Farewell Matthew!
It’s with mixed emotions that we announce that Matthew Braman is leaving Fleurish this month. He has prepared the post below to share the details of his transition.
If you are a current or former client of Matthew’s looking for therapy in Georgia, reach out to our admin team, and they’ll be happy to connect you with a current Fleurish therapist who is a match for you.
Matthew we wish you all the best in your new practice!!
Matthew Bids Fleurish Adieu; Still Wants You to Fleurish
The time has come for me to say, “Goodbye.” It is with mixed emotions that I share some updates about my personal & professional life transitions, and what they mean for Fleurish clients.
Moving Back to New York
Life transitions brought me to Atlanta, GA in July 2019. My wife and I left New York in support of her opportunity to complete a one-year fellowship program at Emory University School of Medicine. Honestly, I didn’t want to leave New York. I had never been to Atlanta before. However, once I arrived and settled in, I quickly fell in love with southern hospitality, warm weather, and all of the vibrant treasures I started to find throughout Georgia.
Fleurish Psychotherapy offered me a great new opportunity to join a growing group practice. I really enjoyed working with my Fleurish colleagues & clients, and I definitely felt like a valued member of the group. My wife and I tried to find every reason we could to stay in Atlanta, and her career path pointed us back in the New York direction where we returned in August 2020. She joined a medical group in NY while I continued to work for Fleurish and provide teletherapy remotely from my new apartment in NY with Fleurish clients who were located in Georgia.
I want to thank all of the Fleurish colleagues & clients who worked with me and rolled with it over the past year while we all tried to Zoom, stay safe, survive, grow, and thrive during our first (and hopefully our last) pandemic experience. I feel grateful for having been able to hear, see, and come to understand the volume and depth of your inner strengths & resiliency.
Becoming a New Dad
The biggest transition of all is that my family is growing! My wife and I are expecting a baby boy to arrive in March 2021, and we feel blessed, scared, AND super excited to become parents. This huge life transition means that I have had to move my clients through “the therapeutic process of termination” because I plan to take time off for paternity leave in order to join my wife as a partner in welcoming our baby and to be present to support my growing family.
Some of my clients decided to bring their therapy to its own natural ending at the end of my time with Fleurish. Many of my clients decided to work in partnership with our team to sort out transition plans for transfer to a different Fleurish therapist or other therapists in the community. All of my clients heard my heartfelt message of support that even though we are saying goodbye, I still want you all to “Fleurish” and to build a life worth living.
Launching a Solo Private Practice
Georgia is still on my mind even though I have had to get back into the New York groove. Over the past year, I started to make plans for my return back to NY and to grow my vision for my career path into a reality. Thankfully, I am pleased to share my plan to launch and open my own solo private practice later this year after the baby comes: Verve Psychotherapy.
I want to express my gratitude to Erin Hinek, the owner of Fleurish Psychotherapy, for all of her support. Erin invested her time, energy, and resources into my professional development as a licensed clinical social worker, and she is a major influence for my confidence to take this next step on my career path. My hope and my aim are to deliver the same type of exceptional and high-quality service through my solo practice as is made available by Fleurish Psychotherapy.
Adapting to Change
We all have had to adapt to many different changes over the past year because COVID-19 changed our world. Therapy is now in higher demand, and it makes sense because of all of the life transitions and changes caused by pandemic-related consequences and stress.
Wearing a mask to reduce the risk of your exposure to COVID-19 is one thing, but wearing a mask to hide your emotions and what's going on in your life is another. Contact Fleurish to get started with therapy if you need support to work through life transitions for personal growth.