Mental Health Should Not be a Luxury Item
Vann & Associates Coaching, Counseling, & Consulting
Lori Vann of Vann & Associates Coaching, Counseling, & Consulting in Lewisville sets what should be a mental health standard when she says an individual’s mental and emotional well-being should be within his/her grasp. It is, after all, the cornerstone of any stable society.
Vann knew by the sixth grade she wanted to be a counselor. “I didn’t know what it was,” she chuckled, “but I knew my friends came to me with their problems. Even my middle school assessment pointed me in that direction.”
Vann spent six years in California studying at Pepperdine and Chapman Universities, before returning to Texas to open her practice.
“We cover all facets of mental health,” Vann commented. “The public is familiar with the more common disorders, such as depression and anxiety. But I didn’t see my first case of non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI, cutting, picking, etc.) until around 2000 when a teenager walked into my office. We were never taught about self-injury in our graduate classes, even though it has a significant presence in our society.
“Since then, I have worked directly with over 575 clients and provided professional consults for other practitioners on a countless number of cases.”
Discussion of mental health issues is still somewhat taboo in the United States, making positive progress difficult. That stumbling block, however, pushes Vann harder.
“I’ve spent more than 20 years working with self-injury cases and learning all I can about the behavior,” she said. “The goal is to identify the root cause and to then teach healthy coping skills. At its core, this is a true community service because there is always a ripple effect that accompanies the healing of each person suffering from NSSI.
“We’ve identified over 35 reasons for self-injury. One of the most common is the pain of self-injury distracts from the emotional pain the client is suffering.
“It’s clear we’ll reduce the risk of suicide if we eliminate the causes of self-injury since we know there’s more than a 60-percent correlation between self-harm and suicidal thoughts.
“We make our services widely available through face-to-face counseling, podcasts, online groups, dedicated playlists on YouTube, reduced fees, books, and more.”
Lori Vann and Associates: Coaching, Counseling, Consulting
2785 Rockbrook Drive
Suite 306
Lewisville, TX 75067
972/315-5052
www.InstituteforNSSI.com
