We were lucky to catch up with Estee Combs recently and have shared our conversation below.

Estee, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today We’d love to hear stories from your time in school/training/etc.

Becoming a licensed therapist takes years of extra schooling and training experience and honestly, I was hesitant at first to take all of this on. To be quite candid, school was really a challenge for me growing up with ADHD. I mean, I was even kicked out of kindergarten and, before going to college, my parents were told by a diagnostic practitioner that they should adjust their expectations of my success in college due to my learning differences. However, not only did I succeed, but I exceeded expectations and finished both of my undergraduate and graduate degree early. There were many moments that could have been setbacks along the way but when these moments came up, I aimed to look for the possibilities in a not so positive situation. For instance, when ½ of the classes I needed one semester filled up before my enrollment period even opened, I decided that the extra free time that semester could be a good opportunity to start the yoga teacher training program I was interested in. Then, I ended up getting a spot in each of the classes I needed and somehow managed both trainings at the same time! When the COVID shutdown canceled in person interactions for my graduate classed and yoga teacher training course, I persisted through both programs transition to online training but got back in person as soon as possible, knowing it would best serve me as a practicing professional. I threw myself whole heartedly into my studies and, in doing so, I learned through experiencing it about the risk of burn-out. I was lucky that the last year of my education training was more like supervised practice than school because, by the end of my degree, it really felt like I could not turn in one more assignment or paper. When I graduated from SMU counseling, also getting started teaching my own yoga classes weekly, I was ready to get to work and excited to finally make a paycheck after all my training and experience hours. However, I was more aware and cautious about the risk burnout knowing the ways I felt towards the end of my education. Setting boundaries to support a healthy work-life balance is an area I continue to focus on and aim to model for my clients as a mental health provider.

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 appreciate you reading this far, I’m Estee Combs and work as a Licensed Professional Counselor and Yoga Instructor. I take wholistic approach to my clients and consider the whole person and their environment when I aim to provide new approaches or viewpoints to help people solve their problems. I believe that what sets me apart is my niche focus on unique areas of specialty and how I divide my time across different office locations. My specialized coursework focused on integrating creative and artistic interventions in therapy. To this day, creativity is something I aim to bring into each of my client relationships, although it comes up in various ways for people of different ages. I meet with clients across the lifespan for individual therapy on 3 days of the week and work out of office space in Plano and north and central Dallas and can provide accessibility to an in-person office for clients living in different areas across the Dallas metroplex. On the other 2 days of the week, I work in ADHD testing, assessments, and diagnosis, and teach yoga classes at Corepower yoga.

Training and knowledge matter of course, but beyond that what do you think matters most in terms of succeeding in your field?

The ability to create meaningful relationships where people feel seen and safe is critical as a therapist. Training and knowledge is necessary and will take you far but I have always learned the best by doing the work. I remember back to the first time in training when I had to step into the counselor role and how much of a challenge it was to translate basic skills from the textbook into real life relationships. It makes me realize just how far I have come, one client and one day at a time. Not every session or intake will go as planned but, as a measure for my success as a counselor, I like to ask myself if my client left feeling seen.

If you could go back, would you choose the same profession, specialty, etc.?

Absolutely! But now that I’m finally on the other side of the 6 years of training it took to get here, I’m not sure I’d have the energy to do it all over again. As soon as I made it to practicum training and getting in front of real clients, all the work immediately became worth it, and I wouldn’t trade it for the world.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.thriveplano.com/team/estee-combs
• Instagram: @therapy_with_estee
• Other: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/therapists/estee-combs-dallas-tx/1040690