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Mental Health Matters

Connect with local entrepreneur Daron Elam of Summit's Edge Counseling!

As a mother, entrepreneur, and survivor, I feel mental health can move us all towards a much brighter and hopeful future. As a community, mental health is a collective decision and one of the single most powerful resources we can capitalize upon. We are uniquely evolved to understand ourselves and ways we can do better both for ourselves and generations to come. To disregard our mental health as a society is to disregard our future.

It's not enough for one person in your life to be attending therapy. Receiving mental health care is, in and of itself, collective impact. That's why I'm so passionate about our work with Summit’s Edge. We are showing up for our community and I think that’s the most beautiful part of all.

Summit's Edge is unique practice celebrating diversity, culture, and emphasizing inclusion both in the modalities of treatment and clinicians providing services. Readers can expect safety and intentionality in the way we provide and streamline services for counseling from our amazing team. We have a compassionate care model and believe therapy starts with the first call. Our Client Experience Coordinators walk you through each step so our clients can simply focus on the care they are seeking. We are very intentional to hire a diverse group of therapists from various backgrounds so that clients can feel truly safe in the therapeutic process. Summit's Edge provides free consultations, and we help our clients find appropriate care, even if it's not with us.

I founded the company in 2016 and expanded into group practice shortly thereafter. As a group practice owner, I knew I could make a collective impact that reached far beyond the services I could provide as a solo practitioner. I envisioned a place where clinicians worked on a collaborative care team and where the focus could truly remain on what was in the best interest of the client. In the beginning, I was asking amazing clinicians I knew to take a chance on my dream across tables in local coffee shops. Today, we have over 20 clinicians providing services at Summit's Edge providing evidence-based and quality care.

I feel sustained in my purpose when I'm focused on facilitating healing for as many people as possible. I deeply believe everyone deserves quality mental health care, and I've committed to spending the rest of my life to do everything I can to provide quality services to as many people as possible. I want to leave a meaningful legacy and use my life to operate with integrity and hope so others are inspired to do the same.

My partner Brett and I are proud to call Smyrna home. This area reflects our values and what is truly important, and we are making so many family memories here. Because we love this community so much, we have committed to deliver the highest quality mental health services in partnership with so many other amazing organizations in the area.

This community is hopeful and has the common thread of seeing a brighter future, even if it’s within themselves. Mental health and wellness are founded on the concept of hope. I think it's hard to find entire communities that can unite over even a single concept. That's another reason why we love this community and are so passionate about serving it.

Readers can contact us Monday through Thursday 9-6 and Friday 9-3 for scheduling, visit our website at se.care, or follow us on Instagram @summits_edge.

To participate in your own mental health, I encourage you to ask yourself these two questions each day: What is one thing I can do today to make my life even just 1% better? If I could see myself through someone else's eyes, what loving and compassionate thing would I say to me?

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