Erica’s Story
Finding the Thread:
My Journey to Becoming Your Therapist
When my practice asked me to write a short piece about my journey into therapy, my first thought was, “That will be fun!” Then came the blank page.
I wrote opening paragraphs, deleted them, and wrote them again. None of them felt quite right. Looking for inspiration, I browsed my colleagues’ bios on our website. Instantly, a wave of self-consciousness hit me. Their stories were so beautifully defined. For a long time, if someone asked me why I chose Marriage and Family Therapy, my honest answer was simply: I followed my gut. I have always relied on my intuition, and for most of my life, that trusted system worked just fine.
But as I sat staring at the screen, I realized my path wasn’t just by chance. The threads of my calling had been gently woven into my life all along, even when I couldn’t see them.
Cultivating Curiosity
In 2012, I was living in Louisville, Kentucky. I had just graduated with my bachelor’s degree and given birth to my first child. For the next five years, I worked as an educator rooted in the Montessori philosophy.
Montessori opens your eyes to see the world through a lens of profound curiosity, deep respect, and lifelong learning. I became a total sponge, soaking up this thoughtful way of communicating and interacting. To some, fully embracing these values can seem a bit unconventional, but Maria Montessori’s vision of a world built on peace and mutual respect changed me to my core.
During those five busy years, I also got married, welcomed my second baby, bought a house, and constantly traveled back and forth to Akron so my children could grow up surrounded by their grandparents and aunts. Eventually, the grueling commute became too much. Desperate to put down deeper roots, I convinced my husband to look for work closer to home—proposing the irresistible incentive of nearby family support. By 2017, he found a job in Cleveland, and we finally relocated.
I was elated to be near family, but as the dust settled, I felt a little lost.
A Crossroads of Identity
In 2019, I enrolled my youngest in a Montessori preschool and began teaching elementary school in the same building. Then, the world changed. Schools shut down due to the pandemic.
The year 2020 was scary, unpredictable, and deeply isolating for all of us. Yet, it gave me a rare gift: uninterrupted time at home with my children. Every single day, I packed a picnic and took my kids hiking through the Cuyahoga Valley National Park. Amidst the collective anxiety of the world, there was a quiet, healing magic in those woods.
But seasons change. When schools reopened and my youngest entered kindergarten, a heavy wave of confusion hit me. I realized I had built my entire career around my children’s immediate needs. Now that they were both in public school, I felt my sense of self dwindling. I loved education, but I knew deep down that my time in the classroom was complete.
I craved a space where my natural gifts—the ability to slow down, observe, listen, and show deep, unconditional respect—could be fully utilized. I just didn’t know what that space looked like yet.
The Family Legacy
Looking back, the answer should have been obvious. I come from a long line of counselors and educators. In fact, my grandparents were career counselors. From a very young age, they would have me take personality tests and quizzes to help guide my future. Over and over, the results came back exactly the same: social worker, teacher, or therapist.
But those tests failed to measure my fierce determination to carve out my own path. I wanted to do things my own way, so I gently brushed aside their guidance, insisting instead that I would become a forest ranger or work in eco-tourism. I did eventually choose education on my own terms, but it would take another ten years for me to realize my grandparents’ quizzes hadn’t been wrong—I just needed to arrive at the destination in my own time.
That realization began to take shape during a season of shared hardship with my sister, who is my best friend and a practicing mental health therapist. As she walked through a difficult time, I spent hours simply listening to her and holding space for her pain. We had always loved diving deep into the introspective world of human behavior, but now, she saw something in me that I couldn’t see myself.
“Erica, you really should go to school to be a therapist,” she told me. “You are so naturally validating and understanding.”
Determined to find my own identity, I resisted. “That’s your thing,” I replied. “I want to find MY thing.”
Finding Healing and Purpose
The truth was, the pressure of these major life transitions was catching up to me. I was riddled with anxiety and struggling to sleep. Watching my children grow more independent left me grieving my old identity. So, for the first time in my life, I decided to take my own brave step and see a therapist.
Through my own therapeutic journey, I began to safely unpack who I was and why I operated the way I did. It was a profound, eye-opening experience. About three months into my own healing, I looked at my therapist and asked, “Do you think I should be a therapist?”
I don’t know why her perspective finally unlocked the door for me when my family’s advice hadn’t. But instead of giving me a straight answer, she did what great therapists do: she helped me gently explore the “whys” and “why nots.”
That very afternoon, I went home, opened the University of Akron’s website, and looked at their graduate programs. When I saw the Marriage and Family Therapy (MFT) track, my intuition didn’t just nudge me—it perked up completely. I just knew.
I enrolled in the expedited graduate program, finishing in two and a half years. The lifelong learner in me was buzzing. I was always the person sitting in the front row, raising my hand, and keeping the class past the bell because I was so hungry for knowledge.
The Power of Human Connection
During my studies, I was invited to do my internship with a non-profit providing in-home family therapy to families in acute crisis. For two years, I drove across Northeastern Ohio, walking into the homes of strangers and asking them to share their heaviest burdens with me.
As a new therapist, navigating intense crises, systemic poverty, and severe mental health struggles was incredibly humbling and, at times, overwhelming. But I leaned into my intuition, and those two years changed my understanding of humanity forever.
I was allowed into neighborhoods and communities I otherwise never would have visited, working with an incredibly diverse population. In a culture that can feel so bitterly divided, my clients taught me the most valuable lesson of my life: healing only happens together. Beneath our differing beliefs and backgrounds, we have so much more in common than we don’t. True connection requires vulnerability, and we are, quite truly, each other’s only hope.
Walking the Talk
As much as I deeply loved my intensive community work, the heavy secondary trauma eventually began to take a toll on my own family and mental health. Once again, I listened to my gut. I knew it was time to practice what I preach to my clients: prioritizing a healthy work-life balance and protecting my own peace. Which brings me here to Married Life Counseling.
My journey here wasn’t a straight line, but every detour gave me the tools I use in the therapy room today. Beyond my formal education and intense clinical training, my lived experience as a wife and a mother is one of my greatest assets as a clinician. I know firsthand the beautiful, messy realities of raising children, the exhaustion of identity shifts, and the intentional effort it takes to nurture a partnership through life’s intense seasons. I don’t just understand these dynamics from a textbook; I live them. This personal journey gives me a deep, practical empathy to support you and your family through your own struggles.
I know what it feels like to feel lost, to navigate major transitions, and to take the brave step of sitting on a therapist’s couch for the first time.
If you are navigating a difficult transition, feeling disconnected from yourself, or trying to heal your relationships, I am here to listen, to respect your unique story, and to help you figure it out—together.
Ready to take the first step? Schedule a session with Erica today.
