Rice attended the University of Cincinnati where she majored in business. But she quickly discovered she didn’t care for any of her classes, except for psychology.
She got a job as a bank teller and found she loved talking to people, and they loved talking to her.
“I never thought I wanted to be a therapist,” Rice said. “But I was talking to so many people, and they actually started waiting in line to talk to me.”
Rice changed her major to psychology after her freshman year because it “felt right.” Friends and family members were telling her this was her calling.
“I took a pause on life because I became a single mom,” Rice said. “It took me years to get my undergraduate degree, but I graduated in 1998.”
Rice got a job working in a residential services facility with clients in Warren County who had developmental disabilities. Then she got pregnant with her second child.
“By the time I had another child as a single parent, this made me start to look at myself and what was going on,” Rice said. “I really started diving deep into my relationships because I was the common denominator.”
Rice was feeling unfulfilled in her job with Warren County because it was mostly administrative in nature, so she decided to go back to school for her master’s degree in counseling.
“I knew this was what I needed to do,” Rice said. “After I graduated in 2010, I went to work for a community mental health-based agency, and it was the first time I actually started getting paid for doing therapy.”
But Rice struggled financially. Her job with the county had paid her more and her new job was much more challenging.
“I did feel better about what I was doing though,” she said.
Rice was working with children through the local schools. She worked as a school counselor at Mason High School and also started offering group sessions at the Warren County Career Center.
“I have always been drawn to groups,” Rice said. “I did some work at a domestic violence shelter, and I really liked that. I didn’t know how it would go but discovered it just flowed, and a new group facilitator was born!”
Rice moved to Springboro after she got a job at the University of Dayton in 2018 working with the ECHO (Empowering Local School Children With Hope and Opportunity) program at local Catholic schools. The program is designed to help teachers and administrators remove barriers to learning, such as poverty, violence and discrimination.
“I would go into all types of classrooms through 8th grade and enjoyed it but the felt the call to start my own practice,” Rice said.
Finding she still wasn’t making enough money to support herself and become debt free, Rice decided to open that practice in 2022 after saving enough money for a “safety net.”
Rice has a personal story that has made her even more passionate about helping people, especially those struggling with addiction. In 2014, her older brother, Brian Elliott passed away at the age of 47 after struggling with alcohol addiction for years. And when she works with groups focused on those with addictions, she always shares his story.
“It was a big loss for our family,” Rice said. “And the pain runs deep. But helping others who are struggling with the same thing Brian did – it just feels like the right thing to honor his memory.”
Rice’s practice is in Centerville and is called “Synergistic Journeys.” It offers transformative therapy that provides healing, clarity and lasting change.
She said healing is not about trying harder or “pushing through,” instead it’s about understanding and transforming the patterns of thoughts and behaviors that keep people stuck in the same place.
“Through a healing modality, we process experiences that have caused people to struggle,” Rice said. “We work to process that experience and pull back all the layers.”
Rice sought her own therapy to heal from the loss of her brother and pain of her childhood experiences. Because of this, she has unique perspectives to bring to the table. In addition to offering therapies such as Internal Family Systems, which focuses on different parts of the brain and unresolved pain from past experiences, she works with clients through creative expression including journaling, art, movement and music.
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