You know that spark of joy someone has in their eyes when they’ve found their purpose in life and are doing what they love? Dr. Suzanne Hales has that joyful spark. She’s the founder and owner of Counseling and Consulting Associates of North Texas, located in McKinney. For more than 36 years, she’s built a thriving and diverse practice that serves those in need of counseling and psychiatric care. When discussing her practice, it’s obvious how much she loves what she does. She shares, “Counseling provides people with tools they can use to navigate life’s happenings. All of us need support, information, and a caring relationship that invites growth.”
Dr. Hales discovered her love of psychology while attending Dallas Baptist University on a basketball scholarship. Her guidance counselor told her she needed to choose an elective to complete her schedule. She randomly chose a psychology class and found herself on a path of curiosity and a lifetime of learning, resulting in her eventually becoming a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, Licensed Professional Counselor, earning her Ed.D. in Counseling Psychology, becoming a Certified Imago Therapist, and also a Swiss-trained Diplomate Jungian Analyst.
After graduating with her BS in Psychology from DBU, Dr. Hales and her husband moved to McKinney in 1976, where she worked as a coach and started the local girls athletic program. She considered becoming a sports psychologist after observing first-hand the psychology that went into motivating the young athletes. “A child learns to see themself how they’re seen,” she says, looking back. That insight then took her educational pursuits from sports psychology to marriage and family systems, earning a Masters degree in counseling. Still interested in the ultimate goal of a PhD, she then double-majored in marriage and family and counseling psychology.
Anxious to start her own practice, her father reminded her that at her young age she may have trouble getting clients who trusted her counseling expertise. He encouraged her to get more life experience first. She remembers him saying, ‘You can’t hang a shingle out and expect people to come without you having some life experience. No one will pay a 22-year-old to tell them how to live life.’ So, she lived more of her life, while also attending higher education classes in psychology on the weekends.
Dr. Hales wanted to create a safe place for healing, first focusing only on women, but then quickly expanding her practice to include children, adolescents, men, and grandparents. The needs of the community were the driving force that led the gathering of expertise and specialists which resulted in the formation of CCA.
Today, there are more than twenty-four highly qualified team members, including licensed psychologists, counselors, social workers, therapists, and psychiatrists with a variety of specializations and backgrounds equipped to meet the needs of a vast array of patients. Dr. Hales is the only Jungian Analyst in McKinney after completing her training in Zurich Switzerland in 2018. CCA even has two service dogs as part of their team to help with those patients who may feel apprehensive about the therapy experience. In addition to having a skilled staff with diverse professional skills, the CCA of North Texas staff is also very diverse culturally, with many different backgrounds, religions and languages represented.
The CCA of North Texas facility has four separate wings, each focusing on a different type of patient: children, adolescents, adults, and psychiatry. Within the wings, many different therapies are offered: adolescent counseling, art therapy, child therapy, couples counseling, family counseling, group counseling, hypnotherapy, individual counseling, mediation, premarital counseling, retreats, sand tray therapy, play therapy, along with bilingual and American Sign Language counseling. CCA also offers four specialized group therapies: Personal Growth Group for Men and Women, Personal Growth Group for Women, Lose Your Mind and Come to Your Senses, and Passion and Intimacy: A Small Group Experience for Couples.
Dr. Hales is pleased with the practice she and her team have built while sharing their vision of healing. The expertise these providers offer in this practice is highly diverse and unique. She takes a moment to make sure to also brag on her front office staff. “They are the backbone of our operation and a really heartfelt group of people,” she says. “It’s so important when patients call the office that they talk to a human voice. They make such a difference here.”
When Dr. Hales isn’t working at her practice, she enjoys spending time with her husband, two grown daughters and four grandchildren. She also founded Crescent Moon Lodge and Retreat Center in the Kiamichi Wilderness in Oklahoma, where she leads workshops, trainings, and retreats. In addition, she is the author of “Jungian Psychotherapy with Medical Professionals: Healing the Healer.” It was originally written as her doctoral dissertation, but she was encouraged to publish it as a book. It is available on Amazon, where it currently has a five-star rating.
For more information about the services offered at Counseling and Consulting Associates of North Texas, and to learn more about the staff, please visit their website at www.ccanorthtexas.com.
2750 Virginia Parkway, #108
972-542-8144
