Today we’d like to introduce you to Bianca Whitaker.
Hi Bianca, 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?
My upbringing and many of my experiences, while traumatic, was normal for those in my communities, in my family, in my schools, and in shared spaces. I found this to be especially true while working as an educator in underserved communities. Throughout my experiences, I remembered being encouraged once in childhood to use my imagination. That encouragement planted a seed in how I thought and observed the world around me. There was an inkling that remained in knowing that adverse experiences did not always have to be a shared norm. Now, it’s one thing to have such a forethought and another to imagine a change that you’ve never experienced or seen. However, I knew that a difference was possible and that it didn’t have to be earned. I just didn’t come into the experience until my adult years.
Then there was 2014, the genesis of the healing-focused aspect of my story. I had emotionally hit “rock bottom” in a way I never experienced before. 2014 was an extremely taxing and difficult year for me. If you could imagine the ground opening up beneath your feet in a split second and you immediately drop into the abyss, that was 2014 for me. I remember reflecting, after coming out of a crying spell, “Well, I can only go up from here since this is the bottom.” Fast forward a year later, and I’m crying on a mountain in South Korea on my 26th birthday. I realized that I needed a new approach for the emotional change I wanted to experience. Then sparked the catalyst for my “soul work” exploration: meditating, journaling, recapitulation after experiences, reading and integrating content into my daily practices, leaning on a fellow mate whose soul was on a similar path as a sounding board, participating in professional counseling, and the list grew and continues to grow. Being where I am now, I look back on this younger version of myself with so much grace and admiration. She was definitely in the “baby steps” of the healing work and so determined for change. I reflect on her often as she taught me that no matter the type of steps, they all lead to growth.
Today, I am a trauma-certified and somatic-trained Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC), certified school counselor (CSC), and private practice owner. My pursuit of becoming a professional counselor was sparked from a personal devoted journey of wellness and healing. Before pursuing my counseling degree, I knew that I did not know how to support others in pursuing a similar or adjacent journey that I was experiencing. In my journey, I was “blessed by fire” but wanted to know how to support others so they may experience less of the fire. Beneath it all was the belief and desire for healing to be normalized. I truly believed (and still do) that healing and change was not owed to someone, anyone could have it. I also reflected that everyone didn’t know how to mindfully obtain change and healing since the opposition of such was the norm.
While working as an educator in Kuwait, one of my students told me, “Allah had you leave your country to remind me that I’m still loved.” This rekindled the memory of having one of my students in Houston, Texas just the year before tell me, “I only come to school because you listen to what’s going on in my world.” That was all the conviction that inkling from childhood needed. So, in 2020 I went back to school for my third (and hopefully final) degree and pursued a Masters in Counseling. I knew that my formal learning would not equate to what I experienced while being “blessed by fire”. However, I would, at the bare minimum, have tools, resources, and formal training to support others in catalyzing their healing journeys.
Although I’m a professional counselor focused on supporting clients with self-esteem, life transitions, trauma, and providing psychoeducation, I’m an avid believer that being in counseling is not the “be-all and end-all” for one’s healing journey. Healing, or working toward wholeness, is a continuous process and lifelong journey. Healing has the strongest roots when one has a devoted and intentional relationship with themselves. No counselor can maintain such a relationship for a client. Professional counseling can be life-changing, transformational, and therapeutic beyond measure, but there is no rulebook for our lived experiences. So often, professional counseling is a support along one’s journey or a catalyst for what one will be empowered to explore and discover on their own.
In the end, clients are the metaphorical driver along their journey. As an LPC, I’m the passenger. This could be startling, uncomfortable, and downright terrifying for individuals to embrace. So, the work I do in my private practice, B. Whitaker Counseling & Consulting, PLLC, lays the foundation for this truth. My focus is for clients to gain self-awareness and be empowered in the essence of who they are. I work to support them in being the author of their own story. I’m alongside them while they explore the values they want to guide their lives. I’m in the trenches holding space and presence for when life takes the twists and turns. I’m prepared to provide psychoeducation to help them gain knowledge for their past, current, and anticipated experiences. I’m a dedicated partner in their healing journey during our time together in the counseling process.
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?
Has the journey been a smooth road??? The journey has been a bumpy and rocky road with mountain-sized speed bumps and crater-sized potholes while driving on an empty-tank with four flat tires. That imagery may have been a bit extreme, but the sentiments remain. The journey has not been smooth, but it has been necessary. There are lessons in our life experiences, and these lessons serve a purpose. The purpose may not be revealed initially or soon after, but purpose exists.
One of my greatest personal challenges in embodying healing was becoming comfortable and feeling safe with calm and ease in my body. When you’ve experienced trauma, trauma lives in your nervous system. Trauma is not what you’ve been through but your body’s response to what you’ve been through. When healing from trauma, what is better and more therapeutic is not always comfortable and does not always feel safe. So, me existing in a body that was in a constant state of “survival mode” as a norm and then transitioning to safety and ease was not an easy process. The transition required sitting and being present with discomfort, difficult truths, and myself.
As my journey continues and my story is still being written, I’ll share a few reflections from experiencing the challenges/obstacles:
-Outside of what you have experienced, there is a personal responsibility to work toward you being whole in spite of.
-No one owes you anything, but you owe yourself everything (including connection with yourself)
-These experiences in our life are teachers. There is always a lesson to be gleaned.
-Every morning and every evening, you have you. Your relationship with yourself is invaluable and nonnegotiable.
-Peace is not a destination. It is an embodiment that requires deliberate choices and actions.
-We are all worthy of our Self.
As far as my entrepreneurial struggles, growing a business with no entrepreneurial training, background, or initial plan has been the greatest obstacle to overcome. I started my entrepreneurial journey with a great learning curve, especially coming from a professional background of being a teacher and school counselor in public education. I started my business knowing that I wanted to be of service, I knew how I wanted to show up authentically, but I had no plan, outline, or roadmap for the actual business. I’m full of gratitude as my private practice just made its three-year anniversary despite its humble beginnings. While I am still learning how to grow and expand my business, I’m proud of and dedicated to the authentic work that has been (and remains) my business. The journey continues and I’ve learned not to be afraid or ashamed to ask for or seek help. I’ve also learned to dedicate intentional time to “fill the cup” of my business just as I do for myself.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know?
B. Whitaker Counseling & Consulting, PLLC is a Black-woman owned counseling private practice focused on providing a multitude of mental health and mental wellness services. With a mission to educate, normalize, and empower, and a vision for tailored services that foster self-awareness and empowerment for clients, B. Whitaker Counseling & Consulting, PLLC does so valuing acceptance, equity, and inclusivity.
It is imperative to know that I believe in counseling being a change agent for healing. Healing and change does not always feel good. So, the work that I support clients with is not just about “feeling good”. With counseling services focused on trauma, life-transitions, and self-esteem, self-awareness and empowerment are foundational to the work done. Much of the work includes getting to the root of what is impeding clients’ progress toward how they desire to live their life and view themselves. In this process, clients are always reminded that they are authoring their story, not me. I honor their autonomy. I honor where they’ve been, where they are, and where they desire to go. In doing so, we will hold space and value for all the ways clients learned to cope before seeking professional support. There is no dichotomy of “good and bad”. We honor what was and begin the work for what clients desire to be. Having this approach focuses on the wellness of the client and not placing deficiencies before their humanity and lived experiences. In the work we do, I make clients aware that their counseling journey is temporary. Yes, temporary. Everyone’s temporary looks different. It can be weeks, months, or even years, but the intent is for clients to reach progress with the counseling goal(s) and continue their journeys more whole, more healed, more authentically themselves.
Outside of counseling sessions, I also provide professional development to counselors and counselors-in-training, trainings and workshops with various psychoeducation focuses, guest lecturing, and consulting services. I often say, “I’m an educator first”. My love and passion for teaching remains. So bestowing knowledge while engaging with community and individuals is a reward within itself for me. As aforementioned, it is my mission to educate, normalize, and empower.
Services provided by B. Whitaker Counseling & Consulting, PLLC include:
-Individual counseling
-Group counseling
-Psychoeducation
-Professional consultation
-Trainings/Workshops
-Public speaking
-Guest lecturing
-Panel Participation
Who else deserves credit in your story?
There have been so many individuals, groups, and organizations that have been integral to my personal, professional, and entrepreneurial journey in working to normalize mental wellness and healing. I would be unintentionally remiss if I tried to name everyone, and it would be a great disservice if I missed naming someone. So, I will highlight these souls “shout out” style for a collective acknowledgement.
I want to thank every person that supported my roundtables and interviews in the genesis of my businesses. I’m so grateful and thankful for your vulnerability and sharing your genius. Thank you to every being that ever shared a link that connected the greater community to these talks. Thank you to the Houston Counseling Association for so many opportunities for me to lead in professional development and psychoeducation which are a key focus of my business. I’m thankful to everyone that ever viewed a reel, post, video, or my blog. These were (and for the blog still is) ways that I was putting my knowledge in the world as a way to give back.
Thank you to any and everyone that ever offered advice, guidance, or insight while I tripped and stumbled along this entrepreneurial journey. Shout out to my clinical supervisor who has afforded me so many professional opportunities that have developed me professionally which allowed my business opportunities. I’m thankful to the Harris County Department of Education for allowing me my first opportunity as a panelist in representation of my business. Thank you to everyone that has ever asked how the business was doing, sent a referral, or kept my business in mind or meditation. Special shout out to my clients who are doing the soul work for their betterment. A dear shout out to my formal fellow mate from South Korea turned best friend that too is on a similar entrepreneurial journey and still my most trusted sounding board.
Finally, I give the utmost shoutout to every soul that has crossed my path in whatever fashion. No matter if a connection was established, the connection ended, or the connection is still thriving. You have been part of my personal experience that catalyzed my desires for betterment that planted the seed for me to become a professional counselor that eventually gave birth to me establishing a private practice as an LPC. Whether our crossing paths planted seeds or watered planted seeds, because of you my business is now bearing fruit. I sincerely and humbly thank you!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.bwhitakercounseling.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bwhitcounseling/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61553924181234
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@B.WhitCounseling
