Good Neighbor Podcast: Frisco

EP # 245: From Teacher to Therapist: How Melissa Griffin Built WellNest Counseling

• Sophia Yvette

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What makes Melissa Griffin with WellNest Counseling a good neighbor?

Many believe counseling is only for those in crisis, but Melissa Griffin of WellNest Counseling is challenging this misconception. As she reveals on the Good Neighbor Podcast, seeking support proactively can be transformative for families at every stage of development.

Melissa's path to founding WellNest Counseling began in the classroom. While teaching, she discovered her true passion wasn't academic instruction but supporting children's emotional wellbeing. This realization led her to pursue counseling while continuing to teach, eventually building a practice that serves the entire family system. From play therapy for young children to support for teens, adults, and young adults establishing their independence, WellNest offers comprehensive mental health services designed to meet clients where they are.

What makes Melissa's approach particularly insightful is her personal experience as part of a military family. Having navigated multiple deployments with young children, she understands firsthand the challenges of transitioning from co-parenting to solo parenting overnight. This experience informs her practical advice for families facing separation: find your village, schedule regular self-care, and utilize technology to maintain connections during absence. As she poignantly shares, "We all really love to be together because we know what it's like to be apart."

WellNest's philosophy—"bringing wellness to your nest"—reflects Melissa's belief that counseling isn't just for crisis intervention but can help families thrive at any stage. Whether you're a young adult building your nest or in the midst of parenting challenges, her practice offers a supportive environment for growth and healing. Ready to explore how counseling might benefit your family? Connect with WellNest Counseling through their website, social media, or by phone to learn more about their services and approach.

To learn more about WellNest Counseling go to:

https://www.wellnestcounseling.com/

WellNest Counseling

214-449-1088

Speaker 1:

This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Sophia Yvette.

Speaker 2:

Welcome to the Good Neighbor Podcast. Are you in need of a counselor? Well, one may be closer than you think. Today I have the pleasure of introducing your good neighbor, melissa Griffin LPC, with her company Wellness Counseling. Melissa, how are you today? I'm good. Thank you for having me. It's a pleasure to have you on and we're so excited to learn all about you and your business. Can you tell our listeners a bit about your company?

Speaker 3:

Yeah, so I own Wellness Counseling and we are a mental health private practice. We really specialize in seeing anyone who's in a family system. So we have therapists that do play therapy. We've got therapists that see teens. We've got therapists that specialize in working with adults or those like perinatal kind of family systems or family stages, and then we even specialize in working with that young adult that's like kind of just building their nest and starting out. So anywhere across the family lifespan is what we see.

Speaker 2:

Amazing and, being in the industry you are in, how in the world did you get into this business?

Speaker 3:

I actually started out as a teacher, I knew that I loved working with kids and that that seemed like the next right thing for me to do. I, you know, I nannied when I was a teenager. My mom is a pediatrician and has owned her own practice for a long time, so I always saw that I always saw working with kids. I promptly got into teaching and realized very quickly that that was not the scene for me. I loved working with the kids, but I loved more hearing about kind of their social emotional development than I did teaching them about like math or history or something like that.

Speaker 3:

But then my first year I decided to go back to school. I taught for three more years after that, so a total of four years, and then I worked on getting my master's in counseling. And then you know, here we are now. I've got my private practice. We work with a lot of kids. I knew I wanted to work with kids and parenting and I'm fortunate to be able to have grown a group practice as well. So I have other therapists that work here.

Speaker 2:

From teaching to counseling. I am sure there's many misconceptions you come across in your industry. Now, what is the biggest myth or misconception you come across in the counseling world?

Speaker 3:

I think the biggest one, the biggest myth we come across is that you have to be in crisis or something's wrong with you to come to counseling, and that is just like the farthest thing from the truth. We really love it when parents and families come to us when it's like oh, you know we're struggling with this thing, but it's not a big deal, but we want to get ahead of it right. Or we can really work with families that are maybe in a good place but just want to get to that next level. So you don't have to be in crisis and you don't have to be nothing has to be wrong with you to come to counseling.

Speaker 2:

And, on that note, who are your target customers? And in terms of marketing.

Speaker 3:

How do you attract them? I think, say our target customers are going to be kind of anyone in that family system. So kids from ages two and a half, three, all the way up to teenage years, all the way up to those 18, 19, those young adults who are starting out and trying to build their nest, those, the ones that are in thick of it. It's hard, marriage is hard, parenting is hard, being somebody other than a parent is hard. So anyone in that domain.

Speaker 2:

And, in terms of marketing, how do you attract or stay attractive to your clients?

Speaker 3:

I we do a lot of networking, so we like to talk to other professionals who do something you know, adjacent to us, but maybe not exactly the same thing. We are really good at working with school counselors and teachers. Given that's my background, I know the world, that world and you know a lot of most of our clients actually come to us by word of mouth. We've had families that have had really good experiences and they share us with their friends.

Speaker 2:

Let's go ahead and switch gears for a second. Can you describe a hardship or life challenge you overcame and it's made you a better and stronger woman today?

Speaker 3:

My family, my husband and my kids. We are actually a military family. Well, we're a retired military family. Now my husband just resigned, retired in January. Prior to that we had been in for 15 years. So one of our hardships was going through those deployments. That was really challenging. My kids felt it. They were. My kids are all eight and under, so they were old enough to understand kind of what was going on. So that showed up in a lot of different ways and it was hard for me because I missed my husband and I went from a parenting you know duo to a solo parent kind of overnight. But we all made it, made it through and we we came through it and I think we all really love to be together because we know what it's like to be apart. So that has made us a stronger family.

Speaker 2:

Most definitely, and I think that's always a good test to see how strong your family really is when you have that time apart and just to come back together even stronger in the end is such a beautiful thing, right? Yeah, thank you. Yeah, you're welcome. And so for our listeners who may have family members that may be deployed even right now, what words of wisdom do you have for them to get through that challenging time in their life?

Speaker 3:

I would say to the stay at home parent find truly I know everyone says this but truly find your village. Find your people that you can call and just be like I'm losing my mind. I need somebody to come help in those times of deep need. Set that up for yourself. Also, something that I find really successful for family members going through deployment is for that stay at home parent to schedule a weekly kind of three hour time away where they can just have some time for themselves, and then, if you have kids, make sure you have somebody else. Put your kids to bed one night a week maybe, or one night every two weeks. That is a game changer as well, because it's a lot all on yourself.

Speaker 3:

For the deployed parent I would say you know, find little ways to connect with your family. There's lots of apps and things that you can do. You can record yourself reading a story so we can play it at bedtime. Just find little ways to connect that are simple and easy, you know, and you can kind of keep that connection going while you're away.

Speaker 2:

Thank you for sharing that with our listeners, melissa. Yes, so please tell our listeners one thing they should remember about wellness counseling, wellness counseling Well nest.

Speaker 3:

yeah, we bring wellness to your nest. That's what we like to say. That would be my thing. We like to bring wellness to your nest, whatever that looks like. If you're like again, like I said, if you are a young adult just starting out building your nest, we have a spot for you. If you are in the thick of it, we have a spot for you. We see, we not only see kids, but we see adults too. So we really try to be very well-rounded within WellNest counseling.

Speaker 2:

Well, that's amazing and just for our listeners to know as well. If you are going through that tough time right now, I think if you don't have any physical people to rely on, you can always you know, if you have faith, rely on your faith to kind of get through those times as well. Just a little added advice, and so, Melissa, how can our listeners learn more about wellness counseling?

Speaker 3:

You can find us on our website wellnesscounselingcom W-E-L-L-N-E-S-T. Wellnesscounseling. We're also on Instagram under the same name and on Facebook. Of course, we do TikTok a little bit. All of our contact information is on our website, so we are happy and eager to have a quick chat or a longer chat if you need that and learn a little bit more about you.

Speaker 2:

Well, Melissa, I really appreciate you being on the show. I wish you and your business the best moving forward. Thank you so much for having me.

Speaker 1:

Thank you for listening to the Good Neighbor Podcast. To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to gnpfriscocom. That's gnFriscocom. That's GNPFriscocom, or call 469-221-9345.