The Paid Leave Podcast

An Entrepreneur Says Paid Leave Supports Growing Families and Compassionate Businesses

• The Connecticut Paid Leave Authority • Season 3 • Episode 50

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In this episode of The Paid leave Podcast, we connect a business and paid family leave. November is National Family Caregivers Month and National Family Health History Day is November 28. Here to talk about the importance of CT Paid Leave for bonding leave, mental health, caregiver leave and how it helps small businesses is Samatha Alzate, she is a licensed clinical social worker and the founder of Mindful Transformations LLC, a holistic group therapy practice based in Farmington and West Hartford, Connecticut. Her practice focuses on supporting individuals through life transitions, trauma recovery, and personal growth by blending traditional psychotherapy with mindfulness and integrative healing approaches.

As a small business owner and mother, Samantha understands firsthand the importance of programs like CT Paid Leave. She brings both a clinical and personal perspective to conversations about balance, mental health, caregiving and the realities of running a practice while raising a family. Samantha is a big fan of CT Paid Leave, because she and her husband both used bonding leave when they added to their family with their third child. She said they both feel that it was the best time of their parenting experience. She also knows how important it is to her small business. She believes it helps her employees and creates a happy and healthy environment by offering them the paid leave benefits, which some have already taken. She says it helps her to retain quality employees. Samantha wrote and Op-ed piece about CT Paid Leave and said it was a lifeline for her and she is also in a CT Paid Leave commercial about the benefits to small business owners.

To get in touch with Samantha Alzate and Mindful Transformations LLC go to Mindful Transformations LLC | Holistic Therapy in CT.

To read the Op-ed piece Samantha Alzate wrote A Lifeline for New Parents and Small Businesses - CT Examiner

For more information or to apply for benefits please go to CT Paid Leave.

https://ctpaidleave.org/s/?language=en_US



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https://twitter.com/CTPaidLeave



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Nancy Barrow:

Hello Connecticut, and welcome to The Paid Leave Podcast. The title basically says it all. I'm Nancy Barrow, and I will be delving into this new state program and how it can help you and your family. This podcast will give you information you should know about Connecticut Paid Leave and maybe just a little bit more Connecticut Paid Leave brings peace of mind to your home, family and workplace. Welcome to The Paid Leave Podcast. November is National Family Caregivers Month and National Family Health History Day is November 28 and here to talk about the importance of Connecticut Paid Leave for bonding leave, mental health, caregiver leave, and how it helps small businesses, is Samantha Alzate. She's a licensed clinical social worker and the founder of Mindful Transformations LLC, a holistic group therapy practice based in Farmington and West Hartford, Connecticut, and her practice focuses on supporting individuals through life transitions, trauma, recovery and personal growth by blending traditional psychotherapy with mindfulness and integrative healing approaches. As a small business owner and mom, Samantha understands firsthand the importance of programs like Connecticut Paid Leave. She brings both a clinical and personal perspective to conversations about balance and mental health and the realities of running a practice while raising a family. Samantha, welcome to The Paid Leave Podcast!

Samantha Alzate:

Thank you so much for having me here today. Excited to have a great conversation.

Nancy Barrow:

Yeah, well, before we get into Connecticut Paid Leave, tell me a little bit about your business, Mindful Transformations. LLC, how did that all start?

Samantha Alzate:

Well, I've been a licensed clinical social worker for some time now, and I primarily started off working in the school system. So I was a school social worker with children that were on the higher needs. I did a lot of self contained programs. I work with children's special education, and I work K through 12. So I was in the school system for about 10 years, and during that time, I always had a small private practice on the side. I've always had a big passion for the clinical work, and I was able to supervise therapists while I was in the school system, and I finally took the leap. After covid, many of us decided we wanted to change, and I took the leap to do my private practice full time. And I think it was 2022 and I left the government system, and I went fully on my own. And during that time, I really had no plans to do a group practice. I was still supervising through University of St Joseph's College. I was a preceptor and doing a lot of teaching. And a lot of my former student, students were reaching out to me and saying, you know, we loved working with you. You should start a group. We would love to come, you know, under you and learn from you again, try out private practice. And so it just organically happened. It started with one student and then another, and then me really finding my love for supervising and teaching. And that's how the whole group mindful transformation was was born. Wow. And I think a big passion of mine is being like, I like to say, an anti burnout practice, teaching young therapists how to you know, or people with a second career as therapists how to you know, it's intense work, and how to be balanced and take care of themselves while taking care of their families, most of them, and also their clients.

Nancy Barrow:

Yeah, it's very challenging. I had a friend who was a therapist and she had a therapist.

Samantha Alzate:

Yeah, I think all good therapists should have a therapist. That's kind of one of the core I think everyone should have a therapist, but especially because, you know, there is a lot of energetic exchange that's happening. It's heavy work. It's very intense, and it can be very transformative for the client with the therapist guidance, and that takes a lot of energy.

Nancy Barrow:

What's the most rewarding work you do? Is there one in particular that you like better than the others?

Samantha Alzate:

Well, I've worked with every population that you can imagine. On my team, there are therapists who specialize in couples or specializing with teenagers. You know, you kind of find your specialty. For me, I am a Holistic Therapist. I have a background in transpersonal psychology, which is mind, body, spirit, and so my favorite types of clients are ones who are in alignment with that, and who really coming to me from a place of burnout. You know, there's, I just went to this training a few weeks ago where they talked about the difference of self care and soul care. You know, self care is what you do. You know, you're getting your nails done, your hair done, things that you have to maintenance, you know, a bubble bath, but it dies out you have to. Then take another bubble bath. And soul care is really taking care of your soul and your spirit. And those are the clients that really light me up and that I really enjoy working with, who are looking to just no matter what they're doing, just feel good in their day to day lives. And that takes a lot of work and transformation. And those are my favorites. Something that we offer at my practice is intensive therapy. So let's say weekly appointments just are not realistic for you, and you have a certain issue, topic, anxiety, belief that you really want to tackle, you can do an intensive therapy program, which is maybe you come for a weekend and you do therapy for four hours, and we just flush it out. And so a lot of times there is consultation, making sure that's the right fit, but that's one avenue of therapy not a lot of people know about. Yeah, I didn't know about that. Yeah, it's, it's great, intensive therapy. A lot of therapists are doing it. The catches insurance companies won't pay for that type of therapy. So that could be a rule out for some people. The other option is just traditional weekly therapy, depending on what the issue is, you're going to meet with your therapist, what you're trying to get out of therapy your life, what's going on. They might say, Okay, I think you really should see me bi weekly till we work through this. Another therapist might say, you know, depending on the issue, this is really something. I think we could really get ahead of it and get you feeling better sooner, if we meet weekly. So the frequency depends on the client, the therapist, the style, if you're looking for something like EMDR therapy, which is another model that we work with. It's it's, you'll hear me talk about EMDR all the time, because I think it's so transformative. It can be used for many things. It's primarily known for trauma. And that type of therapy is reprocessing traumatic beliefs using mind body tools. And we could do a whole podcast on it. There's a lot to it, but that therapy for certain people can tend to be done faster than traditional talk therapy and but it really it's every individual is so unique, story so unique, and childhood trauma is so real and it's so deep in our subconscious that it's really hard to say. I mean, some Thera, some therapists, see clients for five years, and that's not to say that they didn't get the job done. It's to say that therapy should be viewed as like going to the gym, that once you get good, why would you stop?

Nancy Barrow:

Yeah, and that's one of the things I love about Connecticut Paid Leave, is that we acknowledge that mental health aspect of people, right and and the importance and they can take that, that time off from work and and not lose income either. So it's, it's it's nice that they can get the therapy that they need and and also get income replacement while they have to leave work to get that therapy.

Samantha Alzate:

And it's great, because a lot of people will say, I'd love to do this, but I'd lose my job, right? And there's intermittent is an option not a lot of people know about, which means that you can leave work early to go to your therapy appointments, because it's really hard to get in with a therapist. Nowadays, we are all booked, busy, in demand, and we don't all have after five hours. You know, those are prime time in therapy. So if someone has experienced a trauma and they really it's affecting their life, which is affecting their job, most likely, and they leave work early for, let's say, six months, they're going to come back more productive, happy employees, which is going to give back to the employer, which is gonna It's a ripple effect, it is. So, you know, I really, I love CT paid leave, because it helps me challenge a client, which I feel like is my job as a therapist who feels there's a barrier to their treatment, and the barrier is employment. Of course, basic needs come first, so it's hard to get to therapy if you're worried about putting food on the table. And so if we can protect that part, if we can say, No, you can do this and still keep your job and still be able to provide for your family, and then you go back, everyone's Happy.

Nancy Barrow:

Everyone's happy,

Samantha Alzate:

An evolution that is really not talked about enough, because, you know, there's already so much barriers internally to do therapy. It's scary. We're going to go talk about the things that I don't want to talk about. It's easy, in some ways, to say, well, I can't because or work.

Nancy Barrow:

Yeah, we make, we make. We bridge that gap, right? So it can be intermittent, or reduced schedule from work. If you know you're taking every Wednesday off, you know, one to two, that's easy to do, and you have employees at Mindful Transitions. You talked about that. And how valuable is Connecticut Paid Leave to you as an employer and business owner?

Samantha Alzate:

It's been amazing, because I am not an MBA, I am an MSW, and I am a therapist who's turned business owner, and so with that, I. Had to learn so much, and it's been really hard to balance my values as a therapist and what I want for my therapist with just the economy, the sorry, the economy, and the realities of being a business owner. And so I unfortunately with my small business and us being primarily insurance based, which means our reimbursement rates are lower than people who do private pay. We really believe strongly in Access for All everyone should be able to come to our practice. And with that, it's really basically impossible for me to provide 12 weeks paid off, and that just doesn't sit right with me, right with my nervous system. That's not what I want for my therapist, and so CT pay leave helps me align with my values as a person and as a therapist who wants to take care of other therapists, that if there is a leave that they need, that they will be taken care of. And the investment I have to make into CT paid leave to get that huge return is so minimal that it's just I can't imagine operating without it. I mean, it would make me question if I would want to even own a business, to be honest, because I wouldn't want to be putting people in that situation. So I just can't say enough good things about it. I've used it several employees, and they come back, happy, healthy, ready to go appreciate the job. It helps with the relationship, which is so important. It's easy. I have an employee next month, I'm meeting with her. We have CT paid leave meeting scheduled, where I'm walking her through how to go about doing it, what she can expect, they send me one or two emails, and she's good to go, and I don't have to worry about her. So that's great!

Nancy Barrow:

It is. It's, it's wonderful. And it helps you retain great employees because of the benefits, you know, right?

Samantha Alzate:

And it, yeah, it helps right now, it's especially being a therapist, and in the day and age that we are in, group practices, small business like mine, we're competing with like Headway, Alma, these tech companies who are recruiting therapists, and, you know, they have a lot more funding than we do, but they don't have the community that we do. These therapists are early out on their own. They're just virtual. You know, they they can offer certain things more than what we can do, because they have the backing of their tech company, a lot more money, and it helps us stay in the game, to be honest, and which I'm very passionate about, because I just feel like what we can offer being in Farmington, Connecticut, doing groups, doing workshops, community. I mean, therapy can be very lonely. You're even though you're with people all day, you're in your therapist mode, eight sessions a day. And to be completely on your own and to not be able to talk to your office mate or talk to someone on your team like that, to me, is such a benefit that a lot of people don't know. When you're just looking online at the job descriptions and you're seeing, Oh, they have this, this and this, and the small business only has three things, and so being able to offer this paid leave helps me so much with recruitment and getting high quality people. And otherwise we probably would all be, you know, not being able to compete with these big tech companies at all.

Nancy Barrow:

You become an expert in Connecticut Paid Leave as a business owner, you're helping everybody else figure it out too, which is really nice that you have that that ability, and you have your own personal story. So tell me about your Connecticut Paid Leave experience, and when did you first learn about it?

Samantha Alzate:

So I have a unique story with CT Paid Leave, because I actually I have three children, and I was in my government job for 10 years. And while I was there, my plan was to be there because I wanted to have a family, and the illusion of you had to be in this government job, you know, to get the time off, to have the insurance. And so I really did my time. And I also loved working in the school system, too. I love the kids, you know, but a big comfort for me, a security for me, was that this aligns with me, you know, wanting to have my family life in the balance. So during that time, I had two beautiful children, three years apart. I was given my first I had gestational diabetes, and I had to take off because of the environment I was I was working in. I had to leave early. So when after she was born, I only got eight weeks paid because I use the first, first four weeks during just because of medical issues before she was born. And then with my second I did, I did the full 12 weeks paid, and then I did unpaid. Um, because it was, like, close to summer of part time for a little bit. And so then I was like, okay, like I made it through, like I survived. We me and my husband figuring it out. It was just me. I think he had like, five days off for both of those. Yeah, yeah. I was like, maybe five days. And, you know, then I went about my life, and, you know, I decided to leave and do my private practice full time. My kids were both in school full time. Everything was settled. Now is the time to take the jump. And yes, it does happen at older ages. I had an unexpected pregnancy, and I did. I was like, Oh my gosh, I do not have my government job, I'm just not going to get paid for, like, I guess I'll take six weeks. And I didn't know really about CT Paid Leave at this point was somewhat new, yeah, and I was just like, I don't know what I'm gonna do. I'm just gonna work as hard as I can, until, you know this baby comes. The group was just starting. I was like, how am I going to pay my employees? It was very stressful time. And then I had a friend who said, you know, have you heard about this new program? It's called CT Paid Leave, and I was like, no, what is this? And so she, you know, she told me about CT Paid Leave, and I, you know, called it was a very easy process. They explained to me how it worked. I, since it was early on, I still had time to pay into it. So I immediately paid in. Figured out how to think it was like $50 it was just so small. And I just started like, getting ready, you know, for, you know, the paid leave for the birth. And then it was, it was amazing, because my husband had a new job too at the same time, and and it was in, like, the hospital industry, so we weren't sure if CT Paid Leave was going to give him his time off, or it was the job. And, you know, as it got closer to the birth, it was just so comforting. They let you know exactly how much you were going to be making. I was able to just really be like, Okay, I can step away from the business and it will be okay, and I don't have to work while I have a newborn, which, as a business owner, that's like, amazing. And my husband's job actually referred him to CT Paid Leave, which is fantastic. Actually, you're going to go through CT Paid Leave, and so he did 12 weeks as well. We both did 12 weeks. We just were talking about this the other day around how it was like the best time in our parenting lives. It really does take two people. I mean, we both were like non stop for those 12 weeks. It was our third baby. So we had our older kids too, but we were able to share sleeping schedules at night. He was able to help and take turns, whereas before, he was going to work the next day. And so it just mentally wise. As a mental health professional, I just am just so grateful for it, because I got to experience what a postpartum in your first three months should be like because of, say, CT Paid Leave, it was still incredibly hard, because having newborns are and I just can't imagine going through that and like, if I didn't have CT Paid Leave, I probably would have gone back four weeks. Maybe I could have made it. And that's just we're not ready for that. We're not even physically healed, right, emotionally healed takes at least a year, I think. So that's my personal story with it.

Nancy Barrow:

Well, it's, it's amazing, too, that you both got to take it at the same time, because we find that that really does help with postpartum, when your partner can take the time off with you, because you're not just so exhausted yourself, like their shared duty. So it's wonderful that you got to do that and experience that is the relationship different with that child than your other kids, because you both bonded with that baby?

Samantha Alzate:

Yeah, I actually was going to bring that up, because I think it is. It's so funny as a therapist to see my two oldest or my two daughters, and then our youngest is my son, and the other night, he woke up in the middle of the night and he was crying, and he's like, Daddy, Daddy, Daddy. And it's just mind blowing, because my other two would, you know, they would never like My poor husband. They'd be like, they wouldn't want anything to do with him, literally nothing to do with him at all. And this child is so different, so different. It's like, sometimes even for me, it's hard to get used to. I'm like, You know what, Mommy? It's the middle of the night, and it's like, no daddy. And so I definitely think that bonding makes a really big difference. It takes a lot of I think it's as women, we're going to have to adjust and get used to it in a good way. But I do think that there's definitely you can see just at this early age, a big it's an even playing field. It's like. Not just going to me only for, like, the snack. It's like, if he sees his dad, he will also say, I want to snack, versus my other two still will walk right past him and come find me in like, the shower and say, Can you get me a snack?

Nancy Barrow:

Because you're the only parent.

Samantha Alzate:

Like, something magical happened. We know there's chemicals that are exchanged during those times. Oh yeah. It definitely makes a difference also in the relationship. Just resentment is lower, even if you're both just up exhausted. It's camaraderie. It's going through something together. It's not as mothers, I feel like we're so isolated in our society that it definitely it's so helpful,

Nancy Barrow:

I imagine that it really would strengthen your relationship when you're both taking time off for the baby.

Samantha Alzate:

And I just always talk with, you know, my mom friends, of course, they're therapists too, about this, and if you aren't taking the first 12 weeks, and it's almost like unsafe for women to be going back to work when you've been up all night, because that's the reality. Is newborns, they're they're designed to wake up every two hours. It's their nature, and then we are expected to perform with such sleep deprivation, which depending on what your job is. I mean, if, even if you're working in fine. I mean, mistakes can be made, and we're asking women to operate with very little brain capacity when you've just gone through a night of sleep deprivation. I mean, it's hard, even after those first 12 weeks, to go back, because I don't know about you, know you, but like, my son is still learning to see he's still waking up. He's 18 months. We've tried trainers all that, and so that's just a part of like, the parenting. And I know CT Paid Leave can help parents later in life as well, but I just think those first three months for me, anyways, were the worst. I can't imagine working if it was hard working at six months with being woken up every three times a night. Imagine those nights where you're being woken up every hour. You don't really think it's going to be that much. But obviously, any type of financial resource, it minimizes stress. It really does. And I think it's just a human right that we all have that support during that time period. I think it can make such a impact on the world. I think it's that serious that if moms and dads can bond with their babies, that child's development up until early adulthood, we're talking about bringing in healthier people into adulthood that can really impact just everything that's going on in our world.

Nancy Barrow:

You're so right in in your Op-ed that you did for us, you talked about a client that only took three days off of work and she had her baby. I do not know how that works.

Samantha Alzate:

That was before CT Paid Leave this this client was working at a fast food restaurant, and she had no other option. She had no other option. It was the last thing that she wanted to do, but she had would not get paid, and if she did not get paid, then she would not be able to take, like, feed the baby, to be able to provide housing. And, you know, sometimes pregnancies are surprised, sometimes they're planned, either way, finances are a real thing that impact mental health and impact motherhood. And so she really had no other choice, and it was really heartbreaking for her to experience that, to be there and to be physically in pain and just getting through, you know, doing the best that she can.

Nancy Barrow:

This person who went back three days later, you know, if she has a baby now, it would be a different it would be a different tune for her, which would be wonderful. Why did you decide to do that Op-ed piece about Connecticut Paid Leave?

Samantha Alzate:

I just feel very passionate about women's mental health and maternal mental health, and I just know that through my own personal life experience, it was like it was a lifeline for me, for sure, just because of the timing of everything when I was so new into this business, and I think more people need to know about it. I think still not. There are small businesses out there that are not opting in, and I don't think it's because they're like, Oh, it's $8 a paycheck, or whatever it may be. I think it's just lack of awareness, even though these great programs are coming and they're out, and this is amazing, it's just that we're so bogged down with information, especially small business owners, it's just one of those things like, oh, sign up next quarter. Or, you know, it's just so much they might not even know. Like, I didn't know. And I think it's just doing that op ed is. Spreading awareness. You know, I was able to put that op ed on our website to show to our clients if they if we have a client who wants to do it but feels like they don't know how to navigate it, our staff know how to easily connect them also, you know, they can ask their employer, hey, do you offer CT Paid Leave? If not, this is how you do it. It's very easy. And so giving people knowledge is power. Also for, you know, couples therapy, I knew someone who, the dad turned down CT Paid Leave to go back to work because it's not 100% there is, you know, I forget,

Nancy Barrow:

The cap is 60 times minimum wage, which is about 981, a week.

Samantha Alzate:

Yeah. And so, you know, the stat I knew, said, Yo, I want to go back to work. I don't, you know, want to take any but that just kind of for me as a therapist, like a couples therapist would really work. This is something that could come up in couples therapy. It's like, you know, how much does that time, that bonding? What's the price on that?

Nancy Barrow:

Yeah, you're not going to get that back. You're not going to get that time back.

Samantha Alzate:

Your child's not going to get that back. Your relationship's not going to get that back. And there is money is important, and this is giving you that buffer that, you know, it's you're still going to be for, for 12 weeks, which is a blink in the eye, you're still going to be getting some some help. But you know, it's a great conversation for people to have with partners when they're getting ready for leaves or or even um

Nancy Barrow:

Caregiver leave too. Is great if you're taking care of elderly parents who are sick and have a serious health condition. Caregiver leave is amazing because it's not just blood related. We do it also by affinity, which is, if your best friend is like a family member, your neighbor is like a family member, and they fall and break a hip, and you're their closest caregiver, you could take time away from work to help them, which I think is so we have such an expanded version, an expanded definition of family.

Samantha Alzate:

And I also think, I think of single moms, yes, maybe their best friend is, you know, maybe it's not going to be the full 12 weeks, but is going to help her during the recovery period. Exactly. Dad could be, you know, like working abroad, or whatever reason someone's going through a divorce, domestic violence,

Nancy Barrow:

Yeah we cover that,

Samantha Alzate:

I mean reasons where a woman shouldn't have to be alone during that time period. And it offers it could be an aunt, a mother, someone to help support her during that bonding stage. And you know, another thing we come in in contact with is clients who need higher levels of care, like intensive outpatient so we see clients, you know, an hour typical therapy outpatient setting. But sometimes a client might need three hours a week, three times a week, for a short period of time. It's trigger. Is my job. And so that's another time where we're able to say, CT Paid Leave. I'm like, CT Paid Leave for everything!

Nancy Barrow:

Yeah, we always tell people to take FMLA and Connecticut Paid Leave at the same time. So you get your job back with FMLA, but you get the income replacement with us. So what would you like people to know about Connecticut Paid Leave? You called it a lifeline in your Op-ed.

Samantha Alzate:

I just want people know it's available. I think choice is freedom, and I'm not saying everyone has to choose it, but I think it's a small investment that gives you a big return of investment. So we can invest in all sorts of things in life, and I think investing in your well being is something that will continue to follow you for the rest of your life, and a small thing like this can really make a big difference in your life and the people around you.

Nancy Barrow:

What would you like people to take away from this podcast?

Samantha Alzate:

I would like them to take away that they are important, that their needs are important, and that it's okay to take care of yourself, and that their services available to support you. And I just thank them for listening, because the act of listening to this podcast giving themselves some knowledge that's a great form of soul care.

Nancy Barrow:

I want to thank my guest, Samantha Alzate, a licensed clinical social worker and the founder of mindful transformations LLC. Thank you so much for being a guest on The Paid Leave Podcast.

Samantha Alzate:

Thanks for having me!

Nancy Barrow:

And thanks so much for being a great advocate for Connecticut Paid Leave. You really are amazing. You're in a commercial, you've done an Op-ed for us. You're just amazing. So thank you so much for all you do for Connecticut paid leave.

Samantha Alzate:

Thank you. Have a good one.

Nancy Barrow:

For more information or to apply for benefits, please go to CT paid leave.org This has been another edition of The Paid Leave Podcast. Please like and subscribe so you'll be notified about new podcasts that become available. Connecticut Paid Leave is a public act with a personal purpose. I'm Nancy Barrow, and thanks for listening.

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Nancy Barrow

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