Welcome to The Margins
Notes from the margins of therapy, relationships, and being human.
Starting therapy can feel intimidating. Finding the right therapist can be even more of a challenge. If you’ve landed here, I’m really glad you did.
I’m Elizabeth Davis, a licensed marriage and family therapist in Wichita, Kansas. The Margins is the private practice I created to offer a thoughtful, collaborative space for adults navigating life’s challenges, relationships, and personal growth.
I’ve wanted to become a therapist since I took my first psychology class as a junior in high school. Growing up, I was often the one in my friend group who listened, gave advice, and wanted to take on the role of emotional caregiver. Sometimes that led me into having codependent or unhealthy friendships and relationships, but with a little more life experience, and a lot of my own therapy, I learned how to use those instincts for good.
I began a graduate program in 2012, but quickly realized I wasn’t emotionally ready to continue. After stepping away from plans I worked hard to achieve, I found myself at 22 feeling directionless and struggling. Life tested me in many ways over the next decade. There were nudges and signs that I should go back to grad school, but I pushed them away or convinced myself I’d be a bad therapist.
Everything shifted during COVID. Watching my four older kids navigate a world that had suddenly shut down, and seeing their formative years impacted by mental health challenges made something click for me. I realized how deeply needed mental health support truly is, both for individuals and families.
In 2022, I searched for a grad program that would somehow accomdate my very full life: five kids, including a toddler, and a schedule that was already stretched thin. To my surprise, the perfect program appeared, and I was able to start that same month. I graduated in 2024 with a Master of Science in Marriage and Family Therapy, and for the first time in my life, I remember thinking, I’m actually proud of myself. It sounds cliche to say that my grad program changed my life, but it truly did. And when you’re doing this work, you can’t help but be changed by it.
I had the privilege of completing my internship at a practice that eventually became my professional home. My site supervisor and colleagues became mentors, collaborators, and dear friends. After some necessary shifts and growth, I was given the opportunity to fulfill the dream of starting my own practice in the spring of 2026, and The Margins was born.
Naming a business, I’ve discovered, is surprisingly similar to naming a child. You test different combinations, imagine the initials, and inevitably ask yourself, “could this possibly spell something weird or inappropriate?” I wrote down The Margins as one possibility, but I just kept coming back to it. I’ve always loved writing, storytelling, and art, so tying those passions together with therapy felt natural.
The margins of a page are where people underline important ideas, ask questions, jot down thoughts, and sometimes writing things they’re not quite ready to say out loud.
Therapy can feel a lot like that.
I know what it feels like to be a client, navigating the long process of trial and error when it comes to finding a therapist who is not only clinically competent, but also warm, human, and genuinely invested in the work. The Margins is the kind of space I hoped to create through that experience; a place that holds the good, the hard, and the messy parts of being human.
A place where all parts of a person are welcome.
Where curiosity is valued more than judgment. Where therapy is collaborative. And where navigating life’s challenges feels a little more manageable when you don’t have to do it alone.
Starting therapy can feel like a big step, but you don’t have to figure everything out before you begin. Sometimes the most important thing is simply having a place to start writing in the margins.
