Today we’d like to introduce you to Tracy Gantlin-Monroy, MDiv, LPC
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
Tracy Gantlin-Monroy, MDiv, LPC is the resident therapist at Grace Community Counseling & Social Services, LLC, a role she assumed as the founder and visionary of the practice. The Resident Therapist is also the YouTube station owned by Tracy. With extensive experience in the mental health profession, she established the organization to provide inclusive and compassionate care to diverse populations. As the first Black female Brainspotting trainer globally, Tracy is a passionate advocate for social justice and inclusion. She has developed specialized training programs, such as “Brainspotting: Intersectionality & Social Justice,” and leads healing retreats, workshops and curate healing communities for Black/BIPOC women. Her dedication to addressing cultural diversity and trauma has significantly influenced her approach to therapy and community engagement. T
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
What I mean here is truly, your gift will make room for you. There were challenges. The greatest struggle was taking that leap from a contract position with more security than starting a brand new private practice without a single client. Not to mention, faced by the status of “recently separated, on the nonstop train to divorce.” I ended up in private practice due to my inability to tolerate injustice at a community mental health agency that employed me as a contracted, community mental health clinician. My demand for justice, in an unjust situation, created the need to be true to thine own self and pivot.
Struggles are a part of the journey and helps to quantify success, if you will. It’s not until what’s hard becomes easier that we are able to recognize our journey. Much like relationships, the journey can’t gain character until we encounter opposition, challenge and often times struggles. This experience affords the development of strength, commitment and a burning desire to achieve otherwise lost in the sea of fantasy. It is our struggles that becomes the felt sense, oftentimes in “remembrance” whereby sustainability evolves. There is no smooth road. The road to your destiny awaits the arrival of the one fashioned to make the road smoother, that self and others might travel.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about Grace Community Counseling & “The Resident Therapist” on YouTube?
I am a Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC) with a social justice orientation. I am here to serve, all of humanity. Trauma is my specialty and curating space, moving at the speed of safety is our baseline and brand. My clinical skills are fortified by the ability to connect with others, at the soul level. I am a healer.
Brand wise, I am most proud of my leap towards the PhD work dismantling the “Angry Black Woman” stigma & trope towards restoration and healing. Also, it is important to know UnBound Black Women Healing Retreat is a necessity for Black women. I have come to know Black women suffering and emotional/soul injuries have resulted in wounds, woundedness, and trauma that requires sacred, communal space for healing ancestrally, generationally, personally and developmentally. The uniqueness of the Black woman’s trauma is a communal experience as so many of the traumas have been committed communally. Healing starts at home. I have also opened the retreat to BIPOC women as well. There are not many spaces curated for the Black Woman and/or Women of Color experience which requires gentleness, love, understanding and experience to resonate and connect on a neurobiological level for true experiential healing.
I am the daughter of inclusion and receive invitations to present in various spaces to include mental health workshops/trainings/panels/seminars and talks; corporate trainings, community organizations, and various venues without limitations. My work is about minding power at the speed of safety. I come in peace with grace and respect. And I am fascinated by indigenous cultures.
Do you have any advice for those just starting out?
Starting out requires support and I can’t say enough about the benefit of mentorship. Mentorship is seemingly dying art and mutually mandatory to move with specificity, confidence and assurance. Mentors light the way; none of us are re-inventing the wheel. Connect with individuals and communities bound by common interest, goals, insights and motivation for change. None of us are required to do our journeys alone.
The greatest blessing to my development has been mentors, who accepted me for who I am, unapologetically. Mentors are able to see in us what we are unable to know about ourselves. Their insight and journey will sharpen your tool(s); they bring experience, insight, and unlimited tools to support your journey. Be mindful, mentorship is a relationship of mutuality and respect.
Pricing:
- Brainspotting Ph 1 & Ph 2 training: $745-$845
- BIPOC Brainspotting Trainings Ph 1 & Ph 2: $645 Inclusive Brainspotting Trainings: $745 UnBound Black Women Healing Retreat: $777 early bird rate
- Brainspotting: Intersectionality & Social Justice training: $745-$845
- Various workshops & talk (please check the website)
- Concierge Therapy in Metro Atlanta Area: $350/hr
Contact Info:
- Website: https://gracecommunitycounseling.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/monroylpc/
- Facebook: https://facebook.com/profile.php?id=100071339326954
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tgmonroy
- Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/@theresidenttherapist
