Today we’d like to introduce you to Marissa Howard.
Hi Marissa, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
Being a ‘helper’ has always come naturally to me. Even when I was very young, I was told that I was warm, genuine, and somehow seemed to know the right thing to say to help people feel good about themselves. Before I thought about pursuing a career that built on those traits, I wanted to be a singer and casting director. I began singing (‘belting’ actually) and performing in musical theater in elementary school. But in my junior year, I developed the croup and lost my voice for a month. That really freaked me out and I figured I better come up with an alternate plan. In my freshman year of high school, a dear friend and neighbor died by suicide. I’d felt the impact of that loss and seen it on others too. I’ve always been someone who uses sadness, anger, and other undesirable emotions to motivate change. So, after the combination of croup & grief – I replaced the list of musical theatre schools I’d hung on the fridge with a list of schools with great psychology and human services programs. I’ve never looked back. From there, my career trajectory has been strangely linear in some ways and surprising in others. It is true that I never looked back after changing my career plan to becoming a therapist. I attended Elon University where I was a Human Services major and Psychology minor. I went straight from there to University of Chicago where I had a clinical focus and evidence-based practices specialization. I went on to work in community mental health in Durham, then Duke Psychiatry for twelve years, and ultimately to Flourish Mental Health and Flourish Together. The surprises came in the form of opportunities that I hadn’t anticipated. I believe very strongly in walking through doors when they are opened for you, and I am so grateful for the doors that have been opened for me. In community mental health, I had the privilege of working among some of the best ACT therapists there are and was able to learn directly from Kelly Wilson, PhD (the co-creator of ACT). At Duke, I was surrounded by many of the experts that created the evidence-based practices I had been learning in the years prior. Not only was I surrounded by them, but they welcomed me in as a respected colleague. I also had the privilege of working for an incredible boss and mentor, Zach Rosenthal, PhD. Zach’s mentorship taught me invaluable lessons about how to lead in ways that are values consistent, and how to create team cultures where people feel truly respected & appreciated. Throughout my twelve years at Duke, I ultimately got to work in direct clinical practice, research, clinical education, and clinical leadership & administration. All that I learned at Duke remains with me today, but the lessons learned in clinical leadership and administration have proven invaluable as I’ve grown Flourish. Today, I am the Owner and Director of both Flourish Mental Health and Flourish Together. Both are businesses fueled by that same motivation to make a difference in the the things that have led me to feel frustration, sadness, and anger; I desire to fuel that energy into solutions and feel empowered to do so. At Flourish Mental Health, I am proving every day that it is possible to provide exceptional and accessible care for patients, help therapists to be well, and to still have a thriving business. At Flourish Together, we recognize that parental stress is higher than it has been in history and is both untenable and unsustainable. We know that parents are not ok, and we are working to change that by getting parents the support they need. We know that helping parents will help families, communities, businesses, and children to thrive. I consider it an incredible honor to be a part of creating a better world for clinicians, clients, and parents.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Of course not! I am aware that I have tremendous privilege- including access to an incredible education and exceptional mentorship. That said, nothing is without struggle. There are more struggles than this, of course, but these ones stand out: I graduated from the University of Chicago in 2008, which turned out to be a terrible year for the economy and an especially bad time to enter the job market. Thankfully, I’d received a job offer in community mental health before graduation. I’d tried to negotiate a delayed start date so I could enjoy the city a little while longer before beginning my professional career. They said they needed me “yesterday,” so I packed my Honda Civic with everything I could fit and drove to Durham just a few days after graduation. The team I worked for was incredible and we worked so very, very hard for the community. Our team was tasked with working with people who did not have insurance or Medicaid. Unfortunately, I was (along with all of my co-workers) laid off from that job 10 months later. Navigating working motherhood has been a challenge unto itself, but COVID lock down proved to be especially tricky. In the peak of COVID, I had a one year old and not-quite two year old. My husband and I divided the day into shifts of who was with kids and who was working, and the working occurred in our shed which we deemed the “shoffice.” Sometimes, I still wonder how we did it & use it as a reminder that we can stretch to do hard things when needed.
Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I have two businesses! Flourish Mental Health has been steadily growing since 2021 and we are just launching Flourish Together.
Flourish Mental Health is a group therapy practice that is devoted to making exceptional care accessible. We only hire therapists with great experience, skill, and training. We are all devoted to using evidence-based practices, life-long learning, and a consultation model of practice. My favorite part of my job is that my focus gets to be on making sure that our therapists are well and have the support that they need. I also love working to ensure that our practice is values-guided and that we put our money where our mouth is (for example, we care about being life-long learners so Flourish provides an annual training stipend; we care about provider wellness so we have health insurance and a monthly wellness stipend). We are known for working with adults and using contemporary, evidence based therapies to help with parental stress, anxiety, depression, perinatal mood and anxiety disorders, trauma, substance use disorders, insomnia, and OCD.
Flourish Together works to reduce parental stress and improve parental well being through education, coaching, and consulting. We’ve seen and experienced how untenable the demands of parenting in 2026 are and the impact of that stress on parents. We know that level of stress meant that parents are not ok. We also know that is impacting kids. We are trying to create the change we’ve needed at an individual, family, community, and society level. We are going to where the parents are and teaching many of the skills we teach our clients – proactively to communities rather than reactively once someone meets criteria for a mental health diagnosis. We are also consulting with businesses on how to create policies that support parents and caregivers. We are putting the parent back in parenting again.
If we knew you growing up, how would we have described you?
I was an extreme extrovert, precocious, goal-oriented, and witty. The woman in charge of admissions at my elementary school loved me because she said I made her job easy. Whenever I saw a new family, I confidently walked over to introduce myself and tell them all of the reasons they should join us at the school. In the Summer, I spent all day every day at the neighborhood pool- even on the rainy days, I’d go and sit with the life guards flipping a whistle around my fingers just like they did.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.flourish-together.org
