Today we’d like to introduce you to Alicia Mercedes
Hi Alicia , we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I had known that I had always wanted to be a therapist since I was a child. I enjoyed helping people and getting through the darkest of times to a place of lightness and freedom with them. I knew I wanted to build a group practice that could help more people than I could as a solo practitioner. I just didn’t know what kind of therapist I wanted to be. Once I graduated from graduate school, I wanted something that was going to challenge my body instead of my mind. So I decided to compete in a bodybuilding competition. I completed two shows over the course of 6 months. During that time, I realized that my mind wasn’t catching up with my body. What I mean by that is, I was the lowest weight I had ever been in my adult life, I was dieting and losing weight and my body was changing quicker than I realized. And when I stepped on stage, I had this distorted image in my mind that I wasn’t as thin as I was looking to other people. Post show you go through changes as well because that look is not sustainable or healthy for the long term. As I was gaining weight, I started to recalibrate my mind to this new body. I started to check in with the reality of my stage weight and focus on a new healthy standard. That experience, along with my graduate training, taught me a bunch of things regarding food, society, body image and self esteem. This experience made me realize that women in particular go through a lot of these changes throughout their life, not only with weight loss and weight gain, but in puberty, pregnancy and menopause. I call these “big body changes.” Some other associated issues are body image, self esteem. identity issues, negative self talk, obsessive thinking, control issues, perfectionistic ideals, depression, anxiety, eating issues, and social anxiety. As women, we get so many messages about who we are “supposed to be,” how we are supposed to act and what our body’s supposed to look like. I wanted to be a part of creating a more healthy mindset around women’s bodies and how they feel about themselves. This has become the focus of my specialization in my practice.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
Thankfully, I have come across many individuals who have been supportive in my dreams and my goals. I have been particularly blessed along my journey. I believe that everything happens for a reason and nothing occurs by chance. I had decided in January 2020 that I was going to go full time into private practice. At this time, I was working as a clinical director at a substance abuse treatment center and working part time in private practice. And it became too overwhelming with the thought of wanting to expand my family and have a healthy mental mindset at the onset of motherhood. In March, the pandemic hit. During the pandemic, there was a huge mental health crisis leading to people feeling isolated, alone and needing connection. I feel like the pandemic was a difficult time in our lives, but was a great time for my practice. We grew exponentially during that time. I was quickly bringing on a colleague who is also a friend, and we continued to grow from there. Right now, we have five clinicians on the team, and we’re hoping to expand more in the coming years. There are daily obstacles that come up in the day to day of running a business and managing a family. Finding the balance and exceeding in both is always the goal. So you’re always evaluating that give and take.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your business?
We have a virtual private practice based out of Coral Springs. We have five clinicians in the practice. We also have student interns from NYU. We see clients virtually from 10 years old to 110 years old. We have created a dynamic team where each therapist has their own particular specialization. We offer individual, child, teen, family, couples and group counseling. We specialize in seeing teens and young adults that struggle with anxiety, depression, trauma, mood disorders, addiction and self esteem issues. We have specialists in the office that can help with family issues that arise when mental health issues are present, behavioral concerns, or struggles in family dynamics. We offer couples counseling from a Gottman trained therapist that helps with communication issues, intimacy, and compromise to achieve an overall stronger connection in your relationship. Lastly, we specialize in Trauma treatment. All of our therapists are trauma informed and two specialize in EMDR. EMDR, or Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing, is a psychotherapy technique that is primarily used to help individuals process and heal from traumatic experiences. If you are not a fan of talk therapy, you can heal with this technique without getting into all the uncomfortable details of your trauma. Sometimes it’s difficult to work through those issues alone, and a therapist can be a neutral person helping you towards your goals. What sets us apart is that we’re a group of extremely talented, driven young women who excel in our own areas and are empathic and understanding. We work collaboratively as a team to make sure you get well rounded treatment. We’re committed to our clients’ progress mentally, physically, emotionally and spiritually and we live that ourselves. We practice what we preach. In our practice, you will be talking to a real person that will give you feedback and research backed interventions. We look at each client as an individual and create a custom plan for them to address all these different areas simultaneously.
What sort of changes are you expecting over the next 5-10 years?
Over the next five to ten years. I believe quality mental health care is going to be so important with everything that’s going on in our country, politically and socially. There are so many different polarizing ideas of how our country and how the world should be, and that has been difficult for a lot of people to cope with.
I believe since the pandemic that there will be an ongoing issue with social connection and establishing relationships. Technology will be a tool and a deterrent in this. While there is more access to help through telehealth appointments and access to others via social media. Technology gets in the way of connecting face to face and being able to communicate efficiently in person, leading to an increase in social anxiety. Often times we get consumed by the conveniences of life i.e technology and find it difficult to commit to things that might take a little longer. As a result, I anticipate a rise of anxiety and focus issues like ADHD. There will be a continued rise of anxiety, depression, body image and self esteem issues with comparing our lives to others “highlight reel” on social media.
I am hoping with the rise in body acceptance and movements like natural hair acceptance, we’ll have an increase in self esteem and improvements in body image amongst women and young girls. I hope that the increase in health awareness and what we are putting into our bodies will create a more holistic approach to healthcare. With that I believe there will be a rise in alternative medicines like psychedelic assisted treatment.
With the focus on wellness, I believe that in the upcoming years, employers will have to offer more benefits for wellness to prevent burnout and help with employee retention. I hope that we will continue to discuss mental health issues and continue to decrease the stigma of mental illness and the importance of seeking help without shame or guilt feelings.
Pricing:
- Individual Counseling: $125
- Trauma Counseling: $150
- Couples Counseling: $150
- Counseling with Intern: $50
- Most Insurances Accepted
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.fitvirtualcounseling.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fitcounseling/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FitCounselingSFL/
