Connecticut Destigmatized - Kristina Chomick, LMFT

Kristina Chomick, LMFT | Website

Why do you do what you do?

When I get up in the morning and head out the door for work, I love that I know what I am doing that day is making a difference in both my clients’ and students’ lives. I love to see the growth in my clients and students from session to session and class to class and seeing how things “click” from our discussions of their lives and experiences.  I also find that I am continuing to grow and learn through my work with clients and in the courses I teach and really feel lucky that I get to do something for “work” that also helps me grow and evolve as a person as well.

How are you making the world a better place?

I hope that through my work with clients I am helping them to live a more authentic and enlightened life and that they take home what we work on in sessions and share it with the people in their worlds.  It is always amazing for me when my clients tell me that they share with their friends and family what they have learned in therapy and encourage the people around them to seek out therapeutic support as well.  To me, that shows their strength in admitting that they needed help and will also help reduce the stigma associated with going to therapy.

What are your thoughts on the stigma around mental health and what solution(s) do you have to destigmatize it?

To me the stigma about mental health treatment is so baffling.  I think it takes so much more strength to reach out and seek therapy than to keep things bottled up inside and not address the thoughts/feelings/emotions that we know everyone is coping with daily.  I am always so inspired when I see athletes and celebrities openly discuss how therapy has helped them and/or the struggles they have faced throughout their lives.  The more we talk about it, the more normal it will become to seek out support.

What would you like to bring to our attention at this time?

There are so many aspects of the mental health world that I do not think get enough attention, but I think the 2 more important things are reducing the stigma associated with mental health struggles as I discussed above and also the effects of social media on mental health. While I think there are many amazing things about social media including helping people stay connected, and helping people to find resources in their areas, I also think that there are some significant pitfalls to our society’s almost addiction to it.  Social media can, at times, affect relationships and how we are able to connect with people in person. Social media also often leads to issues with self-esteem as people have a new way of trying to measure themselves up against their connections. Lastly, and the most important way that I think it affects people is the increase in cyberbullying that I have witnessed both with my clients and that you see on the news with suicides of adolescents up, often times, because of bullying done over social media.  I think we need to educate people on social media safety, on how to turn it off when it feels like it is becoming too much, and also that it is not okay to use this platform to say hurtful degrading things while hiding behind a keyboard and screen.

What is the best way for people to contact you to learn more?

I can be reached via e-mail kristinachomicklmft@gmail.com, phone (860) 281-7862, or can be contacted through my website www.kristinachomicklmft.com