Today we’d like to introduce you to Talia Jackson
Hi Talia, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
Born and raised in Minneapolis to an Israeli mom and an American dad, I spent summers with my cousins enjoying the Mediterranean Sea. My mother, a daughter of Holocaust survivors, taught English as a second language in the Edina Public Schools for 35 years and I saw the huge impact her guidance had not only on the children she taught, but also on their immigrant parents when her students were then able to help them navigate their new world.
We traveled to Europe for a year when my father, who was an Eastern European History Professor at the University of Minnesota, did a professorial exchange to teach in Austria and Poland. By the time I was 5 years old I spoke English, Hebrew, German and Polish fluently and was lucky enough to get a full academic scholarship to the Blake School, a college prep school in the Twin Cities that quite possibly changed the trajectory of my academic path. I will be forever grateful they took a chance on me.
Growing up with two hard working academic parents, we did not have much. When my parents got divorced and had to file bankruptcy, I found the socioeconomic disparity between my lived experience and that of my private school classmates increasingly stark. It led to my awareness of a nagging sense of otherness; as a daughter of an immigrant, as a religious minority in a very Nordic and Lutheran community, as a child of divorcing parents who were struggling financially, and as one of a very small pool of scholarship students.
I remember the moment I realized that my “otherness” was an opportunity for either a path of feeling separate and less than those with a more mainstream Minnesotan upbringing, or it could be a path of gratitude for what I did have; the support and life-changing opportunities given to me because of genuinely generous and kind people who advocated for and believed in me.
I leaned into my beautiful free range 1980s Minneapolis childhood, and spent countless hours kicking around Uptown with my best friends, going to the All Ages Dance Party every Sunday at the iconic 1st Avenue, and working at Sebastian Joe’s Ice Cream parlor through the rest of high school and into the beginning of college. I found myself so connected to Minnesota and Minnesotans, and realized that ALL IN felt so much better than othered. I highly recommend.
I was able to graduate a year early with the post-secondary program, got my BA from the University of Minnesota in Anthropology with a Minor in Psychology as I had always been so fascinated by the effects cultural background and community have on our world view, belief system and sense of self. My research centered around culture bound syndromes; mental and emotional illnesses that were only found in certain cultures.
What does one do with a degree in Anthropology? Well, all I knew was I did not want to live in Papua New Guinea to do research, and ironically I had found myself falling in love with a tall handsome blond who rode the bus to the University of Minnesota with me every day, even after I promised my mother I would only date Jewish guys. 25 years later we are still in love, married, and are the proud parents of two teen-aged boys and two rescue pugs. My now husband Rob graduated from the Carlson School of Management the year I graduated from the University of Minnesota, and we decided to move to San Francisco where he accepted an internship at a huge tech company during the dot com boom.
We started a new exciting chapter in the Bay Area, and that is when I decided that my passion and skill set might actually become a career. I realized that my “otherness” and interest in the individual and collective human experience gave me a sort of keen insight and empathic superpower. A ferocious desire was born to use my growing awareness to learn everything I could about human psychology, create meaningful connections, and do what was in my power to improve the well-being of individuals, couples, and entire family systems to break the chain of generational trauma and create choice points for those that feel stuck and alone. I did my Doctoral thesis on Interfaith, Intercultural and Interracial Couples and how to raise children with a solid sense of identity as I, myself, was desperate to know these answers.
My clinical psychotherapy skills were honed through a variety of theoretical training modalities, settings and populations. At the UCSF AIDS Health Project, I had the honor of working with men diagnosed with HIV/AIDS using Hannah Levenson’s Time Limited Dynamic Psychotherapy model, and at University Counseling Centers such as Stanford University, University of San Francisco, and then later Augsburg College in Minneapolis, I worked with the student population using science informed cognitive-behavioral and solution-focused techniques and educated young adults about mental health and the importance of self-care.
And finally, I had a two-year post-doctoral fellowship at the St. Paul based non-profit community mental health center, the Hamm Clinic. This intensive psychodynamic training is where I grew to deeply appreciate the impact our primary family of origin attachments have in creating problematic interpersonal patterns and attachment styles based on old wounds and unmet needs.
It was at that point in 2004 that I decided to try my hand at private practice and joined the River City Clinic in St Paul. One of the owners of the group practice, Doug Jensen, and I became fast friend, and now almost 20 years later we have a Mental Health meets Relationships podcast together called We’re Not Fine! Our mission is to bring lightness and humor to complicated but relatable struggles of the human experience; loneliness, jealousy, mental illness, dating, marriage and more. We aim to make conversations about mental health and relationships accessible to everyone..
We are 100 episodes strong and recently started doing monthly live recordings of our episodes with amazing guests at the artist Nick Harper’s beautiful art studio, The Rogue Buddha Gallery, in NE Minneapolis. Our next two events are “Finding Your Way after Catastrophic Loss” with Dr Kim Harms on July 14, 2024, and “Postpartum Depression, Psychosis & Menopause are Couples Issues” on August 11, 2024.
Meanwhile my private practice in Bryn Mawr, Minneapolis, is still thriving and incredibly fulfilling. My practice is geared towards adults and couples struggling with depression, anxiety, trauma, and relationship issues. I also work with couples of all kinds; including those identifying anywhere along the gender and sexuality continuum, as well as interracial, intercultural, and interfaith couples wanting to improve their insight and communication around sensitive issues.
My private practice and podcast continue to nurture each other with new wisdom and insight, boiling down 20 years of clinical experience into simple and effective techniques to improve one’s mental health and relationship health, and it all feels like the perfect next step in this fascinating career!
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
I have always tried to face challenges along the way with a sense of curiosity and optimism. “What if it all works out” is a motto that guides my every move. When I fell in love with my husband who is from a different culture and a different religion, and that was a big source of stress for me and discord in my family, I chose to learn as much about it as I could, and wrote my dissertation on Interfaith, Intercultural, and Interracial Couples, and Raising Children with a Solid Sense of Identity, so I could help guide couples struggling with similar issues feel strong and find their support systems. A few years into starting my private practice, we had our first son, and two years later our second son. Balancing a thriving private practice and two children was more than a lot, but I found my cadence over the years, and it became a passion and specialty of mine to help new parents navigate their way back to themselves and create their new multifaceted identities, and back to their healthy passionate marriages. During the pandemic, when the external structures that were once in place, like school, and being able to concentrate and have privacy in my office, fell away, I realized that my eldest who I always thought was a bit of a Tasmanian Devil, and my youngest who I always called a little astronaut on another planet, and me, who I always likened to the fastest hamster on the hamster wheel, or the ball inside the pin ball machine zipping back and forth with speed but not much executive planning… well, we all actually have ADHD.
I am a psychologist and it never occurred to me that these were more than just personality traits, but an actual Executive Dysfunction Disorder. This journey guided me to learn more about ADHD to help my sons and myself manage our busy, creative but scattered brains for better functioning and wellness. And near the end of the pandemic, my dear friend and colleague, Doug Jensen, LICSW, and I decided to start our Podcast, We’re Not Fine. We wanted to make conversations about Mental Health and Relationship Health accessible to all, share real stories and offer simple and effective strategies for improved mental and relationship health. Our passion breathed new life into a 20 year career, and we are 100 episodes in!
At the beginning of our podcasting journey, my favorite cousin, truly my soulmate and more of a brother than a cousin, died suddenly and unexpectedly of a heart attack, leaving behind his beloved wife and 1 and a half year old daughter. I poured myself into the podcast while again deep diving into the experience of grief and finding our way back to ourselves to help others navigate these dark and lonely waters. Turning pain into purpose is my why. I am not sure any road is ever smooth, but if our expectation are set correctly for wind storms, curve balls, obstacles and set backs, we can feel more prepared to center ourselves and remind ourselves of our “why” and our purpose. And as cheesy as it is, I believe that we get out of life what we put into it, and every obstacle is an opportunity to either get derailed or double down. Bet on yourself.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know?
My private practice, Talia Jackson Psychotherapy Services, has been geared towards adults and couples with anxiety, depression, trauma, and relationship issues for 20 years. My newest venture in my private practice is supervising two new pre-licensed interns beginning this August. I am so looking forward to this next stage of my therapy career, mentoring and watching two new practitioners fulfill their purpose by guiding their clients towards the lives they most desire.
My podcast co-host Doug Jensen and I just celebrated 100 episodes of our Mental Health Meets Relationships Podcast, We’re Not Fine. We feel so lucky that making conversations about mental health and relationship health accessible to all is so fulfilling and entertaining. We are hosting monthly live recordings of our podcast at the Minneapolis landmark, the Rogue Buddha Gallery owned by the gifted fine artist, Nick Harper. On Sunday July 14th 4-6 our live episode is “Finding your way back to Yourself after Catastrophic Grief” with Dr Kimberly Harms. And on Sunday August 11, 2024 from 4-6, we are having a conversations with a lovely couple about their bumpy journey through IVF, Post-Partum Depression, Psychosis, and Menopause as a couple. We are passionate about having lively, and even comedic conversations about difficult topics while creating community and simple strategies for improved wellness.
We are 100 episodes strong and recently started doing monthly live recordings of our episodes with amazing guests at the artist Nick Harper’s beautiful art studio, The Rogue Buddha Gallery, in NE Minneapolis. Our next two events are “Finding Your Way after Catastrophic Loss” with Dr Kim Harms on July 14, 2024, and “Postpartum Depression, Psychosis & Menopause are Couples Issues” on August 11, 2024.
Meanwhile my private practice in Bryn Mawr, Minneapolis, is still thriving and incredibly fulfilling. My practice is geared towards adults and couples struggling with depression, anxiety, trauma, and relationship issues. I also work with couples of all kinds; including those identifying anywhere along the gender and sexuality continuum, as well as interracial, intercultural, and interfaith couples wanting to improve their insight and communication around sensitive issues.
My private practice and podcast continue to nurture each other with new wisdom and insight, boiling down 20 years of clinical experience into simple and effective techniques to improve one’s mental health and relationship health, and it all feels like the perfect next step in this fascinating career!
Is there any advice you’d like to share with our readers who might just be starting out?
My advice to all people starting out in any new career path is that if it is not hard, you are not growing. There is always a steep learning curve to be exceptional, that does not mean you won’t be amazing. If you have self-doubt, don’t give up. Instead, be honest with yourself about the gaps in your knowledge and seek out the resources you need to fill the doubt gap with education and practice. Find your mentors, create a network, like a consultation group to build the skills, and I can guarantee that the confidence will come. I have had the same consultation group for most of my career. You are not alone. Manifest the life you that you desire, why not? Think of the alternative; settling for a less than fulfilling life is hard too. I also feel good about modeling being human and flawed and practicing self- love and self- compassion for my clients. Being authentically you and modeling self-awareness and self-esteem is the goal, and it allows others to do the same. It is your job to be you, everyone else is taken!
Pricing:
- $195 for an individual therapy session
- $220 for a couple’s therapy session
- $250 for an initial diagnostic session
- $25 to attend one of our LIVE episode recordings at the Rogue Buddha Gallery (this is what I would love to promote the most)
- ** just a note, I am not taking new people but I would love to have new clients for my lovely interns starting in August…
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.werenotfine.com
- Instagram: @drtaliajackson
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@werenotfine
- Other: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/923401307167?aff=oddtdtcreator and https://www.eventbrite.com/e/923405248957?aff=oddtdtcreator
