A special New Year’s Greeting from our CEO and founder, Mary Dobson, LMFT, CEDS

We’ve been quiet recently as we log quality time with family and friends, but I could not let the year come to a close without wishing you all a peaceful and meaningful holiday season, however you desire to celebrate. 

2023 will bring some exciting new announcements from LIFT. From its origin story with feisty and determined roots as a one-woman psychotherapy practice known as Woodlands Psychotherapy 🌳 LIFT has sprung into team of 20 brilliant, dedicated, and passionate behavioral health providers. We are honored to have created the space for nearly 10,000 counseling, psychotherapy and nutrition, and life coaching sessions this year, which took place where we are planted, in our physical downtown Westport office, as well as virtually. We are humbled to have created a beacon of hope, help, healing, and the visible representation of mental and emotional health and well-being in the central location of downtown Westport, a community we have loved and patronized our whole lives. While our diverse and multifaceted family tree continues to branch out in specializations and areas of focus, our roots {commitment to our community and primary purpose}, deepen and mature.
 
With few days left in the calendar year, we traditionally take an intentional distance from our organism, to pause, appreciate, and reflect. From time to time, it is essential to walk back and review the forest from a distance in order to take in the whole picture, rather than the sliver of perspective proximity provides. 

But before we go, I want to share with you that years ago, I had a seed of a concept in my mind for a descendent of LIFT Wellness. This new year, you will learn more of this new and flowering branch coming to life, forming with confidence and purpose from our proud evergreen. Once again, I find myself going out on a limb, knowing well that this bough will be green, small and vulnerable at first, and also knowing that over time, this offshoot will grow into a safe, comforting shelter, providing respite, restoration and replenishment to those who wander in need. I can’t wait to share more in the coming months. 

In the meantime, we as a team, in our own ways, will take time this week to take inventory of our own health, and the development of our minds and thought processes. As 2023 approaches, consider the systems you are a part of: your families, your school communities, your neighborhoods, your workspaces. Imagine how impactful self-inquiry and development will be in the influence and trajectory of the health of the whole. We are all products of larger systems, and yet we have such strength, power and influence in our individual contributions. Perhaps this exercise leads you to conclude that you may need to be replanted. Growing ‘as a person’ can mean becoming wiser, overcoming a personal problem, or healing from hurts. In all cases, improving the health of the tree’s parts ensure its continued growth and proliferation. 

Sending you wishes for a safe and healthy new year celebration, and I will see you “next year.”