Photo by Erin Nelson Sweeney.
Destini Love, clinical director, and Allison McCabe are two of the five therapists at Ellie Mental Health in Mountain Brook. Ellie Mental Health offers individual therapy and group therapy.
A new space in Mountain Brook is redefining the look of a mental health office.
Inside Ellie Mental Health, guests are greeted with warm smiles and shades of blue, yellow and fuchsia. Signs with life-affirming phrases, including “Live Authentic” and “Every Little Thing’s Gonna Be Alright,” adorn the room.
“Our office is a fun space,” said clinic director Destini Love. "Our aesthetics are intentional. We play music that can be anything from meditation, jazz, pop or country. We even had one day where all the music was Spanish. You don’t feel like you’re here to see a doctor. You’re here to see a friend and talk about the deep stuff.”
Ellie was founded in 2015 by clinicians Erin Pash and Kyle Keller in St. Paul, Minnesota, with the mission to destigmatize mental health issues and make mental health care accessible in every community through innovation and creativity.
During the Covid pandemic, mental health became a bigger public conversation, and the number of Ellie clinics grew nationwide. As a licensed independent clinical social worker, Love had her own practice just seven minutes away from the Ellie office when she learned about the opportunity to open an Ellie clinic in the Birmingham area.
“I was in private practice and absolutely loved it, but I also love being on a team. I love multidisciplinary treatment, and I missed that,” Love said.
What differentiates Ellie from some other mental health care settings, Love said, is that it aims to address the problem of burnout that many practitioners experience.
“The founders were excited about creating work-life balance, so that we can not only fully show up for our clients, but also for ourselves,” Love said. “They prioritize self-care so that we’re able to be there for our clients.”
Ellie’s counselors treat issues such as grief and loss, eating disorders, substance abuse, life transition, anxiety and depression. Love said her focus is on past trauma, particularly spiritual and church abuse.
“My practice has been authentic to me and my story,” Love said. “In the last two or three years, a lot of that has been coming to the surface.”
Love said Ellie has been doing outreach events and office Meet and Greets, as well as partnering with local organizations like Kiwanis to talk about mental health and promote the clinic.
“Sometimes, we believe if we’re educated or achieve a certain socioeconomic status, we’re immune to certain things happening to us,” Love said. “It’s been nice to be able to go in and re-educate people about mental health. People who have been in therapy before and come here say it’s so different from what they’ve experienced before, and people who have never had therapy said they had a totally different idea of what it would be like.”
Ellie now has 500 clinics in 38 states open or coming over the next couple of years. The Mountain Brook location of Ellie held its grand opening in mid-October, while Ellie also has a Hoover location and two more locations opening in Homewood and Vestavia Hills.
“Everybody gets to be themselves here,” Love said. “We’re all human, and we’re going to meet you where you are.”
Ellie is located at 3918 Montclair Road Suite 206. For more information or to make an in-person or online appointment, visit elliementalhealth.com or call 205-994-2798.
