Today we’d like to introduce you to Alyssa Milton.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Alyssa. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
My name is Alyssa Milton and I am a Licensed Mental Health Counselor in the state of Florida. I am a graduate of the Florida A&M University and Walden University. I was first introduced to mental health as a young child as I have a family member that has been diagnosed with a mental health disorder. My father was in the military and while stationed in Little Rock, AR, an airman came back home from serving in the war and shot himself behind our homes. Since then, I have always wanted to work in mental health and helping the community. After graduating from FAMU in 2011, I began working at a local mental health hospital as a mental health tech, and then transferred to be an outpatient case manager and then a targeted case manager in the community servicing a lot of the underprivileged communities. While going through graduate school, I maintained two jobs always working in the mental health field. I completed my internship for psychological private practice in Atlanta, GA and learned about completing mental health assessments for individuals seeking disability income from the state.
During this time, I worked at a group home for at-risk youth. After graduating form graduate school in 2015, I moved to central Florida and began working again at another inpatient mental health hospital in the admissions department. I got to see first hand individuals that sought out help due to serious mental illness and substance abuse. During this time, I continued to work in private practice and served as a contractor for therapy in local schools. It was in 2018 that I obtained my license and finally got my dream job of working for the Department of Veterans’ Affairs in Miami. During that time, I continued to work on developing my private practice and provide a place for people that look like me to talk about their daily stressors of life and to help them cope better. I wanted to provide a place that normalized counseling, including mental health issues as a whole. I began to develop Alternative Directions, that focused on providing alternative ways to manage one’s mental health and daily stressors. Since starting my private practice, I have worked with children and adolescents, young adults, and veterans.
Has it been a smooth road?
It has never been a smooth road. During this journey, I have continued to work almost two full-time jobs in mental health. I have always worked at a mental health facility full-time, but would also see clients on an outpatient basis. Many of my struggles come from wanting to help people but also be able to pay my bills. Working in the mental health field is not for the weak. Since the beginning, I have worked very hard to make my way to what I consider to be the top, but I know where I am currently is not where I will be in the future. I am resilient and whatever comes my way, I’ll be able to tackle by trusting in God and knowing that he will provide my needs.
Please tell us more about your work, what you are currently focused on and most proud of.
I consider myself to be a “millennial therapist” focusing on millennial issues. I focus on treating issues such as depression, anxiety, mood disorders, anger management, relationship/family issues, mood and personality disorders. I am trained in dialectal behavioral therapy (DBT) and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) and Motivational Interviewing and continuing to obtain additional trainings to better serve the population of my clients. I am most proud of myself and this business as that lately I’ve come highly recommended. I will see clients and then they tell their friends and so on. I remember when I only had one client on my caseload, but now, I have over 20 people on my case load that I am seeing between weekly and bi-weekly, and I’m so busy, that I need to hire an intern. I think what sets Alternative Directions apart at this time from other private practices is availability. I pride my company on being able to schedule clients within the very same week of their initial call/consultation.
Is our city a good place to do what you do?
Miami and Florida in general has provided me with great success for Alternative Directions. Mental health is everywhere and with the heightened stress that this year alone has caused, I think everyone would benefit from therapy or counseling services. Although I am locally serving central Florida, I continue to receive calls for clients that live in the tri-county areas of Palm Beach, Broward, and Miami-Dade counties. I provide telehealth sessions to these clients for course. I think for anyone starting out, any city that you live in would be a great place to serve. I think being the Florida is so diverse, it has allowed me to provide therapy for many different people.
Pricing:
- I provide self-pay and offer a sliding fee scale; sessions usually range from $60 – $120 a session
Contact Info:
- Website: www.alternativedirectionscc.com
- Phone: 501-308-8297
- Email: info@alternativedirectionscc.
com - Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/alternativedirections/
Image Credit:
Elease Samms (@lc4508 Instagram)
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