Community Highlights: Meet Eleanor Ezell of Child and Family Therapy Collective / Eleanor Ezell Consulting

Today we’d like to introduce you to Eleanor Ezell. 

Hi Eleanor, so excited to have you on the platform. So, before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
Thanks for having me. I am a Nashville native, born and raised in this great town. While I love and appreciate this privilege, it comes with a very connected world in which I became really good at being “okay.” In reality, I lived my life very worried and scared of the everything. Unfortunately, we did not have the scientific evidence easily accessible to support me appropriately.

By the time I got to high school, I was experiencing nearly daily anxiety. This was consistent through college. People around me thought I was healthy and fully engaged but in reality, I often was so anxious I could not leave my room. After college, I was worked at Yale and then a mental health private practice in New York City. It was here that I was exposured to treating children with anxiety and it changed my life, both professionally and personally. I saw myself in these children and the more I saw their pain (and healing), I saw myself. I am grateful that I had access to high quality care to learn how to manage my anxiety effectively which of course has allowed me to build a business years later.

No child should have to struggle the way I did and as a result, I have dedicated my life to helping children gain access to their childhood. My training took me to New York City where I trained with nationally acclaimed experts to Jackson, Mississippi where I built out training programs and was awarded grant funding for state-wide programming.

Last summer, I finally felt called to move back home to build what I have known for 10 years was the goal. I opened the Nashville office at my private practice, Child and Family Therapy Collective, to serve children and families in the fall of 2021. At CFTC, we serve children with anxiety and big emotions, ADHD, and many other disorders. My specialties are in the treatment of an anxiety disorder called selective mutism and a treatment called Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT) for various populations of children. These treatments help children learn how to regulate their bodies with help from their caregivers and find their voices. Parent training is a key part of my work as parents are empowered with the tools to help their own children outside of therapy. It is the privilege to be trusted in a family dynamic and equip a parent with the evidence-based tools to help their own child through their toughest days.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Putting myself in the position to have such extensive training has been the most natural part of my work, and also the most difficult. The first step of any learning opportunity is scary, just like starting therapy is scary. I am grateful to have a strong professional support system that has helped guide me to the right opportunities. When we choose to trust mentorship and ourselves, we find our way to where we need to be in our growth.

We’ve been impressed with Child and Family Therapy Collective / Eleanor Ezell Consulting, but for folks who might not be as familiar, what can you share with them about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
Child and Family Therapy Collective is a private practice for children and teens who struggle with anxiety, big emotions, disruptive behavior, and regulation. We use science to guide our practices with a focus on empowering parents with information and skill tailored to their child as a key part of treatment. We specialize in the treatment of selective mutism, a childhood anxiety disorder that inhibits a person from speaking in social settings. We are dedicated to helping you and your child find their way through the toughest moment as we bring research and reason together to create solutions for you.

Parent education on evidence-based parenting information is hard to find presented in a digestible manner. This month, we are launching our Child & Family Learning Lab Workshop series through our sister consulting company! You can find us on Instagram @growlittleminds and jump on our mailing list for more information.

Contact Info:

• Email: [email protected]
• Website: childfamilytherapycollective.com / eleanorezellconsulting.com
• Instagram: @growlittleminds

Image Credits
Daniel Meigs