A LETTER FROM THE OWNERS

Let us be the first to welcome you to ATX Mental Health!

When we started ATX Mental Health in 2020, we weren't just opening a practice. We were building the kind of place we wished had existed earlier in our careers — and honestly, in our own lives.

Before we became partners in life and in this work, we each took a different road here. Damien spent years pouring himself into some of the hardest clinical settings there are — including building the first mental health hospital in Williamson County from the ground up, and developing a specialized program for active duty military facing trauma and substance use. He learned early that real progress happens when people feel genuinely respected, not just processed.

Sarah came up through clinical social work, starting her career working with people experiencing homelessness — some of the most vulnerable and overlooked people in any community. She holds two science degrees, in psychology and social work, but what shaped her most wasn't the coursework. It was learning, in those early years, that dignity isn't a clinical concept. It's the baseline every person deserves from the moment they walk in the door.

We've carried both of those lessons into everything we've built here. But there's something else that shapes how we run this practice — and it doesn't come from clinical training at all. It comes from years of working in customer service, and from being clients ourselves.

We know what it feels like to be genuinely cared for. We also know what it feels like to be an afterthought. We've watched the mental health field take the client experience for granted too many times — as if the courage it takes to ask for help doesn't deserve to be met with warmth and real attentiveness.

You deserve better than that. You deserve to feel welcomed from the first phone call. You deserve a clinician who shows up fully present. That's not a luxury — it's the baseline. And it's something we think about in every part of how we've built ATXMH.

We say "humans treating humans" because we mean it literally. We bring our whole selves to this work — our training, our instincts, and our own hard seasons. We know what it takes to ask for help. We don't take it lightly when someone walks through our door.

And we'll be honest: we won't always get it right. We're human too. What we can promise is that we will always notice, always care, and always keep working to do better — for you, for our team, and for the kind of practice we want this to be.

If you've been here before and it didn't feel right, we understand. We built this practice specifically for that person. And if you're here for the first time, we're glad you found us.

We hope to meet you soon.