Who is Stephanie Carinia?

As a clinical psychologist with over a decade’s worth of experience, Stephanie Carinia has created a plethora of mental health resources for her 101,000 followers. Carinia briefly describes her role in the mental health field.

‘I’m working in a mental health institution here in the Netherlands. I’m a clinical psychologist and I’ve been practicing for around 13 years, specializing in trauma and personality disorders.’ 

Using Instagram as her main platform, Carinia creates an abundance of useful infographics and videos to help her audience heal from past traumas and dysfunctional family dynamics. Carina explains the beginnings of her journey as an influencer.

‘I realized, wait a minute, why not share this information on a broader scale. So I started writing a book but then I missed the interaction with the audience. I didn’t know exactly what the audience needed and then people pointed out that Instagram might be helpful. So I started posting on Instagram.’ 

She continues by describing her content schedule in more detail.

‘It’s just an impulse automatically. For instance, there are things that I haven’t posted yet. I already have like 200 posts that I’ve never posted because it’s just my inspiration. That’s why I started posting twice a day now because I had so much content and I thought, okay, I need to just get it out. I have to say that I try to follow what’s going on as much as possible, as long as it’s in my domain.’ 

Carina further explains how she consistently produces engaging content on Instagram.

‘To me, posts and texts are a way of communicating that I feel most comfortable with. Also, I just love creating sentences that make an impression and that are impactful. I don’t really like showing my face so I try not to do that but every now and again I will. I do create reels, just to show my face so that they can see that there’s a person behind the content.’

Exploring The Concept of Hidden Trauma 

With nearly 500 posts on Instagram since June 2020, Stephanie Carinia has not only built a strong and stable community, she has allowed her professional knowledge to shine through. The psychologist elucidates the idea of Hidden Trauma and how it has positively impacted her presence on Instagram. 

‘My main topic is basically, I call it, Hidden Trauma, which is not an official name or concept. What I mean by that is the emotional injuries that are often caused by wounded or emotionally immature parents. So I post a lot on the effects of immature parenting and I think that is something quite unique on the Instagram market.’ 

Carinia also has a website that is teeming with resources such as online courses, recommended books, and links to podcast appearances. 

‘I do offer some online courses that people can purchase. There’s a self-empowerment course and a free inner healing course. My website is also for people to look up resources. I publish resources, and I often get questions about what books to read, and what do I do when I get this information? So I direct them to the resources page on my website.’

Her online courses are separated into five steps, helping her audience to complete the necessary work needed to heal their inner wounds at their own pace. She also uses both her website and Instagram to post exceptional feedback from her followers to encourage others to embark on a course. 

Creating A Neutral Personal For Social Media

Carinia balances her social media career alongside a full-time job, offering an assortment of conflicts and responsibilities within both her private and professional worlds. She explains how she remains neutral and compassionate when discussing sensitive topics online.  

‘I need to be careful because I am also a clinical psychologist. Now that my community is growing so much, it has really become a community and it’s not only just posting information out there, these are quite sensitive topics. So I noticed that my followers are engaging and when I post content, it can be quite impactful. You need to also be there, I believe, to answer the question. I also need to be there to guide them if there are any concerns so now it becomes more of a responsibility.’ 

As the topic of mental health continues to revolutionize the landscape of social media, Stephanie Carinia states how she is continuing to create a positive community on her platform.

‘There are still people that feel that [some content] is victim-blaming and I try to not stop putting out content like that because I really want to encourage personal responsibility. I’m not only posting about trauma and healing but also on maturing, which is also part of the process. At least what I’m trying to do now in the comments section is to create a safe space. I rarely delete a comment, only if it’s really violent or very disrespectful. Otherwise, I leave the comments on because it allows people to engage and express how they feel.’ 

Building A Better Future For Mental Health Resources

Stephanie Carinia produces content on a widespread scale, enabling her to discuss multiple topics at length with her growing audience. She discusses the process of healing inner wounds and how motherhood can often be shrouded by stereotypes.

‘I think it would be great if people, in general, could be more informed about the impact of our parents on our mental health. There’s still a stigma like you don’t touch mothers. Mother is holy and the mother is self-sacrificing, she’s amazing. Unfortunately, this puts a lot of pressure on a mother and creates the stereotype whilst she’s also a human being with her own wounds. If a mom does something which may harm her child, that doesn’t necessarily make the mom a bad person. It’s just that we need to be aware of those injuries so we can heal them, rather than pass them on to the next generation.’

With this in mind, Stephanie Carinia, ends by explaining how her consistency is helping to grow her following at an exponential rate.

‘I’m just carrying on the way I’m carrying on. My community is growing rapidly so that is a big surprise. Let’s see what’s going to happen and where it’s going to go from there.’