86 - Meet Robbyn Duchow, counselor with Health Hope Harmony

Meet our guest Robbyn, a recent University of Iowa graduate and a passionate advocate for treating eating disorders. Her journey, from being a first-generation college student aiming to teach, to becoming an ardent mental health counselor, is a story of discovery and resilience. Robbyn’s unique approach of combining her knowledge of public health and mental health to help others find their peace with bodies and food is not only compelling but also empowering.

Robbyn’s candid narration of her life’s journey, going through every size range, serves as a testament to body positivity and food peace. Things get even more interesting as Robbyn elaborates on her work supporting those with chronic health conditions like diabetes and ADHD, as well as parents and mothers. Her personal experiences with ADHD and Type 1 diabetes add layers of empathy and understanding to her role as a counselor. 

Robbyn’s non-traditional hiring journey at Health, Hope, Harmony, and her gamer identity add flair to this heartfelt conversation. If you're looking for a deep dive into self-love, acceptance, and mental well-being, this episode has much to offer. So, buckle up for a ride into the world of mental health counseling and eating disorders with a dash of gaming.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:50

Robin, thanks so much for coming on the show today and taking the time to introduce yourself to the audience. I'm so excited to have you at Health, hope, harmony and on the podcast. Yeah, thanks for inviting me. It's awesome to be here. Yeah, so just share with the listeners, our audience, a little bit about you. Who are you? What got you in the mental health field?

Speaker 2: 1:12

Sure, so I just I'm a recent graduate from the University of Iowa, so I studied clinical mental health counseling these last two years and I am coming from the world of public health, so a very different message surrounding you know what healthy looks like, those kind of things. And so, coming into work at Health, hope, harmony and looking at things through a health at every size lens, intuitive eating I'm really excited about that Kind of bridges both of my worlds together that public health world and the mental health counseling world, and specifically working with treating eating disorders. So my population focus I really I am very interested in treating Diabolinia. So, like, I work with individuals that have diabetes, that don't, but that's one of my population focuses. And, yeah, I got in this position or this field to help other individuals with some of the things they might struggle with.

Speaker 2: 2:14

I think a lot of us, a lot of women, really all genders, a lot of people right, we all have concerns about our body at some point in time or eating habits, eating behaviors and being able to normalize some of that. But, like, we all have these thoughts, we all have these feelings about our bodies. Sometimes you know that's part of being human, that's part of life. So yeah, getting in the business to help people.

Speaker 1: 2:45

Yeah, so did you always think you were going to grow up and be a counselor?

Speaker 2: 2:49

I didn't. So actually I always thought that I would grow up to be a teacher Pretty early on in my I'm a first generation college student. So pretty early on I thought, oh, someday I think it'd be nice to teach psychology and be a professor. Public health just kind of happened. I had participated in tobacco prevention since high school, working with the Iowa Department of Public Health, so that was just something that continued after college.

Speaker 2: 3:18

But it was actually my intention at that time, yes, to go and get a master's degree in clinical mental health counseling. It just took me an extra decade, right, like having kids and having a family and all those things came into play. But yeah, it wasn't always the plan. I think it was at a very young age. A teacher. It wasn't until probably my senior year of college. I'm like, yeah, I want to get that master's, I want to go and get a PhD, which is currently what I'm doing, right, Like I'm getting my or I'm working towards my PhD at the University of Iowa with counselor education and supervision. So following the goal, just a different off time transition, not bam, bam, bam like one after the next.

Speaker 1: 4:05

It's such a great reminder, Robin, that we don't have to follow the normal trajectory and that our dreams can change.

Speaker 2: 4:16

People change. Yes, Dreams can change, life can change. You're at the helm, you take control and go for it.

Speaker 1: 4:25

So why did you choose to come work at Health Hope Harmony?

Speaker 2: 4:30

So I really liked what you specifically what you're doing at Health Hope Harmony with training individuals really to get us that information how we treat eating disorders and what that looks like, because you don't get a lot of that training in graduate school.

Speaker 2: 4:47

So this is something additional that I get excited about.

Speaker 2: 4:50

Like I am totally a nerd, I love education.

Speaker 2: 4:54

So I think the fact that you would come in with that education focus and being able to say, hey, like I will guide you in this, like I have a lot of experience in this, I will guide you in this as a new clinician, that to me, was one of the biggest reasons why I came on board with Health Hope Harmony. But also because I think, as a woman who has been pretty much every size throughout my life right, like any kind of size range there is I pretty much been that and I think coming to terms with my own body positivity, like being able to help others have that healthy mindset like I say healthy with quotes right Like hoping you have a mindset that you feel good about yourself, you know you're living that day to day body positive, having that healthy relationship with food it can take time and I think, just being able to help others have that overall well-being around body positivity and just around making peace with food. I think it's a really good message. I think it's a really good area to work in.

Speaker 1: 6:02

When we're excited to have you. Just a little backstory for those of you that don't haven't heard how Robin and I got together Very non-traditional sort of hiring going on here which was honestly and I will tell that like almost everybody in my world knows this that like Robin almost literally fell into my lap Not literally, she didn't like fall into my lap, but I was on a call with the internship director at University of Iowa talking about hosting interns this year and I was telling her about like this vision that I have for this teaching practice and hiring people. And we started to wrap up in the call and she's like I think I have the perfect person for you to hire, but she's probably going to be remote because she lives a little ways away. Do you want me to get you guys in touch? And I was like, well, first tell me more about this person, why do you think she's perfect, and then I will decide if I think she's perfect. And so she told me a little bit about Robin. I was like this lady sounds amazing.

Speaker 1: 7:17

Got in touch with Robin before you even graduated, I think. Probably like two weeks or so before you were getting ready to graduate. We did a little phone interview. I fell in love with you. We did a Zoom interview and I was like I really like her even more. So then we got together for lunch. We met halfway between our houses, so it was like an hour hour and 15 minute drive for each of us, and then we spent like oh, two or three hours together at lunch and I was ready to hire you after like the first five minutes, but had to make sure that that was okay. So I was really happy when you felt similarly.

Speaker 2: 8:01

Yes, me too I'm excited and yes, I didn't mean to leave out my advisor and like yes, she does, like all the clinical supervision pieces, and she kind of knew what I was looking for or a position wanting like the flexibility as well, like to be hybrid or entirely virtual, which is kind of what I'm doing right now, just because of the distance and finding something I'm interested in. Like she also knew that my interests were in that Diabolemia realm and some of my research was looking at eating disorders, so it was really good fit.

Speaker 1: 8:37

What are you excited about in the future for health, hope, harmony and yourself?

Speaker 2: 8:43

I think I'm excited to see us grow, so like we are adding more clinicians and getting interns, like for practicum and internship, those things are very exciting to me, like I think that reiterates like how excited I am about education and triping, which I see as a big part of the mission with health, hope harmony.

Speaker 2: 9:02

And I think what I'm most excited about, yeah, it's the growth and it's helping you know, spread that knowledge. How do you treat these very specific disorders that you don't get a lot of training on in graduate school? I would tell you that, like my graduate program, yes, like I loved my graduate program, I think it was very good. I think I got a very good education. I'm obviously would still be there if I didn't believe that, but I think, across the board, eating disorders typically is not something that's discussed in a graduate program. If it is, it's very like, okay, there you go, there's your one class or there's your one lecture on eating disorders. So for health hope harmony, I'm excited to see us grow, I'm excited to see us get more clinicians and grow and, yeah, I'm excited for growth.

Speaker 1: 9:54

Me too, me too. It's fun to watch it. Who would you say is your ideal client? Who do you love working with?

Speaker 2: 10:05

I like to meet people where they're at. So like I like all types of people. It's hard for me to say like this is my ideal person and like put someone in. I mean, if I'm honest, I'm also a gamer girl. So like claiming my gamer identity, like if there are people that play video games and it's not just a hobby but like it's part of your identity, like that's definitely like up my alley.

Speaker 2: 10:30

But specifically for eating disorders, like treating ADHD, like working through some of the coping pills for that right, and like time management and also with Diabolemia, because I also have type one diabetes. So working with that population when it comes to disordered eating, that's an interest of mine. Parents like if you are a parent, if you've had a child, you know like your body's gonna change, it's gonna adapt throughout time. So I really do like working with other parents, other moms, talking about how our body changes over time, what that looks like and how we can find that body acceptance. Those are my three, my three top areas, like chronic health conditions and diabetes, adhd, but also like parents and mothers.

Speaker 1: 11:21

So if you're listening to this and you live in Iowa and Robin sounds like you are person, reach out to us. You can find all the details in the show notes. Robin will probably be on in future episodes. We know of one for sure that will be coming out right after this one. But let us know if you wanna work with Robin and we will see you in the next episode.