Erin Sullivan is relaxed on a couch with a cup of coffee, worlds away from the corporate office where I first met her years ago. Back then, she was fulfilling her old view of “large and in charge,” as she puts it – a director in a business operations role, wearing business suits and keeping everything in line. Today, she's the founder of Wave Mental Wellness, her own therapy practice, and the transformation in her energy is palpable.
“I thought I knew what would make me happy,” she reflects. “Having a title, having a certain income, having this prestige where people would look at you and go, 'Oh, you're a director, that's such an accomplishment.'”
But underneath that carefully constructed professional image was a growing sense of disconnection from her true passions that eventually manifested as panic attacks and sometimes crippling anxiety. She understands now those were physical manifestations of ignoring her true purpose.
The signs were therefrom the beginning. Even in junior high and high school, she gravitated toward peer support and mentoring younger students. Yet like many people, she fell victim to what she calls “the classic high school pressure” of chasing what success should look like.
“I grew up in a small town. There wasn't a lot of diversity in opportunity. It was driven into us from a young age that if you want to be successful, you have to go into engineering, nursing, sciences, or business. Those were the only opportunities.”
She followed the prescribed path, starting in sciences then eventually earning a business degree with a major in accounting. She did well in her accounting classes and found herself on a decade-long career track in finance and business services, where she excelled.
The double life
What's remarkable is how she maintained a parallel life of service throughout her corporate career.Then again, she says many people end up in the same place – a secure job, life and family responsibilities, and everything that should make you happy… “except they aren’t.”
“I was always simultaneously volunteering on the side,” she explains. “I volunteered with a program called Motherhood Matters, mentoring underprivileged young women who had become mothers. I was also volunteering with Alberta Health Services doing community outreach, going into the homes of chronically ill people providing relational support.”
When I asked how she found the energy after mentally demanding workdays, her answer revealed the fundamental truth of finding purpose in life: “When you're doing something aligned with your interests, it actually energizes you. I would finish these sessions and get home feeling warm inside.” That realization sparked a question that would eventually change her career trajectory: “Why wouldn't I do this and get paid for it?”
Not for the faint of heart
The path to becoming a therapist wasn't straightforward for someone with a business background.After researching programs, she found Yorkville University in New Brunswick offered an online master's in counseling psychology designed for career-changers.
For nearly three years, she lived a double life: corporate director by day, psychology student by night. Add in a practicum at a non-profit counseling center, continued volunteering, wedding planning, and fertility struggles including multiple miscarriages, and it's a wonder she survived.
“You feel like you don't have a choice,” she says about that period. “You have responsibilities and you just go through the motions. You think you're handling it all, but not until you finish do you realize your body was in fight-or-flight mode the whole time.”
In a twist that therapists might recognize as perfectly aligned with psychological patterns, her body waited until she completed her degree to completely shut down.
“The irony of getting my masters in mental health and supporting others to live a healthy lifestyle while running myself completely into the ground,” she laughs.
Shortly after graduation, she found herself in the hospital – twice – convinced she was having heart attacks. As a therapist, she thought she should have recognized the symptoms of extreme anxiety and burnout, but as she says, we're often blind to our own patterns.
“Logically we think as therapists, I have all these tools, it can't be anxiety or panic – it has to be something else.”
Creating space for authentic healing
After taking time to recover, she made the leap to start Wave Mental Wellness. The decision to launch her own therapy practice rather than join an existing one came from a desire to create something fully aligned with her vision of healing.
“I knew I wanted to create something that was fully me and aligned with how I help others become their most authentic and happy selves,” Erin says. “After spending a large portion of my life working for others, there was something in me that always wanted that independence – to create something from scratch I could be proud of and expand upon.”
Perhaps the most profound wisdom from her journey comes from how her carefully laid plans were repeatedly upended, from career transitions to pregnancy attempts that didn't follow her timeline.
“We create timelines for desired plans in our life, but we end up learning life doesn’t always work that way”
Today, she teaches her clients what she learned through experience: “You can't help other people when you're also drowning.”
“Especially as women, we're so used to taking on so many things and multitasking. A lot of people have high-functioning anxiety or depression without fully realizing it because we think we can't fall apart – we have too much responsibility.”
The supporting cast
Throughout our conversation, she repeatedly credits her former employer Lauren Services for the flexibility and unconditional support they provided during her transition. And her husband emerges as her most crucial supporter.
“He is my biggest cheerleader,” she says.
For entrepreneurs and career-changers, having a partner who truly believes in your vision can make all the difference between taking the leap or staying safely in a career that slowly diminishes your energy or spirit.
Today, her growing practice is focused on helping individuals come to terms with who they are, what they want out of life, and how to make dreams a reality. Due to her corporate background, she has a special place in her heart for working with companies, teams, and executives to help them get connected to wellness on amore personal level, versus calling obscure 1-800 lines for employee assistance programs.
“A relationship with a wellness partner is genuinely intimate and it’s always based on authentic trust,” she says.
Connect with Erin Sullivan today through her website, LinkedIn or Instagram.
