensitive nature for the gift it truly is. I was surprised to notice my back pain gradually disappear along with my lifelong pattern of severe migraines. I had assumed these migraines were deeply biological and would always be with me. I also began to unpack my people-pleasing, fear of emotion, toxic masculinity, and white privilege. I began to reveal more of my true self to others. Over time, I became less defensive and resentful and could form deeper relationships that were more nourishing, or I moved on from relationships I couldn’t make work. I started to do more of the things I liked doing and less of what was expected of me. My body confirmed these changes by increasing my life force energy and giving me more access to feeling. I started to enjoy the moment-to-moment experience of my life–long stretches of emotional connection and creative flow without the feeling that I was avoiding or missing out on something.
Along the way, I discovered an insecure, overachiever personality that had usurped my identity at a young age and had secretly written the script for my life. Unfortunately, this script turned out to be a straight-to-video kind-of movie where the juicy bits had all been cut for budget. This personality motivated itself through fear, turned everything into a competition, and alienated me from my emotional core and true authenticity. It made life look good to others but not feel good on the inside. I still have this aspect of my identity when needed but it now works for big-me and has allowed for healing to take place and much deeper parts of me to emerge. My script is currently under rewrite as a medieval epic with magic and dragons.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
I have to say that going through graduate school and the clinical training sites was a lot harder and more transformative than I expected. It was an identity crisis in the best sense. I worked under seven different supervisors who each had their own styles, expectations, and personalities. I read line notes on my sessions and was critiqued thoroughly. I agree with Freud that therapy is “one of the impossible professions.” There are so many things going on at so many different levels. I still have to keep letting go of my need to communicate what I know in order to see more of what is going on.
Seeing clients at first is a trip. It’s not unlike that moment when you’re learning to drive and you realize there’s nothing between you and the oncoming traffic, and also you can go places! Even today, I have no idea what the next session will be about. We find out together and create the map as we go. It’s deeply humbling to think what gets trusted to me.
We’ve been impressed with Beyond Psychology Center, but for folks who might not be as familiar, what can you share with them about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
I founded the Beyond Psychology Center, which provides a range of somatic psychotherapies to help clients move beyond mind-body symptoms. Virtually all of us post-pandemic-era have something stress-related that we are managing. I now have no doubt that emotional health is at the core of physical health. I’ve seen many clients heal from what seemed to be body issues, things like chronic pain, migraines, or irritable bowel syndrome.
On the psychological side of things, classic DSM diagnoses like anxiety, depression, OCD, ADHD, and personality disorders are now much better understood from a trauma-informed perspective as deeply embodied processes that are either caused by or heavily influenced by what is called allostatic load, or total stress on the organism. It’s overdue that we move beyond the paradigm of symptom management by antidepressants and purely talk therapy. Healing exists and it always involves the body in some way.
I also do executive and organizational work through Mobius Executive Leadership. I love getting the opportunity to work with intelligent and creative people that are building something they are passionate about. I am surprised at the deeply transformational work that is being done in corporations today.
How can people work with you, collaborate with you or support you?
Right now, Beyond Psychology Center offers one-on-one sessions and over time, we will have groups and courses, some of which will hopefully be free.
I am open to collaborations that increase health, vitality, and connection in any setting.
Pricing:
- Sessions are $150 to $250
Contact Info:
- Website: www.beyondpsychologycenter.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/beyondpsychologycenter/
- Facebook: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/therapists/beyond-psychology-center-santa-monica-ca/1094291
Image Credits
Mobius Executive Leadership, Rus Vakrilov
