Mental Health Access in St. Louis: Why We Started the Healing Spaces Access Fund

There is pressure I live with every single day as a business owner in the mental health field.

On one side, I know what it costs to run a practice that actually takes care of its people. I know what it means to pay my clinicians a fair salary, to offer PTO, to create the kind of workplace where people want to stay and do their best work. I have seen what happens in practices that do not do those things: burned out clinicians, high turnover, and ultimately, clients who suffer because the people meant to serve them are running on empty.

On the other side, I know what it means to need mental health care and not be able to access it. As a Black woman who has navigated a healthcare system that has historically undervalued, dismissed, and mistreated women, and particularly Black women, I do not take lightly the privilege of being able to walk into a therapy office and receive quality care. Too many people cannot. And that reality sits with me.

So how do you hold both of those truths at once? That is the question that led to the Access Fund.

Why We Are Private Pay, And Why That Is a Values Decision

Healing Spaces operates primarily on a private pay model. I want to be honest about why, because I think it deserves more than a line on a fees page.

Insurance reimbursement rates have not kept pace with the actual cost of providing quality care. When a practice accepts insurance as its primary payment model, something has to give, and too often, what gives is the clinician. Lower reimbursement rates mean higher caseloads, less time per client, more administrative burden, and less pay for the people doing some of the most demanding work there is. I have watched colleagues burn out under that model. I have watched quality of care suffer.

I refuse to build that kind of practice.

Healing Spaces exists to provide exceptional, personalized, culturally responsive care, and to treat the people who deliver that care with the dignity and compensation they deserve. Private pay allows us to do both. It allows our clinicians to carry manageable caseloads, show up fully for every client, and be paid in a way that reflects the value of their expertise and their humanity.

That is a moral decision as much as a business one.

But the Gap Is Real

Private pay is not accessible to everyone. I know that. And I am not willing to simply accept that the people who need care the most are the ones least likely to be able to afford it.

So from the very beginning, we have worked to bridge that gap in every way we can.

We have partnered with the St. Louis Mental Health Board through their System of Care grant to provide free therapy services for children and youth. We have worked with The Village Path through their TAP Program to fund individual therapy for clients who would not otherwise have access. We have partnered with Emmanuel Family and Child Development Center to bring mental health services directly into the community. We offer pay-what-you-can options where applicable. And we accept Home State Health (Medicaid) for therapy and psychological evaluation for qualifying clients ages 6 through 18.

These partnerships have allowed us to serve hundreds of clients who might never have walked through our doors otherwise. And they have been one of the most meaningful parts of building this practice.

But there are still gaps. There are still people who fall through the cracks; people who do not qualify for Medicaid or insurance in general, who are not covered by a grant, who cannot afford private pay rates, and who are left without options. That is not acceptable to me.

Why the Access Fund

The Access Fund was created to close those gaps.

Every dollar donated to the Access Fund goes directly to client care. Not overhead. Not administrative costs. Directly to the people who need it.

In the past, the Access Fund has helped clients attend individual therapy sessions they could not otherwise afford. It has funded group therapy sessions, creating community and connection for people who were isolated and struggling. And our long-term goal is to use the Access Fund to offer full comprehensive psychological evaluations, which can cost thousands of dollars, completely free to clients who need them but cannot afford them.

A psychological evaluation can change someone's life. It can finally give a child the diagnosis they need to access school accommodations. It can help an adult understand why they have always felt different and give them language for their experience. It can untangle years of misdiagnosis and set someone on a path toward the right support. That kind of clarity should not be reserved for people who can afford it.

This Is Personal

I started Healing Spaces because I wanted to build something better. A practice that took care of its clients AND its clinicians. A space where people from communities that have been historically underserved could access affirming, high quality mental health care without having to fight for it.

Eight years in, I am proud of what we have built. And I am clear-eyed about how much further we have to go.

The Access Fund is how we keep closing the gap: one client, one session, one evaluation at a time.

If you have ever benefited from mental health care, or if you believe that everyone deserves access to it regardless of their financial circumstances, I would be honored to have your support.

Donate to the Access Fund at: givebutter.com/c/access-fund-2026-mwsrkw

Every dollar goes directly to someone who needs it. And that, to me, is what Healing Spaces has always been about.

Dr. Kezia Jackson, Psy.D. is a licensed Clinical Psychologist and the founder of Healing Spaces Psychological Services in Clayton, Missouri. She specializes in comprehensive psychological assessment and is passionate about expanding access to quality mental health care for communities that have historically been underserved.