An Interview with Jan Clifford, LPC-S, NCC

New Orleans Grief Center is thrilled to welcome Jan Clifford, LPC-S, NCC, who is now seeing clients at our Uptown location, both in-person and virtually*.

Get to know Jan in this conversation with founder Allison Lindsey Durant, LPC-S:

“Hope can look different for everyone...in grief, that involves developing a new relationship to the deceased or a new identity for oneself”

Q:  Tell me about the moment you decided to become a counselor.

A:  I was sitting on my front porch, talking with my neighbor, and I described not being happy with most of my jobs because I can usually see how things end, and that I wanted to do something with more depth and interest.  He asked me if there was anything that I didn’t tire of, and I thought for a second….human beings.  I never tire of human beings.

Q:  This is a second career for you.  How much influence did your previous schooling and work experiences have on the decision to go back to school and get your master’s degree?

A:  A lot, but I did not know it at the time.  While in college (the first time), I volunteered with the campus crisis hotline.  It was at that time I met someone who had been studying spiritual disciplines, and he said he would teach me.  I wanted a way out.  I did not feel like I fit in at college, nor in my family. I dropped out of college due to social anxiety, and later worked at a bookstore. I had access to so many books, and met people who viewed the world through a spiritual lens, and I just started reading everything I could get my hands on.  I needed answers to the darkness in the world I could not understand.  This was before the evolution of the Internet, and books were the pathway to learning.  My later work involved curating contemporary performance, humanities, and event planning. All of those fields relate directly to understanding and our relationship with human nature.

Q:  In therapy, we often look at how childhood impacts our views of the world.  What would you say are the biggest effects for you?

A:  As a young child, I remember the very first time I was aware of crime.  I could not understand why anyone would want to hurt another person. This brought me a tremendous amount of pain that I did not know how to manage. Sorrow and grief—in relation to the human experience—were my constant companions.

I was the “different” one in my family.  To cope, I immersed myself in sports.  I played anything and everything, and was successful.  That was possible in part because we lived in a small community, so they always needed participants.

Q: What is your approach to therapy?

A:  I listen. I listen not just to what clients are saying but the feelings between the language, and the energy they are bringing into the session.

Therapy is a conversation.  It is not just me asking questions or applying a predetermined plan or theory.  Each client brings their own story and their own energy, and I use that as a guide. Also, instillation of hope is important in my work.  We all need to know that we matter—that we have something to contribute to humanity.  This is often achieved through the lens of gratitude.  Hope can look different for everyone, and often in grief work, that involves developing a new relationship to the deceased or a new identity for oneself. 

Q:  Tell us a little more about yourself, outside of your life as a therapist.  What are your hobbies?  What do you like to do when you aren’t working?

A:  One of my biggest joys is gardening.  I love to be in the garden and among growing things.  I also enjoy observing nature, traveling, and making/teaching with vision boards.  And, as always, exploring new dimensions of spirituality and the unending breadth of human experience.

Q:  We all know AI and Chat GPT are being used in many of the mental health spaces.  What are your feelings on this and do you fear your job will go away?

A:  I welcome AI in the medical community and feel a lot of mundane tasks will be eliminated.  People can use AI to address their mental health, but my feeling is there is no substitute for emotional interaction.  AI can’t replicate the exchange that happens both physically and energetically when we are reading each other’s body language, telling our stories, and receiving validation of feeling and meaning.  We can read each other in ways that a machine cannot.  A machine’s algorithm can give you an answer to a problem, but a machine cannot give you a cellular level of change such as transpires through human interaction.  We are amazing. 

*Jan accepts Blue Cross/Blue Shield insurance and is available for both in-person and online sessions.