Dawn Rachel Floran is a Dallas native, a devoted wife, a mother to three daughters, a licensed professional counselor, a mental health counselor, a psychotherapist, and the owner of Lake Ray Hubbard Counseling.
She served in the United States military, having combat experience as a Behavioral Health Specialist in the U.S. Army and U.S. Army National Guard.
Having a kind and gentle heart and an acute sense of observance along with a caring and buoyant attitude, it made sense for Floran to enter the military and serve her country.
“I always wanted to go to the military, but I didn’t want to leave my kids,” Floran told The Dallas Express. “So, I waited until my kids went to college.”
Floran’s children, Heather, Alexis, and Sheena, have always looked up to their mother and viewed her as a shining example of resiliency which made them the women they are today.
“When I think about my mom, the word resilient comes to mind. No matter what obstacles or challenges, she was always moving forward and always had a goal in mind,” said Alexis Maldonado.
“Looking back on my childhood, she was the light, stability, and strength at the forefront. My sisters and I always knew that she was our biggest cheerleader and that nobody loved us more than she did,” said Maldonado.
Maldonado and her younger sister Sheena are both biochemical engineers.
Heather, the eldest of the sisters, is a licensed Professional Counselor like her mother and owner of Mindful Solutions Counseling and holds a brown belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu.
When she came back from active duty, Floran went back to school to earn her Master’s degree and opened up her own counseling service, Lake Ray Hubbard Counseling.
She started her own practice in 2017.
She provides counseling for couples, men’s issues, sexual concerns, veterans, issues related to legal problems, trauma, anxiety, families, connection disorders, mood disorders, addiction, life skills, etc.
“Because I’m a veteran and have combat experience I love working with PTSD and trauma, I love working with veterans,” Floran said.
“I see just about any type of family, I think my specialty is emotional abuse, narcissistic abuse, I love challenging cases,” she added.
Floran says a goal for her for the new year is to continue to grow her practice and bring on more therapists.
She intends on holding classes to hold support groups for veterans and combine support groups for psychoeducation for people in emotionally abusive relationships or who have experienced emotionally abusive trauma.
Mental health in the United States has progressively worsened, according to Mental Health America.
Nearly 20% of adults in America experienced a mental illness in 2019, according to the nonprofit’s data.
When people need to seek out counseling and therapy for traumatic issues, a lot of counselors want their clients to know that they are there for them but clients have to do the work as well.
And sometimes counselors realize that they cannot save everyone, but when someone does the work, and all of the buttons click it becomes a wonderful feeling.
“You know you just have to realize you can’t help everybody and you have to make peace with that and that’s, that’s really on them to help themselves and it’s frustrating because you can see that they could change, you know sometimes it’s just hard for people,” Floran said.
“But the best part about it is when you actually see the change, you see the light bulb come on in them and they get it, and they start showing their goals. It’s like Oh my gosh this is why I do this. When you see that smile on somebody’s face and it’s like Oh my God I did it and their confidence goes up.”
