La Shanda Sugg, LPC on Love, Inherent Worth, and Community Healing
I was welcomed into La Shanda Sugg, LPC’s comfortably-curated home for our Thursday evening interview – it was effortless to get settled in and open up, feeling like a cozy therapy session. She spoke passionately about her work, often using analogies to tie grand realizations into easy-to-digest teachings. La Shanda also made sure the environment was appropriately catered for the occasion from the background ambiance music to the natural lighting. And during the conversation, we frequently stopped to check-in and regulate our nervous system. La Shanda embodies many roles in this life: a mother, a teacher, a partner, and an artist, to name a few. From the totally on-brand accents of gold in her flowy outfit to the Paw Patrol bandaid she humbly fashioned on her finger, she was everything I imagined meeting her in person would be like – radiant, respectful, and real.
She’s a gift to this Earth as a guide to love and liberation, and her mission is loyally executed with genuine intention. This was a challenging interview to condense because it was overflowing with jam-packed goodness, but I hope readers can take away a slice of otherworldly and motherly magic that is La Shanda Sugg, LPC.
Interview by Sophia Epitropoulos. Photography by Stacy Wegley.
Tell me about your path to becoming a therapist, because I feel like that's not something that you really stumble into.
My path to becoming a therapist started with my own healing journey. When I was four days shy of my 30th birthday, I left a 12-year marriage. At the time, I wasn't showing up as myself and no one knew what was going on with me. I kept everything to myself. I missed no work. I still performed.
I got sent to Columbus for a training called “Children of Trauma.” I only went to this training because I was the training coordinator at work, but I sat in the middle of that auditorium and went, “Oh, sh*t. I'm a child of trauma.”
Before this, I did not equate my life with trauma. I am highly educated. I had two parents. I had all my needs met and I didn't fit the stereotypes. It wasn't until I started going through this process towards the end of my marriage that some of these things started to come up for me. It can be a very confusing and hard process when you get to a place where these things come back – these memories and sensations that are decontextualized and you have no idea why you are having the responses you're having.
Healing from that trauma helped me realize that my essence and my gifts are uniquely situated to do the work that I do, and also that healing was possible. At the time, I didn't know that I had so much to heal from. But once I learned about it and that I could heal, I wanted to make that possible for other people. So that was kind of like how I got there. Never once, growing up, did I think, “I want to do that.”
In my practice, we look at the experiences from your childhood and see how they shaped your beliefs, worldviews, and behaviors. I work a lot with folks who say, “I've done all the things right. I checked all the boxes. Why do I still not feel fulfilled in my life? Why am I still sad?” Those are the folks that I'm connecting with to say, “Let's start excavating. Let's start unearthing some of this stuff to see who you were always intended to be – let's go back to who you were before other people put their fingerprints on you – their motives, desires, intentions, fears, and anxieties. You came here fully equipped to live the life of your soul's purpose. We heap all this stuff on top of it, but it doesn't disappear. Let's start finding that.”
From the moment we exit the womb, we are given a comparison and an identity, and then we're expected to perform. With my practice, I allow you to see yourself outside of the narratives that have been put in your head about who you are. When people can see how strong, resilient, beautiful, and creative they are, they at least have to start challenging all the other narratives that have told them otherwise.
I've never heard that phrase you used about fingerprints, but it makes me think of a metaphor I use with lynchpins. Like, when lynchpins in your life have been removed, it’s terrifying – first is recognizing that the absence of them are losses, and without them, you have to redefine everything, and it makes you question who you are without those things holding you together.
It’s very scary, but this also brings up the issue of privilege and access. “I have a life that I can afford to spend time thinking, “Who am I?”
I think about so many people who work on themselves to become free. Everything I do is how to move towards liberation – a personal liberation, a collective liberation. But not everyone is afforded the opportunity to do so.
Therapy has been extremely harmful to folks of color and marginalized people.
So, I do therapy and liberatory coaching, but I also do a lot of work within the community that makes things more accessible for folks. Every month, I help with an event at BlaCk Coffee Lounge called Trauma Talks.
It’s a public event that allows others to see that healing happens in the community – it doesn’t have to be just an individual thing. It's an example of what a safe relationship can be like in other places. People don't expect to walk into a coffee shop on a Saturday afternoon and hear people talking about really deep things and sharing their experiences. They think they have to go and find this one person and meet with them this many times, but time and time again, people who come to Trauma Talks are like, “I look forward to this every month because I know we're going to come together and be real and honest.” They leave feeling empowered and equipped.
Healing is work but it's not work that has to be done alone.
What do you think Cincinnati's doing well for mental health and what changes do you wish to see?
I am part of the Childhood Trauma Emergency Group and we have been trying to get the state of Ohio and the city of Cincinnati to declare a state of emergency on childhood trauma.
If a tornado hit right now, there would be a state of emergency declared because something has happened that's so big that it's going to require our attention, our resources, and our planning. When the opioid epidemic started, they declared a state of emergency. Interestingly, the opioid epidemic impacted a certain demographic of people more than it did others. So there was this awareness, but it disproportionately impacted non-minoritized, non-marginalized communities more.
So, we're saying, do the same thing for childhood trauma. Do you actually want to address homelessness and violence and failing school performance and attendance? We are talking about the externalization of trauma. We are talking about the results of someone's body trying to keep itself safe and alive, but it's being criminalized when it's in the Black and brown communities.
I don't believe that my worth and value are directly connected to the hard work I produce. I actually feel like I have inherent worth.
It is always called something else. The children are not struggling – they are delinquent. The children don't need support and help – they need discipline and punishment. What if we realize that a behavior problem in school is directly connected to the food desert that they live in and the lack of proper nutrition that they have or the lack of sleep that they get? All of these things impact how children who then become adults show up in the world. We need to better understand what trauma is and to have better solutions.
I feel like the Gen Zers today are heavier advocates for mental health than any other generation I've been exposed to. Have you noticed any changes or patterns with age groups and their outlook on mental health?
Yes, I think there are some clear differences in the worldviews that different generations hold. I love working with multi-generational families because I get the chance to ask things like, “Before the fingerprint, before all the messages you got that said you are what you produce, who are you? What's still in there?” There are distinct differences, but I believe all generations deserve the opportunity to move towards a liberty they didn't even know existed.
It’s such a fulfilling part of my work to help bridge the gap and show that everyone in a multi-generational family has something each other needs. You need each other's stories and perspectives.
I assume your job is very taxing [La Shanda smiles and tilts her head sideways] …It can be? [She’s still smiling and I start second-guessing my question] Maybe? You hold such a big responsibility in the community and the world on a micro and macro level.
I hear what you're saying and most committed mental health professionals would agree that it’s taxing. I think I felt that way for a while, but the work I did on myself freed me from that. Part of my self-healing journey was decolonizing from old beliefs about working hard and hard work.
I don't believe that my worth and value are directly connected to the hard work I produce. I actually feel like I have inherent worth.
I came here worthy of love and protection. I have not always gotten those things but I've always deserved them even when people were ill-equipped or had no capacity to give them to me. Their lack of ability to give it to me was not a result of my deservingness. So, if I am inherently worthy of these things and I don't have to work hard to get them, then who's benefiting from my continual process of hard work? No one!
If you go to a restaurant and the table next to you leaves and you watch your server put new food on top of their dirty plates, that’s nasty, right? No one expects brand-new dishes and silverware every time they eat, but the bare minimum is that they’ve been cleaned and sanitized. In our culture, we go from one meeting to the next one thing to the next, heaping food on top of stuff that has already been eaten on, and not taking time to clean, to sanitize, to rest, to breathe, to get ourselves back to the present person we need to be.
I realized it's not about how many things or how many people I can see in a day. I started to believe that the biggest contribution that I make to the world is how I show up in my full essence. It's why you feel at home in my home, right?
Who is an influential woman in your life?
I am.
It's easy to look at a person, what they produce, and what they do, and make assumptions and projections about how they got there and stayed there. But for me, I know what I do on a daily basis to be regulated, to show up in the most compassionate, loving way for my family, for those I support, and for people I don't know. I motivate myself every day because I know the intention.
I'm one of the most intentional people that I've ever met. Consistent, transparent, and honest. And when I can be honest about my journey, it gives other people permission to be honest with themselves.
I know the truth and the honesty about how dedicated I am to being a vessel of love and healing in this world and how that impacts the way that I parent my children, how I partner with my husband, how I run a business, how I'm a friend, and how I provide services. I am the person who inspires me most.
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