Welcome to Enlightenment, Readers!

 

My name is Kyira Kerns! I am the founder of Enlightenment Counseling. I am beyond excited about this new journey with Enlightenment and all of the clients wanting to work with me. This has been a dream of mine since 2016 and it had finally come true! I am finally focusing on what I enjoy, which trauma counseling with depression and anxiety management. I have a vision for Enlightenment to transform this practice into a luxury trauma wellness center. A place where the people of Ohio can come work on themselves and get the most they can for their own mental stability. For now, I am starting out with the private practice and bringing in people to help make my vision come to life slowly but surely. I am the type that sets huge goals, but I always work hard to accomplish them.

 A little bit about me, I am 28 years old. I am married to my high school sweetheart. I have an adorable Cavapoo (Cavalier King Charles Spaniel mixed with a Poodle) named Finneas. He is named after Finneas O’Connell, a famous singer song writer and producer also known as Billie Elish’s older brother. I am very passionate about food. It is kind of my life. When I was in high school, I wanted to go to culinary school and then life happened. Now I am a therapist, obviously lol. I am obsessed with music. It is definitely my number one coping skill. I love to jam to Carrie Underwood, Ed Sheeran, Dan & Shay, Panic at a disco, AJR, Paramore, Nolan Kahn but I am also a fan of jazz music, rap music, R&B music, pretty much any genre I can appreciate. So, if you see me around and I am in my car putting on a concert for myself, don’t judge. I have a huge music background and have been performing since elementary school, so I am always up for jam sessions.

I love love love Harry Potter. I am a huge Potterhead! I am a Hufflepuff because I feel like you need to know that lol. I really want to go to London, England to Warner Brothers Studio and check out their Harry Potter exhibit. I feel like it's probably way better than the Hollywood Experience. I would love to travel to England, Germany, Scotland, Ireland, Italy, and Greece and just eat my weight in food. Oh, and check out the scenery too. I am a diehard Ohio State fan, born and raised and an alumnus now. So don’t come at me Xichigan fans! GO BUCKS! O-H! I also love board games. My favorites are Catan, Power grid, anything from the creators of Exploding Kittens, and any old classic games. I am always down for playing games during sessions. I know some people struggle with opening up and this is a way to calm that anxiety and not feel as though the session is focused so much on you.  So that’s a little about me personally.

Professionally, when I started out in the social work field back in 2012, I was very dead set on working in hospitals. I wanted to work with transplant patients. This passion came from my mother having a liver transplant back in 2012. I was focused so much on wanting to help these patients that I didn’t realize I wasn’t passionate about that area of social work at all. I started my junior year of college in 2016 and started taking classes on mental health. Due to childhood trauma and the trauma of my mother's transplant I already knew I struggled with mental health issues; I just didn’t take into account that I could actually help people who struggle just like me. I began going down a mental health track instead and started doing therapy in my internship and realized this was where I was meant to be.

Once I graduated with my bachelor's degree I went back to school for my master's degree in social work with a focus on mental health and addiction. I am now looking into doctorate degrees in social work to focus on clinical work. I have a background in working with addiction, mental health, co-occurring disorders, and severe mental health. I have also worked with youth, but I enjoy working with adults more. I have a supervisory background as well working as a program coordinator and clinical supervisor for a partial hospitalization program, detox program, and case management program.

 For me as a therapist, I can relate so much with clients and that is what I believe makes me so successful at what I do. My clients will tell you that talking to me in a session is like talking to your best friend, someone you have known for many years. This is something I pride myself on. I bring accountability and discipline to the table too, don’t get me wrong. I just want the people who pay me for a service to feel at home when they come into my office. I try to be as authentic with clients as I can be. What you get when you do a session with me is the real me. I am all about humor and having a good time in sessions as well as getting deep down and dirty with your trauma. I am a therapist who loves feedback. You are paying me for a service so please tell me if I am not meeting your needs so that I can adjust if need be.

I love to educate people. This is something I am passionate about as well. I love to teach clients and therapists new things and share as much about topics as I can. So, what is a better way to educate you all then to create a blog! This blog will have many topics. From mental health to addiction to self-care to of course trauma because that is what we are here for and also adding in any suggestions you all may have that you want to hear about. I believe this a great way to reach you all as my clients as well as letting you all see more of my personality. So happy reading everyone and I can't wait to see you all in session!