Today we’d like to introduce you to Stacy Carmichael.
Stacy, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
I am originally from a small town in northwest Iowa, where I attended college at Buena Vista University, majoring in psychology and biology. I was lucky enough to be one of 12 students accepted in 1996 at the University of Florida’s graduate program in Clinical & Health Psychology, which I graduated in 2003. I have bounced around the US, creating psychology clinics at hospitals and clinics that did not have this discipline but was compelled to return to Florida in 2015 with my now 22-year-old son, Jaden, to start my own practice. Jaden is a sweet young man who has autism and mild intellectual disability. He is currently working with Vocational Rehabilitation to find employment. He is a friendly, funny guy who loves to hug others, eat any kind of food, travel and hang out with his friends.
As the only parent of a special need’s young adult, I needed the flexibility to create my own hours during a daily schedule and not feel shamed for needing to leave work early or wanting to take a 3-day weekend. I also wished to return to the warm and beautiful state of Florida after living in my home state of Iowa for a few years. From living in the world of raising an exceptional child myself, I have gained particular experience in parenting and also with clinically recognizing children with complex neurodevelopmental needs. Many children and adults are not properly diagnosed or are misdiagnosed, especially where autism is concerned, and as the diagnosis often guides treatment and gives access to specialized supports, it is absolutely imperative to get the diagnosis correct. I wanted to offer my specialized expertise in the area of psychological and neurodevelopmental evaluations to those seeking assistance in central Florida. I, unfortunately, have struggled working with insurance companies, who love to deny payment, and now operate solely out of network as a private pay office. We provide super-bills or will help with paperwork to get reimbursed by your insurance company if you have OON benefits for mental health care. We can also direct bill the Step Up For Students special needs scholarships.
We all face challenges, but looking back, would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
I always knew I wanted to work with children in a helping and healing capacity. While in college at Buena Vista University in Iowa, I studied biology and psychology and became interested in the relatively new field of health psychology. Our psychology department brought a prominent health psychologist to speak at the college, who suggested I attend the pediatric psychology program at the University of Florida. I was determined to attend, and the rest is history. During graduate school, I was married and started my family. I realized my own child was not where he should be developmentally, but unfortunately, I received much scoffing from doctors I took him to, even chiding me for “wanting something to be wrong with my child, you just know too much about child development.” Exactly, and the professionals were not listening to my concerns. I did not want other parents to experience the stone walls and lack of professional understanding of my experience as the mother of an autistic child. I KNOW what that is like, and it is not a position professionals should put parents in, as we know our children best, and we know when things are not right. I believe that my experience is invaluable in serving others going through similar situations with their family members. My son is now 22, so I have the knowledge of parenting developmentally complex children throughout the lifespan and am familiar with the Florida resources and supports available here to help.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
MindWorks provides comprehensive and thorough mental health evaluation and empirically sound but holistic therapy to children, teens, adults, couples, and families. We can see individuals for anxiety, depression, grief, behavior difficulties, emotional regulation difficulties, social concerns, speech and language delays, learning difficulties, ADHD/executive dysfunction, or family conflict such as separation or divorce. We have a unique team of experienced therapists who love working with children and families. I do the evaluations to get the correct diagnosis and make recommendations for treatment, while my team provides individual, group, couple, or family therapy. We also offer neurofeedback, which is a non-medication treatment option to help regulate cognitive and emotional functioning, combined together with biofeedback and traditional therapy. Therapists may attend IEP meetings or meet you in the community to help confront specific fears/phobias. We can provide home-based, school-based, office-based, or online services. I am one of the only child psychologists in private practice in Central Florida who is Board Certified in Clinical Child & Adolescent Psychology, as fewer than 4% of clinical psychologists obtain board certification.
I started MindWorks alone in 2015, slowly finding a small one-room office space to rent, putting together articles of incorporation, creating a logo, networking with referral sources, and figuring out how to run a business and do accounting (none of which I had learned anywhere before). I now gratefully employ several independent therapists who contract with MindWorks, including another clinical psychologist, several school psychologists, a speech and language pathologist, a licensed mental health counselor and art therapist. We love to create a warm and supportive atmosphere where both children and adults can come to feel better and learn positive coping skills for dealing with anxiety, depression, ADHD, autism, or other life challenges.
Do you have any advice for those just starting out?
You can do it! Ask for help and mentorship if you need; there are many others available who WANT to see you be successful and will help you to not make the same mistakes along the way.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.MindWorksPsych.com
- Facebook: Facebook.com/MindWorksPsych
Image Credits
Joshua Parisoe
Heidi Hapanowitcz
