197|The Care Conversations Every Family Needs | Victoria Johnston on Home Care, Aging Parents & Starting a Podcast

So that was, like, what influenced you.

Was there a pivot? Like, you gu- you two are kind of later in life.

He's lost his job.

Were you looking for something new, or did you see this and go, "I'm just gonna pivot and do this instead"?

So originally, I had just graduated with my psychology degree, so talk about late in life.

I think I was 48 or 49 at the time, and I decided I wanted to get my psychology degree finished.

Thought I would do fam- you know, work with families.

And of course, my concept was to be a family coach more so than, uh, working with older Americans, is what they call them.

When this came along, I thought, "Oh my goodness, I can use my sales and marketing background for sure." I didn't realize how much of my psychology I would use to help people.

So it's, it's been a real, um, blessing to have that background and be able to talk to not only my team, um, but also with families about their care and understand the emotions of what they're going through.

Yeah, and I think, you know, one thing that we've talked about a lot is, so you have the person that's gonna need help, but then you've got their whole family.

And so-

Absolutely

... yeah, when you look at yourself as a counselor or a coach, even though that's not exactly what you're called, you're able to look at both aspects and give insight.

Yes, and w- we've had a couple situations, especially when we are working with our hospice clients, our clients at end of life.

You know, I have a saying that what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas.

So if a family member's going through s- a really hard time, and they want to share their grief or their anger, their frustration, or their joy, I always tell them, "Hey, what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas.

So, you know, you have the right to share all of those feelings with me, and I'm not gonna judge you for those feelings.

It's super important for you to do the long haul, because you don't know how long your loved one's gonna be with you."

That's a hard place, the waiting place.

Like-

Mm

... you want them to live.

You want them to be comfortable.

But also, there are just so many emotions, I think, that would be really easy to just stuff down and not talk about.