Monica Douglas Davis

People just naturally open up to me. If you talk to me, you're gonna talk to me - that's just the bottom line. People are gonna spill everything to me, just naturally. I was an elementary school teacher for 11 years, and being the teacher, you're everything. I found that a lot of times the kids needed emotional support, and families as well, so I decided to become a counselor. I've been in this field for 20 years now. I was a child and family therapist from 2003 until my life took a dramatic turn. In 2010, I had twins, and afterwards I developed congestive heart failure from a condition called peripartum cardiomyopathy. My heart just didn't like carrying twins, and I was 42, which made me high risk. This happens a lot to minorities, Black women especially. Two years ago, in 2024, I had to have a heart transplant. Right now I'm relaunching my practice to focus on the chronically ill and specifically people in the organ transplant community. I do volunteer work with organ transplant organizations, I'm on the team at Emory Hospital where we just started a heart transplant support group, and I do speaking engagements to promote donor awareness. As a minority, I talk about patient advocacy because minorities don't always donate. My motto for my company, Cares Counseling, is that we do all we can because we care - grounded in grace and guided by care. I genuinely care about people I'm in contact with, and whatever your concerns or issues are, I genuinely try to help you achieve success in that area of your life. That's my biggest joy. My faith in God is what keeps me strong and grounded, especially going through a transplant and not knowing if you're gonna live. I have a strong faith to know that I still have purpose to be here, so I'm gonna keep on going until I can fulfill that purpose, and that's what I do every day.