We recently connected with Lacey Castilleja Fisher and have shared our conversation below.

Lacey, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. If you had a defining moment that you feel really changed the trajectory of your career, we’d love to hear the story and details.

I am often invited to speak to graduate students in professional counseling programs to discuss working in agencies and private practice and steps they can take to prepare for their futures as counselors. I often share with them that I started out working mostly with children because I was certain in graduate school that I wanted to be a play therapist and work with children forever. I am honest with the students and share that we often tend to serve populations that we are passionate about and can relate to personally. I never thought I would stop working with children, but the tough decision to do so came during the lockdown and after I had experienced postpartum mental health struggles. I had never fully realized the prevalence and impact that perinatal mood disorders had on people and I was completely unprepared for what I experienced during the postpartum period. After some work and healing with a therapist that specialized in reproductive mental health, I decided that I was going to learn as much as I could about supporting parents through this delicate time. The healing journey was long as it was so unexpected and I honestly felt like a fraud because I kept thinking to myself, “I am a therapist, I should know how to deal with this. What is wrong with me?” This made me even more determined to specialize in perinatal mental health so I could give back what my therapist had given to me. Complete support and understanding. I miss working with children that have survived sexual abuse, but I am so thankful that my experience led me to this path. I have learned in more ways than one that therapists are human and their experiences can be valuable in helping them meet their clients where they are.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I am a Licensed Professional Counselor-Supervisor, Registered Play Therapist-Supervisor and a Certified Mental Health Professional and is the owner and clinical director at Open Heart Counseling of Austin PLLC in southwest Austin. I have worked in a variety of settings including in a Children’s Advocacy Center to provide counseling to children that experienced sexual abuse and their families, and then decided to take the experience I had there and apply it to private practice. I built the practice around supporting children and adults that had experienced sexual abuse/assault and found a passion working with parents and parents to be when their sexual trauma was activated in the perinatal period. This, and my own experience with childbirth and postpartum mental health struggles led me to learning as much as I could about perinatal trauma, pregnancy and infant loss, NICU trauma and fertility struggles. I find that the parents I work with respond well to EMDR, IFS and sandtray therapy when processing their perinatal trauma and loss. I find expressive arts very valuable in trauma narrative processing. I have served as the Clinical Director for the Pregnancy and Postpartum Health Alliance of Texas, now Nurtured TX, and now serves on their advisory board.
I am very proud at the evolution of my private practice. I started off working solo and when I decided to stop providing play therapy, I wanted the practice to still give access to children in need of therapy services. Open Heart Counseling of Austin PLLC now has 8 clinicians that provide a wide variety of services to people of all ages, and couples too. Our clinicians are all trauma-informed and social justice oriented. When I created my brand, I wanted the name of the practice to reflect that our clinicians are ready to witness the healing journey of our clients with an open mind and an open heart.

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?

I knew I had to get connected with other birth professionals in the area and one way to do that was to join a local non-profit’s board of directors. The Pregnancy and Postpartum Health Alliance of Texas, now Nurtured TX, is a non-profit dedicated to providing education around perinatal mental health disorders and supporting families that need support during the perinatal period. It was created by a group of local therapists that realized the need of more professionals that understand the unique dynamics that come along with pregnancy, child birth and postpartum after a friend of theirs struggled with postpartum complications like postpartum depression and ultimately ended her life. In her honor, “Kristi’s List” was created so families seeking mental health services could find a provider that specialized in perinatal mental health. Over the years, Nurtured TX has worked hard to continue to provide education and offer voucher program services for mental health therapy and psychiatric services to families in financial need. I was honored to be part of that non-profit as I got to meet and train many birth professionals in the area and help expand Kristi’s List. I really think that my involvement with this organization helped with my healing journey, as well as helped build a reputation in the reproductive mental health community.

If you could go back in time, do you think you would have chosen a different profession or specialty?

I believe I would have selected this same path. I love my work, and love my clients and I love the different type of specialties I have gotten to focus on throughout my career this far. This profession allows me to work directly with amazing people and allow space for me to mentor other therapists and share my knowledge through training and consultation. I am happy that my career started with children, it was an amazing experience witnessing their healing after abuse and I am happy that my path has gone in this direction. I feel at home.

Contact Info:

• Website: http://www.openheartcounselingatx.com/lacey-castilleja-fisher.html
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/openheartcounselingofaustin/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/openheartcounselingofaustin/
• Other: http://www.openheartcounselingatx.com/open-heart-webinars.html