the faces behind soulspeak wellness florida

Hey folks, welcome to the soulspeak wellness florida blog! We’re really excited to be in this place to connect and share with all of you. Before we get things rolling we figured some proper introductions would be a good idea. We’re not going to bore you with credentials, experience, and all that jazz just yet. We really would like you to know who we are, at our core, which is really what soulspeak wellness florida is all about.

Here goes...

Franky Steele, MS, LMHC, CHT

I’m Francesca. This is the name everyone knew me by until somewhere in middle school where having a nickname was a thing and everyone started knowing me by Franky. Although I was born and raised in Miami, I consider my self Cuban. Like café con leche in my baby bottle, guayaba y queso loving, lace tutu dresses with patent leather shoe wearing, speaking only Spanish until I started school Cuban. My parents divorced when I was 4ish and I lived with my mom, grandma, and great-grandma. In retrospect, it was quite an experience growing up with 4 generations of Cuban women under one roof. Revisiting the things I learned to believe about myself and the world around me because of this dynamic, our culture, and the generational wounds that were passed on has been the cornerstone of my healing journey. But I digress. I love everything Jim Morrison, photography, crafting, and when it’s not 500 degrees outside, I’m quite the gardener. I have 3 fur babies, all rescues: a pup named Ziggy Stardust, an all white, odd-eyed kitty named Jon Snow, and an Elf Sphynx named Lord Varys. And I clearly love Game of Thrones too!

My childhood was filled with a collection of experiences that shifted and often shook me. My parents were both alcoholics. I don’t remember there being a lot talking, just a lot of yelling and anger between them. I learned early on to hold my breath and just keep quiet so I could just disappear and none of the havok would come my way. Everyone seemed to have their own expectations of me and I often felt confused and that there was nothing I could do to make anyone happy. I started distrusting my inner knowing. Around the time I was 11, my mom met and married my step-dad who is a good guy but just not very good in a relationship. My teenage years were difficult, feeling really alone and misunderstood. Luckily, I have always enjoyed learning and taking on new things, so school came easy to me and I graduated and went straight to college. During my junior year in college, my mom and step-dad adopted my brother who was 7 at the time. There are many other events that continued to shape me in my early adulthood after moving from my mom’s home at 22. I won’t get into those details in this particular post but I will touch upon them throughout our journey together. But I will mention that somewhere around this time is when I began to discover my resilience, the elasticity of my spirit, my ability to rise. It is no wonder that although I entered college as a Theater major, I felt drawn in by my Psychology and Religious Studies courses as together they formulated what I had begun learning about myself early on. I received my Bachelors with a Major and a Minor in each, respectively, knowing clearly that I wanted to be a psychotherapist. I continued directly into a Masters program and graduated with a Master in Counselor Education and subsequently became a Licensed Mental Health Counselor. I worked in the field throughout both of my degrees ranging from serving chronically mentally ill adults with co-occurring disorders, counseling troubled teenagers and their families, providing outreach education in inner city schools, to providing supportive services to formerly homeless families with disabilities. Over the years I have worked as a therapist, a mentor, a social worker/case manager, an advocate, an educator and trainer, and find that my greatest strength is being able to roll these all into one in my practice at soulspeak wellness florida.

I focus my practice on authenticity and mindfulness. In both my personal and professional development, I recognize that traditional therapies miss the boat of healing at the core. Almost three years ago, I was introduced to Heart-Centered Hypnotherapy and transpersonal psychology which solidified the path I was taking with my work. Through my training, it opened an opportunity to do deeper healing work on myself and to continue my advanced training in this field. I believe that as a therapist, I can only take my clients as far as I’m willing to go myself. Doing my own healing has enhanced my ability to show up for my clients and walk alongside them to find their healing within themselves, at their core, where everything started.

Tina Fadil, PsyD, LMHC, ACHT

My official name is Christine Fadil, for those that know me and love me, I am just “Tina” I never realized why they called me that when my first birthday cake clearly read, “Happy Birthday Tina.” A funny story recently, I was in a seminar and asked to check if the contact information was correct and I couldn’t find my name, after a brief moment of panic, I realized I was there, but under Christine.

I was born in Jamaica and I am Lebanese. I truly am a mixture of both cultures. When I think of where my desire to enter into the helping field began, I would have to say it was growing up as a middle child between an older brother and a younger sister. I became the peacemaker (true middle child trait) early on. My parents were not expressive or demonstrative with emotions and they expressed love the same way they were loved growing up. This was passed down from generation to generation in our family. They were hard working and I grew up with many “rules” of how I was to behave and act. I learned early on that what I felt on the inside, was not necessarily what I was allowed to present on the outside to the world. I learned to smile and present a mask that everything was “perfect.”

My parents left Jamaica and moved to Florida in hopes that we would have a better education and more opportunities. I have lived in South Florida for most of my life. I had a difficult time assimilating the American lifestyle while having to maintain the Lebanese Jamaican culture at home. There were often many cultural conflicts that occurred and since I was a peacemaker, I learned to put my needs to the side so that I could please others. As I stated above, my family was not emotionally expressive or supportive and many of these experiences became the focus of my personal journey to spiritual wellness later in life.

Education and family were a priority in my home. We were achievement oriented and perfectionism was expected. There was not much room for mistakes or failure. As a pretty good student, I did well in high school and entered college right away. I studied psychology and completed my graduate degree in Mental Health Counseling. I entered the field in my early twenties and I have worked with at risk individuals and families in both the Homeless and Legal systems. After working in this arena for many years, I returned to school to obtain my Doctorate in Psychology. After graduating, I entered into my private practice and began working with high risk formerly homeless individuals and families impacted by disabilities. I am a therapist, a mentor, trainer, advocate, and a student in this lifetime.

Approximately four years ago, I was introduced to and became trained in Heart-Centered Hypnotherapy and Transpersonal Psychology, from the Wellness Institute in Washington. Being completely honest, the training changed my life both professionally and personally. I felt like I woke up and I realized that my only path ahead, was to live authentically. I have often felt that traditional counseling techniques have failed to heal wounds at the source. Through this practice, I am able to address those needs to understand/release self-defeating patterns. My practice views healing as integrating the “whole being” - the mind, body, and spirit. I am honored to walk with you on this journey.

To read about how our paths crossed, click here.

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