With excited hearts, we are pleased to announce our new counselor Taihesia Lane! Our Cornerstone counseling team continues to grow to help as many people heal, grow, and thrive as possible.
1. What’s been your career journey up to this point?
I initially aspired to become a Fashion Merchandiser/Buyer, and ascertained both a Bachelor of Science and a Master of Science in Textile & Apparel Management and Technology at North Carolina State University. I was offered career opportunities with Polo Ralph Lauren, Hanes, and Belk’s Department Store.
However, while preparing for graduation, I began to discern a call of God upon my life to serve Him and others. In pursuit of answers, I applied and was accepted to Duke University Divinity School where I met and married my husband.
Upon graduating from Duke, I worked as a community mental health professional serving adults and children with Severe and Persistent Mental Illness (SPMI). My work in the community–coupled with my informal counseling experiences at our church where my husband was a pastor–inspired me to pursue a Master of Education in Clinical Mental Health Counseling at NC State.
When our second child was born, I decided to transition from full-time employment to stay-at-home mom (for what would grow to our family of 6), and now am looking forward to this next season of returning to counseling at Cornerstone.
2. Why did you join the Cornerstone team? What are you excited about?
My faith is inextricably interwoven into every fabric of my life. The opportunity to join a team that embraces and emphasizes our Christian Faith in our vocational pursuits to serve others is of immeasurable value to me. I am excited to journey and grow in pursuit of God’s wholeness for our clients, God’s impact through Cornerstone, and God’s purpose for my life.
3. What drew you into the counseling field? Why did you become a therapist?
I have always possessed a heart for people and desired to see everyone live into their greatest created selves. Even as a child, I served as a confidant to friends and family who often confided in me during times of adversity, opportunity, or uncertainty.
While I was attending Duke University, searching for ways to serve others and live out God’s call on my life, I found myself in the midst of a lot of transition. My new identity as a wife (in particular, the wife of a pastor who had just been called to his first pastoral assignment) in conjunction with some unresolved issues stemming from my family of origin led me to seek out counseling through the university.
While there were aspects of my counseling at Duke that were definitely beneficial, I found it challenging and disappointing when attempting to incorporate my faith into the therapeutic process. My time spent at Duke along with the informal counseling sessions I regularly found myself providing to children, adults, singles and married couples at our church, led me to the realization that there was a need for clinically trained Christian counselors in both the community and the Church. This led to my pursuit of a Master of Education in Clinical Mental Health Counseling.
4. Have you been through counseling yourself? What was that experience like for you?
Yes, on 3 different occasions. First, I received 6 months of once-a-week premarital counseling. Second, I received individual counseling while at Duke University. Third, in order to fulfill all criteria for my counseling degree, I received counseling through NC State.
Premarital counseling was the most rigorous but yet also the most rewarding of the three. My time at Duke was certainly beneficial, but the inability to incorporate my faith left me feeling as though my experience was somewhat incomplete. My counseling sessions at NC State seemed the most sterile and clinical, and thus distant and detached in my experience.
5. What would you tell someone thinking about counseling?
Counseling is an opportunity to make space for the healing, power, and greatness of Christ to be released. The counselor alongside the client can arrive at places of healing and truth that allow them both to live into their greatest and truest created selves.
6. What’s one random or fun fact about you?
For 3 years, at 5’2” and 105lbs, I played rugby for North Carolina State University (until I injured my shoulder in a game against the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill).
