Today we’d like to introduce you to Debra Rogers LPC.
Hi Debra, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
In my young adulthood, I experienced life-threatening and emotional trauma. After seeing the effects in my daily functioning, I felt completely defeated. However, my life turned around from Survivor to Overcomer with understanding more about how a person’s body/mind reacts naturally to stress, danger, and survival. I also moved towards thriving once I gained an understanding to the distraught of moral injury (when our values are in disarray after an unexpected, altering event) and how to repair that perception. Through my journey of healing, I wanted to extend my hand to others who may be suffering in their own world of silence. In addition, my childhood culture influenced me to extend my hand towards military personnel due to my family military heritage that formed with my great great grandfather and spread outward to uncles and cousins. My extended family have service records as “Lifers” and non-Lifers in various branches including some past and current service within Special Forces. It was those values, “Ethos”, which were handed down via family generations to me. In addition, some of our family served as First-Responders. With both of those dynamics, you can see that my family culture connects to dedication of service despite discomfort. Likewise, I also have a strong faith and was raised with a belief that God does not remove hardship but rather strengthens one through it. Ultimately, with my past experience added to my family values, personal growth, and strong faith combined with a dedication for service, I was drawn to the counseling profession in order to assist those who have experienced trauma, grief/loss, depression, anxiety, and perfectionism. There is more to the making of a counselor…it takes a multitude of people or “village to raise” and train a counselor. In my community, I have been fortunate to receive the mentorship from Military Veteran Peer Network in Denton and Dallas, which helped me be more effective in working with Service Members and Veterans. Likewise, I have been extremely blessed to have received connections with First-Responders so that I may understand better the challenges that they experience in order to be of greater support for their trauma processing. This training is not limited to specific populations but is increased with professional network and academic training. I have participated in learning the following within my professional network and academic community: EMDR Trained (EMDRIA), CPT and CRP (Strong Star Training Initiative), Suicide Prevention (ASIST), Treating Trauma Master Series (NICABM), Expressive Creative Art (with Heidi Tournoux-Hanshaw LPC-AT-S, ATR-BCCS), Group and Individual Crisis Intervention (ICISF), Military Culture (MVPN), Master Specialist in Military Trauma-Informed Care, (TVC); and Animal Assisted Therapy/Activities, Child Centered Play Therapy, Sandtray, and Child Parent Relationship Therapy (UNT Denton). This is just the tip of the iceburg; however, this shows how a therapist may train in order to specialize more in a specific population or need. I would sum up by saying that life challenges, family values, resources, supports, community, education, and spiritual encouragement assisted me in becoming the licensed professional counselor that I am today.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Can anyone tell me that they had a smooth road in their life? I am really not sure that exists. I would say that each person’s road has its own rubble, chug-holes, and thorns along the way but I believe that a person can use the rubble to make bridges, fill in chug holes with plants for ambiance, and trim back roses so to enjoy beauty amidst thorns. I would say that I have had plenty of challenges…more so than setbacks. Challenges to me are trajectory, they pull me back to send me forward. Yes, “Baptism by Fire”, is the term most of us use to state that we as counselors are prepared for counseling via academia and CEU’s but not so much for the business world of it. With that, we depend on those who have gone before us to assist us in networking: teaching us the issues of “insurance provider status”, recommendations for CPA’s that understand our profession, telehealth problems, and so much more. Our mentors are those in our profession with more “years on their belts”. We train each other in the community. I am a strong believer in networking and giving back to my profession by assisting new counselors as I am learning from those who have more experience than myself. You could call it: “Get a hand: extend a hand”.
Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about Forged Hope Counseling and Consulting, PLLC?
My business name began through my immdiate family as well. One day, I was stating to my teenage daughter that I wanted the word “Forged” in my business due to the fact that when someone experiences trauma, they feel torn in half with half being “before trauma” and the other half being “after trauma”. They do not know how to pull the two together and that is what counseling does. It assists them in pulling those parts together. However, I stated, “Forged sounds like much pain and work and that could be a turn-off” for some. So, my daughter said, “Mom, add ‘Hope’ because that is given the entire time they work”. Alright, we know that teens have great ideas too; therefore, I added that into the name and that is how the business became Forged Hope Counseling and Consulting, PLLC. At Forged Hope, we specialize in working with those who have experienced trauma inclusive of military sexual trauma, PTSD, and combat trauma. But, we are not limited to that. We also facilitate personal growth, career counseling, self-esteem building, relational boundaries, psychological education, emotional regulation, strength recognition, depression, anxiety, grief/loss, and parenting skills. I think what sets our business apart from other counseling businesses may be the array of techniques that we can offer for facilitating counseling. We can tailor to the unique individual through either sandtray (symbolism), expressive creative arts (symbolism and somatic regulation), EMDR (emotional memory reprocessing), CPT (Processing beliefs and value impact) for our adults and offer Child-Centered Play Therapy, sandtray, expressive creative arts for children ages 4-10 to build self-esteem and decision-making ability. Our adolescents and Tweens have choices similar to children and adults depending on their emotional maturity and needs. We work to understand what technique may best fit the individual and then offer suggestions for the individual to choose which would be preferred. I believe that the most wonderful experiences I have had as a counselor has been seeing a once frightened child begin to walk-tall and no longer need a night light on at night, seeing parents who have deeper communication with their children, and seeing people once plagued by nightmares having restful sleep at night and feeling empowered. I also appreciate hearing that people who come to us feel encouraged and empowered. That fills my heart full of joy. I am truly most enthusiastic about assisting the community with psychoeducation about how their body reacts to stress and how to “De-stress Distress”. Presently, I am scheduled to present at some local libraries in addition to some of the DFW police departments. I would love to have opportunities with other businesses that may want to assist their employees with how to maintain a calm during rigorous or demanding career expectations. Likewise, I would enjoy presenting at schools as well and maybe utilizing art with the students as we process how to reduce anxiety. De-stressing helps with not only production of a facility or retaining learned material, but morale within the employee sector and education system. To the readers of this article, I thank you for reading through and would like for you to know that Forged Hope is here for you if you need to facilitate personal growth or want to assist your business employees or students in improved mental health. You can call at 817-383-8664 for more information (be sure to leave a message if we are unable to answer the call).
Before we let you go, we’ve got to ask if you have any advice for those who are just starting out?
I could probably sink a ship with the knowledge that I needed when starting out and would not want to overwhelm anyone who may be starting at this time by listing it all in this article. However here are some main points of what I would state to someone just beginning in our professional field of counseling: 1. Seek out counseling professionals and ask them what helped them during formation…you must Network, 2. note that you will not make as much money as you will spend (for example: CEU’s, liability insurance, HIPAA compliant software, HIPAA compliant phone, HIPAA compliant email, website, two year licensure renewal costs, consultation payments, office lease, supplies, etc. (it will take awhile to build to a profit so do not expect it for a few years…all good things, take time and energy), 3.Don’t give up self-care for over-extending yourself to gain clients but do schedule a balance of combined hours with variety: admin, clients, networking), 4. It is ok to refer out, and 5. Do not put all your eggs in one basket…be sure to offer more than one service with fees for that service (for example: see children and adults, do individual and group therapy, offer consultations and presentations, offer out of pocket and insurance, and/or teach a skill and lead a workshop.
Pricing:
- Insurances accepted through Headway: United Health Care, BCBS, Aetna, Cigna, Optum, and Quest Behavioral
- $150 per individual or play therapy session hour (average is 1 hr per week)
- $65 per group session hour
- Call for pricing in regards to presentation or consultations.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://forgedhopecounselingandconsult.godaddysites.com/
- Other: https://therapyfinder.com/therapist/debra-l-rogers-ms-counseling-lpc-cpt-emdr-trained-emdria-north-richland-hills-tx
Image Credits
All images are my own except the professional one that is a close up of me (1st photo submitted here), which my uncle took of me and gave me the rights to utilize as needed. His photography is Dee Stewart Photography and his name is Woody Stewart (Azle, Texas).
