EP 276: From School Counselor to Therapy Pioneer: Allison Cornell's Journey With Firefly Counseling & Consulting

What makes Allison Cornell with Firefly Counseling and Consulting PLLC a good neighbor?

Ever wondered what it means to truly heal from your darkest moments? Allison Cornell, founder of Firefly Counseling and Consulting PLLC, illuminates the path forward in this intimate conversation about mental health, misconceptions, and meaningful transformation.

After spending 15 years as a school counselor, Allison felt called to create a space where people could safely process trauma, life transitions, and emotional pain without judgment. That calling led to the founding of Firefly Counseling and Consulting in January 2022—a trauma-informed mental health practice dedicated to empowering individuals and communities through healing, resilience, and growth.

Specializing in Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR), Firefly provides compassionate, client-centered therapy tailored to the needs of those navigating PTSD, anxiety, depression, and other life challenges. The practice fosters a safe, inclusive environment where clients are guided through evidence-based interventions that support emotional well-being and long-term change.

As Allison beautifully puts it, “When you heat up something, it burns off all the imperfections and things that don't need to remain, so that then we can fly and be free to be who we were created to be.” That philosophy underpins everything Firefly does—from EMDR intensives and couples packages to their collaborative work with functional medicine doctors and psychiatrists.

In addition to serving clients, Firefly also offers professional development, supervision, and EMDR consultation for fellow clinicians who want to deepen their expertise in trauma treatment. With locations in Flower Mound and Waco, the practice is committed to cultural responsiveness, clinical excellence, and the belief that with the right support, healing isn’t just possible—it’s transformative.

Whether you’re a first responder, teacher, business professional, or simply someone ready for change, Firefly offers a free 15-minute consultation to help match you with the right clinician.

To learn more about Firefly Counseling and Consulting PLLC, visit:
 www.fireflycandc.com 

Firefly Counseling and Consulting PLLC

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place
where local businesses andneighbors come together.
Here's your host, Sophia Yvette.

Speaker 2 (00:10):
Welcome to the Good Neighbor Podcast.
Are you in need of a consultantand a counselor?
Well, one may be closer thanyou think.
Today I have the pleasure ofintroducing your good neighbor,
Allison Cornell, with FireflyCounseling and Consulting.
Allison, how are you today?
I'm doing great.
Thank you, Great.

(00:32):
Well, we are so excited tolearn all about you and your
business.
Can you tell us a little bitabout your company?

Speaker 3 (00:39):
Sure, yes.
So Firefly started a few yearsago.
It was just me in the beginningand kind of has blossomed into
a group.
I used to be in the schoolsystem for 15 years and lived
overseas for a while, so Ialways knew I wanted to help
people, but I wasn't for surethat it was the counseling route

(01:01):
until I got into the schoolbusiness as a school counselor
for a very long time and workedwith all the different ages in
the school systems and reallyrealized in that process that I
wanted to do even more and beable to sit across from people
and dive deeper and help peopleprocess through their journey

(01:22):
and their life and their traumaand to just be a safe person for
them.
And so when I went in Januaryof 2022 is when Firefly
officially began and, yeah, justcome alongside people and
Firefly.
You know that if you think abouta firefly, they light up in the

(01:46):
dark and that is a lot of.
The vision for firefly is thatwe want to come alongside people
and we want to help bring lightinto the dark places of their
lives, the hard places wherethey may not be able to see the
best themselves.
And another way to dive evendeeper I like the deep waters.

(02:06):
Another way to dive in deep tothe name of Firefly and where it
came from was, if you break itapart, fire.
You know, when you heat upsomething, it burns off all the
imperfections and the thingsthat don't need to remain, so
that then we can fly and be freeto be who we were created to be

(02:27):
.

Speaker 2 (02:29):
I love that.
Now, what is the most commonmyth or misconception in your
industry?
I'm sure you've heard them all.

Speaker 3 (02:40):
Yes, there's always those misconceptions.
You know, I think sometimes wedo a lot of EMDR therapy at
Firefly and sometimes they maythink that it is shock therapy.
So we reiterate to them that itis definitely not shock therapy
.
We're also not hypnotizing them, even though that's a whole
other modality.
But that's not what EMDR is.

(03:01):
And I think another common oneis that you don't have to let
yourself hit rock bottom beforegetting help.
So yeah, just the myth therebehind that that it's really.
Almost anyone would benefitfrom having a safe person to be
able to talk to.

Speaker 2 (03:20):
Wow, allison, it sounds like you have quite a bit
of information to share withour listeners here.
Let's actually go ahead andswitch gears for a second.
Who are your target customersand or patients, I should say
and in terms of marketing, howdo you currently attract them?

Speaker 3 (03:41):
So that is a very big question.
We work with, I would say, avery broad target audience.
We have clinicians that have awide variety of ages and
backgrounds that they work with.
The ages of the clinicians arealso very, so there's a lot of
variety and I love that becausewe're able to meet a lot of

(04:05):
people where they're at, whetherthat is a child or an
adolescent or an adult, a youngadult, a couple, a family.
We really work with all ofthose populations.
So we love working with firstresponders and those family
members, police officers,firemen, teachers, business

(04:27):
people, just really most peoplewithin the community that we are
able to kind of come alongsideof.
We've worked with people withPTSD, borderline personality,
ocd, general anxiety anddepression, of course, and
social skills.

(04:48):
We've helped some that arehigher functioning, autistic
with some of those avenues ofcare and we offer EMDR
intensives as well as couplespackages, which are really
helpful when you want to be ableto dive in deep and avoid all
of the insurance rules andprocedures of things and have

(05:11):
those longer sessions so thatyou can really work through
things more efficiently andprovide the better care for
those clients that need that andthat are able to do that.
So we, a lot of the clinicians,are trained in EMDR, erp,
gottman, so we really use a veryintegrative approach in working

(05:35):
with our clients.
We really want to hear theirstories, listen to them, come
alongside of them and worktogether as a team to really
help them the best.
So I would say that you know weget referrals, I would say, from
a wide variety of places,whether that is former clients
or doctor's offices or insurancecompanies, psychology today,

(06:01):
people doing Google searches andseeing that we're located close
, whether that's in Flower Moundor the Waco office, just that I
would say those are thepredominant ways that people
come to see us.
I love being able to buildconnections within the community
.
So if I am able to couple witha functional medical doctor or a

(06:24):
psychiatrist that really doeswant to help the person
holistically, then I love tolock arms with those people and
we love to refer back and forthto each other.
If, when we share the samecommon vision of realizing that
treating the person as a wholeperson and not just one piece of
it is my favorite.

Speaker 2 (06:48):
That's amazing, and, allison, have you ever thought
of having your very own podcast?

Speaker 3 (06:56):
It sounds scary but it sounds exciting and I would
not know how to do the all thetechnical side of it.
But my I have a colleague,friend and I, and we are
definitely in the process ofcreating some courses and some
consultation groups for EMDR.
She lives in Canada and we'vebeen, we've been brainstorming,

(07:18):
so we have some.
We have some things that are inthe works but I don't know
about a podcast.
I would have to learn the insand outs of all of that, but it
does.
It sounds fun.

Speaker 2 (07:34):
It definitely is Now, Allison, please tell our
listeners one thing you shouldremember about Firefly
Counseling and Consulting.

Speaker 3 (07:49):
One thing that we are here to help you Simple.

Speaker 2 (08:00):
And where can our listeners go to learn more about
Firefly counseling andconsulting the?

Speaker 3 (08:07):
best way would be to visit our website at
wwwfireflycandccom, or phonenumber 254-230-4994.
People can schedule a 15-minutefree consultation when you
visit the website so that we cangather information, get to know

(08:30):
what the clients are lookingfor and get them scheduled with
the best clinician at Firefly.

Speaker 2 (08:37):
Well, Allison, I really appreciate you being on
the show.
We wish you and your businessthe best moving forward.

Speaker 3 (08:45):
Thank you very much.
Thank you for having me.

Speaker 1 (08:48):
Thank you for listening to the Good Neighbor
Podcast.
To nominate your favorite localbusinesses to be featured on
the show, go to gnpfriscocom.
That's gnpfriscocom, or call469-221-9345.