The Counseling Garden

The Counseling Garden 🌿 Discover. Recover. Grow.

The Counseling Garden equips children, families, educators, and organizations with counseling, SEL, training, resources, and community programs that cultivate resilience, healthy relationships, and lifelong success.

Whew. Y’all are really about to come on this journey with me. A new role as the MSCA Central Region Representative.My of...
08/21/2026

Whew. Y’all are really about to come on this journey with me.

A new role as the MSCA Central Region Representative.
My official National Board Certification.
And now, my very first cohort of NEW professional school counselors.

WOOOOO! We did it! 🥹

And I say we very intentionally.

So many people have poured into me. Prayed for me. Prayed over me. Mentored me. Encouraged me. Corrected me. Shared resources with me. And perhaps one of the greatest gifts—placed my name in rooms I wasn’t in yet.

None of that is lost on me.

So now I get to pour some of it back.

Through The Counseling Garden, I’m creating spaces where school counselors can connect, ask the questions we don’t always get to ask, work through the hard stuff, examine our data, strengthen our programs, share resources and figure this work out together.

Because counselors really are the heart of the building.

And let’s be clear—we usually know the tea FIRST. 😂
Staff tea. Student tea. Family tea. Building tea.

But underneath all of that access is an incredible responsibility.

We see the barriers.
We hear the stories.
We recognize the patterns.
We have access to the data.
And we are often uniquely positioned to connect the people, resources and systems that can actually change something.

School counselors can change communities through the work we do inside schools.

That’s the conversation I want us to have.

Not just “What activities did you do this month?”

But…

What changed because you were there?

What barrier did you remove?
What achievement gap did you identify?
What system did you improve?
What student found their voice?
What family gained access?
What did your data teach you?
What did you advocate for?

What type of impact are YOU leaving?

🌱 Counselor Connect Work Sessions begin in September.

Real talk. Shared tools. Stronger together.

If you’re a school counselor ready for connection, resources, professional growth and a community of people who understand this work—come sit with us.

Sign up now. PG counselors are already connected! Don’t miss this experience.

Create the ideas. Help the people. Leave the impact.

THE BLOOM FOUNDATION INTERN SUMMIT + POOL PARTY Don’t miss this opportunity to do more than add another line to your rés...
08/19/2026

THE BLOOM FOUNDATION INTERN SUMMIT + POOL PARTY

Don’t miss this opportunity to do more than add another line to your résumé — come build something unconventional with us.

I currently have 10 applicants and I’m looking for 10 MORE interns, volunteers, and students who are ready to gain hands-on experience while making a real impact.

This is an opportunity to:

✨ Gain real-world, hands-on experience
✨ Build your résumé + professional portfolio
✨ Network and make meaningful connections
✨ Develop new professional and creative skills
✨ Work directly on projects, events & community initiatives
✨ Learn what it takes to take an idea from concept → ex*****on → IMPACT
✨ Have FUN while doing meaningful work

And yes… we’re kicking it off with an Intern Summit + Pool Party! 🏊🏾‍♀️🌸

Swipe through this carousel to see the flyer, summit agenda, and a glimpse of our interns in action — from working behind the scenes to enjoying the fashion show they helped bring to life.

Volunteers are welcome, too! Students seeking Student Service Learning (SSL) hours are encouraged to connect with us.

I’m looking for people who want to learn, create, contribute, and leave with something tangible to show for their experience.

🌸 10 applicants in. 10 more spots to fill.

Ready to BLOOM with us?

Contact me using the link in my bio.

StudentServiceLearning

08/13/2026

Feedback from students and families will always mean more than anything I could say about myself.

My impact is evidence of my intention.

I don’t create experiences just for the pictures, the programs, or the moment. I create them because I understand what exposure can do for a child.

A new experience can reveal a new talent.
A new environment can build confidence.
A new opportunity can make a dream feel possible.

When my students talk about feeling more confident, pushing through their nerves, learning something they never thought they could do, or seeing themselves differently—that’s the impact.

The fashion, the art, the design, the college campuses, the leadership opportunities… those are the vehicles.

The intention has always been the child.

Create the ideas. Help the people. Leave the impact. 🌱

This summer, I was invited to participate as a specialized instructor—and I saw an opportunity to make the experience bi...
08/13/2026

This summer, I was invited to participate as a specialized instructor—and I saw an opportunity to make the experience bigger than the assignment.

I used that opportunity to expose students to a college campus, leadership roles, hands-on field experience, fashion production, modeling, design, teamwork, and what it looks like to take an idea from concept to completion.

Why?

Because exposure matters.

Sometimes a young person doesn’t know what’s possible simply because no one has put them in the room yet.

That experience reinforced exactly what I want to continue building this school year through Canvas Kids, a school-based Extended Learning Opportunity at Andrew Jackson Academy.

This year, I want our students to experience more than an after-school program. I want them to explore new places, develop practical skills, discover their strengths, practice leadership, meet professionals, visit college campuses, create things they’re proud of, and see possibilities for themselves beyond what they already know.

And I know the school can’t do that work alone.

That’s where The Counseling Garden Bloom Foundation comes in.

Bloom is an independent nonprofit community partner supporting Canvas Kids students and families by helping bring additional resources, charitable donations, partnerships, sponsored experiences, supplies, and opportunities directly to the young people we serve.

The school provides the program. Community Schools supports staffing. Bloom helps expand the opportunities.

I’m not building this to personally profit from our children.

I’m building partnerships so that when I say to a child, “Dream bigger,” there are people and organizations standing behind us ready to help make some of those dreams accessible.

This year, that’s the mission:

More exposure.
More experiences.
More skills.
More leadership.
More access.

Create the ideas. Help the people. Leave the impact.

08/11/2026

Patience is part of the pattern.

Teaching kids to sew is about so much more than learning how to use a machine.

The thread is going to break. The stitch might be crooked. You may have to rip the seam out and start all over again. And sometimes what you pictured in your head won’t look that way the first time you create it.

That’s okay.

We’re teaching our Canvas Kids that new skills take time. Give yourself grace. Slow down. Ask for help. Try again.

Sewing teaches patience, perseverance, problem-solving, and the confidence to keep going when something doesn’t work the first time.

Because the real lesson isn’t “Can you sew?”

It’s “What do you do when it gets hard?”

And sometimes the biggest win is simply watching a child take a breath, rethread that machine, and try one more time.

08/11/2026

There’s something about taking something old and seeing what it could be that has always made me happy.

Long before I knew words like upcycling, design, or creative direction, I was just a little girl who liked to create things. I could see something ordinary and imagine it differently. I’d make things, change things, put things together—and feel so proud when what I saw in my head became something I could actually touch.

I think that’s why creating still feels so good to me now.

Taking an old garment and giving it a new shape, a new purpose, a new story takes me right back to that little girl.

Before the titles.
Before the career.
Before the businesses.

I just liked making things that made me feel good.

And apparently, I still do.

Maybe that’s the origin story.

I never stopped creating. I just grew up and found more things to create.

Something old. Something new. Still me.

08/11/2026

The impact isn’t always something you can hold in your hands. Sometimes, the impact is who a child becomes along the way.

In March, Kamryn and Kaiah stepped into Canvas Kids as Runway Captains and began learning how to model. By August, they were walking in their first fashion show.

But listen to their personal reflections—the runway wasn’t the biggest accomplishment.

They gained confidence. Patience. Leadership. The ability to take direction, push through nerves, show up for one another, and do something they had never done before.

That’s why The Counseling Garden Bloom Foundation is proud to sponsor Canvas Kids.

We aren’t simply sponsoring fashion experiences. We’re investing in the growth, exposure, creativity, confidence, and development of more than 50 children and their families throughout this journey.

And we’re just getting started.

Follow along as we document what happens when children are given the opportunity to learn, create, lead, travel, try, fail, grow—and try again.

Want to help us create more moments like this?

Sponsor the journey. Sponsor the experience. Sponsor the impact.

Visit The Counseling Garden to learn how you can support Canvas Kids through the Bloom Foundation.

FOLLOW THE JOURNEY
Watch on YouTube
Sponsor a Canvas Kid
Partner with Bloom

08/08/2026

When I started this work, I didn’t know exactly where it would take me.

But I do know where I’m taking it.

For me, fashion has never just been about clothes. The most meaningful part of this work is what happens around the clothes—the healing, the connection, the creation, and the confidence that begins to take shape when people are given space to create something of their own.

To hear someone who oversees this program speak about what they witnessed in me and in this work means more than I can explain.

Because this is the vision.

Using fashion as a vehicle to connect. To teach. To create. To heal. To expose young people to possibilities they may not have imagined for themselves.

I may not have known where this journey would take me when I started.

But I know exactly where I’m taking it now.

And we’re just getting started.

08/08/2026

Follow along with me as I take an upcycled garment from mannequin to model.

I made her garment the morning of the show 🤫

One piece. One vision. A little cutting, pinning, sewing, styling—and probably a few last-minute decisions because that’s how creativity works.

I love showing young creatives that fashion doesn’t always start with something new. Sometimes the magic is seeing the potential in what already exists.

From mannequin → to model → to the runway.

Watch the transformation come to life. ✨

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Washington D.C., DC

Telephone

+12027687467

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