We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Eleny Guerrero Pena . We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Eleny below.

Eleny , thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. So let’s jump to your mission – what’s the backstory behind how you developed the mission that drives your brand?

I am an immigrant who came to the US with no literacy of the English Language, I have struggled financially in my life and decided to join the military where I endure my share of mental struggles after 2 combat deployments to Iraq. I have my own share of mental health diagnosis and have a previous partner, friends who also suffer from mental health illness. I build my mental health counseling practice mission in serving the underserved BIPOC community, veterans/active-duty service members who struggle with a culture of seeking help being a weakness and allowing to feel human again. I help individuals heal from attachment issues from the childhood trauma/Family of origin and cope/heal from narcissistic relationships.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

My name is Eleny Guerrero Pena and I am originally from Dominican Republic. I migrated to the US at age 13 and joined the military at age 18 where I deployed to two combat deployments. I used to be in the criminal justice filed for over 10 years and feeling a lack of fulfillment in my life. I leaned into my faith and asked God for direction, and he directed me to Mental health counseling. I am dully licensed in the state of TX as a Licensed Professional Counselor and Licensed Chemical Dependency Counselor and have been practicing for nearly 8 years. I have worked in different settings such prison system, inpatient, outpatient, readjustment center and now as a private practice owner. I formed Courage 2 Overcome Counseling & Consulting Services, PLLC in February 2022 while currently working a full-time job and it has surpassed my wildest dreams. I have been able to help many clients and stay true to my practice vision and help underserved communities with psychological evaluations along with counseling services.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

Growing up and being in the military there was always these clear unspoken expectations that you “have to be this way”, “got to make this rank” in order to feel successful. I had to relearn that is okay to redefine your own success and stay true to yourself and hold to your autonomy. I have to create my own path and be okay with being in this journey alone until I felt that my feelings and vision was good enough to myself and learn how to validate my own feelings and success in order to move forward.

Can you talk to us about how your funded your business?

I tend to be very structured with my goal setting. I give myself realistic goals and give myself a deadline. With that being said I research and planned to open up my practice within 6 to 1 year from February 2022. I research how much it would cost me (majority of initial fees to include forming PLLC, pay a web designer, liability insurance etc.) and divided them by the timeline I had given myself in order to make my goals more reachable.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.courage2overcome.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/courage2overcomecounseling
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/courage2overcomecounseling
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/eleny-guerrero-pena-ms-lpc-lcdc-emdr-trained-courage-2-overcome-counseling-pllc-2830341aa

Image Credits
Khanetic Images