Inspiring Conversations with Amalia Miralrio of Amity Detroit Counseling

Today we’d like to introduce you to Amalia Miralrio. 

Hi Amalia, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstories.
I got my start as a sexuality educator in high school when I started volunteering with my local Planned Parenthood to provide peer education. I learned very quickly that I loved the honor of being someone’s safe person to go to for compassionate, well-informed help with their most intimate problems. I felt motivated to follow this thread through my undergrad years at University of Michigan, where I continued my volunteer work at the campus sexual assault center (SAPAC). Although I was following the thread of sexuality education, my favorite part of providing education was the ability to provide one-on-one support to my communities. It seems obvious looking back that I was destined to become a therapist, but it really hadn’t occurred to me as a possibility at the time. I hadn’t even planned on attending grad school and spent my first year after undergrad working in Costa Rica to manage an international volunteer program. While I was there, I developed the awareness that I desperately wanted to become a therapist. I also knew that I wanted to continue to focus on sexuality. I kid you not – I googled “how to become a sex therapist” at my work desk in Costa Rica and found one of the only accredited grad programs in human sexuality. I only applied to that one grad program, and thankfully I was accepted! I moved to Philadelphia and earned my Master of Clinical Social Work and Master of Education in Human Sexuality degrees from Widener University. 

I worked as a therapist at a rape crisis center outside of Philadelphia for the three years it took me to earn my independent license as a clinical social worker. I loved that work, but there were two parts of it that pushed me towards private practice. First, that I was unhappy with how limited the workplace was in terms of social justice. I learned very quickly that the non-profit world is not some woke utopia as I may have fantasized it was when I was a student. In practice, this meant that as a woman of color I was expected to provide informal education to my colleagues and take on extra tasks outside of my job description. This was complicated for me because I wanted to use my many privileges to advocate for racial justice, but I was also consistently angry, saddened, and disappointed in my colleagues who I’d grown to also care about. I’m so thankful I had support outside of work to help me process everything that was activated within me during this time. I have to remind myself even now that I was also carrying the emotional impact of working with severely traumatized clients all day. 

Secondly, I knew I had to leave the non-profit world when I recognized that I would never make enough money to manage the financial reality of my student loans. It can be taboo for therapists to talk about their desire to make more money, but this was absolutely an important part of my story. I put my heart and soul into my work and I need to be able to make a wage that supports me as a full person, too. It’s important for me to advocate for livable, fair wages for therapists. 

Today, I’m a therapist in private practice. My practice is called Amity Detroit Counseling and I work with women and non-binary individuals. I support my clients with concerns related to relationships, sexuality, body image, and racial and ethnic discrimination. I have an office in downtown Detroit, and I’m also able to see clients virtually all over both Michigan and Pennsylvania. 

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall, and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
I opened my practice virtually in May of 2020, and it was so hard! I did not have an easy time with the startup process at all. I was trying to get the word out about my new business at the start of a pandemic in a city I had just moved to. I’m so thankful that technology allowed me to see clients safely and that I was also able to start networking and building a new community here over zoom. It’s much easier to look back now and feel that gratitude, but the first year of private practice was much more difficult than I had anticipated. I do believe it would have been different if I would have opened my practice in Philadelphia, where I already had a professional community, but the struggles forced me to fight for it harder. I hadn’t expected to need such a strong sense of conviction in my work, but having such a rough first year absolutely pushed me to double down on the vision I had for what I wanted to build and am still building. 

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know?
I provide therapy to women and non-binary individuals. I support my clients with concerns related to relationships, sexuality, body image, and racial and ethnic discrimination. I have an office in downtown Detroit, and I’m also able to see clients virtually all over both Michigan and Pennsylvania. It lights me up to witness my clients bravely taking on self-exploration, confronting the most wounded parts of themselves with care, and expanding into their truest selves. 

Is there anyone you’d like to thank or give credit to?
I wouldn’t have made it through my first few years of being a therapist without the amazing supervisors I’ve had. Whether it was at my internship at University of Pennsylvania or the person I worked with every single Saturday for years while I had my limited license — these therapists are truly the heroes of my story! I still rely heavily on a small group of therapist peers to go-to for everything from business questions to “I had a bad day, I’m sad, let’s talk” type of support. I’m also lucky to have a partner who’s kept me going when I’ve wanted to give up and incredible friends! Last but not least, of course, I also have my own therapist! 

Pricing:

• $200 -individual therapy session

Contact Info:

• Email: [email protected]
• Website: amitydetroitcounseling.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/amaliamiralrio/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AmityDetroitCounseling
• Other: https://goo.gl/maps/eVefkbzkgxZq3fRk9

Image Credits
Alyssa Leffler Photography