Faith to Fruition: 15 Years of Trusting God in Practice and Publishing

Camille McDaniel, LPC (00:03.807)
Welcome back to another episode of Christ in Private Practice podcast. So glad to have you all listening to us again. And today we have a wonderful guest who is going to share some phenomenal information and just a testimony of her own with us today. I’m really happy to have Healey Eichard here with us as she’s going to talk on the topic of

Faith to Fruition, 15 Years of Trusting God in Practice and Publishing. Thank you so much for being here today, Healey.

Healey Ikerd (00:45.304)
Thank you, Camille, so much for having me. I’m glad to be here.

Camille McDaniel, LPC (00:49.645)
going to just jump right in and introduce you all to Healey. know some of you maybe have heard of her before as she is a published author and some of you she may be new to. But Healey Eichert is a licensed professional counselor and she’s a licensed marriage and family therapist. And in addition to the degrees that were required for her to get those licenses, she’s also earned a certificate in ministry from Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary.

Healey’s a veteran of the United States Army. Thank you, Healey. And she now runs her private practice called Hope Life Counseling in Fayetteville, Arkansas. And with 17 years of experience in mental health, she’s dedicated her career to helping both children and adults navigate their emotional and mental health challenges.

She’s authored a workbook called Changing Your Feelings, a workbook for anxiety and worry from a Christian perspective. And she has released a children’s picture book entitled The Red Ball, a story of friendship and forgiveness. And she’s also working on a 40 -day devotional to help women understand their God -given identity. Healey is busy, but she’s bringing us some really good stuff.

She enjoys life on a small farm. If she hasn’t done enough so far, she enjoys life on a small farm with her husband. And they are new grandparents to two beautiful grandchildren. That is wonderful. So we will be talking with Healey today. And so Healey, I’m just going to jump right on in and ask if you can share a bit about your journey into private practice over the last 15 years and just

You know, what inspired you to even pursue a career in counseling?

Healey Ikerd (02:48.312)
Well, word of encouragement actually inspired me to go into counseling like I I love helping people and when I was in my first Masters program, they had quite a few counseling classes in there, even though it wasn’t technically a counseling degree and one of my professors said, wow, it was in my theories of counseling class that we were roleplaying and stuff and he said, well, Haley, you’re pretty good at this and that I just kind of tuck that in the back of my mind.

think that much of it but later as I was trying to I was getting out of the military and trying to decide what I wanted to do with my life I you know I think counseling would really be something I really enjoyed taking those classes and really enjoy that so that’s kind of how I got into the counseling field went back to school and had to get another degree to meet all the requirements but

And then when I was in supervision, my supervisor was, he was in private practice and really encouraged private practice as a place to serve. so he told me a lot of stuff, how to get started and that sort of thing. before that I was working in a,

community -based mental health facility in schools. anyway, so I enjoyed the transition. It was scary, but it’s been very rewarding.

Camille McDaniel, LPC (04:17.239)
Nice, awesome. Okay, so then now how did your faith end up guiding you in that whole process of the professional and the personal life during this time?

Healey Ikerd (04:30.914)
Well, I will say…

you know, I tell people all the time not to let any emotion kind of guide decisions. But when I was stepping out in faith for private practice, I was a little bit worried I wouldn’t be able to pay the bills. And so I ended up taking a job that I thought would be helpful. I kind of knew God didn’t really want me to go there. But, you know, fear did kind of take over and God has used that for good, but I didn’t last

Camille McDaniel, LPC (05:02.317)
Mm -hmm.

Healey Ikerd (05:03.068)
at that job long but as I transitioned to private practice it I mean faith was just employed all the time once I quit that job I I was like okay God like I’ll do this I mean you’ve guided me here I’m just gonna trust you in it and he did end up giving me a position part -time position in

a college to teach psychology, just to kind of help me make that transition from, you know, not having very many clients. And I was I was doing some soup. was a whole thing. I didn’t have to pay rent like I was a supervisor of some interns. Like everything just like totally worked out perfect when I gave him the reins. And from that whole experience now, everything I do is like faith. Like if I’m thinking, my goodness,

Camille McDaniel, LPC (05:38.062)
Yes.

Camille McDaniel, LPC (05:45.997)
Okay.

Camille McDaniel, LPC (05:50.905)
Mm -hmm.

Healey Ikerd (05:58.56)
I don’t have enough clients this week like I I’ve God okay maybe you wanted me to rest I don’t know but I trust God completely with my schedule with the people that he brings that whole experience has just taught me really to lean on faith so

Camille McDaniel, LPC (06:09.411)
Yes.

Camille McDaniel, LPC (06:14.647)
That’s awesome. love, I love how so many of us as believers in Christ can relate to the idea that, you know, the Lord told us to go ahead and go this way. And we’re like, okay, I’m gonna go, but I’m just gonna make this one quick stop. And he’s like, all right, it’s not gonna work. And then it, it shakes us up and we’re like, okay, I’m ready. I’m going to try this. I’m gonna try it scared, but I’m gonna try it. And then he, like a breath of fresh air, he’s like,

What were you worrying about? See how I laid this all out for you? And that’s really how you describe, how you just kind of described everything that you went through to get to where you are, but that’s awesome. Yeah, because it definitely can instill in us even deeper.

Healey Ikerd (06:52.218)
It’s true.

Healey Ikerd (06:57.162)
It’s true.

Healey Ikerd (07:01.078)
Mm hmm. That’s true. And that’s, you know, it’s kind of like, we can use those experiences to recall. So I don’t need to be afraid. I was afraid then I don’t need to make decisions based on fear, I can just trust the Lord. And you know, I partly obeyed. I just didn’t completely. So I’ve learned my lesson. As far as my practice goes.

Camille McDaniel, LPC (07:25.643)
Okay, right, right as a

Healey Ikerd (07:29.496)
You

Camille McDaniel, LPC (07:29.529)
It’s it’s a journey right? Okay, so then How do you now how do you integrate your Christian faith into your counseling practice? Well, especially when you’re working with individuals who don’t share your same belief

Healey Ikerd (07:33.294)
That’s right.

Healey Ikerd (07:49.322)
Right, right. I’m on lots of insurance panels and EAP panels. So I do have a variety coming to my practice. I do advertise myself as a Christian counselor though, and I’ve worked very hard at learning how to integrate faith into counseling and the school I went to as a Christian university also. So they taught us a lot how to do that. In my intake form, I ask people if they want faith integrated.

into their sessions and then have a little number scale on how important faith is to them. So if they do want faith integrated but they’re ranking about a two, it kind of gives me a gauge on how to, and normally like that I would let them lead that discussion. And then, but one of my questions in the first session is, you know, how has faith been

Camille McDaniel, LPC (08:38.435)
Okay.

Healey Ikerd (08:49.523)
involved in the problem or how have you used your faith and kind of a and and from that I can kind of gauge to where they’re at so I try not to lead necessarily unless I know for sure like if they’re want faith integrated and there are 10 on the scale and then they talk about God it’s it’s a lot easier to kind of integrate that but so that’s how I integrate it but once we’ve kind of got that relationship established I use that

Camille McDaniel, LPC (08:54.059)
okay.

Camille McDaniel, LPC (09:13.665)
Okay, okay.

Healey Ikerd (09:19.402)
as we move forward.

Camille McDaniel, LPC (09:20.407)
Okay, yeah, that relationship is so important, so key, okay. Now, what shift did you, how did you make that shift to then incorporate writing books for Christian mental health professionals and children into what you’re doing? Because it sounds like you started your practice and then somewhere along the way you started writing.

Healey Ikerd (09:27.042)
Yes, definitely.

Camille McDaniel, LPC (09:47.107)
for Christian counselors as well, and now also for children. And so were you doing those in tandem or did you start your practice first and then get involved in the writing?

Healey Ikerd (10:01.176)
Well, I’ve actually been writing my whole life. I would write stories when I was young and so forth. I’ve always had a dream that I was going to put together a poetry and photography book. So that had always been out there. As far as specific to mental health, though, I like the Changing Your Feelings book.

It was a book that I would have loved to have when I first started counseling, because it really lays out CBT and integrating the biblical principles in that. But I really created it because I had, and we’ve all experienced this as clinicians, friends, family, they’ll all approach you and say, I’ve got this issue, how can, what can I do?

Camille McDaniel, LPC (10:54.937)
Hmm.

Healey Ikerd (11:00.692)
You know, I was like writing a lot of stuff out for them if they would text me like I might write some stuff out and send it to him or whatever So that’s kind of how it started I kind of created it for people who may not necessarily go to counseling But needed some assistance and it was meant to be kind of small and it just kind of like I kept thinking well, they probably need this too. well, they probably need this too and Anyway, it became a very comprehensive workbook for that. And so that’s how it got started

Camille McDaniel, LPC (11:23.118)
Okay.

Healey Ikerd (11:30.528)
As far as the children’s books, like I said, I’ve written stories since I was young, but I integrate books when I counsel children all the time. I think it’s a really easy way to, and non -threatening way to introduce topics to kids. It’s just, can I read you a story?

And so that’s, love children’s books. And so I integrate those into my practice all the time. And so when I wrote this, it’s actually my part of my mom’s story growing up in East Germany in the 40s. but of course, since I’ve got the mental health always on my mind and faith always on my mind. I wanted to write it where clinicians or

Camille McDaniel, LPC (12:11.609)
Yes.

Healey Ikerd (12:19.638)
teachers or whoever could teach the concepts of forgiveness, emotions, and those sort of things using it also. So that’s kind of how I morphed into no real plan, but just things in the back of my mind all the time.

Camille McDaniel, LPC (12:35.513)
Yes Awesome. Well, it definitely came together in a great way and it sounds like and is still Coming together in a great way. Can you help us to understand that? I know I was I was saying before we started the recording Hey, let me just tell you I’m excited to talk to you and I really mean it not just for the podcast because I know that there were a number of individuals who like yourself they just they had a desire to

share some of the resources in written format. And some of them, at least I know two people in the Christ in Private Practice Facebook group actually were interested in writing for children as well. But can you take us through, what does that even entail? How do you get that going from idea to publishing?

Healey Ikerd (13:28.812)
Well, the idea part is a lot easier than the rest. now, well, and there are lots of routes you can go. first is kind of educating yourself on how to even do it. Because who knew there was actual a outline and things that you do for children’s books and even for other books. And then you’ve got the whole.

Camille McDaniel, LPC (13:31.993)
I’m sure.

Healey Ikerd (13:54.7)
I mean, it’s just a whole process, but there are kind of three routes that you can go to. can self publish, which basically means you can just write and then go on different platforms and publish that, especially if it’s an ebook, that’s like real easy to do. And then there’s kind of a hybrid publishing where the publishing company helps you publish it. They’ll kind of bring together the editors and the illustrators and things

like that to help and then the traditional publisher which you need to have an agent for and you have to have a pretty big following to go the traditional route nowadays but but if you learn and educate yourself it’s fairly easy but it’s it’s kind of a long process either way you go is that helpful or yeah

Camille McDaniel, LPC (14:46.755)
wow. That’s super helpful because it shows all the different routes that you can actually take. Do you offer consultation on that? Is that something that you do?

Healey Ikerd (15:03.5)
Well, I mean, as people have reached out because sometimes I have friends or someone that they’ve been interested in writing something for a while. They’ll just reach out and ask questions. So I do do that. I answer lots of questions, but I’m definitely not an expert in the field. I can share my experience and, you know, it is a constant learning process. am shocked that it is such a the whole thing. The writing

parts easy editing like if you kind of know the ways to go it it’s helpful but there’s a whole part after that that includes actually selling the book that is much more of a process than I ever knew but as far as consulting I don’t but people can definitely reach out to me if they have questions I am happy to answer what I know or I can link them with resources that I’ve found helpful in my process

Camille McDaniel, LPC (15:45.368)
Right!

Camille McDaniel, LPC (16:01.593)
Okay, awesome. Well, we’ll definitely, we’ll get your information to where the end of our time together. Who knows? People might want to get in now before it does turn into a service that she offers. So we will, but we’ll keep on going, right? goodness. then, well, so tell us, you know, in all of the years, like these past 15 years that you have been providing,

Healey Ikerd (16:15.406)
right?

Healey Ikerd (16:19.47)
you

Camille McDaniel, LPC (16:28.227)
counseling care and also writing for both Christian mental health professionals and children. How have you noticed your own growth, both spiritually and professionally, come along as you’ve kind of come into this? You’ve shared a little bit with us already, because it’s taking you down a great path of faith just because of the different twists and turns. Has there been anything else that you’ve noticed along the way?

Healey Ikerd (16:56.748)
Well, clients are really good at inspiring me. think when they come in and they have a strong faith and maybe share spiritual disciplines, that can motivate me sometimes if I feel like, don’t really do that enough. I think it’s inspiring. And I think that’s the power of relationship too, that it’s not just like we are high up here and they’re down there. It is really a relationship of,

we can mutually edify each other, especially in faith that it doesn’t matter that I’m the counselor, so to speak. But so that has been one thing that has been very helpful and inspiring is just meeting the different Christians and hearing their journeys and hearing testimonies of how God has worked in their life. Those things are very powerful. And

Camille McDaniel, LPC (17:35.256)
Yes.

Healey Ikerd (17:57.366)
you know, also getting just ongoing Christian education and learning. Because I go to some Christian counseling conferences and learning how other people integrate their faith is helpful. But I think day to day praying before session, just seeing and hearing God work like sometimes providing things through the Holy Spirit in that session. That is helpful that I may not have thought of, but that was Holy Spirit, I think is really powerful.

Camille McDaniel, LPC (18:26.435)
Yes.

Healey Ikerd (18:27.31)
moving and has helped me grow my own faith.

Camille McDaniel, LPC (18:30.841)
Thank you for that. Yeah, that’s when we invite the Holy Spirit in, it’s always so wonderful when we kind of look back, know, hindsight is 20 -20. When we kind of look back, we see how he’s brought it all together and all the different people that we come in contact with. Like you said, it’s not like we’re sitting up here. Sometimes the very people that we’ve been assigned to help are helping us at some point. They don’t even know it, you know, but it can be really awesome. So then…

The other thing that I want to ask you in all of the things that you do, how do you maintain balance? obviously there’s no balance that’s perfect, but yeah, how do you balance all these roles that you have as a counselor, as an author, you know, a person of faith, small farm, know, grandparents, you know, how do you, how do you manage all that?

Healey Ikerd (19:21.432)
Well…

Sometimes I wonder that myself, but I think it still goes back to like having a lot of prayer. Sometimes if I’m feeling like, mean having a schedule, knowing what I’m doing that day, my calendar, you know, is crucial. But sometimes when I’m feeling overwhelmed, I really do pray, God, like what do want me to accomplish today? And so sometimes that means I may not do anything on working on a devotional and I may not do anything for a

couple weeks as I just take care of other things that he wants me to do. just being sensitive to the Holy Spirit on how to do that. And if it takes a lot longer to do something than I’d originally planned, like I try not to get frustrated. Just trust that God’s going to work these things out. And and but I know my son kind of complained sometimes I’ve got too much going on, but I tell him I’m not retired yet.

Camille McDaniel, LPC (20:09.975)
Yes, yes.

Healey Ikerd (20:23.178)
like because you know they live a long ways away with the grandchildren so I can’t be up there as much as I want to but anyway so and maybe I do have too much going on but I really try to focus on you know what the Lord wants me to do and try not to get all tied up too much in my own agenda

Camille McDaniel, LPC (20:23.469)
Right?

Camille McDaniel, LPC (20:30.516)
Okay

Camille McDaniel, LPC (20:34.349)
That’s all right.

Camille McDaniel, LPC (20:42.937)
Mm

Camille McDaniel, LPC (20:46.861)
And that’s the that’s the important part because he’ll stare us, you know, we sometimes we’ll think, you know, we’re we’re doing great and sometimes we are doing great and then sometimes he has us pivot. So, yeah, like you said, keeping keeping him center is good. So then can you then with with all your experiences really in many different walks of life that you’ve you’ve been on, what advice would you give for other Christian counselors who are looking to

Get into private practice grow their private practice deepen their faith walk with God not be afraid to you know to walk this This private practice journey integrating their faith, you know, what what might you share with them?

Healey Ikerd (21:34.764)
Well…

I would say to always as you’re seeking out whatever the Lord calls you to do in whatever aspect of life that is to just seek the Lord and to always do heart checks of why you’re doing something and what you want to do with that. think you know God is always concerned about the heart and I you know even if he’s not leading you to start a private practice and you want to I think as long as the heart is right I

would say I’m sure he’s like good with it you know as long as it’s not I don’t know get rich without him being involved or something but some of the best advice I’ve received has been at counseling Christian conferences and and one was you know as we are a people of faith that whether we’re talking about faith specifically in the session

Camille McDaniel, LPC (22:13.123)
Mm -hmm. Mm -hmm. Mm -hmm.

Healey Ikerd (22:35.736)
or not that it is important to be in prayer for our clients and recognizing that Jesus is there with us because that we’re there and that the ground that we’re the place that we’re at is really holy ground it’s sacred because people are sharing the most vulnerable parts of themselves and things that they’ve experienced and that is precious and holy in its own

Camille McDaniel, LPC (22:46.935)
Yes.

Healey Ikerd (23:06.214)
its own right and it’s an honor to walk through people with people through that.

but also comes, we can feel a burden that sometimes as people share that that also affects us. And so one of the great things I learned that as Jesus is in there in session with us, he is kind of between us and them and he’s the one that takes on the burden. And so we don’t have to take on the burden of all their things that we can trust that the Lord is taking

Camille McDaniel, LPC (23:35.434)
Yeah.

Camille McDaniel, LPC (23:40.249)
Sure.

Healey Ikerd (23:42.976)
care of that and that has really freed me in the sense that I don’t. Although I have compassion and empathy and the things that I need to have to be present in session with them that I can leave session and still feel OK. I’m not carrying the burdens and if a thought pops up I can pray for them but give it back to Jesus because that’s not my burden to carry. He was created to carry those things that has helped me so much to just.

stay and remain healthy in the midst of counseling the hurting of our society.

Camille McDaniel, LPC (24:16.067)
Yes.

Camille McDaniel, LPC (24:21.561)
That’s a good word. Yeah, that’s a good word because we really can’t, we can’t hold it all. I mean, you know, we’re just flesh and blood ourselves and everybody has a kind of a fill point and then what do we do after that? So yeah, turning it over to the Lord, especially, know, depending on what, some of us are listening to some pretty severe things and some of us are specializing in some pretty severe things. So yeah.

having Christ in between that is, yeah, thank you for sharing that, absolutely. So then with that piece of advice, we’re gonna roll into how we can reach out to you. How can we find you? You have a few online presences, you have social media, you have a website, can you please share how people can find out about all that you’re doing?

Healey Ikerd (24:51.973)
you

Healey Ikerd (25:19.086)
Well, my kind of handle on most things is written by Healey. And so my website is written by Healey .com. My handle on Facebook and Instagram is written by Healey also. So that’s how you’d reach me. And then you can email me through my website. So I’ve got a contact form there. So you don’t have to remember the email. I would say, but you could reach out to

any way that you want. I will respond. I’m happy to give people a word of encouragement or advice or like whatever. I’m happy to engage with people and meet people.

Camille McDaniel, LPC (25:51.659)
Okay.

Camille McDaniel, LPC (26:01.289)
Awesome. Okay, so then that’s written by Healey and just for everyone who is listening Healey is H E A L E Y So written by Healey is her handle and you will be able to find her to see all the wonderful things that she’s doing because she’s doing quite a bit as far as Counseling as far as being an author She has again. She has a book for Christ centered mental health professionals. So

You want to check that out as well. That can be a great guide for you as we are serving God’s people. Thank you again, Healey, for coming on this episode, for sharing your life’s work and journey, and for all the information that you provided with us today.

Healey Ikerd (26:44.312)
Gosh, thank you so much for having me. It’s such a pleasure to be here. I very much enjoyed it.

Camille McDaniel, LPC (26:50.72)
Absolutely.

Camille McDaniel, LPC (26:57.439)
and we stopped. Okay.

CPP Ep. 4 Faith to Fruition