Episode 203: Letting Go Of Who You Were Taught to Be | Parisa Frost | Therapist & Creator of Hiking Healers
What if the real you has been hidden under expectations, labels, and trauma? Parisa Frost is an identity-affirming, trauma-informed associate marital and family therapist, art therapist, yoga teacher in training, and creator of Hiking Healers. In this episode, she joins Kara to talk about what it takes to unlearn the conditioning that’s shaped our lives, and how to reconnect with your core self to create a limitless future. They dive into her Iranian-American upbringing, how cultural conflict shaped her career path, and why women supporting women is non-negotiable. You’ll hear a powerful discussion about personal development for women, redefining success, community and social impact, and what it really takes to build a purpose-driven life and business.
“Greatness takes a long time to grow. Be patient when planting seeds. Even when you don’t see the sprouts, you’re still growing roots.”
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Follow along using the Transcript
Chapters:
00:00 Who you are vs. who you were taught to be
01:10 What identity-affirming therapy really means
03:00 Cultural sensitivity in relationships
04:00 Little Parisa’s big dreams
05:00 Compassion, trauma, and how therapy changed her
06:30 Why your past is not your fault but your responsibility
07:30 Straddling Iranian and American identities
09:00 Individualism vs. collectivism
11:00 The unlearning process we all go through
13:00 Getting to the core self for healing and growth
14:00 Deconditioning through therapy, coaching, and business
17:00 Using yoga, art, and somatics to heal
20:00 Why therapists want you to stop needing them
22:30 Building safe client relationships
26:00 Women need women and community
29:00 Healing toxic masculinity starts with safe space
31:00 Slowing down and growing strong roots
36:00 What she’s calling in now: intentional community
Once we get to the core of that, the world truly is limitless for you at that point. Once you can get to that core and identify all of those things that were placed on you, then you can go in whichever direction you please. You can really start building a foundation that is true to your soul mission, whenever that may be.
That's Parisa Frost. I'm Kara Duffy, and this is The Powerful Ladies Podcast.
I am so glad that you're here today. I had the pleasure of meeting you when we did our first panel about what's been going on in Iran and. You had such amazing insights and your experience I think, lends to a lot of that, which is why I really wanted to have you come back and dive into an episode just about you and what you're up to in the world and how you're out there being of service.
So let's begin by telling everybody your name, where you are in the world, and what it is that you do. Sure.
So my name is Parisa Frost. I'm based out of Los Angeles, California, and I am a clinical art therapist and identity affirming marital and family therapist as well as a yoga teacher in training. So just a few things.
Yeah. Yeah. So just a
few different hats. You said something that I haven't heard often when people talk about providing therapy, especially marital therapy. You said identity affirming?
Yeah. What does that mean? So it really means ha coming into each situation with cultural sensitivity and really affirming that person's intersectional identities for where they're at, how they express themselves in the world, and forging ways to really compliment that because our identity is so much of how we're showing up in the world and in our relationships, and oftentimes I think a lot of practitioners.
Don't necessarily miss that piece, but it's not centered in the way that it should be in my vantage point.
Because I imagine it's a little bit of oh, now we're dealing with two crises of identity and whatever the marriage identity is as a union, but that is your world, not mine.
So what is actually happening there and how does that help in those relationships?
Yeah, absolutely. And so much of that identity piece too comes from like our family of origin, from our racial, our religious, our sexual identities and how do we merge them in a way that makes sense for the family unit or for the, not even necessarily family unit, but for the marriage unit in and of itself.
And so understanding like how can these pieces compliment each other and how do we. Address ruptures from a place that is culturally sensitive, that is understanding maybe because I wasn't raised in the same environment that you were. It doesn't make it right or wrong, it just means that we need a little more perceptual flexibility whenever we're addressing our marital issues.
If we go back to 8-year-old, you would, she have imagined that this is what your life is today.
Oh my gosh. You're gonna make me emotional. I don't know. I think. 8-year-old me had big dreams. She definitely did. I think that she would be surprised and very proud in equal parts. 8-year-old me wanted to be an actress, a movie star.
I really wanted to be center stage. And I think that it's beautiful and ironic that I chose a life path that is really about centering the person in front of me.
And what joy has this job brought you? Because there's, you look at your website, you listed all the things that you're doing.
There's so much compassion for that other person being seen in what you're up to. Like how has that changed your life and how you're viewing the world?
Wow, that's such a good question. I think it's changed my life radically. I, it's made me more tender, more gentle, more understanding, even in looking at really just vulgar situations, the things that humans can do to each other is unconscionable, but really centering.
Like, how did we get here? And it's never what's wrong with you, it's what happened to you? How did we get here? And centering that and really looking at the whole person in front of you, not just, my own triggers, my own biases, my own experiences that I'm bringing into the room, but more so addressing my blind spot so that I can see them more clearly.
I don't know if that answers your question.
Yeah, no, it makes sense. I saw a quote recently that said who you are is not your fault, but it is your responsibility. Yeah. What does that mean to you?
Yeah. I love that. That's so funny 'cause that quote actually came into my awareness recently too, and it's been tinkering in the background and it's so true.
'cause who you are is really a culmination of your childhood experiences and how they inform your core beliefs. It's a culmination of the environments that you were raised in and a lot of the programming and socialization on a much larger scale too that sort of creates. These mechanisms that we call our personality.
And so sometimes that in a protective manner or just from the erosion of society and the inequities that we face that can create certain parts of ourselves that we don't love, that we're created really in the heat of trying to survive. And so that's not your fault. That one never was, and it never will be.
However, it is your responsibility to take accountability for those things and to look at them and ultimately develop rigorous compassion for them and say I don't love this part about you, but I still love you. I don't love this part about myself, but I still love myself.
When we were connected for talking about what's happening in Iran, the panel majority were all Iranian Americans.
How has that identity shaped who you are and how you approach your work?
Yeah, hugely. I think that a lot of my passion for intersectional conscientiousness and for cultural sensitivity really came from, and was birthed from straddling two spheres my whole life. Because I grew up.
In America, I grew up alongside American Americans and a very westernized ideals. However, in my private home, we were raised alongside a lot more Eastern values. Middle Eastern values rules of engagement were very different. And at times they can really be at odds with one another. You see some of your friends who are able to do things sooner than you, or they don't have the same, family engagements that you have.
So it helped to shape me in a sense that how do I straddle both of these fears instead of feeling like I don't belong in either, but that I belong fully in both at all times. And that approach really has helped me work, with people of all different diasporas, but also individuals who are trying to reconcile with two different identities that can sometimes be in conflict with one another.
What was one of your personal, like biggest conflicts between those two worlds?
I think, this is more, it's a very nuanced question, but I think in a general sense, sort of the individualization of America and how much we really promote individuating from the family unit, that's a point of pride.
At 18 years old, you individuate, whereas in Iranian culture. And just a lot of collectivist cultures as well. It's almost seen as a point of rupture. Why are you doing this to us? We're part, we're a team, we're a collective unit, and that there's so much beauty in that as well, I think, and that's how we fortify our communities, which I think is missing in a lot of American culture.
We don't have, we don't see the same kind of grassroots communities and fidelity that we see in other collectivist cultures, however. They can be at odds with one another because then whenever one does individuate, it's seen as, it can be seen as, and I'll speak in more tentative language, but it can be seen as selfishness or it can be seen as, you're not sacrificing enough for the unit.
Whereas there is this in-between space and that's something I really help a lot of. My Middle Eastern in particular clients really address.
Do you see that shifting? Because there's so many young people today who are choosing to stay at home for cost reasons or because of what happened with COVID, there's a lot more remote working.
Do you see that shifting where the family units, because of economic and social shifts, is coming back beyond the Middle Eastern communities? Or do you think it's really still very segmented?
I do. I think that's a really good observation. I think that it is we are working towards that.
However, I think that there's still this embedded shame or this piece of I'm not where it's supposed to be, when in reality that is where economically our society is heading, that it is more cost effective to stay in the family unit until you have that strong foundation to go off on your own.
And our financial infrastructure has made that shift. A lot more common. But there is still this embedded shame, or sometimes, and again, speaking tentatively resentment perhaps from the parental figures or whomever, whereas I, my hope is that we can erase that and bring it back into an opportunity for families to be closer together.
And have you personally just found that, that grace to flow between the two of them, like to. Take the best parts of your Persian culture and then take the best parts of the Western culture. Do you feel comfortable today, like being able to pick and choose and flow between them?
Yeah, I do, but, and I think that has taken a lot of work, an incredible amount of work, but I think it is. Yeah, it's a beautiful opportunity to really cherry pick the best of both worlds and see what makes the most sense for me and how I bring that in. And at the same time as I say that, I'm also thinking, but I'm always both at all times, yes.
What I see so often when I'm working with my business clients is often I'm giving people permission. And it's permission to choose what they really want to choose, who they really are to choose things that maybe they don't think are right in quotes, to choose what they could do versus what they're told they should do.
And I feel like I am. As not a psychologist, I feel like I'm constantly helping people break down that we don't have to choose the labels that are there. So much of what I'm doing is helping people build a business that works 100% for them and what they're up to. And we have to give a lot of things up in that process.
And even. Something that could be considered small of, I don't wanna be a bad boss, has so many layers to what that means because we have a personal and a societal view of what a bad boss is, and then that prevents us from speaking up. It prevents us from leading people powerfully to giving people feedback, to like letting all of our boundaries collapse around us sometimes.
So I think there's a really interesting space happening right now of. The unlearning that we're doing. Like it's used often to talk about a space of racism. But I think it's also, there's the unlearning, all the good girl training that we've gotten. It's unlearning what it, like girl boss versus hustler versus whatever those, trending themes are.
There's a lot of unlearning happening. And is that something that you're seeing across the board with who you're working with? Is this something that. Therapists have always been doing, and the rest of the world is now tapping into it. What do you see?
Yeah I love that. In more sociological realms we say unlearning in the spiritual fields, it's deprogramming or deconditioning, and it's so true. I'm really, I'm all about this rise of this separation and unlearning. 'cause we're really, we're learning and unlearning at the same time. And it's more so to get to that core of who are you? Without these expectations that were placed on you, who are you without these labels or without this, real sociological and psychological programming of your environments in your surroundings to get to that core, whether it's for business, whether it's for relationships or whatever it is, we're peeling back those layers.
To see who are you without those protective mechanisms. So I'm seeing that a lot. I'm seeing it even in my own work, both personally and professionally, and it's like this really ugly, painful unearthing, 'cause you have to address those parts of yourselves that you might not like either. And even in a lot of anti-racist work too, it's incredibly painful.
That's why so many people don't do it, which. Is unfortunate, because once we get to the core of that, and I say this without hyperbole, the world truly is limitless for you at that point. Once you can get to that core and identify all of those things that were placed on you that are just they're filler, it's not there, it's nothing of actual substance.
Then you can go in whichever direction you please. You can really start building a foundation that is truer to your life's purpose or your soul's mission, whatever that may be.
There's freedom on the other side. Yeah, I say that my business coaching approach is it's Thrive business coaching, because we have to break down some of those.
Mindsets that we've chosen or titles we've chosen, or habits we've chosen to really have what we're fully capable of.
And it's, it impacts so many things. That's why I can't step over the, when those conversations come up with clients let's talk about pricing. And I'm like, yeah, but there's a whole money story behind that.
I can tell you what the prices should be or how to optimize them. And whether or not you're comfortable with them or believe it is, the whole other thing that we have to get to first. It's, there's so many so much of us is between us and our success in life or business. And so I think it's really interesting how all of it's shifting.
I also sometimes feel like I have to pull some people back who have gotten really deep into like meditation and being guided and using their intuition. And there's some moments where I'm like, guys. I love that you have this practice and there has to be a more active role that we can take in the current present moment.
If we're doing those things to tap into how he feels, we can make faster decisions and be more present. I'm like, you guys are not present. 'cause now you're waiting for some answer from somewhere else instead of yourself now, like
I was joking with a client where I sent them a. A meditation practice and they wrote back and said, I loved it.
It was great. And then right after that, I was listening to some real hardcore hip hop, and I'm like, you should you wanna get grounded to get empowered. And so once you're grounded, you're like, let's light this up, let's go.
Yes. As you're speaking, I'm almost thinking of whenever you're.
Setting a blaze like a firework. It's set lighting it and then not letting it go off, yes. What is the point? Meditation is where we light it, and then that work, that fire that has really been cultivated within us. That explosive point is what has to come next, whether it's like hip hop in your room, whether it's a moment of inspiration.
I love that. That's. That's really, that's the most that there is to it. We could be, if that's your life's calling, you could be a monk in a cave meditating all day, every day, but that's just not the truth of it. We're here to have a human experience and to use that information to then propel us towards our wildest dreams.
And I've, worked with, I've coached a lot of people who have started off as a therapist, certified therapist licensed, and then they start doing their own work in development, or they see the gap where the current. Licensing limitations to help their clients has pushed them into being more of a coach or offering yoga classes or partner with people who can do that and they can, they're not breaking their license.
How has that shifted for you? What has that journey been of. Having the solid foundation in therapy and then also knowing there's so much more that could be rounding out what my clients need to really break them through or continue this journey.
Yeah. Yeah. So I think there is, it's a two-sided question, right?
Because on the one hand I really hear that, and there is so much I think. To be a therapist and to be doing your own work at the same time is a grueling process, but it's so necessary. And it's just simply put unethical. If you're not, you're gonna be missing things constantly. And within that, there, there are like, and this is, could be a whole other episode too.
There's so many really. Unfortunate barriers to licensing for a lot of communities. I was actually just at an event recently and that was one of the main talking points that for a lot of persons of color, it's really difficult to break into this field 'cause it is a very classist at its core, it's a very classist field that is difficult to break into.
And so that in and of itself is very, it's an issue that needs to be and is being reluctantly, but is being addressed. I. The other part of that as well is I do agree that there's a lot, there's an ethical safety net in my field that isn't touched sometimes in other areas, which is unfortunate.
'cause I've seen some things happen that it's if we don't have those licensing boards, a lot of things can slip through the cracks with individuals who haven't done the work themselves. So it's a kind of, it's a two-sided thing, but I feel like doing this work, being in the field of therapy, it is now off, off shot me, I dunno, I've been shot into, or like a cannon ball into these other fields such as yoga, I wanna, I'm doing or I'm.
Building a pathway to trauma-informed yoga. I'm getting a lot more interested in somatic therapy as well, working with a somatic therapist myself. There's so many things that therapy, traditional talk therapy can't touch, and I say that with profound humility. I really believe in what I do.
But the final frontier is. Not just talking about it in a room, it's really getting back into the body and empowering yourself. I tell clients this all the time, my business model is stupid because I want you to not need me as quickly as possible. My goal is to become obsolete as quickly as possible so you can find and tap into that wisdom yourself and develop things that perhaps a coach could offer or a yoga instructor.
To really supplement what you're learning with me. Does that make sense?
Makes total sense. I highly recommend, if you haven't found it yet yoga zma, it's psychotherapeutic yoga teacher training. It's, the program that I went through is amazing and they've combined, it was built by a therapist and a neurologist who both realized that they needed yoga.
To supplement where some of the trauma was hanging out with their clients. Really fascinating stuff. But that's a great program to look at if you're interested.
Yeah,
thank
you.
I think that I'm in a similar field where people call me when they need me. We work together and. There's this interesting balance of Sure.
Could you like, quote unquote graduate from business coaching? Yes. And if we're doing our job right, there's always gonna be the next level that you're processing and going through and it becomes a journey together. Yeah. Do you have clients that are like, I am never letting you go I need you for this, monthly, weekly, biweekly check-in because.
You get me. We've done this work together, like you're now just part of my routine and my wellness program.
Yeah, definitely. Absolutely. And it's such a fine line, right? Because on the one hand, it's part of my role is to be that secure base, that supportive person. Oftentimes whenever we're realizing that we don't have that much support in our field or in our realm, or, the support that I'm offering is a lot more objective and unbiased than maybe a friend or a parent could give.
While it's important to have that support and that stability, we're also working to ensure there's no codependency or any codependent patterns. And it gets hairy because sometimes people really need that. I've had clients who have to bump up to seeing me a couple times a week 'cause they're in crisis and that's totally appropriate for that moment or that op in time.
But we're really trying to work towards. Just check-ins, just checking in. So I do have clients like that, and I am, oh, I'm constantly telling them I'm not in the driver's seat, just holding the GPS, I am, you're the one in the driver's seat and eventually we're gonna have done this route so many times you don't even need the GPS anymore.
You can just do it by muscle memory. So it's really, it's like a very gentle letting go.
Yeah, absolutely. I do feel lucky that I have the freedom to be friends with my clients and to, there's all these things that I'm, I feel so grateful for, and. Which I'm glad that I'm, I am, I do not belong in the therapy space as a profession because I'm just such a keeper of people anyway.
Like even people who are no longer working with me, I'm like still sending in things like, Hey, thought about this. Have you tried this yet? What do you need? There's, I appreciate that I get to be all in with mama bearing. The clients who come to me,
I so wish it was ethical for me. There's so many times where I wanna tell a client, 'cause I now have the liberties to really be a lot more selective with who I'm working with or how I'm marketing my skillset, which wasn't necessarily the case in the past.
So I am finding that a lot of. A lot of like-minded individuals with similar experiences are coming into my realm and I just so badly wanna say in a different life we would be friends. We would be best friends. Yeah. I wish I could get a cup of coffee with you afterwards.
Yeah. Yeah. That is definitely one part that I wish was different.
Yeah. When you think about the words powerful and ladies, what do they mean to you individually and does it shift for you when they're combined?
Wow, that's such an excellent question. Absolutely. I think individually very different than when combined.
When I hear the word powerful, I hear something twofold. Something that can be empowering or something that can be dangerous because whenever power, and I'm actually seeing this in the yogic field and community more as people ascend in their practice and get power. We see a lot of predatory behavior, and this is the same even within therapists as well.
Unchecked power can turn very predatorial very quickly. In our society, whenever we combine the word powerful ladies suddenly has a completely different connotation to me. 'cause I really see whenever I think of a powerful woman or a powerful lady. I see her in community with other ladies, with other powerful women, and we really are stronger together.
There's less of this competitive feel of who has the most power. It's all, it's lift one up to lift us all up. Yeah, that's, that, that's my immediate reaction.
When you look at your personal journey, how have women been integral in your journey? Your support you getting to where you are today?
Oh my gosh.
Everything. Women need women, whenever I was younger, I was one of those obnoxious girls that was like, I just get along better with boys, which is me too. It really is. It's, I, my theory is that whenever you embody more quote unquote masculine qualities or those qualities of extreme.
Confidence or whatever it may be. It's just the first thing that's coming to my mind. Or assertion, being an assertive person, that can be really misunderstood sometimes, unfortunately. And it can. I've actually recently heard of a theory similar to pecking order that like girls can peck at each other to prepare each other for the real world.
That's why they're so vicious in high school. It is a new thing that I'm learning more about, but it's quite fascinating. But whenever I think about all of the women who've helped me to get here. It's such a beautiful, positive experience of inspiration. I think about my mom who went to law school in her forties and was really told, was really discouraged a lot of the way, was told you have two kids, English is not your first language.
You should really think about doing part-time. Not only, she didn't do part-time, she did full-time and it was the freaking valedictorian of her class. Yes, mom. Yeah, and with whenever you have whenever you're walking a path with a model or a role model like that, it's difficult to see women as anything but powerhouses.
So I felt really fortunate in that regard. And I just think about all the women in my family, even my grandmother who in, pre-revolution Iran was raising children at 15 years old. Yeah, just women need women. We really pave the way for each other. Whenever I was young, I'd rip the bows out of my hair, rip the jewelry off.
I just wanted to play with the boys and get muddy, and that it creates this idea of not being girly enough or not being a good girl. Which is so funny and there's a lot to unpack there too with obviously everything that's happening in Iran that we lightly touched on in the last panel, but there's so many ideas of what it means to be a girl, a good girl, a good woman, and it's just bs.
A lot of it is like the myth of the patriarchy sold back to us to be more submissive and to be more docile. And there's really nothing wrong with those attributes, if you are a more soft spoken person, great. But that can't and shouldn't and never was the end all be all for us. It's just that's the mechanism that makes it the easiest to contain us.
Yeah. And it's so interesting, I think, how we're using language to contain people and at what cost. I just, my brother gave me a graphic novel called The Last Man. That I just finished last night, and it's this idea that one day, like all anything with a Y chromosome just instantly dies. Wow.
Animals, plants, humans. And there's they have one guy and one male monkey left and they don't know why. And. They, but there's a page in the book where it's listing the statistics of 48% of the population just disappeared, and 98% of all government leaders are gone, and 80% of all CEOs are gone.
Like these statistics where it's male heavy from the population numbers and how just certain things don't work because women haven't been in those spaces or invited into those spaces in the same way. Yeah, and like what you have to deal with. But it's a really interesting book. I recommend it.
But I do think it's interesting that this needing to control people and not i, you and I would probably say that it's a matter of what are they afraid of? And I'm like, where were you broken? What is your trauma? How do we deal with your trauma so that you can be okay and give everyone space.
Exactly. That's
exactly it. It's, speaking in super binary terms, but if when we think about patriarchy or misogyny. We say men are the problem, men are also the solution. And that's what it is where we're at. And in order to, and that's something I'm becoming more and more passionate about too, it's is like male psychotherapy.
Like how do we start healing that wounded inner male ego in order to really create safety and equity for all of us? It really begins and ends with them and giving them the opportunity to be able to air these things out. Safe way instead of repressing them until they really metastasize into this toxic masculinity.
And it might be the Libra in me coming out, but I just, the craving for balance, right? The, and I, there's a little bit of whiplash that we can see, right? Where everything's been like, help the girls, help women in stem, women, all this stuff. And here I am speaking as it you in a women's podcast.
But then there's also this like, how do we just help? How can we help more people? How can we get that balance right? Yeah. So we don't need to. Have any specific group that is so disadvantaged where it just works. Because I think that there's also, there's a resistance, right? Whenever someone's asking you to change.
And I think we're, I think that we're seeing that, especially in the US right now, of what some things are happening and. How do we get past the point of the pendulum swinging so far? Like how do we come back to this centered place where we can all just be all the things, we're all gonna be fine.
We have enough resources. Bless you. Thank
you.
It just makes me wonder like maybe 5-year-old should be in charge. 'cause I think they get this
right. You'll never get a more honest. Pure answer about anything in the world than you will from a five-year-old, truly because they see everything with this fresh perspective that doesn't operate in binaries and doesn't operate in kind of stereotyped preconceptions.
It's interesting actually, it's like around that age that we start forming our biases about the world and about different classes and race and whatnot. And I'm ki what I'm hearing you say is like, how do we get to that neutral ground before all of that is learned before the pendulum goes one way or the other?
Yeah. Life. Yeah,
it's lifelong venture.
As you are looking at what you're building, creating, gonna manifest for 2023, what are you most excited about?
What am I most excited about? I think slowing down. I'm such like a go go million miles per hour kind of woman and I love that part of myself, but then I have to remind myself. That it's actually radical resistance to slow down and just to be tender and gentle.
I say that, but we'll see. I have so many ideas. I like start writing a book. I wanna start a networking club. I wanna, I have so much in, in my sphere, but I'm really looking forward to letting those ideas incubate. Through rest and through yoga and gentle practices. Which like I said, it's just not, it's not where my e modus operandi is.
It's really difficult for me to do that. But that has been my biggest intention for 2023, is just to be more gentle and to rest more.
Yep, I hear that.
Yeah.
When you're ready to write your book, let me know. I have an amazing independent publisher who is crushing it.
So nice. I would love to get that information from you.
Yeah. I'll make sure you get it soon.
We ask everyone on the podcast where they put themselves in the powerful 80 scale. If zero is average everyday human, and 10 is the most powerful lady you can imagine, where would you put yourself today and on average? Oh my gosh.
Today I'm feeling so powerful today.
I'll put myself at a nine or a 10. Thank you for having me on. The Leo in me says that I strive for a nine or a 10 every day, but I think I'd put myself more at, let's I'll be humble. Say like a five or a six on average. I try I'm trying to embody a more subtle tonality of power of what it means to work in the background and help people ignite that in themselves, if that makes sense.
One of the best practices that I adopted ages ago, I did it intentionally for 30 days when I was initially reading the book it came from, but I would wake up every day and say, who do I get to serve today?
I love that.
It just, it helps me bring down the feeling that I had to cause things and instead could just be in a re, in a receiving and reactive space instead of pushing, because like you, I am real good at pushing things uphill.
And then I'm like, why am I so tired? I'm like, oh, 'cause I've been pushing all of these ideas uphill versus just like. Letting them grow on their own sometimes. Yeah,
absolutely. I am so like that. It's like I plant the seed and then I'm plucking it out every week. Like, why have you not grown more? I forget that we plant the seed and we, we create the proper environment and conditions for it to grow.
But that greatness really takes a long time to set. And I give this example to my clients all the time, actually, that bamboo is one of the strongest, most fortified plants out there. But it takes five years to even see the first sprout because it's developing this, profoundly intricate and solid foundation underground.
And I think I have to remind myself all the time that even if we're not seeing the sprouts, that foundation is happening slowly and naturally.
And I think to bring that analogy a step further too, the every plant, even bamboo, like the ones that are the healthiest, they're never by themselves.
They're
always like, who else wants to come hang out? Yeah. 'cause we, the what is it, like three tiers of plants are like the most successful, right? The ground cover, the one that's tall, the one that's climbing. So I think we. I, even though I practice this and preach this to, I definitely preach it.
I practice it somewhat, but I will still forget. I'll get so sucked into my head about why isn't it working? It's my fault. What can I do? Me. And I'm like, hold on. Who can I just ask? I have all these people who are so amazing that I am asking to come hang out with me on a regular basis. I'm like, why didn't I just ask them?
Why didn't I just tell that group? Here's what I need. Which leads me to what we're asking everyone on the podcast now, which is, what do you need? What would you love more of? How can this powerful ladies community. Or myself, like how can we help you and either grant some wishes or help you manifest some things?
Yeah. I love that. What a great question. What do I need? I think something I've been trying to call in a lot more for 2023 is intentional community, and really finding, and this is this, is it happening in real time? Finding like what minded women and people in general to just connect with, to dialogue, share ideas.
I think that. That buzzing atmosphere is where I personally really thrive. Like I, I can incubate my ideas all I want on my own, but having that sort of erosion of, dialoguing with other people, hearing other, some others input, it really sharpens that sort of discernment and refines those ideas.
So I think, yeah, just intentional community, that would be my biggest wish for this incoming year. And in general. I love that.
So for everybody who wants to collaborate with you, support you, be part of your community, work with you, potentially, where can they find you and follow you?
Yeah, thank you. So my, for potential clients, anyone who would wanna work in psychotherapy, you can find me@parisaross.com.
P-A-R-I-S-A-F-R-O-S t.com for other professionals, and this can be anyone in the. Healing realm. Acupuncturists, yoga instructors, therapists, coaches, whatever it may be. I do have a networking, I call it a networking group, but that's really not the purpose of it. It's really more of a connecting group called hiking Healers.
You can find that@hikinghealers.com. We meet every couple months in nature to do art making, to do self care, to dialogue, to hike, really just to connect with other healers. Out in the great outdoors. I also send monthly resources out free resources every month as well. So for professionals, you can find me on there, clients, you can find me at my website, or if you just wanna say what's up and have a cup of coffee, I would love that.
I would adore that.
Amazing. I am so thankful that you've taken time outta your busy day to hang out with me, to be, to share your story with this community and just to keep being who you are. Like I. I really appreciate that there are women like you doing these things and doing everything you can to make room for others and to just make the impact that you wanna see, right?
There's, to choose to step into being of service is often a scary choice to make because there are so many selfish demands that this life has on us. And so I just wanna say thank you for the lives that you're changing and the space you're creating.
Thank you so much for having me. This has just been such a blast and you're such an inspiration as well and all that you're doing for the community of powerful entrepreneurial, and entrepreneurial and self-healing women.
Thank you.
You're so welcome.
All the links to connect with Parisa are in our show notes@thepowerfulladies.com. Please subscribe to this podcast wherever you're listen. And for bonus points, leave us a rating and review. They're so critical for podcast visibility and it helps us so much. When you do that, come join us on Instagram at Powerful Ladies.
And if you're looking to connect directly with me, please visit kara duffy.com or find man Instagram at Kara Duffy. I'll be back next week with a brand new episode. Until then, I hope you're taking on being powerful in your life. Go be awesome and up to something you love.
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Instagram: @frost.talk
Website: parisafrost.com
Website: hikinghealers.com
LinkedIn: parisafrost
Created and hosted by Kara Duffy
Audio Engineering & Editing by Jordan Duffy
Production by Amanda Kass
Graphic design by Anna Olinova
Music by Joakim Karud
