Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Iliamari Houston. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Iliamari , appreciate you joining us today. Can you open up about a risk you’ve taken – what it was like taking that risk, why you took the risk and how it turned out?

In 2021 I opened up my own counseling private practice. I have worked in the behavioral and mental health field in Arizona for almost 15 years in various roles. After years of working for someone else, making them money, providing minimum support to others with bare minimum resources, and COVID in 2020; I decided I needed to make a change. In a huge, unknown, scary, healthy boundaries, family as a priority kind of way. I thought it would be a seamless transition from community mental health to owning my private practice. I thought people would see and hear that I have openings for new clients and get help. Yes, to some degree, that’s how it works. However, I am my boss. I have to market myself. I have to update people on availability. I have to create forms for my practice. I have to network. I have to manage my schedule, be my biller, etc.; the list goes on. I took on this new adventure and I haven’t looked back since.

I am married to a fire fighter and our family life isn’t always “normal or typical”. My husband works 24+ hours and I take on the majority of everything. This also makes opening up a private practice scary. I have an amazing support system in place that is rooting for me, however I have to incorporate my husbands schedule into family life planning and my business schedule. All of this lead me to work with first responders and their families. I provide trauma therapy and traditional therapy to anyone who is a first responder household. Departments have some resources, some better than others. Its not spoken out loud enough though. I want to be that support to other first responders and their families. I received support when we became a first responder family but there aren’t enough people doing this kind of work. I want to be one more available outlet. I also work with pregnant, perinatal and postpartum women. Its so vital to share emotions and feelings when you are going through your motherhood journey. We have so many check ups during pregnancy, but less than a handful after you give birth. I want to be that available outlet to other moms as well.

My husband has been a fire fighter for about 7 years, before we had children. I understand the struggles being in a first responder home. I understand that we don’t have traditional schedules like other families do. I relate to the emotions and feelings when your partner is literally saving the world, but your marriage might be rocky and the kids miss them. Even as a therapist, I am not perfect in managing my own emotions all the time when it comes to my partner being tired or angry because of how his shift went. However I have to shift my perspectives at times, even when I don’t want to.

I want to do more than therapy. However, I am working on creating what that vision looks like for my family and me. My family is most important, and I won’t sacrifice my time anymore as I used to while working in community mental health. Its a scary but fulfilling journey I am currently on.

Iliamari , before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I am a therapist working in Tempe. I provide in-person and telehealth. I am private pay only, don’t take insurance. I specialize in trauma work, particularly with first responders, their families, and perinatal and postpartum women. I am a fire wife and understand the complexities of my partner being gone 24+plus, working and with kids. I have also experienced postpartum anxiety and depression with my first child. I can understand some of the struggles in seeking help and working through it. I am in such a better space for it. I am not ashamed of my journey, and I feel we need to normalize this.

I provide a safe space and a nonjudgemental approach to providing therapy. I am EMDR trained and can work through any traumatic events. I also incorporate CBT, talk therapy, solution-focused, mindfulness, and motivational interviewing techniques into sessions as the client needs. I take your journey and your story seriously and provide the support you need in the moment and each session.

I wish everyone would know, feel and understand that therapy can be such an amazing and essential tool. Everyone should be in therapy not just because they have some challenges or traumatic events to work through, but to be proactive and preventative. Sometimes we need strictly to vent, and therapy can be that. Sometimes we need to process the past, and therapy can be for that too. Therapy can be what you need it to be, and it’s not just to work on negative stuff.

I am proud to say I am a business owner. I want my kids to see their mom take scary and unknown steps to build something for herself. Wives, moms, partners, etc., can get so lost in taking care of others which I am guilty of, however I want them to see that I am my own individual as well, and they can do anything they put their mind to with hard work and perseverance.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

My father passed away in 2016 while my husband was in the training academy to become a fire fighter. I was devastated. He was my number one supporter. I attempted to process my grief but I wasn’t doing a great job of it. My husband was training and was exhausted daily. He was physically there, but emotionally and mentally he was focused on graduating from the academy. Then in 2017 we welcomed our first child, a son born at 27 1/2 weeks early. He spent nearly 3 months in the NICU. That was our life for almost 3 months, being in the hospital all day supporting our son however we could. My husband received support from the department to take some time off. However, that wasn’t the norm. I found out. I took some time off work, then went back, then took some time off again. It was challenging to find a balance. After several months, I was not ok. I went to see a counselor. I worked through my experiences. I tried to become a better person. I set up healthy boundaries. I took care of myself. Over time, I got better and I found some balance and healing. I knew I was a stronger person for going through that. Don’t get me wrong, it was trauma, but I worked through my trauma and that is why I am stronger today.

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

If I could go back in time, I probably would have gone to law school right after graduating with my Bachelors. I always knew I wanted to help others and advocate for healthy families and justice. I just didnt know what that would look like back then. In 2012 I chose to be a social worker and complete my Masters in Social Work in 2014. I am still advocating for others in a different way.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://withanopenheartllc.clientsecure.me
• Instagram: @with_an_open_heart_llc
• Facebook: With An Open Heart, LLC