Counsellor determined to make a difference
Tiffanne Thomas became a counsellor because she wanted to make a difference.
Despite her best efforts however, the 34-year-old never felt she was doing enough.
“I felt I wasn’t really living up to my full capacity,” she said. “I felt pulled to do more but [wasn’t working in the right] environment to do it.”
She opened Therapeutic Consulting Services last year in hopes of providing a better community service.
It offers individual and family counselling as well as small group therapy. The business also allows her to serve as a court advocate for young children.
Mrs Thomas believes she was called to do the job at a young age.
“I was working at an HIV outreach programme overseas and that always resonated with me,” she said.
“I was probably about 12 years old. I couldn’t really do much there, but I would just talk to people with the disease, check them into their appointments and let their counsellors know they were there. It obviously made an impression on me.” She began her career as a case worker, helping children with Family Centre.
She moved to the Department of Court Services where she created substance abuse assessments and made recommendations for drug treatment.
In 2006 she decided to change course. Mrs Thomas left the Island to go to graduate school at Fordham University in New York.
While there, she got to work with “the dually diagnosed population”, people with both a mental illness and a substance abuse problem. She found it fascinating.
“While living in New York, I worked at Creedmoor Psychiatric Hospital which is a state hospital for persons with mental illness,” she said.
“I worked on a ward specifically for the dually diagnosed population and some of the patients were there for criminal matters like murder, rape and those sorts of things. They weren’t suitable for prison because they needed treatment for their mental illness.
“I absolutely loved it because that population, a lot of times, is misunderstood and marginalised and doesn’t have a voice.
“There is a huge stigma around mental health. One of the men at the hospital was there because in a moment of psychosis he murdered his mother, but he wasn’t even aware of what happened.
“As horrible as that incident was, it’s easy to say what he did was unforgivable, but it’s important to note that he was sick and it wasn’t something he would have done in his rational mind.”
Mrs Thomas returned to the Island in 2008 and worked as a probation officer for Court Services. She said she enjoyed the job, but started to wonder if she was making enough of a difference.
The same people would walk through her doors year after year and there were families that would have generations of offenders.
“I made the decision to go into the school system thinking that maybe if I get them on the front end I can be part of the change,” she said.
“I started working at Whitney Institute Middle School as a counsellor and did that for three years — from 2011 to 2014.”
She started wondering whether she should be trying to improve the system instead of working on individual cases.
“What I found was I might be able to touch one child, but [questioned whether I was] touching the root of the issues for the larger population,” she said.
Her own business seemed the rational step.
“I knew for years it was going to happen and I was always preparing myself for it, but I didn’t always know exactly when to make the leap,” Mrs Thomas said. “When I finally decided to leave my job, it was because the time was finally right. In a way, I couldn’t ignore it.
“It wasn’t scary, but it was a long process in the making. It just seemed like the pieces started to fall into place. Professional contacts started to reach out to me in ways they hadn’t in the past.
“You can’t ignore stuff like that because opportunities don’t always come back. I do feel blessed that I’m living according to my purpose now and doing what I feel I’m called to do.”
• Contact Mrs Thomas on 707-5141 or tiffanne@tcs.bm.
Thinking of making the leap to entrepreneurship?
Here are some tips from business owner Tiffanne Thomas to get you on your way:
1. Know what you’re passionate about.
“If you aren’t passionate about what you are doing, you’re going to get to a point where you’re turning your wheels and feel unfulfilled.”
2. Think about what you want to be remembered for.
“I ask myself, ‘What’s my legacy going to be?’ I don’t do this for me, but I know what I do is impactful. When you find out what your purpose is, yes it will be scary to step out, but I read a few months ago that nothing great ever comes from a comfort zone.
“You can either spend your time dreaming and complaining about all the things you want to change about your job or you can make that scary first step and rely on faith that everything will fall into place.”
3. Do your research.
“Explore the field to determine what the needs are in the community for that service or product. Share your plans with only a select few initially, because you do not want to risk the opinions of others deterring you from your ultimate goal.”
4. Make your own opportunity.
“I came to a place where I realised I was putting a lot of my desires professionally into other people’s hands. I knew what I wanted to do, but because I worked for organisations I thought maybe those programmes I envisioned would become their mandate eventually.
“Sometimes it isn’t for other people to make your passion their mandate. It’s for you to make your passion come to life.”
5. Start thinking seriously about your goals.
“I would always journal about my goal. Then I got to the point where I thought ‘When will those words come off the page?’ I finally made up my mind to pursue my passion in November 2013, but I didn’t make the move until April 2014. Although I was always planning privately, I didn’t make any life-changing steps immediately.
“I considered my responsibilities and once I had the support of my husband I knew that if I delayed any longer I would simply be making excuses.”
6. Don’t overthink things.
“Logic and rationalising will allow us to talk ourselves out of opportunities. Finally, do not limit yourself to what you see. What you see is merely a blueprint for how life can be but it’s up to us to contribute to that blueprint to create our own unique path. When you find an uncommon idea that meets a need and ignites a sense of passion in you that cannot be tamed — run and don’t look back.”
