About Me

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I have an intense passion and curiosity for people and hearing their stories. I believe that stories are one of the most powerful forces in this world, and my life, occupation, and pastimes all revolve around their hearing as well as their telling. 

As far back as I can remember, I have always been fascinated by people and hearing about their lives; conceptualizing the events and details of any given person’s life came to me naturally as a story. My mother passed on a love for reading to me (I began at age three) and helped teach me that reading and stories were incredible gifts and keys to knowledge. I learned that I had a gift for observing and listening to people and that hearing their stories helped me to understand and empathize with them. I grew up in a home that emphasized the importance of people and the value of relationships as paramount in life. These teachings have stayed with me always and have largely inspired my choice to help people through therapy. 

I wasn’t one of those people who always knew what they wanted to be when they grew up. I didn’t choose a career path until I was in my second year of college. I had been exploring careers in biochemistry and pharmacology because I figured they were smart job choices that offered excellent financial security as well as stability and I had succeeded in similar classes previously in prior years of education. However, in browsing prospective classes for those majors, I was repelled by each option. Then, I realized the problem; I needed people--they are my passion. I then learned about the career path through Psychology to Marriage and Family Therapy. I found the ideal calling for my life: to be able to witness people’s stories and explore options for their future alongside them; all while being able support the building, strengthening, and improvement of relationships in their lives. I am blessed to be able to have a job that aligns my interests, skill set, and values into a service that helps other people.  

When I am not learning the stories of my clients, I enjoy storytelling in many of its various forms. In its most elemental sense, I immensely delight in the art of story through reading books (tangible ones, with pages I can turn), particularly novels of historical fiction, where the stories of the lives of real citizens of the past are merged with inventive tales of characters from the mind of the author. Another passion of mine includes poetry, which I savor reading as well as creating on occasion; poetry merges the skills of wordplay and rhythm into story form. But in a broader sense, my other hobbies are versions of stories as well, albeit more subtle. For what is music but story through sound? Dance is truly a story told through movement; no words are required to convey an astonishing range of concepts and emotional expression. Theater and film are both visual forms of storytelling in action. Even art itself tells a story, for a picture is said to be worth a thousand words, although the story gleaned from each image is unique to the viewer. I enjoy hunting for treasures at antique and thrift stores, for each object has a character and history of its own. And above all else, I love spending time with people whom I care about in my life, sharing their stories, and making memories with them. I have found the telling and appreciating of stories to be the central theme of all that I do and love; it seasons every interaction that I have and is the lens through which I view the world. Now that you’ve gotten the chance to know a little more about me through hearing a bit of my story, I very much look forward to hearing yours...

Sincerely,

Brianne LoTempio