Hidden Gems: Meet Destiny Howell of BeUTherapy

Today we’d like to introduce you to Destiny Howell.

Hi Destiny, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
My journey into mental health began with a deep curiosity about people, their experiences, and the ways our environments, relationships, and life circumstances shape who we become. I have always been drawn to understanding the stories behind people’s behaviors and the experiences that influence how they see themselves and navigate the world.

That curiosity eventually became my career. I earned my bachelor’s degree in Sociology from California State University, Northridge, followed by a Master of Social Work and a Master of Public Health from the University of Southern California. My educational background allowed me to understand mental health through both an individual and a broader social lens, recognizing that healing doesn’t happen in isolation from our relationships, communities, and lived experiences.

Throughout my career, I’ve had the opportunity to work with individuals and families navigating trauma, emotional challenges, relationship dynamics, and significant life transitions. Over time, I became particularly passionate about identity, self-worth, and the ways women often lose connection with themselves while fulfilling the roles and expectations placed upon them.

Becoming a mother myself added another layer to that understanding. Motherhood has been one of the most meaningful experiences of my life, but it has also deepened my awareness of how easily a woman’s identity can become intertwined with what she provides for everyone else. I began thinking more intentionally about the emotional experiences that often go unspoken, particularly for mothers and women who are expected to be strong, capable, and constantly available to others.

That intersection of my clinical expertise, personal experiences, and passion for helping people reconnect with themselves became the foundation for BeUTherapy, my private practice.

I created BeUTherapy to be more than a place where people come to talk about their problems. I wanted to build a space where individuals could explore who they are beyond their trauma, relationships, responsibilities, and the identities they’ve learned to carry. My approach emphasizes not only healing from difficult experiences but also developing a stronger sense of self, emotional awareness, and the freedom to live more authentically.

Today, as a Licensed Clinical Social Worker and the founder of BeUTherapy, I specialize in maternal mental health, trauma, identity development, self-worth, and life transitions. My work has also evolved beyond traditional individual therapy to include therapeutic groups, wellness workshops, educational resources, and self-reflection tools designed to make emotional wellness more accessible.

Building a private practice while raising three children and continuing to grow personally and professionally has taught me a great deal about the very things I help my clients navigate: boundaries, identity, resilience, and learning to make room for yourself while showing up for others.

What began as a passion for understanding people has grown into a business rooted in helping people better understand themselves. And I think that’s the most meaningful part of my journey. I’m not simply building a therapy practice; I’m building a brand and community centered on the belief that you deserve to know, value, and become yourself beyond the roles you fulfill and the experiences you’ve survived.

I’m still growing, evolving, and expanding what BeUTherapy can become, and that’s something I’m genuinely excited about.

I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
I wouldn’t say it’s been a smooth road, but I also wouldn’t change the experiences that have shaped where I am today. One of the biggest lessons I’ve learned is that growth often requires you to become uncomfortable with the version of yourself you’ve grown accustomed to being.

The journey to becoming a Licensed Clinical Social Worker required years of education, clinical training, supervised experience, and perseverance. It’s a profession that asks a lot of you emotionally and intellectually. You’re constantly learning how to hold space for other people’s experiences while also recognizing the importance of doing your own internal work.

One of my greatest challenges has been learning to balance the different versions of myself. I’m a mother of three, a therapist, a business owner, and a woman who is still discovering and redefining who she wants to become. Motherhood has been incredibly meaningful, but it has also challenged me to examine how much of my identity I was placing into being everything for everyone else. There have been seasons when my personal goals, professional ambitions, and responsibilities as a mother have all competed for my attention.

Interestingly, many of the things I help women work through in therapy are things I’ve had to become intentional about in my own life: setting boundaries, releasing unrealistic expectations, navigating transitions, and recognizing that prioritizing yourself doesn’t mean you’re neglecting the people you love.

Building BeUTherapy has presented its own set of challenges. Being a skilled therapist and being a business owner require two very different skill sets. I’ve had to learn how to navigate entrepreneurship, establish systems, market my services, build professional relationships, and make decisions that support both the quality of care I provide and the sustainability of my practice. There isn’t always a clear roadmap, and much of the process involves learning through experience.

I’ve also had to challenge the idea that success requires constantly doing more. As someone whose work centers on emotional wellness, I’ve become increasingly aware of how easy it is to advocate for balance and self-compassion while holding yourself to completely different standards.

I think one of the biggest shifts in my journey has been learning that I don’t have to choose between being a present mother, a passionate therapist, an ambitious entrepreneur, and an individual with needs and aspirations of my own. Those parts of me can coexist, even if the balance looks different from season to season.

If anything, the challenges have made the mission behind BeUTherapy more personal. They’ve reminded me that identity isn’t something we establish once and carry unchanged throughout life. It evolves with our experiences, relationships, responsibilities, and the decisions we make about who we want to become.

I’m learning that success isn’t just about what I build professionally. It’s also about creating a life where I have the freedom to exist fully within it. And that’s a message I hope to continue sharing through my work.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your business?
BeUTherapy is a mental health and wellness practice I founded with a simple but meaningful belief: healing isn’t just about addressing what’s happened to you; it’s also about discovering who you are beyond those experiences.

As a Licensed Clinical Social Worker, I provide psychotherapy to individuals and couples navigating trauma, anxiety, depression, relationship challenges, identity concerns, and significant life transitions. My practice has a particular focus on maternal mental health, women’s emotional wellness, self-worth, and identity development.

One of the populations I’m especially passionate about serving is women navigating the emotional and psychological transitions associated with motherhood. While motherhood is often celebrated for its beauty and fulfillment, there are equally important conversations surrounding identity loss, emotional exhaustion, relationship changes, postpartum mental health, and the pressure to continuously show up for others while neglecting yourself.

Through BeUTherapy, I want to create more space for those conversations.

My work is also deeply rooted in supporting women of color and individuals who have learned to define themselves through survival, achievement, relationships, or the expectations of others. I’m particularly interested in helping people recognize the patterns they’ve developed to navigate their environments and determine whether those patterns still align with the lives they want to create.

What sets BeUTherapy apart is the emphasis on identity as an essential component of emotional healing.

I don’t believe therapy should focus solely on managing symptoms. While developing coping skills and addressing mental health concerns are important, I also want clients to explore the deeper questions: Who am I outside of my responsibilities? What do I believe about myself? Where did those beliefs originate? What parts of myself have I neglected, suppressed, or outgrown?

My approach integrates evidence-based therapeutic practices, including EMDR, cognitive behavioral therapy, attachment-based interventions, and other trauma-informed approaches. I believe meaningful therapeutic work should balance clinical knowledge with curiosity, compassion, and an understanding of each person’s lived experience.

Beyond individual and couples therapy, BeUTherapy is expanding into therapeutic groups, wellness workshops, educational programming, and personal development resources. I’ve developed guided journals, workbooks, and reflective tools designed to encourage emotional awareness and personal growth beyond the therapy room.

Some of these resources focus on motherhood and identity, while others explore boundaries, self-worth, emotional regulation, and reconnecting with yourself during periods of change.

I’m especially excited about creating opportunities for community-based wellness through programs such as the Mom Reset Wellness Circle and my Wear Your Words™ workshops, which combine self-expression, reflection, and conversations about identity. My larger vision includes collaborating with schools, community organizations, and businesses to bring meaningful mental health education and wellness experiences into spaces where people already gather.

I’m also passionate about bridging the gap between clinical mental health services and everyday emotional wellness. Not everyone is ready to begin therapy, and not every meaningful conversation about mental health needs to happen in a traditional therapy setting. I want BeUTherapy to offer multiple opportunities for people to engage in self-exploration, education, and personal development.

What I’m most proud of is that BeUTherapy has developed into a reflection of what I genuinely believe about people: we are more than our circumstances, our struggles, and the roles we fulfill.

Building this practice has allowed me to bring together my clinical background, creativity, interest in public health, and passion for helping others. It’s important to me that the brand feels approachable, intentional, and deeply human rather than overly clinical or intimidating.

Today, BeUTherapy offers virtual psychotherapy services for clients throughout California, along with educational resources and opportunities for wellness-focused coaching and consultation beyond the state.

As I continue to grow the business, my goal is to build a recognizable mental wellness brand that creates opportunities for healing, education, connection, and self-discovery across different stages of life.

Ultimately, I want people to understand that BeUTherapy isn’t about becoming someone entirely new. It’s about creating the space to understand, embrace, and reconnect with who you are while giving yourself permission to evolve.

That’s the heart of the business, and it’s what I hope people experience whenever they interact with the brand.

Can you tell us more about what you were like growing up?
Growing up, I was someone who learned early on how to observe, adapt, and understand the people around me. I’m a middle child, and I think that experience, combined with my family dynamics, influenced how I learned to navigate relationships and understand different perspectives.

My upbringing wasn’t without challenges. I grew up in a family that experienced its share of hardships, and I witnessed firsthand what it meant to persevere through difficult circumstances. I watched my mother navigate challenges and make sacrifices for our family, which gave me an early appreciation for resilience, determination, and the strength it takes to keep moving forward.

Looking back, I think I developed a sense of responsibility and awareness of other people’s emotions at a young age. I became someone who paid attention to what was happening around me, not just what people were saying, but sometimes what they weren’t saying.

As I’ve gotten older, I’ve come to understand how much our childhood environments shape the roles we take on, the beliefs we develop about ourselves, and the ways we learn to connect with others. It’s interesting because those are some of the very things I now help people explore in therapy.

I also think growing up with limited resources gave me an appreciation for creating opportunities and imagining possibilities beyond my immediate circumstances. I understood that where you come from can influence your story, but it doesn’t have to determine how that story ends.

One thing I’ve learned through both my personal growth and professional journey is that some of the qualities we develop in childhood to navigate our environments can become strengths, but they can also be things we eventually have to reevaluate. For me, that has meant learning the difference between being responsible and feeling responsible for everything, or being there for others without losing sight of myself.

I think the younger version of me would be proud of the woman I’ve become, not necessarily because of the degrees, credentials, or business I’ve built, but because I’ve continued to grow into someone who is intentional about understanding herself, challenging old patterns, and creating something meaningful from her experiences.

In many ways, my childhood sparked a curiosity about people that eventually became part of my purpose. And today, that curiosity continues to influence how I approach motherhood, relationships, and my work as a therapist.

Pricing:

• Individual Therapy: Private-pay sessions starting at $200.
• Couples Therapy & EMDR: Specialized sessions with rates up to $250.
• Group Therapy & Wellness Circles: Starting at $65 per session.
• Insurance-Based Therapy: In-network options available through select insurance providers. Client costs vary based on individual benefits.
• Consultations: 15-minute initial consultations available to discuss services, treatment needs, and insurance eligibility.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://beutherapy.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/beutherapy?exln=NTc4MTIwNjQ2YQ==
• Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@beutherapy?_r=1&_t=ZT-9ApyVkulW6H