Today we’d like to introduce you to Esther Kim.
Hi Esther, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
I launched my private practice as a solo therapist in 2022, but my path to this work began long before that. I’ve been in the mental health field since 2010, and every role I’ve held has shaped the therapist and person I am today.
The truth is, becoming a therapist was never part of my original plan. Looking back, though, it feels like every experience was quietly leading me here.
My career began working with infants, toddlers, and their caregivers, where I gained invaluable hands-on experience supporting families through attachment challenges, trauma, advocacy, and early childhood mental health. That work taught me the profound impact that relationships have on healing and development. From there, I worked in the public school system’s emotional disabilities program, helping children navigate emotional and behavioral challenges in an educational setting. During the COVID-19 pandemic, I transitioned to an outpatient mental health clinic, where I supported individuals and families through an especially uncertain and emotionally demanding time.
But my story isn’t defined only by my professional experiences. Much of what fuels my work today was shaped long before my career began.
I am the daughter of immigrant parents and was raised primarily by my mother. Watching her work tirelessly to provide for our family taught me what resilience, perseverance, and quiet strength truly look like. She showed me how to keep moving forward through difficult seasons with grace and determination. Those lessons became the foundation of how I approach both life and my work.
Today, my practice is a reflection of that journey. It’s built on compassion, curiosity, and the belief that healing happens when people feel genuinely seen, understood, and supported. Every chapter of my life, from my upbringing to each professional role I’ve held, has led me to the privilege of walking alongside others as they navigate their own stories.
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?
It definitely hasn’t been a smooth road. One of the hardest decisions I ever made was leaving the security of a traditional role to start my own practice. There were moments when I questioned whether I was making the right decision and whether I could really build something sustainable from the ground up.
Once I took the leap, I quickly realized that being a therapist and being a business owner require two very different skill sets. Graduate school prepared me to care for clients, but it didn’t teach me how to market a practice, manage finances, navigate the administrative side of healthcare, or make difficult business decisions. Like most small business owners, I’ve learned to wear many hats and adapt quickly.
There have been more moments than I can count when I’ve wondered if I should give up. I wouldn’t be where I am today without the support of my family, friends, mentors, and fellow practice owners who reminded me that I didn’t have to figure it all out alone.
Through it all, I’ve discovered that resilience isn’t about having all the answers. It’s about continuing to move forward, even when the next step feels uncertain. I have the privilege of doing work that I genuinely believe matters. This isn’t simply a career for me; it’s a calling. Knowing that I get to help people heal and grow makes every challenge along the way worthwhile.
Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about Mindspace Clinical Counseling?
My practice is a collaborative group therapy practice grounded in one core belief: meaningful therapy begins with genuine human connection.
Each clinician in the practice brings their own areas of focus and training. I specialize in trauma, anxiety disorders, and OCD, while other therapists bring their own strengths in areas such as Christian counseling, relationship therapy, neurodivergent adults, and life transitions. What I value most about this structure is that it allows us to support clients in a way that is thoughtful and individualized rather than one-size-fits-all.
At the heart of our work is the belief that therapy is not passive. It is not simply about talking or being listened to, but about being in relationship with someone who is present, attuned, and willing to walk alongside you through difficult moments. Good therapy requires safety, pacing, and trust. It is a space where someone can be both supported and gently challenged.
Many of the people who come to us are carrying anxiety, trauma, grief, or a deep sense of feeling stuck. One of the most meaningful parts of this work is witnessing what happens over time. When something begins to shift, even subtly. When hopelessness starts to loosen. When someone begins to see themselves and their life a little differently than they did before.
Accessibility is also very important to me and to the practice. We work to keep therapy as reachable as possible by accepting insurance for most specialties and offering sliding scale options when we are able. I want people to be able to access good care without it feeling out of reach financially.
What I am most proud of is the culture of care we are building. It is not just about the work we do in sessions. It is about how we show up for people over time. We sit with clients in some of their hardest moments, and we also get to witness their progress, their resilience, and their wins, both big and small. Those moments stay with me.
At its core, this practice is about people doing the best they can with what they have and finding support along the way that helps them feel less alone in that process.
We’d be interested to hear your thoughts on luck and what role, if any, you feel it’s played for you?
I’ve never really seen my life or business through the lens of luck. My belief is grounded in my faith in God, and I trust that He is guiding the direction of my life even when I cannot fully see or understand the path ahead.
That perspective has shaped the way I move through both life and entrepreneurship. I try to hold the belief that what unfolds, whether ease or challenge, is part of a larger process that is forming something in me: my character, my resilience, and my sense of purpose.
Because of that, I don’t interpret uncertainty or difficulty as absence or abandonment. Instead, I’ve learned to see it as part of a redirection that I may not yet fully understand.
This journey has required me to release the illusion of control more than anything else. So much of life and business is ultimately outside of our hands. Learning to sit in that reality has pushed me to build a deeper kind of stability, one that isn’t dependent on outcomes going a certain way.
As Dr. Caroline Leaf has said, “If your peace depends on everything going right, that’s not actually peace. That’s control.” That idea has stayed with me. For me, real stability is not rooted in certainty or control, but in faith, especially in the moments when I am reminded that I don’t have to hold everything together on my own.
Pricing:
- Individual Therapy: $160-180 for 60 minutes
- Couples Therapy: $190 for 60 minutes
- Sliding scale rates available
Contact Info:
