Good Neighbor Podcast: Pittsburgh
Bringing together local businesses and neighbors of Pittsburgh. Good Neighbor Podcast hosted by Leila Carter helps residents discover and connect with your local business owners in and around Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
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Good Neighbor Podcast: Pittsburgh
E28: Counseling Across the Lifespan: Finding Strength in Vulnerability
What makes Tess Inman with Cristina Panaccione and Associates a good neighbor?
Ever felt embarrassed to ask for mental health support? You're not alone. Therapist Tess Inman shares how her own struggles finding help in the 90s led her to a 13-year career breaking down barriers to therapy access.
For Tess and the team at Christina Panaccione and Associates Counseling, vulnerability isn't weakness—it's strength. Their female-led practice has spent a decade fighting the persistent myth that therapy is only for those with "something wrong." As Tess explains, trauma is subjective, and everyone faces struggles, especially as we collectively recover from the global trauma of COVID-19.
With two physical locations in the Pittsburgh area (McMurray/Canonsburg and Robinson) and comprehensive virtual services, this practice is removing obstacles to mental wellness. They provide school-based services across four districts and treat clients across the entire lifespan. Their team includes specialists certified in grief counseling, EMDR trauma treatment, and Gottman couples therapy—ensuring that whatever your needs, there's someone qualified to help.
What sets this practice apart is their commitment to holistic care. When working with children in schools, they often extend support to entire families. Their diverse team uses various therapeutic approaches, making mental healthcare more accessible and tailored to individual needs. Whether you're dealing with everyday challenges or more complex issues, their message is clear: seeking help is normal, natural, and necessary.
Ready to prioritize your mental health? Visit cpa-counseling.com, call 412-439-1416, or find their clinicians on Psychology Today. Taking that first step toward self-care might be the most powerful choice you make today.
To learn more about Cristina Panaccione and Associates go to:
Cristina Panaccione and Associates
(412)353 5299
This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Lila Carter.
Speaker 2:Welcome to the Good Neighbor Podcast. Are you in need of a therapy practice? One might be closer than you think. Today I have the pleasure of introducing your good neighbor, Tess Inman, with Christina Panaccione and Associates Counseling. Tess, how's it going? Pretty good. How are you doing? I'm very well. Thank you so much. We're excited to learn all about you and your business, so tell us about your practice.
Speaker 3:Sure, sure. So we are a private practice in the Pittsburgh area. We have two locations, one in McMurray, cannonsburg area and then also in Robinson. We also provide school-based services for four different districts in the area Deer Lakes, shaler, burrell and we also provide services for PA Cyber students and we are a practice that's been, we've been around for 10 years. We are a female-ran practice and we service across the lifespan and we definitely are here in the community to try to normalize going to therapy, against that stigma that is still present in our society. We also have provide virtual services as well. Since COVID, there is a lot of push for virtual therapy, so we also provide that.
Speaker 2:So how did you get into this business, tess?
Speaker 3:Oh, wow, yeah, I have been a clinician for about 13 years now. I went into therapy to become a therapist because I remember growing up in the 90s and having my own struggles, being exposed to trauma and feeling like it was almost embarrassing to ask my parents if I could go to therapy, and then finding a therapist was another mission on its own, and I think that I really just wanted to contribute to breaking that stigma and that being vulnerable and acknowledging our struggles is a sign of strength.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. What are some myths or misconceptions in your industry?
Speaker 3:Definitely that, with that stigma in our society against mental health treatment, I think it's still seen as there's something wrong with you, like you're crazy if you go to therapy. But really it is more about acknowledging that trauma is subjective and we all have struggles, especially in this post-COVID world, with navigating. You know how to recover from a global trauma. I think there's still, you know, those thoughts that you have to be there, has to be something very wrong with you in order to go to therapy. And you know, even using that word crazy we don't like that word very much because it's very derogatory and it is it kind of tells us that not everyone can go to therapy and that it wouldn't be productive for someone who is just going through life and has struggles.
Speaker 2:Right, right. And you know, as we know, that marketing is the heart of every business. Who are your target customers here, and how do you attract them to the counseling practice?
Speaker 3:Sure, so we definitely use our website a lot to get a lot of traffic into exposing them to the different clinicians that we have. We do have a various scale of different kinds of therapists, different modalities used. Most of our clinicians also use psychology. Today, I'm finding today, in today's world, that is such a nice way to find a clinician that is going to meet your needs, Because it's basically an online profile of you know what you specialize in, what your history in the field is like. So most of our referrals come from there. We also get a lot of referrals from the schools that we work in and with that you know we can provide school-based services, but also we'd like to, if needed, we'd want to treat the whole family. So we also have clinicians that can work with couples, with families, with children, with elderly people. So we definitely use word of mouth referral in that sense.
Speaker 2:Great. As we talk about opening up the conversation around mental health and reducing that stigma, have you ever thought about doing your own podcast to get the word out there?
Speaker 3:And, you know, one of these days I might just do that. It is definitely something that, again, we want to normalize, that you can talk about these things, it's OK, you know, and that also that a lot of people in our society might be struggling with similar things to you.
Speaker 2:Sure, absolutely. And that relatability factor too, absolutely. So, outside of of work, what do you do for fun?
Speaker 3:oh, I, I'm an athlete. I've always um played sports. I've been playing volleyball for about 30 years now, so I play a couple times a week. Also, you know, hanging out with friends, um, I love animals, um, and even I I always love to talk about this that Christina, the owner of our practice again, she is even in a band and she performs all over Pittsburgh, and we all definitely push for self-care, you know, so that we can take care of ourselves, so we can better take care of our clients as well.
Speaker 2:Very good, Tess. Please tell us one thing that our listeners should remember about Christina Panaccione Associates Counseling.
Speaker 3:I think definitely that we treat across the lifespan. It is not a practice where you know that you might not find someone that has worked with your age range or anything like that. We like to provide clinicians that work with little kids to our early population, like I said, and you know that we also have very many clinicians that are certified in different modalities. We have grief certified clinicians, we have EMDR, which is a trauma treatment. We have EMDR clinicians. Myself I'm a couples therapist. I am Gottman certified, so we definitely have many clinicians that have experience but also have certifications with that.
Speaker 2:Excellent. How can our listeners learn more about Christina Panaccione and Associates Counseling?
Speaker 3:Sure, you can go to our website at cpa-counselingcom. We also have our phone numbers 412-439-1416. You can also look us up on Psychology Today. We do have a page for our practice, but also, if you go to our website, most of our clinicians have their own Psychology Today that you can actually go to our website. Most of our clinicians have their own psychology today that you can actually access through our website as well.
Speaker 2:Very good. Well, Tess, I really appreciate your time today and having you as a guest on our show. We wish you and your business the best moving forward.
Speaker 3:Thank you so much. I appreciate you asking me to be here and, yes, I definitely want to continue to spread the word, to normalize being vulnerable and, you know, just setting goals for ourselves, care of ourselves as individuals.
Speaker 2:Thank you for the work you're doing in the community. Thank you, thank you.
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 GNPPittsburghcom. That's GNPPittsburghcom, or call 412-561-9956.