Establishing your own firm or practice is an incredibly daunting task. From myriad of legal and regulatory hurdles to the financial and career related risks, professionals who choose to start their own firm have to overcome so much and so we wanted to reach out to those who’ve done it successfully for advice, insight and stories.

Stephanie Walker

I met my business partner, Lauren while working at a local in-patient alcohol and drug rehab. We often discussed the need for mental health providers within our small community but were always afraid to take that leap. In late 2019, I was laid off from that job and Lauren and I decided that it was time to finally take that leap. So, in January of 2020, Cedar Creek Wellness Group was established. Read more>>

Crystal Venegas

I come from a community mental health background, where the demands & expectations of the role are high, & it’s nearly impossible to integrate self-care into that weekly routine. I was a workaholic with high functioning anxiety and a sincere love for the population I worked with, so I didn’t mind the lifestyle much. I also had few major responsibilities outside of my work at the time. Read more>>

Prisiliano & Monica Salas

Salveo Direct Care was born from a desire to take back medicine and deliver personalized health care in a revolutionary way. Four years ago, as co-owner and founder of a traditional primary care practice here in San Antonio, Dr. Prisiliano Salas grew weary of the traditional model of primary care – one dictated by insurance regulations, deductibles, and copays. Read more>>

Kelly McKenna

After getting my Masters of Social Work and Masters of Business Administration, I started working in nonprofit management. After six years, I started to miss the clinical side of counseling. I started doing therapy part-time, working in the evenings at a group practice. Because of the Covid pandemic, I switched to a virtual practice and have never looked back. I quit my full-time job and transitioned to being full-time in my own business, Sit With Kelly, Inc. Read more>>

Mallorie Cracroft

I have been an OB/Gyn for 10 years and absolutely loved my job! I built relationships with patients, delivered babies, and was able to really help people feel better. But after many years of this, I heard myself saying the same thing over and over: “I’m so sorry you’re feeling that way. I don’t think we know how to help with that.” You see, the conventional medical approach does some things really well, like taking care of accidents or treating infections. Read more>>

Stasia Berry

I started my business in a little room inside of a beauty salon. It wasn’t much, but I was passionate about what I was doing. Even with humble beginnings, I always provided great customer service Giving clients the best experience possible. I really believe that helped grow my clientele to what it is today. Most of my challenges came from being a first generation entrepreneur and learning most everything as I go. I’ve been able to overcome that obstacle by always remaining teachable on this journey. Read more>>

Buffy Andrews

I decided to start my own holistic health practice after working in the field of social work providing in home services for high risk and highly suicidal kids. When working the homes of these individuals, I began to see that there was a lot of practical information and education missing for these families, and that with a little radical hope and proper information families could make subtle shifts to create big and lasting change for their families mental health and well- being. Read more>>

Tayo Mbande

My mom and I trained as doulas in 2018 and that year we knew that we wanted to start our doula practice. We had a clear vision on our mission and what we hoped to accomplish as a family centered doula company. We were clear on the ways that we wanted to influence parenthood and Black families in their pregnancies and postpartum. Read more>>

Katie Stone

Establishing my own private practice as a licensed Marriage & Family Therapist has really been an exercise in learning to trust myself and my intuition. There were plenty of expected and unexpected hurdles to overcome throughout the process, all of which taught me valuable lessons about myself as a business owner, clinician and human being. Read more>>

Beth Funari Sims

I was fortunate to have supportive mentors early on in my career who helped foster my confidence to establish my own business. After several years spent working with athletes in a sports medicine training role I decided I wanted to shift my focus. Read more>>

Stacie Wickersham

I am currently still in the process of setting up my practice. I would love to highlight what I have worked on this far. Having the desire to open your own practice is huge and scary. It has its challenges but the rewards are much greater. I had to believe in myself enough just to even consider my own practice. I had an idea in my mind what it was I wanted to offer to the world that I felt was lacking. Read more>>

Zarana Parekh

I was interested in nutrition from a very young age. Growing up in India; I had witnessed food being used as medicine in my home all the time based on Ayurveda principles. I became a Registered Dietitian to help people lead a healthy life. It was my dream to have my own private practice to spread my knowledge and passion for nutrition to prevent onset of chronic diseases. Read more>>

Alyssa Gruber

it is always a big decision when deciding to start one zone venture. In the wellness space there’s certainly a lot of different avenues to take; whether it be more esoteric, wellness or more traditional psychological wellness. I created my practice to be able to offer clients bespoke services, which included both eastern and western modalities. Read more>>

Tacha Fletcher

I grew up as the youngest child of a single parent Haitian-immigrant mother. I was often called to handle many of the adult affairs which led me to learn how to navigate systems very early on in my life. Many of the qualities of a Social Worker including advocacy, empathy, and compassion came naturally for me as a young girl. However, I did not have much exposure to the Social Work field, so I never thought to myself ‘I want to be a Social Worker when I grow up’ until later on in my life. Read more>>

Lynda Cash

The journey to starting my own private practice began in August of 2014. During this time, I was separated from my second husband and my mother had passed away earlier that year. I was experiencing financial hardships with two sons in college and being the primary breadwinner in the home. The following month after I had opened up my private practice, I experience a major health issues. What was supposed to be a one day outpatient surgery landed me in the hospital needing three surgeries over a period of 27 days. Read more>>