Today we’d like to introduce you to Haley Morris.
Hi Haley, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
The beginning of my story goes back to my childhood. I was the sibling and cousin that everyone would come to when sad, stressed, or scared. I’ve never been much of a talker but was always good at holding space to listen. When I was exploring potential career paths, my mom recommended taking some psychology courses at the local community college, in Monterey CA. I highly valued my moms opinions and viewed her as a wise woman, so I added on an Intro to Psychology course to my schedule. It ended up being not only my favorite class that year, but also my best grade! I proceeded to transferring to a small Christian college in Rocklin CA where I received my BA in Intercultural Psychology and then went on to getting. my MA in Clinical Psychology with an Emphasis in Marriage and Family Therapy and Pepperdine in Malibu CA. 2.5 years after graduation I completed my 3,000 internship hours, passed my licensing exam, and moved to Atlantic Beach, FL a month later, March 8th 2018. The transition was not as smooth as I hoped it would be. California claimed to be the most difficult state to get licensed in and encouraged ease of transferring license if a change of location ever took place….apparently Florida claims to also be the most challenging state to get licensed in and it took me another semester of school due to being short 4 credits and having to retake one of my exams to be officially licensed in FL, 9 months later. By this point I was eager and excited to start building my practice. I sought out mentors in the field who were well established and gained insight regarding steps to take to start my own Private Practice and build my clientele. Within 6 weeks, I had my business license, an office space rented, and my first in person client on February 5th 2019.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
There have been some obstacles along the way, one of the bigger challenges happened in my final year of grad school, I started to experiencing distracting symptoms like vertigo, vision problems, difficulty retaining information, numbness in my feet, difficulty walking, inability to drive due to issues with depth perception and processing information. Every doctor that I saw told me it was due to my Type 1 diabetes. I had, at this point, been diabetic for 13 years and knew the symptoms were not consistent with a diabetic episode. After 8 months of progressing symptoms, my mom moved in with me due to inability to safely drive myself and my body not functioning normally. It was eventually recommended to me by one of my professors to see a neurologist. After 2 sessions with the neurologist, over a 2 month period, and being told I was fine and probably just stressed, my mom blurted out “She feels like she has a brain tumor!” To which he reluctantly agreed to order some exams and testing. 24 hours later, I was called by the doctors office in the middle of one of my classes. The receptionist kindly and calmly stated my test results were back and asked how soon could I come back in to discuss the results. I knew that meant it wasn’t good news and told her I could be there ASAP. The results revealed lesions in my brain and spine and was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis. The next day I was hospitalized for a week long intensive steroid treatment to aggressively stop the lesions from growing or spreading further. This happened the week before midterms, my last full semester of grad school! I’m so blessed to have had friends who took good notes for me during class and filled me in on everything I was missing. They took extra time to sit down with me and help me prepare for the midterms and continued to help me the rest of the year as my body regained normal functioning and my mind regained cognitive strength. I am pleased to report that despite the challenges, I was miraculously still able to see clients in my practicum placement and graduated Cum Lade! God is so good!
As you know, we’re big fans of Haley Morris Counseling Corporation. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about the brand?
I am a licensed Mental Health, Marriage and Family Therapist. I work with individuals and couples to help them gain insight, clarity, and healing. I love working with individuals 18 and older to provide emotional, spiritual, relational, and mental health support for those of all different backgrounds
and circumstances. I specialize in Anxiety, Depression, Relationships, Grief, and Trauma. I have experience in life coaching, crisis intervention and substance abuse. I identify as a Christian but provide both Christian and secular counseling. I provide both in person and telehealth session and see clients in both California (virtually) and in Florida (both in person and virtually.) If you come see me in person you may also meet my 2 year old, miniature lab mix, therapy dog, Pepper! My goal in therapy is to treat each client uniquely and meet them where they are at. This means I operate from an eclectic therapeutic approach so that I can pull from multiple different resources and techniques to find an approach that best fits the person or couple in front of me. My desire is to create a warm, soft space, that feels safe but also challenging. I’m really passionate about what I do and the biggest compliment I get is when I hear that a new client found me based off of a referral from another client! My favorite part of being a therapist is experiencing the “light bulb moment” or being there for someone’s breakthrough.
Do you have any advice for those looking to network or find a mentor?
I found mentors through starting conversations with individuals and asking about who they liked or trusted in the therapeutic field. I did google searches also to see who were the top leading professionals in the field in my area. I also joined multiple Facebook groups for mental health therapists and asked around for suggestions and recommendations through there. Psychology Today has been my favorite platform so far for advertising. Jax Chamber is a Young Professional Leadership Program that also contributed to networking early on.
Pricing:
- $140 for a 50 minute individual therapy session
- $160 for a 50 minute couples counseling session
Contact Info:
- Website: https://hmorriscounseling.com
- Instagram: https://strengthinternational.org/
- Other: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/therapists/haley-morris-jacksonville-fl/222790
