Today we’d like to introduce you to Jillian Parente.
Hi Jillian, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
“Healing is possible,” is a mantra I composed when I initiated my profession as a Clinical Social Worker. Along this path, over the last 12 years, this affirmation has become more impactful; and, I have accumulated many additional roles, professionally and personally. These roles include, Therapist; Mother; Wife; Clinical Supervisor; Program Creator and Coordinator; Leader; Survivor of Postpartum Psychosis; Divorce’; Entrepreneur; Consultant; Innovator; Wellness Coach; Professor; and Founder of Cultivate Piece, Corp.
I have a great passion for going above and beyond in providing care in the mental health field, with various populations. Initially, when I created the name Cultivate Piece, I wanted my business to be the “missing piece,” in providing support for those people who are incarcerated, including their transition and reintegration back into the community. This is still a huge dream of mine, as I would love to implement my comprehensive, holistic model for mental health services in the jail and prison system, as well as a recovery house in the community for those re-entering.
In the past twelve years of my career, I have worked as a Clinical Coordinator at a therapeutic group home for girls; and a Mental Health Professional in jail. From there, I was selected to craft and facilitate a mental health wellness program on the psychiatric unit for men in jail. I have also been a Mental Health Professional in the juvenile detention center; and, consulted, as well as provided therapeutic services for a non-profit providing mental health service for women who are justice-involved, preparing to enter the work force.
As life experiences occurred and my career shifted, I still have a longing for this dream of standardizing comprehensive mental health services for those who are incarcerated and reentering the community; however, I have become more involved in perinatal mental health.
When I was 11 months postpartum, I experienced late onset severe postpartum psychosis, that changed my entire life. As I have healed and risen above, over the last seven years, I have established mental health private practice, called Cultivate Piece, Corp. My scope includes trauma, women’s issues, justice-involved, anxiety and depression etc. However, my passion currently is providing “missing pieces” in perinatal care, from pregnancy, through postpartum, including termination, miscarriage and fertility treatment. There are so many gaps in the medical system for women and perinatal care. I take great pride in providing emotional support, as well as psycho-education and resources, to care for women during these significant transitions. There are so many opportunities to collaborate with other professionals, in various disciplines, as well as provide trainings and resources; and even more involved follow-up mental health care, before and after giving birth. I thoroughly enjoy creating “Postpartum Aftercare Plans,” to outline a preventative, proactive plan for this most vulnerable time for women and their partners, in postpartum, which includes up to three years after giving birth, as they transition into motherhood.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
There have been significant challenges along my path to Cultivate Piece, Corp. Creating and facilitating the mental health wellness program for men in the psychiatric unit was my dream job, that was ripe with countless opportunities to cultivate change for those who were incarcerated. From this experience, I had plans to implement the program for women in jail, as well as build partnerships with community resources. I also have designed a meticulous model for a recovery house, post-incarceration, including mental health and substance abuse treatment. After approximately 8 months of initiating the program, I found out that I was unexpectedly pregnant. Throughout the pregnancy I was supported in my position. Prior to maternity leave, I produced an exhaustive plan to be utilized in the three months I would be out on maternity leave. When I left for leave, I had approximately 10 participants in the program. When I returned from maternity leave, I had approximately 30 participants. Despite this significant increase in clients and advocating for additional staffing, I was not provided extra support.
Caring for a newborn at home, working over 40 hours per week, as well as many other traumatic factors led to my experience of late onset severe postpartum psychosis at 11 months postpartum. This episodic illness was misdiagnosed for approximately 6 to 8 weeks, in various places of medical care, which led to incomplete and inaccurate treatment. In time, as I processed and made sense of this experience, I continued to advocate for comprehensive services for myself. I also became aware of the multitude of significant risk factors that I experienced prior to giving birth. All of which could have been acknowledged and addressed, thus potentially preventing the episode or its intensity. Due to my experience, I began my mission to advocate for maternal mental health. I have since been a guest in a podcast for maternal mental health, as well as a educator in a training of clinicians on maternal mental health. I continue to seek ways to spread awareness.
At the beginning of my illness, I resigned from my position at the jail. After treatment, upon my return to work, I was cautious about taking on additional stress, and began working part time at the juvenile detention center for an agency that I had interned with during my second year of graduate school. As I diligently continued to heal, I was also experiencing much control from family members, and a plethora of repercussions.
I continued to rebuild my career, working for various mental health agencies, nonprofits and private practices. Simultaneously, COVID occurred. Right before COVID, I was offered a position as the Clinical Director of Behavioral Health for a start-up mental health clinic. I proudly accepted the offer, and proceeded to provide consultation, as the first clinical hire. Concurrently, due to my love of direct clinical work with justice-involved clients, I continued providing group therapy sessions to the women of the non-profit agency. At the mental health clinic, I assisted in deciding on a location, naming the organization, hiring and building the staff, as well as contributed to writing policies and program structure. Unfortunately, COVID hit at the inception of the clinic, and planning and funding was slowed. I parted ways with this organization.
Throughout COVID, I miraculously managed to continue providing the group therapy sessions, expand the mental health portion of the non-profit by providing individual therapy to the women entering the workforce, as well as supervising graduate school interns, while solely caring for my beautiful, energetic two-year-old daughter during quarantine. This is where my experience with telehealth began. It was a time of getting creative in how providers connected and provided services. After a few years, I also began virtually teaching graduate classes at the University of Maryland School of Social Work. I began teaching a class on addictive patterns of behavior, and then added adult trauma.
As one can see, I gained mental health experience in a wide variety of roles with various populations. This continued for the next several years. Fast forward, I began working with a private practice and decided to pursue this full time, virtually. After several years, I gained the confidence to branch off on my own and found Cultivate Piece, Corp.
At this point, Cultivate Piece has been established for approximately one year. My current clientele is primarily focused on women’s issues, including trauma, hormonal health and maternal mental health. As an entrepreneur, I work full-time directly with individual clients, as well as provide a bi-weekly group therapy session for women and managing stress and hormonal health. I take great pride in being a single mother who’s beautiful, energetic two-year-old is now a beautiful, active, intelligent, strong eight-year-old.
Within the last year, I continued to face a multitude of personal challenges, most of which were long-lasting impacts of my episodic mental illness. As those challenges persist, I can confidently say, at this point in my personal healing and resurrection of my career to being a business owner, the ability for the hurdles to impact me have minimized. I have cut the ties from the judgements and labels that had been weighing heavily on me, and channeled these challenges into victories, for which I celebrate appreciatively.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
As mentioned, I am the founder of Cultivate Piece, Corp, which is a business that provides mental health services. At this point, the services include individual and group therapy. I have intentions of expanding my business to provide more comprehensive services in maternal mental health, including partnering with providers; providing trainings; and spreading awareness. Another ambition is standardizing the mental health wellness program for those who are incarcerated and throughout their transition into the community. I am known for going above and beyond in the services I provide, to include but not limited to offering additional resources and referrals, and actionable steps to promote overall wellness.
I am most proud of what I have overcome. My mental health episode was the culmination of other traumas I have survived, which also contributed to the drastic significance of the episode in my life. With that being said, living through, surviving and thriving from those challenges has made me a better mother, woman, partner and professional.
I think what sets me apart from other professionals is my compassion. I know that sounds basic for a social worker, yet I believe my compassion goes a step further than most. I have been known for my warmth and genuine authenticity in my work, which I believe comes from truly seeing the best in others, as well as my deep understanding of pain. I can relate to a plethora of difficult experiences, while also maintaining objectivity, to provide holistic individualized care.
What’s next?
I plan to continue Cultivate Piece Corp, providing individual and group therapy services. As Cultivate Piece, Corp becomes more established I intend to facilitate trainings and speaking engagements to spread awareness of maternal mental health.
In the more distant future, I would love to standardize my mental health wellness program in the prison system, for men and women. I would also love to open a recovery house for transitional care, with the model I created, which supports addiction and mental health.
Contact Info:
- LinkedIn: cultivatepiece@gmail.com
- Other: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/therapists/jillian-parente-towson-md/837761
