Meet Claudia Johnson of Lifestyle Overhaul in Hyde Park

Today we’d like to introduce you to Claudia Johnson.

Claudia, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
Life is pretty much becoming full circle for me. I graduated Howard University ten years ago with a degree in journalism. I worked for a few public relations firms in Washington, DC, New York and Chicago. Writing is my passion and working in public relations allowed me to interact with top corporations and travel for campaigns and events. I loved the campaign writing and consulting aspect of public relations but wanted to work with children. I tutored all throughout college and it was such a rewarding experience for me. I decided to enroll in DePaul University for a master’s degree in counseling. Since graduating DePaul with certification for school and community counseling, I’ve been a post-secondary coach and school counselor at Kenwood Academy. My role includes providing social and emotional support to students as well as consulting for post-secondary planning. I’ve been able to travel across the nation to college campuses with students, helping them explore their college options. My favorite part of counseling is helping students and families problem solve. Every day there are trials and obstacles that arise and learning how to positively process these situations is a skill. Knowing this has prompted me to create Lifestyle Overhaul. As the content creator, I write articles about every day issues women and girls may face as it relates to mental health. I also volunteer and provide mental health counseling on weekends for a local church that is free to the community. My goal is to eventually provide group counseling surrounding the topics discussed on Lifestyle Overhaul. I’ve been able to combine my two degrees that originally had no correlation and create an online hub where my writing and counseling experience can live and help others grow.

Has it been a smooth road?
It definitely has not been a smooth road. It was extremely hard to leave my public relations firm and go back to school for my masters. I worked for free as an intern and took on jobs after college that required long hours and little pay. I felt like I had worked so hard to be a part of this top firm in downtown Chicago and I was walking away from it all. To make the situation even harder, I found out I was pregnant with twins shortly after getting into the counseling program. I worked part time as a tutor during the day and took classes in the evening while taking care of twin babies. My nights were long as I waited for the girls to fall asleep in order to complete my assignments. It was a rough three years but I graduated with the help of my husband and our parents helping out with the children. Today, I find it difficult to balance my roles as a school counselor while managing Lifestyle Overhaul and be a mother and wife. Yet, this is exactly why I created Lifestyle Overhaul. It’s for the mother working two jobs and taking care of a family as well as the young woman in college balancing school and her social life. I try to create content that is relatable for women in different stages of life and give advice on how to manage it all. I love my high school students and I love the vision that’s unfolding with my brand. Building readership and having people discuss mental health in a social setting is not easy and requires a lot of my time. Dedicating quality time to both my roles is not easy but organization is key.

So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the Lifestyle Overhaul story. Tell us more about the business.
Lifestyle Overhaul is an online website designed to help women and young girls navigate through life by exploring everyday issues. We go through different seasons and transitions. It’s important to peel through and examine the complex layers that compose our daily lives in order to fully understand ourselves and the others around us. Mental health is beginning to become more acceptable in mainstream media. However, it’s still frowned upon by many who believe that seeing a therapist means something is wrong with you. It’s also not highlighted and encouraged as much as it should be in minority communities, I want to shed light on issues that we all face but through a mental health lense. I want women to be able to read it and relate, but also see that they can see a therapist for these topics. We don’t have to wait until things go terribly wrong in our lives in order to seek help. We can seek help for the little issues and learn from them before they turn into major issues and we shouldn’t frown upon seeking help for them. I’m proud of my approach for tackling mental health. I don’t address specific mental health disorders. I try to describe various symptoms of mental health disorders and how it appears in everyday life. I try to paint a picture of what these struggles look like through common scenarios in order for women to relate and examine their own lives. I also provide tips that anyone can apply, no matter their specific issue. My hope is that readers will find these tips useful and become more willing to seek advice from a therapist when managing and resolving other issues in their life.

How do you think the industry will change over the next decade?
I believe the mental health industry will grow substantially over the next few years. There are so many forms of mental illness and many people who do not realize they may be suffering from one of them. I think the mainstream media is beginning to be more accepting of these illnesses and willing to have a conversation about it. Celebrities are speaking out more and more about their own struggles with illnesses and it is allowing their fans to feel comfortable expressing their struggles, too. As the dialogue begins to spread and more people feel more encouraged to discuss their personal experiences, the need for licensed therapists will grow. It will also create opportunities for more online hubs where different audiences feel safe and free to discuss specific illnesses.

Contact Info:

• Website: lifestyleoverhaul.org
• Email: info@lifestyleoverhaul.org
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/clo_johnson_/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lifestyleoverhaulorg/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/clo_johnson_

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