Today we’d like to introduce you to Jessica LeAnn Smith.
Hi Jessica, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
I was born and raised in Paducah, Kentucky about two hours north of Nashville. I came to Nashville to attend Lipscomb University 19 years ago. I was a product of Paducah City Schools which prepared me well for rigorous college studies. At Lipscomb I majored in Psychology and received my bachelor of science degree. I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do just yet but I knew that a master’s degree would put me in a better place to work toward my goals no matter what I decided to do. I obtained my master of science degree in Psychology from Lipscomb and later I fulfilled the requirements to sit for licensure examinations to be a licensed therapist at a neighboring university. I obtained my license as a licensed professional counselor with a mental health service provider designation (LPC-MHSP) in fall of 2018. That was really when this world of better understanding my purpose, and business and entrepreneurship really began. I started Smith Behavioral Health and Wellness September 2018. Smith Behavioral Health and Wellness is a behavioral health and wellness practice that offers an array of avenues of healing for mental health. We offer talk therapy as well as other alternative options such as mindfulness training, nutritional wellness. and physical fitness resources as a way to contribute to overall wellness. Our motto at Smith BHW is Be Well. Be Happy. Love Yourself. When we are well, happy, and loving ourselves we are able to be the best version of ourselves for ourselves and others. In the last year Smith BHW has started to grow and I couldn’t be happier about the work we are doing and the ways we are doing it!
In 2020 I met Ashley Shelley, an amazing therapist and mindfulness guru, and we started doing some contract work. We worked so well together and recognized that our practices and philosophies were very much aligned. We decided to start a business together called S&S Holistic Wellness as extensions of our own personal practices. S&S is centered around community, creating and holding space for people to be grounded, mindful, and curious in all situations, and having fun while doing the work. We enjoy doing events such as Self Care Sundays in the park, group therapy, and wellness mixers to name a few. We are super excited to kick off the 2022 season of events in April.
Last but not least there is Self Work With Jess which started as an Instagram page about my own personal self care journey. I think there is often this misconception that therapists have it all figured out and that our lives are fairly great because we help other people with their life journeys. That is definitely not the case. We are human beings and while we have a knowledge of things that others who haven’t studied psychology or counseling may not have, we still have to choose to do our own work to work through our own traumas and experiences. Self Work With Jess is an account of the things that I have encountered as a navigator of life. These accounts are documented in the form of Instagram posts and a blog titled Self Work with Jess. It is an outlet for me to share my experiences but also sharing in hopes that it can help someone else who is experiencing similar challenges and successes.
All in all, my brand in all of my businesses is about health and wellness, being authentic and true to yourself, choosing to do the self work as hard as it may be in gentleness and love to be the best version of yourself that you love above all else. Life is but a dream… live it as vividly as you can.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
The road certainly hasn’t been easy. I had some difficult jobs in the field. My very first job in the field was working with people who were experienceing psychiatric crisis. While this position made me the clinician I am today, it was really hard. I worked a 12 hour overnight shifts often having to leave night classes and go into work. It consisted of driving to various places in the wee hours of the night and morning to do crisis assessments to determine the best possible treatment setting for the individual. It was certainly hard work but the experience and lessons proved to be invaluable. I also made some awesome lifelong friends in my coworkers there.
I think the hardest challege was attending a local small liberal arts university here in Nashville to obtain my Ph.D. I started the program in 2010 and it went very well until the time of disseration. They gave you 6 years from the time you started the program to complete the disseration which included 2 full years of coursework. Just before defending my proposal (the first two chapters) my dissertation chair who was the most supportive in the entire experience took a job at another university. After he left there was no support from other faculty. Two of my other black female peers who also happended to work for the same therapy group at the time and myself were dismissed from the program citing that we had timed out. We disputed the dismissal. They allowed one of my peers to stay and continue. My other peer and myself we were dismissed. That dismissal was one of the hardest challenges I had ever endured. I was broken. Six years of of some of the hardest work I have ever done in my life and it ended in what we call ABD (all but disseration). It was defintiely the biggest disappointment of my life. The negative thoughts started coming. The self doubt came, my self worth came into question, the imposter symdrome rolled in and I was lost. Thats when the self work really started for me. I had to make a choice to stay stuck in all of those negative feelings or choose something different and move forward. I went to therapy. I had to find my direction again. I had to reestablish my purpose. It took a few years but I found it. I found it through working with my clients who were doing similar work. I found it through friends and family. I was still working with a group in the Nashville area when my sister and brother in law found out they were pregnant with her first child. She would be my first niece making me an Auntie for the first time. I knew then that I had to keep doing the work to be better and by doing the work, private practice is what I decided was best for me to pursue. Entreperenuship in itself hasn’t been easy but it has been so worth it. I enjoy knowing that I am working as hard as I have ever worked in a work setting for myself as opposed to working for someone else. That makes it worth it to me. Being a first generation entrepreneur comes with its hard lessons and drawbacks. I enjoy sharing with other black therpists seeking to become entrepreurs what I have learned along the way. In my opionion, helping each other is the fastest way to breaking the stigma and having the representation we need in our communities.
We’ve been impressed with Self Work With Jess , 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?
As previously stated, Self Work With Jess is an offshoot of my primary business Smith Behavioral Health and Wellness, LLC. One of my strongest beliefs as a practicing therapist is I can’t ask my clients to do something I am not willing to do myself. I too am a human navigating life challenges and successes. I don’t feel right sitting in front of a client asking them to do the hard work if I too am not willing to do the hard work to see all the parts of myself. I take my work as a therapist very seriously and view it as a true privilege when someone shares their story with me understanding that it most likely wasn’t easy to be that vulnerable. Self Work With Jess came about as a product of experiencing my clients vulnerability and realizing that I too needed to do my own work to be the best version of myself. The work includes my own therapy, honest self reflection, and accountability. Self Work With Jess grew from an Instagram page centered around self care and evolved into @selfworkwithjess. At www.selfworkwithjess.com I post blogs on my experiences, questions that we all wrestle with, and tools I have learned on this journey. Self Work With Jess is a brand centered around wellness by creating space to talk about the work we do on and within ourselves to be our very best selves for ourselves first and then for others. I do this through speaking engagements, team building, group work, and coaching
What quality or characteristic do you feel is most important to your success?
Faith and perseverance for sure are most important characteristics to my success. When I look back on all of the choices and decisions I have made up until this point, I think of all of the risks I took in faith that they would work out for my good. Even the risks that I took that didn’t turn out the way I wanted them to got me to this point. I always took risks while having faith that the outcome would be beneficial. Perseverance got me here. My father’s favorite thing to tell me when I wanted to give up was “When it gets tough Jess, you have to dig in and get tough with it.” Nothing has come easy. It has taken a lot of work, late nights and early mornings, sacrifice, and tears. Perseverance has gotten me to the happiest I have ever been in life and in my career. There is still work to do and more persevering to be done for sure, but faith and perseverance have been the most influential characteristics to my success to date.
Pricing:
To learn more about coaching packages visit www.selfworkwithjess.com.
- Intensive Group (5 participants) – $250
- Corporate Team Building- $1500 per day
- VIP Day (Intensive Coaching Day 6 hours)- $1100
Contact Info:
- Email: www.selfworkwithjess.com
- Instagram: instagram.com/selfworkwithjess
Image Credits
JAO Photogragraphy
Chanitra Dreher Photography
Cris Piloto Art
