I was excited about this profile and worked really hard on it, so I hope ya'll enjoy it!
Candice
Floyd: Independent Diva
By observing her life in 2013, you would never know the
things Candice Floyd has been through. Her smile is contagious and she lights
up any room she walks in. She is a wise, beautiful, and talented diva that took
the jealousy of her peers and family and used it as motivation to do everything
to the best of her ability. Her “go-getter” attitude has gotten her far. With a
Master’s Degree in Marriage and Family Therapy and her own private practice
that opened in May 2013, she definitely has proved them wrong. She explained to
me, “No one can steal my joy, because I know where God has brought me from.”
Candice grew up in a small town in Tennessee. Her mother
was very strict and she had a relationship with her father until she was four.
Being the middle child of 3, she was torn with no one ever knowing. Her big
sister was always in control and her little brother always got what he wanted.
“I was going through the middle child syndrome”. She described her home as a two-parent
household with her mom and stepdad. She is very family orientated and her
family is close and supportive and carried out a name of greatness.
Although Candice had many female friends and was
considered popular, she still had enemies that would dislike her and say things
because they felt she thought she was better than everyone else. This bothered
her more than many would ever know and she began to think she was not
beautiful. She struggled with her weight and not fitting that image of a
skinny, light skinned, and long haired girl.
She hung out with boys, who she were like her brothers, because girls
had an issue with her.
When she graduated from high school in 2003, she went on
to Northeast Mississippi Community College in Booneville, Mississippi. Although
psychology was not in her plans at the time, she went in hopes of becoming an
educator and teaching French. She minored in journalism. She realized this was
not for her when she took her French class and failed it. She told me it was
the only class she failed. She did not know what to do since her dream of
becoming a French educator did not seem like the right fit. Throughout school she always felt she had a
learning disability, because she would have to read paragraphs four or five
times to get an understanding. She put her faith in God, cried and prayed to
Him about it and asked him to show her where she was needed.
The next day, with psychology and therapy being the last
profession in mind, she attended her psychology class. She sat in the front as
she usually did, with the room crowded from wall to wall, and listened to her
professor’s lecture. She suddenly realized this is what she was supposed to be
doing. She understood everything the professor was saying and it was easy to
her. Even the professor told her psychology was for her because of the way she
would absorb the information and give feedback.
She did just that.
After completing two years at Northeast Mississippi
Community College, in 2005 she continued her education at Tennessee State
University in Nashville, TN pursuing her Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology. She
graduated Spring 2008 with a Bachelor’s of Science in Psychology. In February
2009, her and her high school sweetheart discovered she was eight weeks
pregnant. Life was great! She always
wanted to have kids and she was excited about the thoughts of having a family
and becoming a mother. In April 2009, they found out they were expecting a
precious baby boy who they would name Thailan DeWayne Davis. Still pursuing education, she continued
preparing for the arrival of her son. While
living in her dream and happiness she was suddenly hit with devastating news a
few weeks later that their son was no longer breathing. Hearing the news after just going to the
hospital to only hear the sound of his heart beating took a turn for the worse
and left them in a state of disbelief, but to hear that she was to give birth
to her deceased son was described by her as a tragedy. On May, 1, 2009 at 6:15 a.m., less than a
pound, Thailan “Thai” Davis was born an angel at Baptist Hospital in Nashville,
TN. Although she lost her only son,
which she would call her peace, she told me one of the proudest moments of her
life was being able to experience being a mother and having a family with the
one she has loved all her life. It was very bittersweet.
Candice was hurt, but yet knew that her strength would
come from the trust she had in God. She tells me “It is so hard to lose a
child, and after Thailan died I went into a deep depression.” While in her
grief stages, six months later the man that would always bring joy to her life
was pronounced deceased. Candice’s grandfather, the one she would call in times
of sadness besides God was gone. The pain was unbearable. Candice attempted taking a bottle of pills
with the intent of ending her life. Due to the circumstances of grief and
emotional needs, conflict would later end the relationship of the love of her
life of 12 years. She then began to drink heavily to ease and numb what was
going on for her. During these times she
was working for an agency providing individual and family counseling for
at-risk and homeless youth counseling her own clients , but deep down inside
she needed her own help. She began to listen to the ways her clients would use
negative coping skills to ease their pain. One of those ways was by cutting
themselves. She says “I was like a zombie. I was there physically and could be
present with my clients, but in my mind I was in a really dark place.” “My
clients would not even notice and they trusted me.” She refused to let her
depression keep her from helping others.
After work, she would just stay in the house and clean.
While experiencing those unexpected tragic events, she
continued with her education and completed her Master’s Degree in Marriage and
Family Therapy at Trevecca Nazarene University in 2012. She decided to go into
Marriage and Family Therapy, because she loves relationships and seeing love.
She likes to see people in love and just overall loves to help bring out the
great potential in others. She tells me she has never cried that much in her
life and it was a rough journey for four years. At her graduation ceremony, she
carried Thailan’s blanket he took his pictures in the day he was born
throughout the graduation ceremony. After graduation, she had a reception and
when she gave her speech, she dedicated her degree to Thailan and her
grandfather because they were her motivation. They picked her up when she was
down. She knew they would not want her to be like that but help others by being
the author of her story to help someone else.
When she first chose to go into psychology she knew she
wanted her own private practice. She fulfilled this goal in May 2013, in memory
of her son, Thailan DeWayne Davis, she opened Candice Floyd Therapy. The
original intended name for the practice was Healing Hearts Therapy, because of
her wanting to mend brokenness within the heart of others. She does everything to keep their memory
alive.
Her first client at Candice Floyd Therapy was what she
called a “textbook client”. She described what a “textbook client” was to me
and her definition was the client you read about but never think you are
actually going to be counseling. She was confident, but very nervous. This
tested some of the techniques she had learned in her many years of school. Her
client was a fourteen year old girl that suffered from very deep depression.
She explained the session as very sad and emotional with many tears. So then the question of does she cry with her
clients came up. She then went on to tell me, “When I first started with my
clients at the agency I was working at, I used to cry after sessions with them
and carry those emotions home. It is
very hard at the beginning to separate your counselor life and your personal
life.” Overall, she said it just felt good to know she was helping people in
her own private practice. It was overwhelming and she was in disbelief.
As a marriage counselor she knows something about love
and relationships. During pre-marital counseling, her goal is to get the couple
to break up. For some that may sound
crazy, but she says if they can be broken before obstacles of brokenness and
possible marital conflict that may soon or later come as a stressor in the
relationship, then maybe they need to go back and work on how to heal self
first. She told me the main problems
that she has seen with married couples are over sexual dissatisfaction, income,
infidelity, and communication. She noticed that men are very emotional,
sometimes more so than women. “Men just want to be loved and women just want to
be wanted.” Her best advice for a
successful relationship is to come into a relationship as your authentic self,
whole, and not wear a mask. Ask yourself
have you dealt with your past and the things currently going on in your life.
You have to date yourself first to get to know you before you date someone
else, introducing to them the person without the mask.
Candice has gone through many obstacles, but none have
stopped her. Her over-the-top sense of humor, faith in God, family, and friends
has gotten her through her darkest days. With the memory of her son and
grandfather as her motivation, anything is possible for Candice Floyd to
accomplish. That is why she has a special thing she thinks everyone should do.
“Smile when you see people, you never know what somebody is going through.”
“Love never goes out of style.”
Her praying with her grandfather
Her precious baby boy, Thailan DeWayne Davis
