Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Alex Strahan. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Alex, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Almost all entrepreneurs have had to decide whether to start now or later? There are always pros and cons for waiting and so we’d love to hear what you think about your decision in retrospect. If you could go back in time, would you have started your business sooner, later or at the exact time you started?
So I started my business after my son was born in 2022. At the time I had my son, I was working at a childrens hospital as a therapist and had plans to go back. I loved working with children, adolescents, and families at the hospital and truly felt valued and that I was making a difference. However, after my maternity leave, I just couldn’t wrap my head around being away from my son 5 days a week. I really wanted a job with more flexibility and potential for higher pay. Instead of going back to the hospital, I put in my notice and filed for an LLC to finally start my private practice (something I had been thinking about for a long time). I named it Empowered by Alex because at that time and currently, I want to empower my clients to live a life they are proud and happy with. Looking back, I think my son was the perfect motivation for me to finally start my own private practice. This was something that was always in the back of my mind but I was intimidated by the lack of insurance, high business expenses, and trying to build up my clients with marketing strategies. Having a child will open your heart wide up and I decided that the benefits of being a business owner would far outweigh any of the risks. Opening my practice has been the best choice I have ever made for myself. I’m able to make my own schedule, select my pricing, offer therapeutic modalities that I’m passionate about, and choose my ideal clients. I will never go back to a corporate environment and aspire to eventually have a team of therapists working for me. If I would have started my practice sooner, I don’t think I would have stuck with it because the income has been slow growing. Although I now make more than I did at the hospital, this was not immediate. Without my son, I don’t think I would have stuck with it. This was the perfect time for me to start Empowered by Alex and I wouldn’t change a thing. This was divine and perfect timing! I would encourage anyone looking to start their own business to wait for the right time for them and trust that the universe always has your back.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
So like I said, I am the owner of Empowered by Alex, which is a private practice counseling organization. I typically see teens, young adults, and families. My main counseling modalities are mindfulness-based cognitive therapy and eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR), which are both body-based therapies that have been proven to treat trauma. I see clients that are experiencing life transitions, struggling with mental health concerns including, but not limited to, depression, anxiety, self-harm, suicidal ideation, disordered eating, self-esteem issues, or have a history of trauma or disturbing events.
My background is in pediatric healthcare, as I mentioned prior and also education. I got all of my clinical therapy hours in a school system, where I worked with homeless youth for several years providing counseling and assisting with basic need as needed and for a year with very high-achieving students struggling with things like performance anxiety and perfectionism. After receiving my clinical hours and becoming a licensed mental health clinician, I started working as a therapist at a children’s hospital where I worked with children and adolescents struggling with health concerns or children hospitalized due to a mental health issue such as after a suicide attempt or a behavioral outburst requiring emergency assistance. All of this experience was invaluable to make me the clinician I am today.
On a more personal note, I experienced a lot of trauma as a child that I treated with alcohol as a teen. After the drinking slowed in college, I noticed I experienced a lot of depression and anxiety that seemed to always linger. This is why I decided to dive into healing myself so that I could one day help others. Although I tried many modalities of therapy, I found that EMDR therapy was most effective for me, along with attending regular yoga classes. By connecting with my body in yoga and dealing with my trauma in EMDR therapy, I finally felt that I was making progress and feeling happier. After completing my graduate studies, I also decided to become a certified yoga instructor. Although I teach only one class a week, I use the foundational beliefs in yoga such as mindfulness and body sensations regularly in sessions with my clients, as well as some yoga poses when helpful. It is my greatest pleasure to now share the two most helpful healing modalities personally to others to help them live an empowered life!
What’s been the best source of new clients for you?
My biggest source of referrals has been from Psychology Today, which is an online directory of mental health clinicians, psychiatrists, and treatment centers. I think it is really important to update your profile regularly on Psychology Today and use as many key words as possible to attract your ideal client such as the treatment modality you use or what population you specialize in. Every couple of month, I will go in an update a few items on my profile to keep my information relevant. This has been an invaluable and helpful resource to keep my practice full.
What else should we know about how you took your side hustle and scaled it up into what it is today?
I started seeing clients in a private practice setting in 2019 right after I received my license as a mental health clinician. Since I knew I eventually wanted to open my own private practice, I knew that working for a group practice initially would be important and educational. At this time, I would work at the childrens hospital during the day and see clients on the nights and weekends. Not only was this experience great to give me experience on how to manage a client caseload, I gained great experience on how to run a private practice. I learned the ins and outs of pricing, how to ensure client retention, how to use an online portal for efficiency and enhancing client experience, and how to work within a team of therapists. The woman that I worked for was just lovely and was always open to answering questions or having a conversation. This group practice also required a monthly meeting with all therapists to discuss cases, but also to just share about life. This was so helpful to have a community of therapists to be able to bounce ideas off of and to share authentically with one another. This side hustle was so important to my growth as a therapist and helped me build the confidence I needed to open my own practice a few years later.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.empoweredbyalex.com
- Instagram: Empowered_by_Alex
- Facebook: Empowered by Alex
- Linkedin: Alex Strahan, LCSW
Image Credits
Amber Shumake