We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Kelcie Jimenez a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Kelcie, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. 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.
What led me to become a therapist in the first place was based on a few defining moments in my life. I grew up in a household with a single mom raising her three children. My father has been absent for most of my life and my mom did her best to provide for us but struggled to make ends meet. My mom battled breast cancer on and off for 13 years on top of raising three children and her cancer came back more aggressively when I was 11. On July 17th, 2013 I unexpectedly lost my mom to her battle with cancer. That day and moment changed the rest of my life. I thought my life was over at that point and distinctly remember thinking “This is it. I’ll never be happy again.” I was a 17-year-old with no parents going into my senior year of high school. I moved in with my aunt and uncle for the remainder of high school. After the loss of my mom, I was never offered much emotional support like therapy. I actually don’t remember one person saying “Hey maybe you should go to therapy.” I felt very alone and unsupported especially from my school. It was like this expectation that even though I had been through probably one of the hardest things I’ll ever have to go through, I was just expected to put on a smile and keep going. It was that moment I decided I didn’t want anyone else to ever feel as alone as I did. I wanted to be able to sit with people in their darkest moments and let them know they’re not alone and that it is okay to not be okay. A lot of therapist’s own struggles usually leads them to becoming therapists and, in my opinion, good therapists, if they also dedicate themselves to doing their own work. I finally started going to therapy on my own in my early 20s and was able to do a lot of hard work and healing to be at the place where I could help others. I always believe in ‘practicing what I preach’ and having been on both sides of the couch and continuing to do my own work, I can attest to the power of therapy.
Kelcie, 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?
My name is Kelcie Jimenez. I am a Licensed Professional Clinical Counselor (LPCC) in the state of New Mexico but will be getting licensed in Illinois as well in the near future. I have been a therapist for 3 years. I graduated with my bachelor’s degree in psychology and family and child studies from UNM in 2018 then went on to receive my master’s degree in clinical mental health counseling from NMHU in 2021. I provide individual mental health therapy both in person and telehealth. I specialize in trauma-informed therapy helping 18 to 45 year olds who are struggling with big life transitions/traumatic events and as a result, have experienced anxiety, depression, and/or self esteem issues and help them to better understand how their past has impacted them and be able to heal and move forward. I would describe my approach as gentle but motivating, person-centered (meeting the clients where they are at), somatic (getting in touch with how the physical body connects to our mental health-especially trauma), and experiential (in real time helping clients ‘dig’ deeper and get in touch with their emotions and different parts of self.
I pride myself in my ability to connect with others on a deeper level and build long-lasting safe supportive relationships with my clients. I believe that my own life experiences make me relatable as well as my passion for the work i do and my genuineness/authenticity. I have gained more of a spiritual understanding of myself in the past few years and truly believe that being a therapist is my calling and so much more than a job. I also hope to empower and inspire clients through my own experiences of pain and suffering that you can get to the other side and feel happiness again.
Have you ever had to pivot?
I had always said I wanted kids someday but wanted to wait till I was at least 30. I wanted to wait until I had my career established, my own practice running, financial stability, etc. Well, you know how life usually has other plans while we are busy making our own. I got married in April of 2022 and 6 months later unexpectedly got pregnant at 26. I had already started working on getting my business started prior to getting pregnant and although I was excited to have a baby, it also felt like a wrench got thrown in my plans. So I had to come up with a new plan. I continued to prepare as best I could during my pregnancy but was still working almost full time (and was exhausted) so it was definitely a challenge. I told myself after I had my baby, I would give myself a few months and then open up my own practice. So I found myself 4 months postpartum, taking care of a newborn, opening up my practice, and somehow also studying to take my last big exam to gain independent licensure a few months later. Looking back, I don’t know how i managed to juggle it all but i had the motivation to gain more freedom in my life by having my own practice. I decided that having a baby would not hold me back from my goals, it would only motivate me to achieve them more. I can be all the things: a mom, a wife, a therapist, a business owner, etc.
Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?
In graduate school, they teach you all about the theories and techniques and how to *not* self-disclose etc. in order to be a ‘successful’ therapist. They also teach you nothing about how to start your own private practice and almost don’t encourage it. My first year as a therapist, I was placed working with federal clients (awaiting sentencing or just got out of prison). My own biases and imposter syndrome left me terrified. So, I spent my whole first year working with this population and basically had to unlearn most of the things I learned in my graduate program. These clients don’t care what fancy technique or theory you’re using and if anything, can see right through you if you weren’t being genuine. These clients wanted to know what made me qualified on a personal level and maybe just a human level how could I relate to them. This was an invaluable lesson for me to stay true to who I am and know that I don’t need to know ‘everything’ in order to be a good therapist.
As far as the private practice part, the biggest lesson I’ve had to learn and am still learning is that therapists also deserve to make a good living and it is possible to run your own business. There are a lot of ‘naysayers’ and critics in the mental health field and outside of it and people who think just because you’re a therapist, you shouldn’t want to make a good living and I wholeheartedly disagree. I have had to learn to not listen to these people who usually come from a place of ignorance and instead lean into the fact that I have put my blood, sweat, tears, time, money, extensive education into becoming a therapist and I know the value I bring to my clients and although I definitely didn’t go into this career for the money, I do deserve to make a good living.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://riseabovetherapy.org/?gad_source=1&gclid=Cj0KCQjw8MG1BhCoARIsAHxSiQl79O2W5ffsn–7Wuq2OGPqEa8NswU4NBs42RAjmhCnDROqU5V0Q7AaArjLEALw_wcB
- Instagram: riseabovetherapyllc
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/riseabovetherapyllc
- Other: https://g.co/kgs/4FAfvtN
Image Credits
Leanna Aragon