Good Neighbor Podcast: Frisco

EP 276: From School Counselor to Therapy Pioneer: Allison Cornell's Journey With Firefly Counseling & Consulting

• Sophia Yvette

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What makes Allison Cornell with Firefly Counseling and Consulting PLLC a good neighbor?

Ever wondered what it means to truly heal from your darkest moments? Allison Cornell, founder of Firefly Counseling and Consulting PLLC, illuminates the path forward in this intimate conversation about mental health, misconceptions, and meaningful transformation.

After spending 15 years as a school counselor, Allison felt called to create a space where people could safely process trauma, life transitions, and emotional pain without judgment. That calling led to the founding of Firefly Counseling and Consulting in January 2022—a trauma-informed mental health practice dedicated to empowering individuals and communities through healing, resilience, and growth.

Specializing in Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR), Firefly provides compassionate, client-centered therapy tailored to the needs of those navigating PTSD, anxiety, depression, and other life challenges. The practice fosters a safe, inclusive environment where clients are guided through evidence-based interventions that support emotional well-being and long-term change.

As Allison beautifully puts it, “When you heat up something, it burns off all the imperfections and things that don't need to remain, so that then we can fly and be free to be who we were created to be.” That philosophy underpins everything Firefly does—from EMDR intensives and couples packages to their collaborative work with functional medicine doctors and psychiatrists.

In addition to serving clients, Firefly also offers professional development, supervision, and EMDR consultation for fellow clinicians who want to deepen their expertise in trauma treatment. With locations in Flower Mound and Waco, the practice is committed to cultural responsiveness, clinical excellence, and the belief that with the right support, healing isn’t just possible—it’s transformative.

Whether you’re a first responder, teacher, business professional, or simply someone ready for change, Firefly offers a free 15-minute consultation to help match you with the right clinician.

To learn more about Firefly Counseling and Consulting PLLC, visit:
 www.fireflycandc.com 

Firefly Counseling and Consulting PLLC

 (254) 230-4994

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 consultant and a counselor? Well, one may be closer than you think. Today I have the pleasure of introducing your good neighbor, Allison Cornell, with Firefly Counseling and Consulting. Allison, how are you today? I'm doing great. Thank you, Great. Well, we are so excited to learn all about you and your business. Can you tell us a little bit about your company?

Speaker 3:

Sure, yes. So Firefly started a few years ago. It was just me in the beginning and kind of has blossomed into a group. I used to be in the school system for 15 years and lived overseas for a while, so I always knew I wanted to help people, but I wasn't for sure that it was the counseling route until I got into the school business as a school counselor for a very long time and worked with all the different ages in the school systems and really realized in that process that I wanted to do even more and be able to sit across from people and dive deeper and help people process through their journey and their life and their trauma and to just be a safe person for them. And so when I went in January of 2022 is when Firefly officially began and, yeah, just come alongside people and Firefly.

Speaker 3:

You know that if you think about a firefly, they light up in the dark and that is a lot of. The vision for firefly is that we want to come alongside people and we want to help bring light into the dark places of their lives, the hard places where they may not be able to see the best themselves. And another way to dive even deeper I like the deep waters. Another way to dive in deep to the name of Firefly and where it came from was, if you break it apart, fire. You know, when you heat up something, it burns off all the imperfections and the things that don't need to remain, so that then we can fly and be free to be who we were created to be.

Speaker 2:

I love that. Now, what is the most common myth or misconception in your industry? I'm sure you've heard them all.

Speaker 3:

Yes, there's always those misconceptions. You know, I think sometimes we do a lot of EMDR therapy at Firefly and sometimes they may think that it is shock therapy. So we reiterate to them that it is definitely not shock therapy. We're also not hypnotizing them, even though that's a whole other modality. But that's not what EMDR is. And I think another common one is that you don't have to let yourself hit rock bottom before getting help. So yeah, just the myth there behind that that it's really. Almost anyone would benefit from having a safe person to be able to talk to.

Speaker 2:

Wow, allison, it sounds like you have quite a bit of information to share with our listeners here. Let's actually go ahead and switch gears for a second. Who are your target customers and or patients, I should say and in terms of marketing, how do you currently attract them?

Speaker 3:

So that is a very big question. We work with, I would say, a very broad target audience. We have clinicians that have a wide variety of ages and backgrounds that they work with. The ages of the clinicians are also very, so there's a lot of variety and I love that because we're able to meet a lot of people where they're at, whether that is a child or an adolescent or an adult, a young adult, a couple, a family. We really work with all of those populations. So we love working with first responders and those family members, police officers, firemen, teachers, business people, just really most people within the community that we are able to kind of come alongside of.

Speaker 3:

We've worked with people with PTSD, borderline personality, ocd, general anxiety and depression, of course, and social skills. We've helped some that are higher functioning, autistic with some of those avenues of care and we offer EMDR intensives as well as couples packages, which are really helpful when you want to be able to dive in deep and avoid all of the insurance rules and procedures of things and have those longer sessions so that you can really work through things more efficiently and provide the better care for those clients that need that and that are able to do that. So we, a lot of the clinicians, are trained in EMDR, erp, gottman, so we really use a very integrative approach in working with our clients. We really want to hear their stories, listen to them, come alongside of them and work together as a team to really help them the best.

Speaker 3:

So I would say that you know we get referrals, I would say, from a wide variety of places, whether that is former clients or doctor's offices or insurance companies, psychology today, people doing Google searches and seeing that we're located close, whether that's in Flower Mound or the Waco office, just that I would say those are the predominant ways that people come to see us. I love being able to build connections within the community. So if I am able to couple with a functional medical doctor or a psychiatrist that really does want to help the person holistically, then I love to lock arms with those people and we love to refer back and forth to each other. If, when we share the same common vision of realizing that treating the person as a whole person and not just one piece of it is my favorite.

Speaker 2:

That's amazing, and, allison, have you ever thought of having your very own podcast?

Speaker 3:

It sounds scary but it sounds exciting and I would not know how to do the all the technical side of it. But my I have a colleague, friend and I, and we are definitely in the process of creating some courses and some consultation groups for EMDR. She lives in Canada and we've been, we've been brainstorming, so we have some. We have some things that are in the works but I don't know about a podcast. I would have to learn the ins and outs of all of that, but it does. It sounds fun.

Speaker 2:

It definitely is Now, Allison, please tell our listeners one thing you should remember about Firefly Counseling and Consulting.

Speaker 3:

One thing that we are here to help you Simple.

Speaker 2:

And where can our listeners go to learn more about Firefly counseling and consulting the?

Speaker 3:

best way would be to visit our website at wwwfireflycandccom, or phone number 254-230-4994. People can schedule a 15-minute free consultation when you visit the website so that we can gather information, get to know what the clients are looking for and get them scheduled with the best clinician at Firefly.

Speaker 2:

Well, Allison, I really appreciate you being on the show. We wish you and your business the best moving forward.

Speaker 3:

Thank you very much. Thank you 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 gnpfriscocom, or call 469-221-9345.