We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Grace Kanzenbach a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Grace, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. We’d love to hear about how you went about setting up your own practice and if you have any advice for professionals who might be considering starting their own?

I jumped into my own practice quite quickly, and it happened to be my only option at the time. I’ve had multiple mentors who introduced me into the world of private practice, but their clinics and policies never fully matched my personal morals and values. I wanted to create a practice that is fully aligned with who I am, and found myself at a fork in the road to either choose myself, or continue to mask my feelings of discomfort. I’ll be honest.. it was not worth the feelings of discomfort!

I decided to choose me, and have never been happier! It is a world of freedom emotionally and financially to be in the position to create a practice in ways that work best for me and my clients. To any person starting out in forming their own practice/business, my advice would be to listen to yourself deeply and completely. You can create any policy in any way that fits your belief system, and adjust it accordingly as you learn.

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?

I am a Licensed Clinical Social Worker and am licensed in Wisconsin, South Carolina, Florida, and Vermont. I have been in the social work realm since 2014 and a clinic owner since August of 2022. My therapy niche includes relational/attachment trauma and neurodiversity affirming care.

I happened across the social work world by complete chance after floating through my freshman year of college quite unhappy with every degree I explored. I went through about 6-7 major changes before I transferred schools and entered a social work program out of curiosity. At the end of my first social work 101 class, I thought to myself, “Ah, I found my place and my people.” Upon graduating with my bachelor degree in social work, I swore I’d never go back to school again. It only took about two weeks into my first full-time job to realize I could do so much more and enrolled into my master program!

I think what sets me apart from other therapists is my abolitionist business and practice policies. I proudly stand up against traditional business models and have an anticapitalist stance for how I run my practice. I engage in a therapy practice that places the client in complete control of their care to honor self-determination. This allows me to place autonomy at the forefront of their treatment. To give a few examples of what this looks like: I do not charge late/no show cancellation fees, I have a certain amount of slots in my schedule to offer a Pay-What-You-Can model for fees, and do my best to flex my schedule to accommodate my clients’ lives while also respecting my own boundaries.

As a therapist, I trust that my clients can make the best decisions for themselves. I do not believe in creating more punishments or consequences for people who are trying to survive harmful and oppressive systems. All decisions in my practice and business are made so that both my client and myself benefit, not one over the other. We are all victims AND participants in a harmful capitalistic system. I firmly believe that there are ways to engage in business that is gentle and works towards perpetuating as little harm as possible. While we can’t completely diverge from capitalism, we can certainly survive it kindly with one another.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

One of the most challenging lessons I continue to unlearn is dismantling my own internalized ableism, racism, classism, and oppressive/harmful belief systems. This will be a life-long journey of self-reflection and has been the groundwork of how I run my private practice. Most of my life I had been the one to speak up when I felt something was unfair; as far back as the day I was able to speak! There came a turning point when my father passed away in 2020 and his passing inspired years of self-reflection. These years of healing brought a huge shift in perspective of my internalized belief systems. I was then diagnosed with ADHD in 2021 and this also brought another realization for experiencing the world within systems that are not built for how my brain and body works. Through this journey that I am also still on, I continue to reflect on my place in the world, how I interact within it, and how I can do better.

Have you ever had to pivot?

I made a life changing pivot from a W-2 job to my own private practice in 2022. It became a leap of faith in myself as a person and as a therapist. I had to trust myself in my abilities, my beliefs, and my decisions from being supported by a guaranteed paycheck to supporting myself based on my non-traditional business practices.

Contact Info:

• Website: emdrtherapistwi.com
• Instagram: instagram.com/graceklcsw
• Facebook: facebook.com/graceklcsw