We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Maria Clemente Morresi a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Maria, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today We’d love to hear the backstory behind a risk you’ve taken – whether big or small, walk us through what it was like and how it ultimately turned out.

Several years ago, right in the middle of our lives during Covid, I was presented with an opportunity to apply for a large contract to build a trauma-informed school-based therapy program for a large school district. At the time, I was working in a wonderful school as a Student Assistance Coordinator, supporting students with higher level mental health and substance use challenges. I also ran my own private practice, which at the time, was just a small caseload of clients. I loved working in the school and having a small private caseload. It was a great balance and it allowed me a lot of freedom to enjoy aspects of my personal life. If I were to win this contract, I would have to devote all my time and all my business’ resources to do so. This would come at a great risk both with regards to finances and my career, because I would be giving up a ton of stability to take on on this venture. I had no investors, not a ton of capital, but I did have the vision and the drive to pull this off. So I applied and I won the contract. It was a really incredible feeling when I got that phone call. As soon as I put the phone down, I had to get to work. Within a few weeks, I had to make sure a team of 30+ clinicians and a small executive team were ready to provide incredible mental health services to the students and staff of this school district. All was going extremely well. Sleepless nights were welcomed because I was energized by the designing and coordination of everything. I was feeling really on the top of my game when it all came crashing down. Just several months into the program getting off the ground, the funds were pulled. I had to let go of my staff and essentially “shut the doors” of the program at the drop of a hat. I’ve never had the wind taken out of my sails in such a dramatic and disappointing way. After the dust settled, I took some time to evaluate what my next move would be. Would I go back to a life of stability working for a school? After building something so massive in such a short amount of time, I craved the challenge of that again. My decision was to continue on the path of entrepreneurship and build the private practice of my dreams. Since then, I have been working towards manifesting this into reality and it has been very successful.

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

My name is Maria Clemente Morresi. Life has taken me on a few twists and turns to get to where I am now. In my academic days, I absolutely loved being a student. I was good at it and enjoyed learning very much. In college, I was a pre-med student but was always very interested in psychology. Upon graduating, I decided to take some time before I made the move to apply for medical school. In that time, I worked in the medical administrative field. While I enjoyed it, I always felt like I was missing that clinical, patient-facing piece. However I will always be grateful to that time for the skills I gained in business building and it was also where I met the love of my life, my now husband. After a while, I decided to divert from the idea of medical school, but still found a way to fulfill my clinical desire while incorporating my interest area of psychology.

Knowing and understanding myself and those around me always fascinated me. Even at this young stage of my journey, I loved the idea of combining the tangible study of neuroscience with the more elusive holistic wellness world. I went back to school for my Masters in Clinical Mental Health Counseling at Monmouth University. I finished first in my graduating class and, with my degree, was able to apply for licensure as a Licensed Associate Counselor (LAC) along with acquiring the department of education endorsement that allowed me to be a Student Assistance Coordinator (SAC) in the NJ Public School system.

While I was working part time at a private practice seeing a small caseload of clients, I also applied and was accepted to be a SAC within the Jersey City Public School system. It was in both of these environments I was able to use and expand my skills as a counselor, specifically becoming trained and skilled in trauma-informed counseling techniques. I loved working with the teenage population. It was really eye opening working in an environment where most of my population were minorities who lived in underprivileged situations and often experienced trauma that I was blessed to have never been exposed to in my youth. But now I was experiencing it through their eyes. My first year out of school, one of the students I counseled was murdered. I say this to highlight the extreme nature of what these teens lived through. It was clear to me that the type of high-quality trauma-informed services they needed were not easily accessible to this population. I therefore opened a non-profit and built a trauma-focused, experiential mental health program to support a group of students over the summer. It was an incredible experience and I loved the work. To this day, I still have contact with two of the students. Whenever I hear from them, it makes my heart so happy.

After 2 years in Jersey City, I moved onto another SAC position in a middle school in Morristown, NJ. During this period, I was able to acquire my full licensure as a Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC). As soon as I did, I opened my own business, Reimagined Mind Counseling & Consultation. In the early stages, it was my side business with a small caseload of clients. I was a SAC in Morristown for 2 years before I decided to take the plunge into full entrepreneurship.

As I described in my last response, I took on a project to build a trauma-informed, school-based therapy program for a large school district. When this did not take off in the way I hoped, I pivoted and focused the business on the private practice and consultation services.

Since then, I have grown the business to have 8 talented mental health clinicians and 1 registered dietician nutritionist. Each clinician brings their own unique skillsets to the the team, but we are all united under the umbrella of holistic and trauma-informed care. While teenagers will always be a population I am passionate about supporting, I grew to develop a love of working with the perinatal population. Many of the women who work with me also share this passion and it has grown to be a specialty area of the practice. Moms need so much support throughout their journey of pregnancy, postpartum, and beyond. It truly takes a village and we love to be a pillar of strength in other women’s villages.

About the brand:
Reimagined Mind is an innovative, holistic wellness sanctuary that specializes in trauma-informed mental health therapy and comprehensive perinatal care. At its core, the brand represents a harmonious blend of clinical expertise and nurturing support, particularly focused on supporting women through their conception, pregnancy, and postpartum journeys.

Key Elements:

-Compassionate and trauma-informed
-Professional yet approachable
-Holistic and integrative
-Woman-centered and empowering

Brand Promise:
Comprehensive, trauma-informed care that nurtures both mind and body through life’s transformative moments”

Our Brand’s Voice:
-Professional yet warm
-Empathetic and understanding
-Educational and informative
-Supportive and encouraging

The brand has evolved beautifully from its roots in providing trauma-informed therapy for inner city teens to becoming a comprehensive virtual wellness practice. It maintains its foundational commitment to trauma-informed care while expanding its reach to support women through their maternal journey with services such as The MAMA Method program.

How do you keep your team’s morale high?

One of the most rewarding pieces of feedback I receive from the people I work with, is that my practice is their favorite work environment. I’ve heard this from people I worked with for as short as a few months to those who have been with me for years. It’s always surprising, and quite disheartening, when I hear my colleagues talk about some of their truly negative experiences with a manager or workplace environment. I want my practice to not only feel like a sanctuary for the clientele we serve, but for it to also feel like safe and empowering space for my team. The way I work to make this a reality is through transparency and compassion. I use many of the same skills it takes to be a good a clinician in my work as a manager/business owner.

Some of my management relationships have more of a mentoring vibe. I derive a lot of fulfillment out of being a part of another clinician’s career journey. The work we do can be emotionally and mentally taxing. There is a very high burnout rate for mental health clinicians. And if the therapists are emotionally tapped out, then we can’t do much to support our clients. My management style aims to find ways to help fill the cups of those who work with me. Listening to them, incorporating their suggestions when possible, constantly asking for feedback on what they need or what I could be doing better… all of these are ways to help them feel valued and supported and create positive working relationships.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

I think resilience is crucial to success in most areas of life, including being a successful mental health counselor. Sometimes we are working with the darker parts that life has to offer to help a client through. And sometimes, those dark parts feel awfully close to home.

I started working with the perinatal population prior to being on my own motherhood journey. Eventually, I was ready for that part of my life and my husband and I began to try to conceive. We were successful, but just 8 weeks into the joy of this experience, I miscarried. Anyone who has weathered this experience knows how difficult it can be. It takes a toll on your physical, mental, and emotional health. As I moved through this difficult moment, I took a bit of time away from clients for about a week. It wasn’t too long until I was back to providing services to my clients, some of which were going through their own pregnancy difficulties or losses. As clinicians, we are trained to know when a topic is too sensitive for us and how to work through it so we can get back to seeing clients who may need to talk about that topic. In this situation, even though it was still somewhat raw for me, I felt I was able to move through processing it quickly and effectively which allowed me to properly support my clients. A combination of having faith, a strong support system, and resilience enabled be to believe it was all was working out how it should be, which gave me the strength and motivation to continue my work.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.reimaginedmind.com
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/reimaginedmind
• Facebook: https://facebook.com/reimaginedmind
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mariaclementelpc
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@reimaginedmindyoutube

Image Credits

No credit needed. All personal photos.