I'm Vickey Simmons-Hart — a Licensed Professional Counselor, lifelong learner, and deeply curious human who believes the most powerful healing happens when people stop being asked to choose between their identity and their recovery.
I'm an Arizona native, born and raised in the Valley, the youngest of five kids in a family that taught me what survival and love can look like in the very same breath. I came to this work not only through graduate training, but through the lived experience of moving through a world that doesn't always leave room for complicated people.
Before becoming a counselor, I spent years as an educator and adult learning specialist — work that taught me something my clinical training later confirmed: people learn, grow, and heal best when they feel genuinely seen. That's the foundation of everything that happens in session with me.
I hold a Master of Science in Counseling, a Master of Arts in Education, a Bachelor of Science in Management, and an Associate of Applied Science in Computer Technology — and I'm trained in EMDR, Brainspotting, Internal Family Systems, somatic approaches, CBT, DBT, EFT, and SFBT. I use all of it as a toolkit, not a script. What matters most is meeting you exactly where you are.
Inclusive Mental Wellness exists because I needed it to exist — a practice where Black folks, LGBTQIA+ individuals, neurodivergent people, survivors, and anyone who's ever been told they were "too much" or "not enough" can show up whole and be received that way. As a queer Black woman, a mother to six adopted children, a wife to a disabled veteran, and someone who lives with ADHD, intersectionality isn't an academic concept for me — it's daily life. I believe healing is possible for everyone, not because it's easy, but because you deserve it and you don't have to do it alone.
