Meet Christalyn Howard | Licensed Professional Counselor

We had the good fortune of connecting with Christalyn Howard and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Christalyn, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?

For as long as I can remember, making sure everyone was “ok” and supporting people during difficult times has been my passion. Now that I think about it, I guess this was inevitable. As the oldest child in my home, I was responsible for taking care of my younger siblings in the evenings and on the weekends while my mother worked hard to provide for us. Although these responsibilities positioned me as a sister, daughter, and friend who was supportive, dependable, a great listener, and “strong”; I became preoccupied with everyone’s well-being. I once wore the label of “strong” as a badge of honor, however, in the last few years, I’ve learned that this label comes with an unrealistic amount of pressure that no one can manage without eventually falling apart.

I graduated from college with a degree in Social Work. I knew that I wanted to help children who didn’t have the support of dependable family members who loved them; I just wasn’t sure what my “help” would look like. After spending several years as a Child Protective Services worker, and witnessing more families being torn apart. This work made me grateful for the mother I have who could’ve neglected her responsibilities to my siblings and I but she didn’t. I developed a passion for supporting parents who neglected their children. I recognized that many parents experienced trauma during their life that had not been treated. As a result, they became adults who weren’t healed mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. This inevitably led to their inability to parent their children in healthy ways. This passion led me to pursue a master’s degree in Mental Health Counseling.

I grew up believing that going to counseling was something only wealthy people did. I knew that many people in my family and community struggled with managing their anger, their drug and alcohol addictions went untreated, and the feelings of worry and sadness that consumed them were dismissed as something they experienced only because they weren’t praying enough. As I learned more about mental illness and mental health, increasing awareness about the importance of maintaining healthy mental health, in the same way, we prioritize our physical/medical health, was the way I wanted to “help”.

In the black community many of us were raised to believe that talking with a mental health professional means that you are either “crazy”, or you lack the faith needed to stop having “bad nerves” or “sad/bad thoughts”. We now know what was being experienced were Anxiety and Depression symptoms. Still today these beliefs lead to feelings of shame, and they prevent many black people from participating in counseling. They never learn any helpful strategies to become healthy mentally, and as a result, they suffer silently.

In 2018 when I began my counseling practice, Carolina Counseling Consultants, my mission was to offer counseling services to people who wanted to combine both practical and evidence-based therapeutic interventions with their daily faith practices. Today, my focus is to support women who have decided to use both their faith and the strategies they learn in therapy to get healthy and stay healthy mentally.

Can you give our readers an introduction to your business? Maybe you can share a bit about what you do and what sets you apart from others?

I am the founder of Carolina Counseling Consultants where I provide counseling to women who have mastered the art of pretending that they are “ok” while they silently suffer from overwhelming sadness, worry, and stress. I also offer a 6-week virtual mental wellness support group called Beyond Her Roles. This group is for women who’ve become so consumed with managing the responsibilities that come with their roles, they’ve forgotten how to take care of themselves.

I am most proud of my ability to connect with women so that they experience the freedom and strength that comes from being vulnerable.

The women I support learn practical strategies for making their mental, emotional, physical, social, and spiritual health a priority in the same way they prioritize the needs of the important people in their life. I teach women how to take care of themselves FIRST so that they can show up as the best version of themselves in their roles and relationships.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
My shoutout goes to my husband Anthony! When we met in 2005, I had no idea what entrepreneurship would look like for me. At that time, I didn’t consider it to be an option because I knew that job security was something I needed, and I thought the only way to have job security was to get a “good government job” after graduating college. But my husband dreams big! His dreams were so big they empowered me to dream bigger. He’s demonstrated the importance of being fiscally responsible, being passionate about the services I provide so I won’t become bored or burnout and move on to something else, practicing excellence in everything I do, and creating my job security for myself.

Website: https://carolinacounselingconsultants.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/carolinacounseling/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CarolinaCounselingConsultants/

Image Credits
Naomi P. Washington