Community Highlights: Meet Liz Davis of Liz Davis Therapy LLC

Today we’d like to introduce you to Liz Davis

Hi Liz, 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?
Anyone reading this, especially if you’re young, should understand that there is no “standard trajectory” that you need to follow to become successful. My story and how I got to where I am today as a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist is non-linear.

I grew up in Wichita, Kansas, and I was always a pretty self-aware child. I knew I was Queer at twelve years old. Due to some traumatic experiences, I developed depression at fourteen years old. I researched what I was experiencing and asked my mother if I could see a therapist. Immediately after our first session, I knew I wanted to do her job one day.

In high school, I took college psychology and sociology courses. Then, I went to K-State, where I majored in Psychology. Due to another traumatic experience, I developed Bipolar 2 Disorder, which made completing my coursework incredibly difficult. After four years at K-State, I transferred to KU, where I majored in Psychology.

My early twenties were so difficult. I was trying to manage my mental health challenges while doing undergrad coursework while also working full-time. It took me another three years at KU to finally graduate. I was twenty-five years old.

Even though I still wanted to be a therapist, the challenges of undergrad made me terrified of going to graduate school. Instead, I kept working as a manager at the restaurant where I worked as an undergrad and eventually worked my way up to the position of general manager. I loved that place and took great pride in my work! My favorite part was mentoring and supporting the staff working for me.

After seven years of working there, my partner finally confronted me and lovingly convinced me to quit my job and finally apply to graduate school to truly pursue my passion for listening to and helping others.

At twenty-nine years old, I applied to Friends University’s Marriage and Family Therapy graduate program and was accepted!

We moved from Lawrence, Kansas, to Kansas City, Missouri, and I absolutely adored my graduate school program! I was older, more mature, and stable, and I had finally taken control of my mental health through years of intensive therapy and finding the appropriate psychiatric medications for me.

In 2021, I graduated from Friends University and was awarded the Sheldon-Louthan Award, an honor given to one graduate student each year for their exceptional representation of the Marriage and Family Therapy profession. Giving a speech at graduation in front of all of my loved ones was a highlight of my life, as I had finally arrived at where I had always wanted to be!

After graduation, I immediately founded my company, a private practice called Liz Davis Therapy LLC. I started seeing clients, and wow, it was an amazing experience to be living out my fourteen-year-old dream! At this point, I was thirty-one years old.

From 2021-2024, I was astounded at the growth of my solo private practice! I didn’t expect it at all! By the Spring of 2024, yet again, my partner lovingly confronted me. The client demand exceeded my availability – surprisingly, I had outgrown my solo private practice.

With the help of my partner, Peter Soto, I launched the Liz Davis Therapy Group – a mental health group practice in November 2024. With so much help from my partner over the months, we created the business plan, found and rented an entire office building, and hired our first therapist, Lynee Gonzales, M.S., PLMFT, also a Friends University graduate. Along with Peter and Lynee, our dear Graduate Student Therapist, Harry Green, a Friends University Intern, is on our team. I couldn’t be more grateful for this fantastic team!

It’s been two months, and Peter and I finally finished decorating the office completely! Clinicians and clients alike speak highly of the warm, comfortable, and eclectic aesthetic! That means a lot to me because I wanted to curate an office space that the team and all of our clients would actually want to be in and look forward to coming to! Aesthetics are important to me, and everything from the artwork, candles in each room, and hand-selected decor inspires us all to do our best work with clients!

Anyone reading this should remember that there is no standard trajectory. I was thirty-one years old by the time I started my career, and through hard work and a loving commitment to my clients, I am humbled and honored to found a therapy group practice of my own! I am now thirty-four years old, and greatly looking forward to whatever the Universe has in store for me in the coming years!

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Please know it wasn’t always a smooth road.

Navigating my mental health in my twenties was a challenging journey, but I am so grateful now for the last six years of stability without any mental health episodes! This experience, along with the tools and coping strategies learned along the way, provided me with wisdom and personal experience navigating mental health symptoms and diagnoses while still having to live life. I try to utilize this lived experience and wisdom to better guide and serve my clients on their own mental health journeys.

Professionally, over the last three years, I have, as many of us do, experienced burnout. I cannot emphasize enough that those of us in the helping professions must prioritize self-care.

I was so passionate about my work at various points that I would overwork myself and burn out, only to see fewer clients and increase my self-care for a couple of months to recover.

These experiences only increased my self-awareness and wisdom. I learned to listen to my body, mind, spirit, and intuition, to know when I need to cut back, take time off, build more relaxation time into my schedule, or even say “no” to certain opportunities if they would require me to overextend myself past my bandwidth.

All of these hardships have value.

I am better able to empathize and have compassionate guidance and wisdom for my clients now because of what I’ve been through and how I have learned to recover and maintain my peace and healing!

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about Liz Davis Therapy LLC?
Liz Davis Therapy Group is a collective of Marriage and Family Therapists, all products of Friends University, who wish to serve the greater Kansas City metro area by providing therapy services to individuals, couples, and families at various price points so that we can help more people in our city.

We provide therapy with Authenticity, Acceptance, and Alignment as our values. As clinicians, we are all non-judgmental, compassionate, and welcoming of people from all walks of life and backgrounds. We all value trusting our intuition and self-expression in the therapy room.

When you attend a therapy session at the Liz Davis Therapy Group, you are free to be your full True Self, and you will walk away feeling like you actually know who your therapist is as a person!

We all work with a diverse demographic of clients and a variety of mental health issues; however, we also have some specialties.

We are an LGBTQIA+-friendly group therapy practice. All three therapists currently on our team are Queer, and we seek to provide emotionally safe and empathetic therapy services to all Queer individuals, couples, and families in the Kansas City area. We also can provide assistance to teens or individuals wishing to “come out” to parents or family members through affordable family therapy.

In addition to being part of the Queer community, Lynee and I are People of Color. She is a proud Latina, and I am a Second-Generation American whose mother is an immigrant from Kenya. We welcome individuals, couples, and families of various races, ethnicities, and countries of origin. Representation, or having a therapist who either looks like you or can understand you culturally, can directly impact the efficacy of the therapeutic alliance and the work done together.

That said, please know that the Liz Davis Therapist Group welcomes all people in Kansas City. Demand for quality mental health services continues to grow, particularly as our socio-cultural and political world continues to become more complicated. Our group practice plans to expand to meet this need for the people of Kansas City!

What’s next?
The Liz Davis Therapy Group, founded in November 2024, has big goals and dreams for 2025 and beyond. As a team, we have expanded our offerings to include support groups, psychoeducation groups, and book clubs on topics related to mental health and wellness.

Feel free to follow us on social media to stay up to date on these offerings, and even sign up if you feel compelled!

It can be scary to attend an event alone, so feel free to ask a friend or family member to attend with you!

Furthermore, in 2025 and beyond, the Liz Davis Therapy Group plans to hire more therapists to meet client demand. We plan to one day have at least one, if not more, therapist(s) available in the office every day of the week.

The people of Kansas City can rest assured that any therapist on our team will be hand-selected by me, share the values of the practice, and be non-judgmental and accepting of all types of people. Even if this group practice expands in the years to come, we will never lose touch with our humble beginnings and never lose sight of the core values upon which this practice was started.

Pricing:

• Liz Davis’s Individual Fee: $175 per session
• Liz Davis’s Couples Fee: $250 per session
• Liz Davis’s Family Fee: $350 per session
• Graduate Student Therapist Fee: $50 per session
• Lynee Gonzales’s Fee: $125 per session

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.lizdavistherapy.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lizdavis_therapy/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lizdavistherapy
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/liz-davis-therapy-kansas-city
• Other: https://maps.app.goo.gl/642DtEgq5KgLb7K66