Inspiring Conversations with Tiffany Acuff, MMFT of Whole Self Counseling

Today we’d like to introduce you to Tiffany Acuff, MMFT.

Hi Tiffany, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
My career began in reentry and workforce development, where I directed initiatives for justice-involved men and women, served as an Employment Specialist within a prison-based therapeutic community, and facilitated workforce training, empowerment coaching, and systemic advocacy. Building on this foundation, I co-founded Corner to Corner with my husband Will Acuff, a nonprofit designed to equip underestimated entrepreneurs—primarily Black women—through training, mentorship, and small business incubation. Over the past decade, I helped design and scale The Academy, a 10-week entrepreneurial program that has supported nearly 700 entrepreneurs who collectively contributed more than $13 million to Nashville’s neighborhood economy. In addition, I created and facilitated anti-racism trainings and led community reconciliation groups to foster systemic awareness and dialogue.

In recent years, I transitioned into the field of marriage and family therapy after witnessing again and again how unhealed trauma shapes people’s lives, relationships, and sense of self. I felt called to create spaces where healing and authentic connection could flourish, spaces that many of my clients had never been offered before.

I am now a pre-licensed therapist at Whole Self Counseling Center in Nashville, where I provide individual and couples therapy for clients navigating trauma, grief, caregiving, identity exploration, and relational struggles. My practice integrates Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT), Internal Family Systems (IFS), and Gabor Maté’s Compassionate Inquiry, while also drawing on experiential and somatic interventions to help clients reconnect with their bodies, emotions, and inner wisdom.

I specialize in supporting caregivers, high-conflict couples, and individuals impacted by systemic inequities. I bring additional experience in relational trauma, process groups, and culturally responsive care. Across both my nonprofit leadership and clinical work, my focus has remained the same: creating safe, inclusive environments where people who have felt silenced or marginalized can reclaim their voice and reconnect with the parts of themselves they’ve had to hide to belong.

At Whole Self Counseling, I hold the belief that every part of you belongs. My role is to help clients move toward deeper self-acceptance, authentic relationships, and a more compassionate connection with themselves and others.

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?
It has not been a smooth road, though each struggle has shaped both my personal growth and my professional path. Much of my journey has involved learning to navigate the tension between authenticity and attachment, a theme that now deeply informs my therapeutic work. Early in my career, I worked in reentry and nonprofit leadership, which required building programs with limited resources, facing systemic inequities firsthand, and holding the weight of community needs that were far greater than what one organization could carry. While rewarding, it was also exhausting and revealed the limits of over-functioning, rescuing, and measuring worth through achievement.

The transition into therapy also required me to slow down and do my own inner work. Raising Black and brown children through adoption has deepened my awareness of cultural identity, belonging, and the impact of systemic racism on families. In addition, becoming part of the disability community through my son’s severe autism has given me an embodied understanding of advocacy, grief, resilience, and the ways caregiving reshapes one’s identity. These lived experiences have been both humbling and transformative, and they have strengthened my ability to hold space for clients with compassion and presence. While the road has been uneven, the struggles have given me a greater capacity to sit with others in theirs, trusting that growth and healing emerge when we can make space for what is true.

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about Whole Self Counseling ?
Whole Self Counseling was created with the belief that therapy is not about fixing what is broken, but about creating space for what is true. At my Nashville practice, I specialize in helping individuals and couples navigate trauma, grief, caregiving, identity exploration, and relationship struggles. Many of my clients come to me during life transitions, when old coping strategies no longer serve them, or when they feel torn between their authenticity and their attachment to others.

I create a safe and compassionate space where clients can reconnect with parts of themselves they may have hidden or exiled, build deeper relational trust, and begin moving toward wholeness. I am known for my ability to hold both the individual and systemic story, acknowledging how culture, identity, and inequities shape personal experience.

Brand-wise, I am most proud of the tagline: “Because every part of you belongs.” It reflects not just what we do, but who we are. Readers should know that Whole Self Counseling is a place where your full story is welcome, where healing is not rushed or forced, and where therapy becomes a collaborative journey toward authenticity, connection, and renewal.

Can you share something surprising about yourself?
During the height of COVID, I volunteered and served as the Chair of the Exceptional Education Families Advisory Council (EEFAC) for Metro Nashville Public Schools (MNPS). Students with disabilities had a very hard time with the virtual transition, so I created a network of online supports and advocacy vehicles that did not previously exist for Davidson County families.

Pricing:

• Individual & Couples Counseling
• Grief & Trauma
• Culture & Identity
• Pre-Licensed Therapist

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.wholeselfcounselingcenter.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wholeselfcounselingcenter
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tiffanyacuff/
• Google: https://share.google/mri1aeWQIkUDDLqnq
• Other: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/therapists/tiffany-acuff-nashville-tn/1572067