Today we’d like to introduce you to Brent Armour.
Hi Brent, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
My path to becoming a therapist started at a young age. For as long as I can remember, people have come to me with their concerns about their identity and place in the world. However, it took me a long time to see myself in the way that others did. I changed my professional identity many times, stepping into a new role when I realized that the goals I was pursuing were not fulfilling and the change I was affecting was minimal at best. It wasn’t until I met my husband that I started listening to what everyone had been telling me all along. I decided to return to college and pursue a degree in mental health counseling.
It became my dream to one day open my own practice where I could focus on clients in the LGBTQIA+ community, particularly people with questions about their gender identity, as well as work with people with unconventional relationship types or sexual preferences. As I had previously struggled with questions about my own gender and sexuality, I knew how important it was to feel connected and accepted during that time, and I wanted to be able to offer this to clients who needed a therapeutic relationship that allowed them to explore their identities and grow into them.
In 2024, I founded Therapy Spectra. Being able to operate independently in my own practice allows me to focus on my specialties, work with the clients who I feel can most benefit from my technique, and be as flexible as possible with my clients regarding scheduling and costs. In the years to come, I look forward to seeing Therapy Spectra grow and evolve as I continue to help my clients embrace their authentic selves.
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?
Most of the difficulties in starting a practice from scratch come from a lack of knowledge. The process is easy in and of itself, but knowing exactly what to do and how can be a challenge. There are a great many companies and ‘services’ out there that purport to help new businesses and entrepreneurs by charging them money to do something that we can easily do ourselves, and I must admit that in the early stages, not knowing any better, I did take the bait and waste precious financial resources on one of these. The key is to research extensively and not assume that just because a service is offered, the service is, in fact, needed.
From that point, getting a practice off the ground requires marketing, and this has been the most challenging aspect for Therapy Spectra. My goal is to grow the practice without the use of social media. One of my reasons for this is privacy. With the kind of topics that often come up with my clients in therapy, I don’t want them to ever have to think there’s a need to interact with me or the company publicly. Therapy is a very personal space, and social media can be very public. I have managed to supplement social media with word of mouth. connecting with other local providers, and making sure that Therapy Spectra has a strong online presence in other ways, such as a recent article in Counseling Today, presence on prominent therapy listing sites, and features like this one. If you stay persistent in your efforts to reach your ideal clients, that persistence pays off.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know?
The goal of Therapy Spectra is to offer a therapeutic space that embraces preferences, personalities, fetishes, relationships, kinks, gender identities, and romantic feelings. While this seems like a large wheelhouse, the commonality here is identity, and aspects of identity that often receive a lot of judgment from society, which can cause people to second-guess their place and worth in this world. While there are thankfully plenty of therapy practices that include within their offerings a focus on gender affirming and LGBTQIA+ care, there aren’t so many that make this their focus. I find this to be especially true in conservative states like Texas, where these kinds of spaces are needed the most. I am fortunate to be able to provide telehealth services statewide, not only in Houston, to adults who may be struggling with their identity in a way that they cannot easily express to a friend or loved one. There is a dire need for this kind of therapy, and while the bar towards social acceptance may still only be slowly inching forward in this part of the country, I want to create for my clients a space where individual acceptance can flourish.
Can you tell us more about what you were like growing up?
Growing up, I could and would talk to anyone. If my mom took me to the grocery store, I had no qualms with walking up to random strangers and asking them questions (or if they had any spare candy!). I guess it was because of this that people always assumed I had the self-assurance and strength of identity to hear out their problems and concerns. People have been asking me for advice, assurances long before I had the maturity and education to give the best answers. But this taught me an important lesson. Because people assumed an inner strength within me, I was able to find that strength. Because my friends and family saw me as self-assured, I became self-assured. It wasn’t until I pursued an education in therapy that I discovered this to be the key to anyone’s self-actualization. Strength and self-assurance exist within all of us. It only takes someone else to see it within you for you to see it within yourself.
Pricing:
- Individual Therapy: $120 per therapy hour
- Relationship Therapy (2 or more people): $180 per therapy hour
- Sliding scale pricing also offered through The Open Path Collective: https://openpathcollective.org/clinicians/brent-armour/
Contact Info:
- Website: https://therapyspectra.com/
- Other: https://www.therapyden.com/therapist/brent-armour-houston-tx
