Today we’d like to introduce you to Jenna Johnson.
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?
My private practice grew out of two very real pain points.
The first was personal. I had just crawled out of the pandemic as a school social worker and counselor — while simultaneously navigating parenting young children through Covid. It was humbling, exhausting, and clarifying all at once. I knew I needed to make some changes in my professional life in order to support my personal life and family in a healthier way.
The second was professional. Nearly every parent call I received during that time as a school counselor was from a family desperately searching for a therapist, and running into long waitlists, or worse, no one calling them back at all. I was fully licensed to practice mental health therapy, and I knew I could serve my community better through individual care.
I had opened my practice quietly a few years before going full-time, mostly as a creative outlet and a chance to explore something new. But by Spring of 2022, I knew it was time to commit fully.
I came into private practice with a unique background. Over the course of my career, I had worked in high-risk group homes, served students in schools facing significant challenges, and spent many years as an in-home visitor and parent educator. Each role deepened my belief in something I now carry into every session: we are all doing the very best we can with what we have.
My practice initially started by serving children, but over time the parents became my focus. Again and again, I found myself sitting across from parents who were exhausted, overwhelmed, and quietly carrying their own unresolved pain… pain that was getting in the way of the parent they genuinely wanted to be.
That became my specialty.
Today, I work with adults navigating anxiety, PTSD, and childhood trauma that is impacting how they show up- in their relationships, in their families, and in their everyday lives.
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?
Ha! It has definitely not been smooth, but it has been wild and beautiful.
When you run your own business, there is no one to hide behind, turn to for easy answers, or blame on the hard days. That reality hit me in a significant way about one year into full-time practice, when I recognized I was experiencing burnout. I had taken on too many clients while still managing life with a young family, and the weight of it caught up with me.
It was actually a powerful moment of clarity. I realized I needed to continue doing my own “work,” examining my expectations of myself, revisiting my boundaries, and honestly evaluating whether my business structure was supporting me as a whole person. Not just as a therapist, but as a human being.
From there, I made some meaningful changes. I hired a wonderful business coach who also happened to be a therapist — someone who truly understood the unique intersection of clinical work and entrepreneurship. I intentionally surrounded myself with a strong community of fellow practitioners who were building practices that honored both their professional and personal lives. And I made some significant structural adjustments to how I was running things.
Running your own business requires a constant state of learning and adaptation. I genuinely love that about it. But there are absolutely peaks and valleys, and I think being willing to sit with both, honestly, just creates more growth and momentum. I was able to take those hard learned lessons and utilize it to better support my clients in their own challenges with boundaries, burnout and “leveling up” in their lives.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know?
I have worked hard to create a practice that is warm and intentional in every way. My goal is for the entire experience, from the first point of contact to the final session, to feel safe, warm, and caring. That isn’t an accident. It’s a standard I hold myself to deliberately. I’ll make you a cup of tea and grab you a snack while you kick off your shoes, grab a blanket, and really relax into the session.
Over the years, I have found that some of the most meaningful healing happens when we venture outside of traditional therapy methods. I blend conventional talk therapy with a powerful modality called Brainspotting. Brainspotting is almost meditative in its experience, but what makes it remarkable is that it works subcortically- beneath the thinking brain- allowing clients to process trauma more quickly and more deeply than talk therapy alone often can. It doesn’t require people to retell their painful stories in detail, and it can even help process experiences that are difficult to consciously remember at all. For many of my clients, it has been genuinely life-changing.
I also practice in extended sessions and therapy intensives. Rather than the standard 50-minute therapy hour, I frequently work with clients in 80-minute to two or three-hour sessions. This format allows people to go deeper, more fully process their emotional content, and move toward real resolution, as opposed to just scratching the surface each week. It honors the natural rhythm of the nervous system, and it means that clients often move through their healing more efficiently than they expected.
The work that emerges from this combination is some of the most meaningful I have ever been part of. I love what I do! Genuinely, deeply love it… and I believe clients feel that from our very first consultation all the way through to what I like to call their “graduation” session.
The warmth, depth, and commitment to honoring each person’s full experience is what my practice is built on, and what I am most proud of being able to share with others.
What has been the most important lesson you’ve learned along your journey?
One of the most important lessons I have learned is that good business and good mental health share a foundational need: adaptability. Life is hard, tumultuous, and guaranteed to throw curveballs at even the most carefully laid plans… and running a business is no different. My family has changed, my practice has changed, and what people need from a mental health practitioner continues to evolve. What I have learned, sometimes slowly I will admit, is that the most resilient among us are not the ones who avoid hard things or do everything by themselves. They are the people who have learned to adapt, stay flexible, keep growing, and seek support when they need it.
Pricing:
- 50 minute session $225
- 80 Minute session $350
- Intensives- reach out regarding pricing, depends on length of sessions
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.JennaLCSW.com
