Olive Branch Counseling

12/26/2025

Maybe your biggest victories this year weren’t visible.
Maybe they were quiet. Small. Internal.
Like finally saying no without guilt. Or just making it through.

At Olive Branch Counseling, we believe those moments matter.
And we’re honoring them in our blog series:
The Year You Held More Than Anyone Knew
💬 This week’s post: Tiny Revolutions That Changed You This Year
https://olivebranchcounselingtexas.com/emdr-and-trauma-therapy-in-plano-tiny-revolutions-that-changed-you-this-year/

Also a little joy moment!
Our team spent the holidays battling it out at Game Show Battle Rooms in Farmers Branch (highly recommend for your next team outing 🎉).

🧠 Need a therapist for yourself or someone you love?
We’re accepting new clients for teens, adults, couples.
We offer sessions in English, Spanish, and Malayalam.

📌 Get to know our team: olivebranchcounselinggroup.com/our-team

12/05/2025

We’re not here to push resolutions or fresh starts.

We’re here to make space for the people quietly surviving a year that asked too much of them.

This December, we’re sharing reflections on all the invisible ways people have kept going and the kind of healing that doesn’t get enough credit.

💬 New blog:
Trauma Therapy for Burnout and Emotional Exhaustion
https://olivebranchcounselingtexas.com/trauma-therapy-for-burnout-and-emotional-exhaustion-what-no-one-saw-you-carry/
If you’ve felt emotionally numb, constantly tired, or like you’ve been “performing” wellness, this one’s for you.

🧠 Now accepting new clients (teens, adults, and couples)
🌎 In-person in Plano + virtual across Texas
🗣 Services available in English, Spanish, and Malayalam
📌 Meet our team: olivebranchcounselinggroup.com/our-team

You don’t have to carry it all alone.

11/28/2025

You don’t have to be falling apart to deserve therapy.
At Olive Branch Counseling, we see so many clients who are high-functioning, thoughtful, successful — and still quietly struggling.

They’re showing up for everyone else, but barely breathing themselves.
You’re not broken. You’re just tired.

And you don’t have to do this alone.
Our founder, Jessica Russell, LCSW-S, created Olive Branch to be a place where clients are never treated like a diagnosis — but as powerful, whole humans doing their best to heal.

Whether you're facing complex trauma, chronic stress, or just a quiet sense that something needs care… this could be your place to exhale.

📍 We offer trauma-informed therapy in Plano and across Texas
📞 In-person and virtual sessions available
🩺 Now accepting Blue Cross Blue Shield (BCBS) — call us and we’ll check your benefits

📝 Read more about Jessica’s story and the heart behind Olive Branch:

The heart behind Olive Branch is simple: healing through connection. Our complex trauma therapy offers compassionate care in Plano and across Texas.

10/31/2025

What if you didn’t have to pretend anymore?

What if being “too soft” wasn’t something to hide?

In his latest blog, Rickie Jacob, LPC-Associate, shares what he’s seen time and time again in his work with men: shame is one of the quietest, most painful burdens they carry; and it often shows up in the form of isolation, comparison, and self-doubt.

Therapy can be a space where you stop performing and start healing.
Rickie offers EMDR and trauma-informed counseling in Plano and virtually across Texas.

📍 Read the full post: https://olivebranchcounselingtexas.com/soft-isnt-weak-rethinking-masculinity-after-trauma/
📲 Learn more or book a free consult via our site

10/17/2025

Therapy isn’t just for people who are falling apart.

Sometimes it’s for the ones holding generations of pain, quietly.

Araceli Valenciana, LPC-Associate offers culturally sensitive, trauma-informed therapy for adults navigating grief, identity stress, generational trauma, and more.

She’s especially passionate about supporting Spanish-speaking and first-generation clients who are learning to break cycles without losing themselves in the process.

Araceli is also EMDR-trained and offers EMDR therapy to help clients process trauma safely and effectively, often without needing to relive every detail.

🧠 New blog: “Breaking the Silence Around Generational Trauma”
📍 In-person sessions in Plano
💻 Virtual sessions across Texas
🗣️ Therapy available in English and Spanish

https://olivebranchcounselingtexas.com/breaking-the-silence-how-generational-trauma-passes-down-in-immigrant-families/

Generational trauma doesn't start with you, but healing can. At Olive Branch Counseling, we offer trauma-informed, culturally aware therapy for first-gen and immigrant families in Plano and virtually across Texas.

10/03/2025

Not all new moms are okay.
And not every mom feels safe saying that out loud.

At Olive Branch Counseling, therapist Gracie Brownell, LMSW offers trauma-informed therapy for new mothers who are overwhelmed, grieving, triggered, or just feeling completely lost.

Whether you’re navigating postpartum depression, unresolved pain from your childhood, or just feel like you’ve disappeared inside your new role. Therapy can help you find your footing again.

📖 Read our latest blog: “Processing Postpartum: Why Therapy Can Be the One Hour You Don’t Have to Be Okay”
https://olivebranchcounselingtexas.com/processing-postpartum-why-therapy-can-be-the-one-hour-you-dont-have-to-be-okay/

🍼 Now enrolling for our postpartum processing group
📍 In-person therapy in Plano
💻 Virtual therapy across Texas

Feeling overwhelmed after birth is more common than you think. At Olive Branch Counseling, we offer postpartum therapy and DBT-informed support for new moms navigating identity shifts, emotional overload, and grief — in Plano and virtually across Texas.

09/17/2025

Healing happens together. Olive Branch Counseling’s therapy groups are now open for registration and waitlists! Whether you’re navigating grief, postpartum changes, or looking to strengthen your coping skills, our groups provide connection, accountability, and community.

Register today or share with someone who could benefit! Link in our bio or scan the QR code from your desktop or mobile device!

09/04/2025

Have you ever felt sad about something that technically wasn’t a big deal...but it still felt like a huge deal?

That might be grief.

Not all grief is about death. Some grief comes from breakups, identity shifts, moving, graduating, or realizing the life you pictured isn’t going to happen.

This is the kind of work Gayley Cook, LMSW, does with teens and young adults in grief therapy. Honoring losses that don’t always get noticed and helping clients find a way to move forward without letting go of what mattered.

Read more about grief here:

When people hear the word grief, they often think of funerals, black clothing, and casseroles delivered to grieving families. But grief doesn’t only show up when someone passes away. Sometimes grief is quiet. Sometimes it hides in moments that don’t seem “big enough” to mourn. And sometimes,...

09/03/2025

Grief isn’t always loud. Sometimes, it’s just heavy. Quiet. Confusing.

That’s where Gayley Cook, LMSW, steps in. Gayley works with teens and young adults who are navigating grief in all its forms — the loss of a person, a relationship, an identity, or a future that didn’t happen.

Using trauma-informed CBT, she helps clients process what they’re carrying without rushing, minimizing, or judging the process.

Gayley offers Therapy in Plano and across Texas, and is available for In-person and virtual sessions with a special focus on students and young adults.

08/15/2025

What if the thing you’ve been brushing off for years — that bullying, that rejection, that feeling of always being left out — was actually trauma?

We just published a new blog all about this kind of emotional wounding, how it impacts us long after it “should be over,” and what healing really looks like when you’re working with a therapist who gets it.

It’s part of our new Meet the Team series, and we’re starting with Travis Long, LPC (C-DBT) — a therapist who blends warmth, directness, and a little humor to help clients feel both safe and gently challenged.

Travis works with teens, adults, and couples navigating:
– Bullying and social trauma
– People-pleasing and boundary struggles
– Relationship conflict and disconnection
– Emotional regulation and nervous system healing

He’s certified in trauma-focused approaches like DBT and has completed additional training in Prolonged Exposure Therapy and utilizes the Gottman Method for couples therapy — and he’s currently accepting new clients for in-person sessions in Plano and virtual therapy across Texas.

💛 Read the blog here → https://olivebranchcounselingtexas.com/healing-from-bullying-and-social-trauma/

🌿 Learn more about Travis here → https://olivebranchcounselingtexas.com/our-team/travis-long/

It might be just what someone in your life needs to read today.

Healing from social trauma like bullying or exclusion is possible. Learn how therapy helps you reclaim your voice, safety, and sense of self.

08/15/2025

What if your inner critic wasn’t you — but just a voice you picked up while trying to survive?

Social trauma, bullying, emotional rejection — they don’t just fade with time. They get internalized. And that’s why therapy isn’t just about “coping” — it’s about reclaiming who you are beneath the masks you’ve had to wear.

Travis Long, LPC (C-DBT) helps clients work through the invisible weight of past pain — with warmth, clarity, and just enough humor to remind you: you don’t have to be perfect to be worthy of healing.

📍 Based in Plano, TX
💻 Virtual sessions available across Texas
🧠 Therapy for teens, adults, and couples

Your story doesn’t end at survival.

08/14/2025

What if that weird tension in your chest, or that voice in your head saying “don’t be too much” — wasn’t your personality?

What if it was trauma?

Social trauma is what happens when we internalize pain from things like bullying, rejection, or years of not feeling safe to be ourselves. And it’s one of the most overlooked kinds of trauma we carry.

Travis Long, LPC (C-DBT), works with teens, adults, and people-pleasers who are finally ready to stop blaming themselves and start healing. This kind of therapy helps you release what’s been weighing you down — and start feeling like yourself again.

🧠 Certified in DBT & trained in Prolonged Exposure
📍 Trauma therapy in Plano, TX
💻 Virtual sessions available across Texas
Read more in our latest blog — link in bio.