Today we’d like to introduce you to Abbie Driscoll.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Abbie. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
I’m a therapist by day, or whatever. (Now I sound like a superhero!) One of my niche specialties is working with new moms or moms of younger kiddos. My kiddo is eight now, so new moms have evolved a little bit! One of the most often heard questions that moms of younger kiddos ask me is how do you teach your kid to be kind? It stumped me a bit that I didn’t have an easy answer.
AND, it’s those kind of questions that I find myself spinning on when I’m TRYING to do the rest of my life. I just kept asking myself the question. I’m super lucky to have a creative, fun, super compassionate kiddo. But, we have wrestled with being on the other end of kiddos not being kind for sure. I remember being so surprised the first time she told me a kid wasn’t nice to her. It was way back in PRESCHOOL, which for me seems way to early. What shocked me further was when I was dropping my daughter off at school soon after she told me about this little girl and my daughter happily said hi to this little girl as we passed her and her mom in the hallway. Not only did the little girl ignore my daughter, but the mom did too. I was sad, hurt, and a bit appalled. SO, the question from my clients started to get to me. I wanted to come up with an answer.
I blame a little bit on too many Target runs and coming up a bit empty handed. In looking around, I wasn’t finding many things that would help explain kindness without lecturing my kiddo on ways to be nice to her friends and that wasn’t what I wanted. One afternoon when we were cooped up in the house, Emerson was working on her latest craft project that happened to be bookmarks with sayings like, Never Give Up, and Let the Adventure Begin. I think she was pulling the ideas out of a craft book. But, it got me thinking and my brain started exploding with ideas. So, a few online searches later I had a few mock designs on their way. I’m also not likely to jump into anything halfway, so ordering a couple of designs turned into have a full stock of designs, a Facebook page, an Instagram account and some great feedback and sales from friends.
Having sold jewelry before that had a good, solid story behind it we’ve tried to really push that part of Spread Kindness as well. This is about starting a conversation with your kiddos. This is about recognizing that there isn’t just a problem with kiddos not being nice to one another. Putting my therapist hat back on, it’s about all the adults that sit in my office that have incorporated that mean voice they once heard into their own messaging system. SO, it’s more than teaching kiddos to be kind. It’s about learning how to treat ourselves with respect and kindness, recognizing that treating ourselves well leads to us treating others well.
I’ve been surprised the impact our Spread Kindness designs have had even on me. They have become my entire wardrobe! The muscle tanks are so beyond soft I literally sleep in one, throw a sports bra on underneath in the morning and hit the gym. I’m reminded of how much what we see becomes what we experience. I’ve noticed my own negative nancy tuning it down just a little bit when I wearing a groovy Texas Be Kind design or a Love the Little Things. It’s making an impact.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
There are always struggles. Since our road has been rather short-lived, the biggest hurdle is getting the word out. We’ve become such a ‘like’ society and not an ‘action’ society. People can easily scroll through Instagram or Facebook and hit ‘like’ on something, but are you willing to put things into ‘action’. It’s harder to get someone to buy a design so that they can be with us along on our journey to spread kindness. We need ambassadors! I’m happy with the response we have gotten so far. We need more. I’m a little torn as well coming from selling jewelry before. I know the pop-up shops and all that would be a big help. I’m also focused more on my family now and not wanting to give up 10-5 on a Saturday anymore. I’ve got too many soccer games and birthday parties I’m not willing to miss!
So, as you know, we’re impressed with Spread Kindness – tell our readers more, for example, what you’re most proud of as a company and what sets you apart from others.
I think I’ve covered most of this, but I was reached out to about my counseling practice as well. I’ll fill in some of that here. Help here redefined was a brainchild to change the way therapy was being done at my current practice. Where I was before reached a business plan that I didn’t feel like fit with what I wanted therapy to be about. I get that it’s all still business, but we were dealing with people and I wanted to see people taken care of better than what I was seeing.
Growth is good, but there are sacrifices to growth too. With my primary niche (other than moms) being eating disorders, I have to be very careful about the environment I bring my clients too. My clients expect the things I offer them to be safe. If I going to teach them how to baby proof their world a bit, not pay attention to all the things that tell us to hate our bodies, etc., then I need to provide a space in the environment they come see me in that I had a little bit more control over. I also wanted to bring in some other modalities and folks to offer a boutique counseling setting. We have an amazing play therapist who combines components of yoga with play that is so important for the little kiddos of the moms I see. We have an amazing teen and young adult in transitions therapist. We have an amazing EMDR therapist. AND! We even offer equine assisted psychotherapy, which is pretty rad!
So, what’s next? Any big plans?
Growth is always a good thing, within the limits of what allows me to keep myself. I’m huge on keeping ME in the midst of all of this. I use racehorses off of the track in my equine assisted psychotherapy and my horses are a huge part of my life. They are what keep me always working on my fear and my confidence at the same time. If I were to change anything about the now in the future, it would be developing that program further for sure!
I hope Spread Kindness takes off. I don’t necessarily see us at your local Target, but I would like to walk around and see people in our shirts. We did a special Mockingbird Elementary edition with the deaf ‘I love you’ sign to support their deaf ed program. I’d like to see our shirts make an impact. I’m lucky enough to feel that I have made an impact as a therapist. That has been important to me. The more I’ve gotten to know myself the more I realize that more than having a huge ton of friends the way I feel connected and tethered to the world is through helping people. I’m eager to see how that continues to develop!
Pricing:
- Spread Kindness designs – $25 to $40
- Here, help redefined therapy rates – $75 to $150
Contact Info:
- Address: 5646 Milton, Suite 525
Dallas, Texas 75206 - Website: www.helphereredefined.com
- Phone: 214-616-2262
- Email: abbie.driscoll@icloud.com
- Instagram: @abbiechesneylpc OR @spreadkindnesstx
- Facebook: @abbiechesneylpc OR @spreadkindnesstx
Getting in touch: VoyageDallas is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.
