The Good Page features positive LGBTQ+ news in Central Florida and Tampa Bay, uplifting and inspiring stories highlighting locals in our community. In this issue we learn about Dr. Tameca N. Harris-Jackson’s Hope and Serenity Health Services.
When Dr. Harris-Jackson looks back on what drew her to therapy, she starts with a feeling. Growing up in a small Virginia town, she sensed “this unspoken energy in the environment,” as if adults were keeping secrets and people were not living or feeling their best. In college, she noticed how freely friends confided in her.
“I could have conversations with them openly, non-judgmentally about things, answering people’s questions, and it made me happy that people felt safe with me to do that,” she says.
The path led to general therapy first and later to the specialty that had intrigued her since childhood: sex therapy.
Her route to private practice was gradual. After roles in several states, Dr. Harris-Jackson joined the University of Central Florida’s School of Social Work in 2015. Students kept asking if she saw clients in the community. In 2018 she decided, as she puts it, to “just see if I could just do something part time on the side.” Referrals poured in, especially from people seeking a Black woman therapist with expertise in sexuality and relationships.
“There aren’t many African American therapists who are women who focus on sexuality and relationships. It’s just rare and so people were calling a lot about that,” she says. Hope and Serenity Health Services, her Orlando based practice, grew from there. She still teaches part time at UCF.
Sex therapy was never a gimmick for Dr. Harris-Jackson. As a kid she was struck by Dr. Ruth Westheimer’s frank, educational style on television. “She just seemed to take all the shame out of it and all the taboo stuff out of it,” she recalls. That impulse to replace shame with information and care runs through everything she does.
Hope and Serenity Health Services is known for clinical excellence and a culture of compassion that begins within the team. Dr. Harris-Jackson shares a story from a monthly staff meeting: a new clinician listened for a while, then blurted out, “Is this place for real?” Another team member replied, “I thought it was fake too.” Dr. Harris-Jackson explains, “People come here and it feels like home. They know they are cared for.” That internal care flows outward to clients.
Access is central to her mission. She names insurance reimbursement as a structural barrier that pushes many providers out of networks. Hope and Serenity Health Services remains on select panels and also offers low-cost services through closely supervised interns.
“You literally get two therapists for the price of one,” she says. “It doesn’t matter how much you are paying; you still get the same quality services as anyone else.”
Her approach is justice centered and safety focused, particularly for BIPOC clients and LGBTQ+ community members. Dr. Harris-Jackson describes herself as a Black woman who is affirming and woven into the LGBTQ+ community, a proximity and participation that informs her advocacy and her clinical lens. This makes it so clients do not have to translate the realities of their identities before they can be cared for. The current climate weighs on people, she says.
“The fear is thick all around,” she notes. “People are now trying to find where they can go to be safe.”
She holds space for those realities while modeling presence over protocols.
“What is most important is presence,” Dr. Harris-Jackson says. “Really being present, attuned to the person in front of you is more therapeutic than almost any skill you can bring forward in the moment.”
Beyond the therapy room, her signature Healing Journeys invite clients to experience transformation through travel. The seed was to study abroad.
“Traveling is such a healing and therapeutic experience for me,” she says. “It is an opportunity to get out of the day to day, be in a different environment, learn more about yourself, connect with others.”
Stigma still keeps many from seeking help, especially around intimacy. Representation matters here too. Clients often tell her they waited years. “99.9% of the time, after just a few sessions, people go, I can’t believe I waited so long. I wish I had come sooner,” she says. That is why she urges anyone considering therapy to try a consultation. “Just take one little step and make the call for a consultation with anybody. Just give it a try,” she says.
Learn more at HopeSerenityHealth.com.
Interested in being featured in The Good Page? Email Editor-in-Chief Ryan Williams-Jent at Ryan@WatermarkOutNews.com in Tampa Bay or Central Florida Bureau Chief Bellanee Plaza at Bellanee@WatermarkOutNews.com in Central Florida.
