Pulse is an incredibly special place to work. I don’t say that lightly or out of habit – I say it because it’s something I feel every single day I walk through the door and into this community we’ve built together. There is a connection among us that is rare and real: one that embodies safety, learning, and growth, while also making room to laugh until our sides hurt or to hold one another when things get hard. That balance – the levity and the tenderness sitting side by side – is something I’ve never taken for granted. I am forever grateful to my colleagues for what they risk and what they offer in the service of this cooperative.
We show up for one another in ways that are not always easy. We bring our fears into the room. We admit our mistakes. We sit in discomfort together rather than rushing past it. That takes courage, and I see it in this team every day. Somewhere along the way, someone made the joke that we should start a podcast – that lunch at Pulse is too good not to record. And honestly? They’re not wrong. Lunch at Pulse is a thing. It’s a time of sharing and storytelling, of learning frameworks we didn’t have before, of asking questions we weren’t sure we were allowed to ask. It is also, without fail, deeply funny. I had wanted to call our theoretical podcast Pulse Unplugged – but given that we are most certainly not about to pull the plug on anything here, we collectively agreed that was perhaps not the best title. (There are times when I have bad ideas. This was one of them.)
But no bad idea is wasted, because one idea always leads to another – and that’s really the point.
When our team is together and truly allowing ourselves to learn — by sitting with what we don’t know, admitting where we’ve stumbled, or simply being present with each other when something is hard — ideas emerge. Paths open up. I’ve sat in rooms watching our team help each other in real time: sharing a framework that reframes a challenge, offering updated
language that keeps us relevant and responsive to the people we serve, or naming something difficult in a way that gives everyone around the table permission to exhale. The talent at Pulse genuinely floors me. I laugh as hard as I do with these people because humor is a sign of intelligence — and our intelligence is not small. We speak in a language of care, of groundedness, of truth: truth about what we know, truth about what we don’t, and truth about who we serve and why it matters. That combination doesn’t just make us better at our jobs. It makes us better to one another.
Pillars of Practice: An Idea Born from All of This
When Pulse created the Pillars of Practice (PoP), it came from exactly the kind of energy I’ve been describing – from a team that believes growth doesn’t stop at licensure, and that the people who come to us for healing deserve providers who are always expanding their understanding. PoP was designed to offer therapists and others in caregiving professions meaningful choices for their own development: not just continuing education checkboxes, but real, deepening, sometimes challenging learning that keeps us open and relevant to the full range of people who need our time, care, and services.
PoP will officially kick off in May with facilitator Evelyn Witt, CSWA, who has developed two workshops that fulfill the cultural competency hours requirement. These aren’t box-checking workshops. They’re the kind of learning that deepens what most of us already want to understand – because the goal is always to be better healers for the people who trust us.
Non-Traditional Relationship Structures and Supporting People in the Sex Trades are offerings designed to deepen understanding of folks you may have worked with and wanted to go deeper with, or perhaps haven’t worked with yet, and are wondering how to begin. Evelyn approaches both topics with an ease that creates genuine space for exploration – space to learn without judgment for what you know or don’t know yet. And let’s be honest: it’s also just good and important to be able to talk about sex, sensuality, and the full complexity of humans relating in a room where that’s welcomed. The sex trades represent a profession that has long needed – and deserved – care, time, and attention without judgment, and Evelyn centers that with skill and grace.
I’ve learned a lot about what it means to hold space as a supervisor. One of the most important lessons is this: my role is to uplift the voice of the person I’m supervising. To help that voice become sure and steady in the room — solid in the knowing, and equally solid in the not-knowing. The not-knowing is not a weakness. It is often where the most honest work begins. Evelyn offers exactly that kind of space. She is grounded in care and consistently centered on the client’s truth, and she does it in a way that doesn’t ask you to pretend you already have all the answers.
I hope you’ll join us for these workshops. I hope PoP — as it grows and evolves — can meet you where your learning needs are.
Enjoy. We built this for you.
Rosanne Marmor, LCSW is the Founder and CEO of Pulse Wellness Cooperative. She leads with the belief that healing and systemic change begin with connection. Rosanne mentors clinicians and designs innovative programs that allow for learning, leadership, and opportunity. She cultivates a workplace culture rooted in kindness, respect, and safety. This creates learning among the team and excellence in practice. Pulse is built on warmth and connection. The clinicians here value what it means to dance the dance of therapy in rooms filled with trauma, loss, and resilience—and to do so together, as a community.