About | Kathleen Joseph & Associates

About Therapy

“I can’t continue living like this.”

I have heard this time and again from the women of color who reach out to me, exhausted, frustrated, and desperate for a change in their lives.

They describe feeling worn out.

They feel uncared for – by colleagues and even people in their inner circle.

They’re tired of dealing with doctors, therapists, and other healthcare professionals who downplay their symptoms of stress.

They feel like they have to be a “superwoman” to everyone.

But when they look around for support… crickets.

Here, you don’t have to “be” anything for anybody.

In therapy, we focus on YOU and your needs.

Too often, the clients I serve tell me that no one in their world stops to ask how they are doing or offer support. I will support you immediately when we start working together. I give you the help that you so desperately have needed for so long.

I begin supporting you from the start because I know how hard it is to feel like you must carry the world alone and without support.

You will begin to feel uplifted and empowered because, FINALLY, you got the affirmative support that you need.

When you share your story, you heal yourself.

We’ll talk about the challenges in your life – where you’re struggling and where you want to make a change. We’ll honor your lived experience and personal story.

Talking about what’s happened to you will relieve you from some of the emotional burdens of a painful past and help you see possible solutions.

This process elevates your identity as a Woman of Color. You’ll realize that you are not the problem and can start creating positive change in your life.

And as we explore your story, you’ll get the support you need.

I support you by listening to your story while centering and celebrating your experience as a Woman of Color. Because I am a Woman of Color, I know that our society places unrealistic and damaging expectations on Women of Color. These expectations often make Women of Color feel like they are failing or wrong.

You are not wrong. You are just too often misunderstood.

In our work together, we will return to this repeatedly. Over time, you will see yourself with more grace and self-compassion. You will start to be kinder to yourself and feel more energy to create meaningful change in your life right where you are.

You will feel empowered when you can practice creating change in your life, no matter how small it seems to be. You will get better at focusing on what you can change and less on what you can’t. You begin to feel less burdened by the unrealistic and harmful expectations that society places upon you.

You will heal as you continue to practice kindness and compassion toward yourself.

Therapy should help… not harm.

With me, your lived experience as a Woman of Color will be at the center of our journey together.

That means you won’t have to waste time and energy educating your therapist on what it means to be a Woman of Color. You’ll get a therapist who lives at the intersection of race and sex, just like you.

You’ll get a therapist who can understand that being a successful Black woman can be an incredibly complicated and lonely place.

It’s about time…

I know that you weren’t created to be a superwoman.

And I know what it feels like to be there for others and not get that support in your time of need.

You shouldn’t have to carry the ongoing weight of adversity and scrutiny alone.

I want to ensure you are seen and heard, starting immediately.

Let’s schedule your free 30-minute consultation so that I can learn more about what you need from me and therapy: (352) 642-6755.

About Me

Thanks so much for being here.

I’m Kathleen, and I appreciate that you decided to visit.

If you know anything about my personal history, you might find it a little surprising that I became a therapist. I come from a family that isn’t at all the touchy-feely type.

Both my parents, Haitian immigrants who entered the United States in 1979, were more focused on our ability to work hard and excel than on how we each might be feeling about something that happened.

Despite this, I was a deep feeler, and I always wondered and asked the questions no one around me seemed to have the time to consider.

These questions would meet their realization when I was in high school when, by chance, I took a Psychology course as an elective. This led to me taking an Advanced Placement Psychology course the next semester and then graduating and pursuing an undergraduate degree in Psychology the following semester.

After that, I never wondered quietly about humans and meaning again. Instead, I took that passion into rich conversations, more studying, and eventually pursued a graduate degree in mental health counseling.

Today, I see that the questions I have about my lived experience and those of others continue to propel me deeper into this profession and make this work feel personally meaningful to me.

I think we all have questions. I think that questions are the doorway to making meaning.

I think making meaning is something that all humans do to make sense of what is happening to us.

In therapy, we get to make meaning of the things that matter in our life. It is what I loved about this field when I first interacted with it more than 20 years ago as a kid in grade school, and it is what has kept me so attached to it.

Thank you for being here.