How Alma Supports Kylena France’s Practice Through Constant Change

Kylena’s path to mental health counseling

My family is full of nurses, but I don’t do needles. As a nurse’s aid, I ended up on the floor during a TB test. After almost 15 years in retail management, I knew I had to get back to taking care of people, but wasn’t sure how. When a master's program from Lindsay Wilson University — the kind you could do on weekends while still working — was promoted at my local community college, I figured that was my sign. I graduated in 2012 with a M.Ed with a specialization in Mental Health Counseling, passed my licensing exam in 2013, and then just kept going.

Over the years, I picked up a sex offender certification, a parenting certificate, an independent substance use license, and eventually my Licensed Professional Clinical Counselor credential. I've now taught at Lindsey Wilson University, Southern State, and Cincinnati State. I don't do anything halfway and I love change. Next, I’m working on getting credentialed as a supervisor.

Re-starting in private practice after a major loss

I had a private practice once before, with my best friend. We didn't advertise — just opened our doors and had full caseloads within two weeks, all word of mouth. We had just signed our second lease when she died after being hit by a drunk driver. I had to step away. At the time, private practice was her dream more than mine, and without her, I just couldn't. I went back to working for other people — including at one of the two maximum level security prisons in Ohio, where I still work in the mental health department — and I told myself I'd try again when the time was right.

The time came when I began splitting a practice space with a couple of colleagues. This time, I was the motivated one. The space was sitting there, costing money, and I thought: if I'm paying rent on a place, I need to get serious. So I went RPN at the prison and decided to go all in. I joined Alma as an investment and gave myself a year to see if it was worth it. I figured if it wasn't, I just wouldn't renew.

I got my money back in two and a half months. Alma pays the highest rates of any platform I've tried. which means even a handful of clients makes a real financial difference. But what kept me was everything else — how fast the notes are, how the assessments are set up, the fact that payments are already on file before I ever meet someone. If a client doesn't complete their intake, their appointment gets held until they do. I don't have to chase anyone. I don't have to send awkward reminder emails. That whole layer of admin work just doesn't exist for me.

What fuels her, day-to-day

People always ask how I work with the populations I do — sex offenders, people with serious mental illness, individuals in substance use recovery. And I get it. Those aren't the places most clinicians picture themselves. But I’ve found that they are my people. And I've never met a more honest group of people in my life. There's something about working with people who have accepted the consequences of their choices. They don't perform for you. They just tell you the truth. I once had a client in a recovery group ask me how long I'd been in sobriety, because apparently I said "we" without realizing it. She wasn't calling me out, she said I sounded like one of them. I took that as one of the best compliments I've ever received.

I've been in classrooms at three schools over many years, and I love it. I still teach addiction studies, counseling, psychology. But teaching alone has never paid the bills.

What I really want is autonomy. I don't want to ask permission to take a Tuesday morning off. I don't want to explain to a supervisor why I need to be at the hospital with my husband. Private practice is the only model that works for my life.

My husband has a form of brain cancer that’s treatable, but not curable. We have doctor's appointments and days when he's not feeling well, and I need to be able to move things around without anyone's say-so. That's why I got into private practice in the first place — and why I need to keep building my business. Alma handles the stuff that would otherwise eat up my time, which means I can spend that time where it matters: with clients, with my family, and occasionally, finally, taking Sunday off.