Community Highlights: Meet Nicole Osborne of Milk & Honey Therapy

Today we’d like to introduce you to Nicole Osborne.

Hi Nicole, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
My journey to becoming a holistic mental health therapist started in high school.

While I was in high school, I knew multiple people who were struggling with their own mental health issues and also knew people who lost their lives to suicide. After seeing and hearing about various people’s mental health issues, I knew that I wanted all people to know that they are not alone and that their lives matter.

While I was also in high school, I took AP Psychology and was fascinated by what we were learning in class. After taking that class, I knew that I wanted to major in psychology in college. While I was in college I got a chance to learn more about psychology, social work, mental illnesses, and marginalized communities.

With everything that I learned in college and with my various experiences in education, I thought I wanted to become a teacher or be in a service-oriented job working with youth. Right before college graduation, I was offered a job as a teacher for Teach for America, but I later turned the job down because I decided that I didn’t want to be in a classroom setting. I loved education and working with kids, but teaching didn’t seem like the right fit.

Well funny enough, after moving from Los Angeles to Indianapolis, I actually found myself in the classroom setting being a Paraprofessional for a Special Education classroom. While working in this job, I loved talking to my students about their current life issues, their backgrounds, and their future dreams/visions. I cared about my students doing well in school, but I was more interested in their overall well-being. After that job, I knew I wanted to be a counselor/therapist.

Fast forward to May 2020, I had just graduated from graduate school in the middle of the pandemic and was having a difficult time finding a job as a therapist. One night my husband, Nick, mentioned that I should start my own practice and I said to him “Do you know how much work that is?!”

He tried to persuade me anyways and thought it was a great idea. After thinking about it for a couple of weeks and after doing research, I came back to him and said “Well you’re a therapist too, why don’t we open up our own practice together!”

After going on many nature walks (the place where we do our best creative thinking), we came up with the name for our practice and opened Milk & Honey Therapy in September 2020.

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
The first six months of business were the hardest because neither Nick nor I were taught how to run a mental health private practice in graduate school.

It was a steep learning curve and we stayed up for hours doing research – Therapist Facebook groups, Youtube, Google, and Instagram became our best friends. We made many mistakes, as most first-time business owners do and thankfully we had each other to lean on for support.

We’ve learned a lot and we’re grateful that everything has worked out way better than we expected!

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your business?
At Milk & Honey Therapy, we provide holistic mental healthcare for people from all cultural backgrounds.

We specialize in helping children, teens, and young adults overcome anxiety, depression, trauma, athlete concerns, life transitions, low-self esteem, ADHD, and identity development issues. We offer Walk & Talk Therapy, Outdoor Play Therapy, In-Office Therapy, and Virtual Therapy services.

I think what makes us stand out is the wide array of services we offer, especially our Walk & Talk Therapy service. Walk & Talk Therapy is a type of therapy that takes place in nature and mimics the feeling of walking in the park with a friend or loved one. Our clients love it!

I work specifically with teens and young adults who tend to be “strong all the time”, struggle with people-pleasing, have low self-esteem, and feel disconnected from themselves. I love to use creative and holistic approaches such as art, music, mindfulness, meditation, Somatic (body-based) Therapy, and EMDR therapy to help my clients discover their authentic selves.

What I’m most proud of when it comes to our business, is the fact that we serve clients who come from various cultural backgrounds, especially those from the BIPOC community. Oftentimes BIPOC individuals don’t get the care and healing they need for various reasons and we’re grateful to provide trauma-informed and culturally sensitive holistic mental health services.

Additionally, with the help of various grant opportunities, we’ve been able to offer hundreds of therapy sessions at a reduced cost to people experiencing financial difficulties. It’s important to us to make mental health services more accessible.

We’ve also been able to increase access to holistic mental health resources through our second business called Milk & Honey Merch, where we sell mental health-related products, such as t-shirts, stickers, and therapy cards. Our goal is to encourage people to have conversations about mental health and destigmatize therapy.

Is there something surprising that you feel even people who know you might not know about?
I played basketball, soccer, volleyball, and ran track growing up. Basketball was my main sport and I played from ages 7 to 21.

I could’ve played NCAA basketball, but I wanted to have a more balanced college experience, so I chose to play club basketball instead. During my senior year of high school, we won the first Girls’ Basketball Championship in school history! And during my senior year of college, we won the National Club Basketball Championship and I was the MVP!

With all that said, being a former athlete and a former dancer informs a lot of the work that I do with my clients. Because I was so physically active growing up, I learned a lot about my body and body awareness. In my work as a holistic therapist, I use somatic (body-based) skills and techniques to help my clients become more aware of their bodies.

Many people don’t know that emotions, memories, and trauma are all stored in our bodies. Our bodies speak to us on a daily basis and when we slow down to listen to what our bodies are saying, we can take better care of ourselves.

Contact Info:

• Email: [email protected]
• Website: milkandhoneytherapy.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/milkandhoneytherapy/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/milkandhoneytherapy/
• Other: milkandhoneymerch.com

Image Credits
Daniel White Photography – https://www.danielrosswhite.com