Today we’d like to introduce you to Terri Parke.
Hi Terri, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
Hi! So, I am from Indiana and moved to Texas in June of 2019. I was born the 2nd of three children to two music education teachers. I grew up in a small, rural community where we worked in the cornfields detasseling corn starting at age 13, and graduated from high school with a class of 150.
I determined from a fairly young age that I would like to work in the helping field but was not sure how to do that with income. I have a BS in Psychology from Indiana University, and I have a MA in Community Counseling from the University of Cincinnati.
Along the way to where I am now, I worked for about the first 15 years or so of my career with families and children where there was abuse or neglect, or there was a risk for that, to help increase the safety of their homes and skills with parenting to help children grow up with safety and stability and to have a safe environment.
Along that path, my husband and I determined we would like to start a family, and in December of 1997 our fraternal twin sons were born.
I worked for two very small companies and supervised staff for most of the time period prior to 2018. In 2013, during the Federal Sequestration, we were not awarded an integral Federal Grant, and our small, nearly 40-year-old non-profit was purchased, or ‘merged’, with a much larger non-profit institution which had been wanting to expand into the community where I lived and where Promising Futures was, Hamilton County Indiana.
In 2016, just as my kids were getting ready to graduate from high school and attend Indiana University themselves, my husband had an opportunity to advance in his job which required us to relocate at some point to Texas. We at that time planned to move in 2020, but as the date loomed closer, determined we would move in 2019 as our sons were busy with their college internships.
From 1998-2018 I supervised programs as I continued to provide therapy. In 2018, I determined I would leave my full-time role at the large non-profit in Indianapolis and go into private practice. Just prior to leaving my role at the Children’s Bureau, I began a blog, where I publish articles relating to mental health, some experiences I have had, and photography. I was working to improve my writing, photography, and skills related to what role I would have in Texas.
Writing a book has been a life-long goal of mine. I am an avid reader and have memories of being at friends’ houses and waiting to get home to get back to the fiction book I was reading.
I tend to be a high achiever with a healthy dose of anxiety, as well as a person who tends to look for strengths in others. I have had a goal to integrate some of the real-life experiences I have had into readable books to help practitioners, helpers, and people who are interested in increasing their own mental health through reading.
In 2021, as the pandemic lessened a bit, I wrote an article for a contest. Writing and photography are two things I have loved to do, and the contest listed some different topics, including the beginning of a memoir.
While maintaining the blog, I continue to work at a private group practice providing mental health therapy, and volunteer for local non-profits. Currently, I am working with an organization known as TLT (Tomorrow’s Leader’s Today) as an honorary board member, have been providing therapy through a group practice since 2020, maintain my blog, and am working to be able to promote positive mental health through writing and art.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
There have definitely been some tough transitions along the way to where I am today. As a small practice employee in two different companies, one that did not survive the recession of 2008 and another non-profit which was affected later and closed in 2013, my income security has been affected. In addition, my husband’s role is in financial services, where he is essentially a financial advisor to financial advisors. His income has been affected by store closings prior to entering the financial services industry, and then two other times due to the state of the financial market.
Losing our income multiple times helped increase our resiliencies, as well as creating stress regarding having income. My interests are primarily in women-driven fields, and the feminization of poverty has affected our shared income as my roles in different agencies tended to be reimbursed at a lower rate than those in more profitable, money-driven fields.
In addition, a large stressor for me was entering a very bureaucratic agency after being the 2nd in charge at two small companies who did not survive the financial stress, they were each experiencing.
Learning the processes of having an accounting department, HR, multiple VPs, and many directors at my level led to a high amount of anxiety over my own communication style, which tends to be much more unilateral and irrespective of roles.
My own interest in the arts has been lifelong for me. I am rarely seen without some sort of camera in my hand, and before phones had such good cameras that was usually a Canon Rebel.
A childhood with very little excess funds, an adulthood with lost income, and my own preference for arts has led me to work to increase my focus on being an entrepreneur. For now, I have a published article in the book ‘Women Write Now’, and am looking forward to commissioning some more art based on photographs I have taken, which is a new area for me.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I’m so glad that Artist/Creative is one of the choices here. I have recently re-named my blog ‘Parke Counseling and Artistry’ to indicate the art that I will continue to learn about publishing through my blog and other avenues. I have uploaded a few pictures to a site called fineartsamerica.com and so far, have purchased two notebooks from myself.
I grew up with a saxophone in my hand, and as a gift for my birthday right as we moved to Texas, my dad was able to get my original alto saxophone re-hauled and playable again after a 30-year rest.
In college, I was a member of Indiana University’s Marching Hundred, which at the time was about 330 members. We practiced through the week, and were a marching band who performed at all home football games and a few away games.
IU was fairly good during that time period, and I was able to participate in two bowl games as well.
After three years of marching, I determined I would try out for the Basketball band, where we played at-home games. I was able to make that group and played throughout basketball games in the 91-92 season where IU made it to the Final Four.
I began piano lessons at the age of 6, where my mom determined that once we could read and she found a piano teacher in our small town I would begin lessons with a local piano teacher. I had a great time learning jazz and pop songs, as well as some of the classical music I reluctantly learned. After a change in teacher, I took lessons through my freshman year of high school.
I was an avid member of our stage band in high school and played solos in many songs where I was able to improvise. I sing along if I’m in the car, and my low alto voice best matches Karen Carpenter, Barry Manilow, and some Stevie Nicks.
I encourage art, have dreams of being an artist/writer/musician and am really focusing as I enter this post 50 period of my life on improving my artistic abilities and want to encourage young artists as well.
My son’s college roommate has an artist for a mom, and his younger sister is looking to be an illustrator. After taking many pictures of a coffee shop which was near closing, I as able to pay her a small fee to create prints, which is her expertise, of the McKinney Coffee Shop. I hope to continue to coordinate with her illustration skills and potentially write about anxiety, depression, mood disorders, and ADHD as she continues to improve her art and I continue to work on financially having a bit of success with my own abilities.
Are there any books, apps, podcasts or blogs that help you do your best?
Anything by Brene Brown is a favorite of mine. I tend to read or listen to music more than I listen to podcasts, but have an affinity for Howard Stern that surprises some people. Howard Stern has an interview style which is similar to how I talk with others, which in therapy is termed ‘Motivational Interviewing’. Although he can at times be off color, the stories that are shared between him and guests are interesting and engaging to me. Books I read include a science-based book on ADHD, Brene Brown’s Ted Talk Series ‘The Power of Vulnerability’, and I would be re-miss if I didn’t mention how motivated I have been listening to Michelle Obama and her husband, former president Barack talk about their changes they wish to see.
I read Michelle’s book ‘Becoming’, then when I reached 93%, I realized that she was reading her own story on Audible.
At that time, I purchased the book on Audible, and listened to her read the book I had just read about some of her own experiences that have led her to where she is.
I read the book ‘Tales from my father’ as Barack Obama was initially running for President, and really enjoyed learning about his path as well.
Musicals are a love of mine that I have been able to realize in greater amounts since our move to the Dallas Metroplex. A fan of Wicked since it came out, I was able to re-watch it at Fair Park in 2021. In December of this year, I was able to see ‘SIX’, which is my latest go to on my apple music library when I am not listening to other songs on my expansive playlist.
Pricing:
- $18.95 Women Write Now: available on Kindle
- $1Relecting Pond, others on fineartsamerica.com
- Search Terri Parke on fineartsamerica.com
- 3.95 greeting cards
Contact Info:
- Website: terriswritings.com
- Instagram: terriparke
- Facebook: terriparke
- Linkedin: parkecounseling
- Twitter: tdparke
- Youtube: @terriparke4995
Image Credits
Matt Parke
Maddie Glogas
