We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Amber Legault a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Amber, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. We love heartwarming stories – do you have a heartwarming story from your career to share?

Some of my favorite moments in session come from interacting with folks through video games. Cooperative play is an important part of life whether you are playing Super Smash Bros or working on a project together. Seeing folks be able to work out barriers that have been preventing them from utilizing cooperative communication and collaboration through video games always brings me joy.

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 started Quest Counseling in 2019 after leaving a group practice that was not aligning with my values. I had been working my way through different therapy jobs (working for a clinic specializing in special needs children, working for a county agency with severe mental health kids, and working for a group practice) gathering knowledge about myself and about what was important to me. One thing that I really learned was important to me was freedom and working with kids.

When I started my own practice I wanted it to reflect who I would be as a therapist before folks entered session with me. There are video games in the lobby, comics, and graphic novels. There are hints of LGBTQIA+ inclusion throughout the office as well. I wanted it to feel as though you are entering a relaxing chill space rather than a stuffy doctors office.

My actual office reflects similarly to the lobby, there is video game paraphernalia all over the room, there is a TV with the Nintendo hooked up to it. I wanted it to give the vibe of sitting in a living room having a chat.

I love being able to have freedom and expression through my work to be the truest form of a therapist that I can be. I never want to come off as someone who is stuffy or closed off and I want my office to reflect that as well.

Do you think you’d choose a different profession or specialty if you were starting now?

I feel like I was always meant to be a therapist. I have always had a helper mentality, was empathetic toward folks, and was a really good listener. Before I was a therapist folks would make comments about how I could remember things that we discussed weeks ago in great detail even though they had not brought them up again. This has helped me tremendously in my work and assisted in building deep rapport with folks. I would have loved to continued to peruse a sport or music, but I feel fulfilled by being a therapist who owns their own practice and would not change it!

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

I had to unlearn the lesson of limits. Throughout my professional career I had different entities put limits on me and for awhile I believed in these limits. Whether it was that I was not cut out for graduate school, that video games in therapy was ludicrous, or that I would not be successful enough to own my own practice. It was a hard road to traverse in relearning that lesson. But I tell folks in my office every day, even if that thought is a 16 lane freeway and your new thought is only a dirt path, if you continue to traverse the dirt path it will close down the lanes on that 16 lane freeway.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://amberlegaultlmft.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/a.legaultlmft/