From Personal Branding to Personal Narrative
By: Reema Baniabbasi
Tags: Capitalism, Personal Branding, Mental Health, Accessibility, Marketing

From Personal Branding to Personal Narrative

After recently creating my first logo below, I thought I revisit my views about “personal branding.

I was always uncomfortable with the idea of treating myself and the psychotherapy services I offer in Dubai as “products” to “market” so that others can “consume” them. Part of marketing entails highlighting what the “consumer” is lacking that the “product” can fulfill for them which reinforces disempowerment and a scarcity mindset.

Even the historic root of the word “branding” elicits feelings of disgust for me. For those of you who aren’t aware, branding means to use a heated iron to mark both slaves and livestock to identify “ownership.” It supports narratives of domination of people over one another and of humans over nature. In such a world, it’s no wonder that many people struggle to feel worthy of simply being without tying their self worth to inflexible measures such as how “productive” they are.

This overly competitive world contradicts developing a mutually fulfilling relationship where each member is valued simply for being part of one another in this interconnected web of life. In fact, the way I was trained involved learning to collaborate with others from different organizations as that is in the best interests of the people who see me for therapy. Competing splits potentially useful community resources from one another which harms the people we serve and makes them less able to access them.

This is why I started to post free, discounted, or other useful community resources in my Instagram highlights and re-share educational information and events from other providers and clinics. This is why before returning to UAE from my decade in US, I used to collect community resources in an excel sheet, ask colleagues to add to it, and share relevant resources with whomever I worked with. You cannot be an effective and ethical healthcare provider if you treat the people who turn to you as “gold mines” that you fear will be “stolen” by other providers or if you only collaborate with providers who will financially compensate you for referring people to them. The latter is illegal in many parts of the world and unethical overall but unfortunately still happens.

Caroline Harth was the first person who helped me re-frame “personal branding” into creating a “personal narrative.” This resonates with me as a poet and a therapist who sometimes uses Narrative Therapy with clients.

Humans are story-telling beings. The stories we tell ourselves and other people about who we are and what matters to us impacts the ways we approach life and the challenges we face.

Narrative Therapy also claims that the societies we interact with also have their own “stories.” “Stories” are ways of understanding what makes living worthwhile, what is “normal” versus “abnormal,” what is worth striving for, and what roles different people are expected to play in the society.

Our personal stories interact with these societal stories. But many of us do not step back to reassess where do we stand in relationship to them. Which stories do we want to take and which part do we want to stand against? What impacts do these stories have on us and to what extent are we ok or not ok with those impacts? To what extent do they support or come in the way of our values and best interests as individuals and communities?

I could also reframe “marketing” into “story-telling.” If someone resonates with my story, they will want to connect and open to where my story could take them in their own lives. In parallel, I can open myself to learning and to being positively influenced by the people I serve as they each have their own stories to tell. I get to choose what stories I want to tell versus not tell in the different roles I play in life. What’s important though is that I strive to have my values be in line with how I show up in these different roles. This is an aspiration which I’m aware that no one has fully reached but it is still a worthy aspiration to walk towards.

I now see my logo as one representation of what I want to stand for in my therapist role. The color blue represents the ocean/sea. I grew up in the coastal city of Dubai and became an adult in the coastal city of Boston before coming back.

One thing I tell people who are new to therapy is that I cannot guarantee being able to take away the turbulent waves of life. I cannot guarantee making the problem they are seeking help on to disappear. But what I can guarantee is that I will commit to helping them build on their own strength, values, positive relationships, meaningful experiences, and hopes so that they can surf the waves instead of drown in them.

The circle represents honoring progress and life itself as non-linear. How many of us beat ourselves up when we slip or when a problem we thought we had overcome makes a full comeback? How many of us see this as a sign of personal failure instead of an opportunity to grow from the way we respond to it or, if that is difficult, from developing closer bonds with those who support us?

Life is not just about going from A to B in a straight line. Lots happen in between and sometimes we cycle back or spiral elsewhere. Anything that tries to grow non-stop in a straight line can become cancerous.

The circle also represents embracing our whole selves (mind, body, emotions, spirit) and our connection with community and the world. I hope to commit to embodying this as much as possible.