Today we’d like to introduce you to Tori Dixon.
Hi Tori, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
This is a question that always brings me to tears. My road to “today” has come with many twists, turns and detours. I was born in New York; raised in Charleston, South Carolina and Tulsa, Oklahoma by a single mother determined to give her two daughters (later a son), a world framed with Jesus, hope and love. My mother is my role model. Among other things, she taught me how to live my faith with reckless abandonment, to take risks and trust God along the way.
After completing my education at the University of Oklahoma, I moved to Atlanta, Georgia and began my education and career as a Mortician. A profession that was truly a call to service from God and would eventually lay the foundation for the work I do today as a Licensed Professional Counselor, specializing in grief and loss. I am currently the owner and Clinical Director for my private practice Graceful Journey Counseling, located in Arlington, Texas. I work alongside two amazing therapists; one in my Texas location, Ashley Coleman and one at my virtual Atlanta, Georgia location, Kelly Jenkins. The story of my “today” would be inadequately, insufficient without mentioning the failures, setbacks and losses I’ve encountered over the years.
Those moments add color in an otherwise muted story. Failures, setbacks and losses aren’t the main characters of my story, but they’ve played supporting roles that must be mentioned if my story is to be told with any sense of authenticity. Sure, the world says I’d be better served hiding my failures, but I live a truth that begs to defer. The pillars supporting my testimony were strengthened in the trenches of life’s most difficult and challenging moments. I would not be where I am sans God’s grace, His mercy, unfailing love for me, my trials, tests, failures and setbacks.
This truth was instrumental in my decision to create a safe space for others to find peace at the intersection of life’s most challenging moments–hence Graceful Journey Counseling. I believe the perch of my crown and the pain of my thorns are responsible for the truth of my story. For both, I am equally grateful.
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?
The road has not been smooth. As I’ve previously stated, the challenges of my life aren’t the focal points of my story however, they have been instrumental in building character. There was a time when I faced homelessness while living in Atlanta trying to finish my degree in Mortuary Science. I was down to nothing yet behind the scenes, God was up to everything. It was in those despairing moments, that I grew in my faith and determination to see the plan of God fulfilled in my life. Someone reading this right now may find themselves in the darkest time of their life.
You may be wondering if you’re in the right place, at the right time, doing the right thing. If this is you, allow this to be the message of hope you’ve been searching for. The road to destiny fulfilled is often the road less traveled and devoid of footprints. Just because you don’t have a frame of reference for where you’re going, it doesn’t mean you’re heading in the wrong direction. I often wonder where I would be if I’d left Atlanta during that time. This was the time of my life where I was able to experience God in a profoundly different way and helped me to remain steadfast in my faith. The lesson has been that nothing in life goes wasted. God causes all things to work together for my good. This doesn’t mean all things will be good, but the outcome will testify of His goodness.
Before we go, is there anything else you can share with us?
Our mission is to create spaces where emotional and mental wellness and wholeness is at the epicenter of our work. More so now than ever, people are looking for guidance as they face some of the most complex and difficult emotional and mental health challenges they have ever experienced. With us currently living in an unprecedented time of uncertainty, our wellness has been tested, tried and we’ve been under enormous pressure to perform. We are finding cracks in our foundation that have been hidden in plain sight amongst the mundane routines our lives have created.
Coupling this truth with the feeling that we have little control over what’s going on around us, it’s inevitable that more of us feel anxious and depressed. We aim to encourage all of humanity to stop, take a deep breath, talk through these concerns and take a hold of what’s going within—creating a space of clarity that will positively impact the way we deal with what’s going on around us.
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