Episode 43: Christina Kantzavelos, LCSW
Christina Kantzavelos, LCSW: I noticed something and that was that I was able to connect dots in my health and actually show up to doctor's appointments and go, hey, look, I noticed that when I eat X, um, I get migraines.
Jessica Fowler: Welcome back to what your therapist is reading. I'm your host, Jessica Fowler. On today's episode, we are speaking with Christina P. Kantzavelos, who is a licensed psychotherapist, LCSW, a writer, artist and citizen of the world with a home base in Joshua Tree, California. She received her bachelor's and master's of social welfare from the university of California, Los Angeles, and her master's of library and information sciences from San Jose, California State University.
She's a first generation college student and a third culture kid holding dual citizenship in Greece and the EU. She has visited over 35 different countries and documented most of it on social media. In her 100 percent remote clinical practice, she treats and is an advocate for those with chronic illness and CPTSD, utilizing various modalities such as EMDR, CA, neural retraining, EFT, and others.
She recently published Begin Within: A Daily Healing Journal for those living life with chronic illness and other health related challenges. If you're enjoying these episodes and would like to support the podcast, the best way is to leave a review. And as always head on over to social media at therapy books podcasts to make sure you don't miss a new episode and to find out about the latest giveaway we have going on. And as always the information shared on this podcast is for informational and educational purposes only.
Welcome back listeners. Today we are speaking with Christina Kantzavelos, LCSW. We're talking with her about her journal, Begin Within: A Daily Healing Journal. Welcome, Christina.
Christina Kantzavelos, LCSW: Hey, thank you so much for having me. I'm so excited to be here to talk about the journal.
Jessica Fowler: I'm excited to have you. So, I was wondering, before we dive into your journal, if we can start with a book that has impacted you in some way.
Christina Kantzavelos, LCSW: Yeah. Uh, for me, it would be Dr. Gabor Mate’s Myth of Normal. And I, it wasn't so much that book that impacted me, but a previous book called When the Body Says No, related to chronic illness, because that's one of, one of the things he focuses on or, or treats or specializes in. And what I love about Myth of Normal is it, to me, I've read quite a few of his books, it kind of takes the best, the best of from all of them. And he, he created this and it's all encompassing. It's, It's easy, like easy to digest for the average person and I recommend all therapists and people on a healing journey read it, basically, yeah.
Jessica Fowler: How has it impacted you?
Christina Kantzavelos, LCSW: It impacted me in the sense of understanding why we get sick and understanding also dependencies, be it a codependency or substance dependency. What, what is that rooted in? How does that, how does that form for the average person? And how does trauma impact us and what can we do to heal from it?
Jessica Fowler: Wonderful. Thank you. And so you talked about that chronic illness and that's one of the things that impacted you from his work. And so here we are to talk about your journal. So, let's just dive right in. Tell us about your journal.
Christina Kantzavelos, LCSW: So, this is the Begin Within Daily Healing Journal. And I created this out of sheer necessity. I was couch bound, really, really sick, um, due to various chronic illnesses, autoimmune diseases, Lyme disease, co infections, um, and basically I had, uh, read about the WALLS protocol and, which is a way to heal from chronic illness. She healed herself from MS, she put it into remission, she was wheelchair bound, and then as a doctor figured out a way, um, to to heal herself and talks about that protocol in there but one thing she recommended was journaling and I journaled on and off throughout my life, but not consistently and so she recommended you know, jotting down what you eat, like just the basics, what you eat, what you're drinking, um, tracking symptoms. So, I decided, I'm like, okay, if I'm gonna, if I'm gonna do this, I want it to be a mind, mind, body journal. And so, I looked, I looked, I was like, okay, how can I, can I find a symptom tracker that also asks me questions about my gratitude and where my mental health is, because I understand how fierce the mind body connection is, and I couldn't find anything. I, I didn't want to create this. I was couched when I was in my parents’ house requiring my mom to help me take baths. Like, I was not in any capacity to create something like this, but I ended up I ended up doing it. I ended up just taking a blank notebook and writing down the prompts that I wanted to answer. So, it was kind of like a bullet journal. And as time went on, I was like, Ooh, I want to, you know, and I was doing this research to understand what prompts help them help mental health, what prompts help physical health and um things like, you know one thing I was proud of for the day or one thing I was looking forward to the next day like that visualization component a self-love component the gratitude component and um as time went on, like I said, I just continued to fine tune what prompts I enjoyed and as, as I was, I was doing it as exhausting as it was to rewrite the prompts every day, I noticed something and that was that I was able to connect dots in my health and actually show up to doctor's appointments and go, hey, look, I noticed that when I eat X, um, I get migraines or that it affects my menstrual cycle in this way, or my bowel movements. Um, and it was pretty empowering, whereas I was feeling so disempowered in my health journey of not knowing what was going on and what to do and what would actually help me. I was sort of figuring it out for myself with the help of my treatment team, of course. And, and in doing further research on, on journaling, I found that there, there are research studies proving that not only is it beneficial to your mental health, it actually, they've done studies where, on wound patients, where those who were journaling versus those who weren't, their wounds actually healed a lot quicker then the ones who get it. So, when I say it's a fierce mind body tool, it so it is like it's one of those things, right? Like meditation or any physical activity where you don't generally regret ever doing it. You're like, oh, I'm so glad I, I did this for myself. So. Yeah, that's oh and then as far as like how did I go about getting this out into the public? I had one of my best friends. I said, you know, I’m tired of rewriting this these prompts and also I think this would probably be beneficial to other people healing from chronic illness and one of my best friends goes She was like, let's, let's do it. Let's, let's get you a journal to use and let's help others do the same. So she, her name's Stephanie and she's just a godsend of a, of a human and friend and yeah, she learned Canva and how to layout, seriously. Yeah. 'cause I tried finding a designer, I kind of got screwed over 'cause I, I again wasn't at capacity to, to do business with anyone and she took over and, um. Yeah, we, we created this and, um, I, I, I know it's helped lots of people, which is so awesome. And it, yeah, it continues to help me when I use it. I don't, I mean, I don't use it as often as I once did, cause now I'm going into long form, but when I was at a point and capacity of like, I can only fill in the bare minimum, this was extremely important for me. Yeah.
Jessica Fowler: Well, it's important to track our symptoms, and I mean, I tell clients that all the time, like if you're not feeling well, you know, so maybe more in my capacity of a mental health professional, but right, like your anxiety, your depression, women definitely cycle, all of those things. And so having somewhere to write it down. And see it and hold it to me is like, I like to hold things. So, you know, but just to have that and to know the importance of it and the journal part, right. Cause there is studies that look at that. It can be super helpful. Things like gratitude. I love that question something you're proud of today is a great question. I ask it all the time.
Christina Kantzavelos, LCSW: Yeah, yeah. And what people don't realize is when we visualize or practice gratitude, we release serotonin and dopamine. And what that's doing is it's getting that cortisol out of the system. It's putting us into that, that rest and repair rest and digest state. So, it's truly journaling and practicing these things aside from journaling are extremely, extremely medicinal. Yeah. Yeah. So, I end up giving it to all my clients as well as a therapist. I'm like, everyone gets one when they start with me because I've, I've seen it impact folks in such a powerful way.
Jessica Fowler: Wonderful. And so when they get the journal, it's really, it's like a 90 day journal, right? It's 90 days and it's, it's the same questions, right? So, you can go through every day and then you can compare your symptoms. And see how you're doing.
Christina Kantzavelos, LCSW: And it's not predated because there are going to be days where you just don't have capacity even to journal and I didn't ever want to make anyone feel bad for that because when you're feeling from chronic illness, you're already not feeling 100 you're like dang I’m not not taking care of myself the way I need to you know, etc, etc I don't want those. I don't want further cortisol to flood the body. So, there's that and then You know, some folks who maybe are just focused on their mental health may not need certain sections of this. So, you know, you can write other things within it or use, use it as a larger space to, um, to write more long form. Yeah.
Jessica Fowler: And so what are one or two takeaways you would like your readers or Yeah, your readers to walk away with.
Christina Kantzavelos, LCSW: Yeah. Um, I suppose that, you know, there's. As far as the journal is concerned, there are various types on the website, including an e journal, which you had access, access to, and it's meant to be accessible for anyone at any part of their healing journey. So, but also understanding that, you know, journaling isn't for everyone. This is, this is for the specific person who really wants to track where they are on their, on their journeys. So, um, yeah. And if anyone has any questions, they can, they can reach out to me and whether use my journal or another one, I'm going to encourage you to at least try it out and see how it feels for you as a mind body tool.
Jessica Fowler: Definitely. Who would you say the journal is for?
Christina Kantzavelos, LCSW: I would say anyone wanting to track their healing journey.
Jessica Fowler: So, it's not specifically for chronic illness.
Christina Kantzavelos, LCSW: No, no. Although that's how it was. That's how it was born, essentially, for my own, for me wanting to heal my own chronic illness. I've had folks with no chronic illness find it to be extremely beneficial.
Jessica Fowler: Yeah, because it is, it is written in a way that I think can apply to a lot of different things, not just chronic illness.
Christina Kantzavelos, LCSW: Yeah, yeah.
Jessica Fowler: Are you doing better? Are you healing?
Christina Kantzavelos, LCSW: Yeah, definitely. Compared to where I was when I was, when I created this, a thousand percent. Yeah, I was couch bound and so, so sick and, you know, now I'm, I'm able to live independently and travel and hike and do things that I only could visualize when I was that sick. So, also take, take away that's not even journal related is that you can heal and you can put things into remission. It is possible.
Jessica Fowler: Wonderful. Thank you. Where can our listeners connect with you?
Christina Kantzavelos, LCSW: Um, I can be found at begin within today, beginwithintoday.com.
Jessica Fowler: Excellent. Thank you.
Christina Kantzavelos, LCSW: Of course.
Jessica Fowler: Thank you for listening to this week's episode of what your therapist is reading. Make sure you head on over to the website or social media to find out about the latest giveaway. The information provided in this program is for educational and informational purposes only. And although I'm a social worker licensed in the state of New York, this program is not intended to provide mental health treatment and does not constitute a patient therapist relationship.
More about Christina:
Christina P. Kantzavelos is a licensed psychotherapist (LCSW) writer, artist, and citizen of the world, with a home-base in Joshua Tree, CA. She received her Bachelor’s and Master's of Social Welfare (MSW) from the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) and her Masters of Library and Information Sciences from San Jose California State University (SJSU). She’s a first-generation college student, and third culture kid (TCK) holding dual citizenship in Greece/ the EU. She has visited over 35 different countries and documented most of it on social media. However, it was in completing the Camino de Santiago (500-mile pilgrimage across Spain) at the end of 2015, where she realized her strong affinity with writing. She decided to start BuenQamino, an Award-Winning, gluten-free and health-conscious lifestyle, and travel publication. In her 100% remote clinical practice (@BeginWithinToday), she treats and is an advocate for those with chronic illness and C-PTSD, utilizing various modalities such as EMDR, CA, neural retraining, EFT and others. She recently published 'Begin Within - A Daily Healing Journal' (www.beginwithintoday.com) for those living life with chronic illness or other health-related challenges.