Today we’d like to introduce you to Mareayna Caine.
Mareayna, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
Childhood experiences led me to become a therapist. As a child, I always knew my emotions were considered extreme or dramatic. I was a tearful child and experienced a lot of grief through family deaths, along with some trauma, including multiple attempted kidnappings. Being a sheltered young lady brought up in the Church of Our Lord Jesus Christ of the Apostolic Pentecostal Faith Inc. meant that every response to emotion was to pray over it. Prayer helped me through a lot, but it didn’t teach me how to process my fear, trauma, grief, or intrusive thoughts. Being an African-American female meant that emotions were experienced but not talked about. The idea to get through it was to push through it and do what needed to be done anyway.
When I was in high school, I had a psychology class, and I learned that my emotions were valid in that class. The teacher touched on processing those emotions, and it made me realize I wanted to help others learn to be comfortable with their emotions as well. From that point forward, I pursued human service career positions, which put me in Human Resources-style jobs. I developed an understanding of people, their motivations, their drive, and their needs. I sat with my candidates and talked with them about who they were as people. I worked in HR for a school, a national emergency transportation company, and as a consultant for a restaurant. Then I began my real journey, sometimes juggling 2 to 3 jobs at a time, accomplishing my Master’s in Clinical Mental Health Counseling. I graduated early in 2018 with more hours than were needed from my practicum and internships. I was licensed by February. Within 2 years, I was juggling multiple practices and domestic violence agencies. I fulfilled my provisional status with over 2000 hours more than was required. Two years later, I became a state supervisor, which allowed me to guide practicum, intern, and provisionally licensed therapists on their journey to become fully licensed therapists. Throughout this time, Empower Your Vision was born but back-burnered. I was swamped with juggling so many agencies, attempting to maintain my deceased grandmother’s catering company, consulting for universities, and still trying to have a family life. My supervisor, Allison Hewitt, began running a group focused on balance, self-empowerment, and identity. From this space, my DBA was born: Tranquil-Ish. Once Tranquil-Ish formed, I focused. I am now licensed in 7 states, providing mental health therapy for trauma-affected individuals over the age of 18. My business, though small, reaches many through the work I and my PLPC, Katelyn, put in. We provide support, comfort, understanding, and space for our clients to exist as they are.
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. I have been met with people who have taken advantage of myself and my business. I have experienced some racial and harassing comments/conflict when attempting to market through social media. This chased me away from marketing online. I’ve also began the journey of my doctoral degree and the time it takes has been impactful as well. Additional struggles are economy based, the industry is struggling due to the changes being made within the EHR platforms and insurance payouts. This is a career that many do not retire from. I recall one of my teachers in my Masters’ program being over 70 years old and still running her private practice. It was admirable but also creates fear that the lack of stability in the industry causes financial instability. Clients fear us leaving them and as a therapist I think we fear having to leave them for reasons like being unable to pay our bills or support our families.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know?
Tranquil-Ish Therapy is a mental health private practice built on compassion. We work with a variety of clients who are impacted by trauma, motherhood, grief, domestic violence, ADHD, anxiety, depression, PTSD, veterans, interpersonal issues, etc. I am also an Immigration Evaluator and provide individuals a chance to tell their story in the hopes that the US will provide them refuge.
I am most proud of our clients. They work hard in therapy and many times we do not get to celebrate their success. A business is a business; it is only as good as the clients who benefit from it. Our clients are fantastic, and despite their hardships, they show up and participate. They do the work and hunker down knowing that we are going to support them all the way through the journey.
I’d like the readers to know that we are here. I know getting into a therapist is a journey in itself. It’s not just about picking one. You want to make sure you have the right match. And we aren’t able to take every client, but we do try to make sure that we find you options if we are not available. If we are available, we will make sure we are the right match for you and vice versa. Your journey through therapy should be one that ends in celebration, not exasperation. And sometimes we cannot control that but we try our best to support you even if you need a different professional than us. We want everyone to have a positive experience with therapy, and that just doesn’t always happen. So we try to impact our little corner of the world. If you need support, an ear, to be understood, or even to just have a moment where life isn’t pressing down so hard on you, please reach out and we will do our best to accommodate or give you referrals where you can exist safely as you are.
We love surprises, fun facts and unexpected stories. Is there something you can share that might surprise us?
On a personal note, I bake cakes and cater. Not many of my clients or peers are aware of that fact. My grandmother started “Heavenly Blessed” when I was a child. She and my mother created their own recipes, which are known around STL as some of the best cakes ever. People still come up to my family members and me and tell us how sad they are that my grandmother and her cakes are not still around. She baked cakes and trained me up in her likeness. I’ll never be as good as her, but I am creative, and I love watching people enjoy my creations. My grandmother will forever live in my heart, and so I am lovingly duty-bound to continue sharing her love for baked goods and food with others.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.tranquil-ish.com
