Today we’d like to introduce you to Brittany Ellis.
Hi Brittany, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
My story is a beautiful one as I sit and reflect on this question of what got me where I am today. I was born to 2 high school sweethearts, a military man, and a mother who struggled with addiction throughout my entire life. Being raised by grandparents and moving so much taught me certain survival skills and strategies that organically placed me in my work today. How to read people, how to be accepted in large groups, how to mimic others, and the list goes on. I’ve always been very interested in people’s emotional shifts, what they were thinking, how they were thinking, and why they were thinking that way. Naturally being a peoples person and very connected both emotionally and spiritually with strangers, I’m the girl that left the bathroom where women shared their darkest secrets, cried to me, and even asking me to talk to their boyfriend and mom while at a restaurant. It wasn’t until I was 26 years old that I went to therapy for the first time. During that eight months I learned that a lot of the struggles I had personally were classified under severe anxiety, a word that I didn’t know the meaning of or how it plagued people of color. By this point I had a biochemistry degree from a prestigious institution, worked in the radio industry, in drug manufacturing, as a bartender and business owner, and the one thing that I took away from all of those spaces were how much I cared for and connected naturally with people. I left therapy in 2018 telling my therapist I wanted to do what it is that she did for me. She jokingly said that I needed to get a masters in the requirements to be a therapist. Two years later I was in a masters program for clinical counseling at Northwestern University, and 8 years after that I have graduated, started a mental health private practice, wrote a book helping women heal holistically from anxiety, became a clinical researcher to fully immerse in the problems I want to help solve, and now I have founded Jacksonville 1st holistic healing and Wellness ecosystem. The road to get here was a struggle but beautifully outlined in a unique way for me.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
A smooth road, yes. Bumps, the potholes, roadblocks commas in detours along the way? Also yes. Some of the struggles I faced were specifically during the decade of my 20s. Growing up in a family where money did not come abundantly nor did healing and care for others. One of the biggest struggles was the intersectionality of being black and being a woman. In my academic spaces I may have been the only black person, in my entrepreneurial network I may have been one of few women, in the biochemical world I was a rare commodity overall. That type of “otherring” takes a toll on you overtime when you keep dismissing microaggressions, and letting jokes slide that are actually meant to be harmful. Survivors guilt was also one of the biggest struggles that I had in my mid 20s. Knowing that my grandparents did all that they could, and sacrificed to take care of my siblings and I-it felt like something I was in depth for and had to pay back. Once that mindset shifted and I started to see my life in my own happiness as a priority overriding the health of the collective, there comes more backlash and almost being pushed out of the group. It is in our nature to feel accepted or like we belong within a community, so when getting into the field of mental health I made that a priority.
Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about 2BE Well Therapy and Jax Healers?
I am the founder, owner, and lead therapist of 2BE Well Therapy. As a therapist my job is to create a safe space where people can learn how to become more securely attached, as I become the mirror to help them see themselves reflected back. There’s usually a misconception that therapists are magicians, life changers, or dropping this profound knowledge every session. When in reality, we are here to be the holder of space, the honorees of truth, and sometimes the witnessing of trauma processing. I primarily work with millennials, young adults, and women of color who struggle specifically with anxiety. They call me the anxiety alchemist because I have a proven and effective track record of helping people shift from intellectualizing their experiences to trusting themselves, grounding in their body, in healing their anxiety to their core by getting to the roots of when their struggles began. This process can be followed in my debut book called ”Sacred Self Care: a 10 week Guided Workbook Healing Anxiety in Women”. What sets me apart from other therapists is my relational approach (meaning I center therapy around the rapport building) and way of assessment. Usually, you’d go to a therapist and they start out with questions like “what brings you in today”, “what do you want to work on”, “why are you here”–starting the work from present day, then moving backwards. For me I start with my client’s earliest memories and allow them to narrate their story through the developmental stages from childhood so we organically arrive to who they are today and what got them here. This allows both me and my client to learn about their patterns, attachment styles, and aspects that they truly need to work on in therapy. I also offer group therapy, called the Girl Gang, where women use my curriculum, walking them through a controlled environment where they get to practice and experience trust and vulnerability in a new way and not feel so alone in their struggles. Being new to Jacksonville, I’ve always believed in holistic care in that I may not be the only one able to be on the healing team for my clients. But I usually had no referrals to send clients to so I started a healing and Wellness community of healing practitioners across the spectrum to connect, collaborate, and provide accessible culturally competent care. Last month, I closed on a property that will be used as The Jax healers House for healers to hold workshops, trainings, and healing intensives for their own communities, both individually or collectively. What I am most proud of about my brand is how I have created an ecosystem of healers as well as empowered practitioners to lean onto one another more for themselves and their clients. As a whole offer individual therapy, group therapy, organization consultations, clinical presentations of workshops that have done, keynote speaking on village mentality in the neuroscience of self-care.
Are there any apps, books, podcasts, blogs or other resources you think our readers should check out?
I am not a blog, podcast, or app girly but there’s a book called The Alchemist that I swear by and have lived most of my life through as my own personal curriculum. The Alchemist by Paulo Coehlo shares the story of a big dreamer who took a risk that paid off for a lifetime. Through his story in the bumpy road that he traveled I learned that chaos and struggle is sometimes part of the journey and to not allow those aspects to discourage me in my work. The book that I wrote called Sacred Self-Care: A10 week guided workbook helping women heal anxiety is the formula that my therapist walked me through that changed my life, and now I use with my clients to do the same for them.
Pricing:
- Sacred Self Care $25 on Amazon
- Group Therapy $400 investment for 10 weeks
- Individual Therapy $110/hr
- Access to the Jax Healers House (negotiable rate)
- Jax Healers Membership $60/month
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.2bewelltherapy.com/ and https://blackauthorssummit.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/2be_brittany/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brittany-ellis-b-s-rmhci-687624126/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheAnxietyAlchemist
- Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Sacred-Self-Care-10-Week-Workbook/dp/B0DK78RCVQ
- Other: https://jaxhealers.com/
