Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Christina Bastian . We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Christina, appreciate you joining us today. Risking taking is a huge part of most people’s story but too often society overlooks those risks and only focuses on where you are today. Can you talk to us about a risk you’ve taken – it could be a big risk or a small one – but walk us through the backstory.

Before I became a small business owner, I worked for an amazing business partner and colleague who owned a small mental health practice. It was never my goal to have my own business because it seemed too impossible for me to be able to manage the responsibly and bring in enough income to make it viable.

Then, one day several years ago, my business partner announced that he was no longer going to run his practice. He gave me two weeks to decide if I wanted to take over the practice or find another place to work. In addition to a short time frame, I was also sick with the flu. No pressure!

After some serious contemplation and weighing out my options, I decided that I did not want to work for another person. I wanted to maintain certain aspects of my current working environment such as managing my own schedule and being independent of a boss. Thus, the only option was to take over the company.

For the next six months to a year, I went through an immense amount of stress transitioning the company from my partner to myself. What a mess that was! I spent countless hours researching all I could find on tax id’s, withholding numbers, state requirements, etc. I reached out to several different professional resources for assistance but to no avail.

After many errors and helpful government employees, I was finally able to get everything switched over and properly set up. During this process, I also changed the name of the company to Expressions Counseling Center.

Now several years later, I have a thriving mental health practice with the majority of my clients being referred by other clients.

Taking over a small business, without any previous knowledge of how to run a small business, was a BIG risk for me. I had to learn that I could make it work or make it fail. It was up to me and I’ve proven…I can do hard things.

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?

At Expressions Counseling Center we practice unconditional acceptance, providing a safe and non-judgmental space for expressing one’s thoughts, feelings, and struggles.

We specialize in working with females* (ages 10+) as well as individuals in the LGBTQIA community. We focus on different areas of need such as self-esteem, parenting, communication, faith**-crises, existential crises, LGBTQIA concerns (self-acceptance, coming out, faith struggles, etc.), self-harming, suicidal thoughts, bullying, developmental phases, and aging, just to name a few. Treatment will be customized and catered to meet your specific needs.

We practice therapeutic techniques blending cognitive-behavioral theory, mindfulness, person-centered, rational emotive behavior therapy, and many others to help you gain insight and return to authentically living.

*The term female is used in terms of how one identifies themselves and is not solely represented as cisgender terminology.

**Religion or faith is not strictly related to only those with Christian belief systems.

My process of becoming a therapist started during my bachelor’s degree. I had not planned to become a therapist but during a diagnostic class, I had an epiphany. I realized being a therapist was my path and that I could complete a masters degree. Thus started my path to becoming a therapist. I am proud that I worked a full-time during my bachelors and masters degree, graduating with my masters degree at the top of my class.

What’s been the most effective strategy for growing your clientele?

Client referral and providing excellent services catered to each individual client. I am not the kind of therapist that sits back and only listens. If I feel it is necessary, I will call my clients out on their “bullshit”, always with kindness, love, and a dash of humor.

Clients say this helps them because if they could figure their lives out on their own, they wouldn’t need a therapist.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

I grew up thinking that there are right and wrong decisions. Of course, there are wrong choices in the severe examples of hurting others but in life most of us are not living in that way. As such, decisions are decisions and do not have a value of right or wrong.

Growing up, I was hyper-focused on making sure I lived my life in the right way because I did not want to make mistakes.

I have had to unlearn these unhealthy mindsets and realize that my decisions are not right or wrong…that they are just want I want to work on. And those choices I am not powerless in making happen. In fact, I have the power to not only make decisions but follow through and make them happen.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://expressionscounselingcenter.com/about-our-clinicians/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/expressionscounselingcenter/?hl=en
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/expressionscounselingcenterUT/