eli westfall, lmft

A few months ago I shared how I reached two pretty significant goals in 2025 and shared some thoughts on what to do after we reach goals we set for ourselves. You can read that here. Taking some of my own advice, over the holidays I spent time reflecting on 2025. I reflected on all the things I accomplished in 2025. I reflected on how much I grew as a therapist in 2025. And I reflected the growth I saw in myself personally. As reflected, I began to think about 2026 and what goals I want to accomplish in 2026. In April, I plan to run the first of two marathons this year. The first marathon is the Helenback marathon in Helen, Ga. and only the first 15 miles of it are uphill in the North Georgia mountains. I haven’t picked my second marathon, but it will be much later in the year. And maybe even more audaciously than my marathon goals, was my goal to start my own therapy practice.

For the last two and a half years, I have been working at Tree of Life Counseling Center in Oviedo. If you are in the Oviedo area and you are thinking of starting therapy, definitely go check them out. They have a good team of therapists and care deeply for their clients. This is their website. I have grown a lot over the time I have been there. Tree of Life has been a great place for me to hone my skills, to get guidance from Garrett and gain confidence. Damelis helped me to learn the business side of being a therapist and how to value myself as a professional and to have the courage to stand up for myself and not let others take advantage of my kind heart.

I cannot stress strongly enough and without them and without my time at Tree of Life, I would not be where I am today. As of Friday, February 6th, eli westfall, lmft LLC went live. I took the plunge and stepped out on my own to start my own therapy practice. Not gonna lie, I’m feeling some feelings. So as not to continue the therapist stereotype of telling our clients to face their emotions while not facing our own emotions, I feel scared, nervous, anxious, excited, confident, and supported. Thanks to having a great relationship with Tree of Life, I was able to start with a pretty much full caseload. Tree of Life has been extremely supportive in this process and has worked with the clients I had while with them, so that any who wanted to continue with me were able to transition to my new practice. There are not enough words of thanks for them allowing me to do so.

2026 is a new year and it is going to bring it’s own set of struggles and hardships, but thanks to my time at Tree of Life I have the confidence to face those struggles and hardships with my head held high, knowing I will succeed.

My hope is find some encouragement to set goals for yourself. <insert positive psychology cliche> I hope to reach for the stars. Oh yeah, if you are looking for a therapist… I’m your guy.