How we navigate the world is unique to each of us. While we can’t control the way others perceive us, our identity is ours to own. This is Courtney Mazzola’s truth.

Like many students in grad school, Courtney had to choose an internship program to earn credits towards her degree as part of her practicum. She focused on looking at the parallels between disability and incarceration. “It was this visceral sense of feeling cast out of society,” she described. There was a sense of humanity that drew her in.

However, when Courtney applied for approval to work with inmates at the San Quentin State Prison, she was swiftly turned away. Neither the prison nor the school supervisors and administrators would allow it. They said it wasn’t safe for a blind person to go in there. “Apparently, this was before ableism was recognized as a thing,” she laughed.

She refused to let them dictate what she could and couldn’t do. That was for her to decide. After fighting for two years to get her program approved, she was finally accepted.

Reflecting on this time, she mentioned something that the inmates would say to her that stuck: “Wow, you fought for two years to get in here. We’ve been fighting this whole time to get out.” It was a statement delivered with reverence and respect — and received with gratitude.

Courtney carries herself with intention and compassion. She speaks with careful consideration, taking her time to communicate fully while occasionally sprinkling in her own brand of playful sarcasm. She sees humor in the world and isn’t afraid to laugh at herself.

When Headway sat down with Courtney, we got to know how deeply dimensional she really was. With every conversation, she inspired in us a renewed perspective on life. This is her story.

Courtney always had a sense that people felt comfortable talking to her. Luckily, she loved listening. So therapy came naturally to her.  

What fascinates her the most is hearing other people’s stories and understanding how they perceive the world. As her eyes lit up, she told us, “One of my favorite things in the world is just learning about other people's experiences and how they experience life. So I think I ended up exactly where I was meant to be.”

Step by step, Courtney went deeper, granting herself permission to feel afraid, and moved forward with the fear rather than letting it hold her back.

This is the blueprint to how she navigates through life, informing how she guides others to achieve the same independence in practice.

Being in the water is not the hard part for Courtney. The real challenge is getting out of the water and knowing where she is or where she left her things on the beach. With a smile, she put it frankly, “I can't take a cane in the water, you know?”

Born blind, Courtney has faced perceived limitations throughout her life. This was how people saw her — whether she liked it or not. Every success, every challenge, every moment she experienced was juxtaposed with the fact that she was a blind child in a sighted world.

This led her to develop a keen awareness of how others measure her up, even if it’s subconscious on their part. “There's just this bigger assumption with me being blind that I'm going to have way fewer capabilities,” she explained. “It’s like being blind comes with a free pass not to live, challenge myself, or have experiences.”

As she’d navigated through life, every perceived limitation has felt visceral. She told us, “When the whole world expects that I can’t do something, I feel trapped in my body and I just want to break out.” It’s a familiar feeling that we can all relate to in some way.

Courtney demonstrates that just because someone might experience life differently, it doesn’t mean they’re incapable of living fully.

Swimming in the open ocean is just one way that Courtney enjoys life. As we got to know her, she continued to inspire us with countless stories detailing adventures that even the typical person couldn’t claim they’ve done themselves.

Courtney craves adventure and loves to travel. “I feel like I already know what I know. That's boring. I want to know what I don't know.” Travel was admittedly scary to her at first, so she started small with sighted friends.

Over time, she’d progressively explore how she can travel more independently. With every trip, she gained more confidence as she navigated the unknown without fear.

From horseback riding over a dormant Icelandic volcano on her own to touching ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics (with permission), Courtney’s life is full of adventure. She’s called Kawaii her home away from home and even lived in Fairbanks, Alaska, for four months by herself — simply because she wondered what it’d be like.

Oh, did we mention she was an avid horseback rider?

Courtney derives much of her own lived experiences in her work as a somatic therapist — a specialization focusing on the mind, body, and spirit connection to incorporate the whole person. It’s been a lifelong journey for her:

“My whole life, I’ve felt that people see my blindness more than they see me as a whole person, whether it's a stranger or someone who's known me for a long time. There is an awareness that I bring from working with other people: that there are many aspects of our identity that tend to define us, but we are human. And that is the basic bottom line.”

Approaching every client with a heightened sense of awareness, she added that one of the biggest aspects for her is that she’s constantly doing her own work — elaborating, “I'm constantly pushing myself or stepping out of my comfort zone in ways that I can't not do, and then using that experience, hopefully to help support others in doing the same.”

Web accessibility is only one major hurdle Courtney has to jump, let alone working with insurance. Before Headway, getting credentialed felt impossible for her. All of the insurance companies she’d have to contact, steps to follow, applications to submit and track — it just wasn’t worth it.

Headway took all of that off her plate. She recounted, “Only having to go to one place to fill out one intake form and not have to worry about anything beyond that was so much simpler than anything I could have imagined.”

Above all, taking insurance is important to Courtney because her clients wouldn’t be able to afford therapy without it. By dealing with the complexities of practicing in-network, Headway makes it possible for her to be there for her clients and focus on the parts that are her strength.

“Headway has provided me with an incredible sense of possibility, and opportunity, and freedom to be able to have a practice my way and orchestrate my life in a way that I want to live.”

Courtney refuses to let any one part define her, pursuing a sense of personal freedom through truth and understanding. In turn, it’s helped her take those leaps where she didn’t know what to expect. This takes practice.

“I think it's helped me to just try and to keep persevering. To get in the water and just swim; to feel the currents and learn how to ask for help wherever I feel like I need it, to trust that help will show up. And that so many things — even those that are scary — are possible.”

Managing your own private practice isn’t easy for anyone. Navigating our digital world makes it ten times more complicated.

“The idea of private practice for me felt incredibly overwhelming,” Courtney told us. Searching for direction, Courtney reached out to everyone and anyone she knew to find a way to make private practice work for her. It felt like a hopeless feat, hitting dead ends left and right.

After hearing about Headway from three different colleagues, she thought it was worth a shot. Her search finally stopped there.

She breathed a sigh of relief, stating, “Headway was the first ever corporation or online platform in general — not just in the therapeutic community — that I'd ever come across that prioritized inclusivity right off the bat, and continued the entire way.” She added, “Even the front-end of their website was fully accessible, which is rare. I could set up a call to talk to a recruiter right off the bat, fully by myself. And that was huge.”

“Plus, Headway’s support team has consistently stepped in to assist me on the back-end. Because I wouldn’t be able to independently navigate the provider portal without their help.”

Just like everything else she does in life, Courtney refuses to stop at impossible. Once she found Headway, she was finally in a position to bring her best practice to life.

“Headway has provided me the opportunity to be able to step into my own private practice. And ‘my own’ being very important, meaning that I can do my own business and run my own private practice without feeling like I'm less than because I have to depend on other people.”

These days, self-reliance and independence are cultural norms. Courtney challenges this, reminding us that we are all interdependent beings, born as social creatures. So, she continues to work towards this idea of interdependent interdependence. By removing electronic barriers and showing up as her practice partner, Headway helps her do just that.

We exist to empower and advocate for providers to accept insurance with ease so they can focus on what they do best — being there for those who need it most.

So far, we’ve helped over 60,000 mental health providers build their best practices and bring their purpose to life. Whenever you’re ready, we’re here for you too.