We were lucky to catch up with Alison Ratner Mayer, LICSW recently and have shared our conversation below.

Alison, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Risk 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.

After we went virtual for covid and I closed down the physical offices, I knew that reopening was going to be a risk. We were getting lots of requests from parents and therapists to reopen and that meant I had to take an entirely new space since our old building had since been torn down. The space I found was amazing, 4 overly large offices, a supply room and 2 giant and charming rooms for group therapy that were upstairs. It was more than I wanted to spend, fewer offices than I wanted and group rooms that would take a while to fill. I knew it would take a while to rebuild our in person services but I had the vision, did the work, and after a few months of opening, we had a waitlist of 85 kids for individual therapy and even more for groups. Then, some office space became available in the town over from mine in a building that I really liked. After seeing the beautiful wood floors and stained glass windows and being on such a high from decorating the first office, I decided to take it. My plan was to sublease half the space and use the other half for my business. Before we even opened the doors, we had a waiting list and I decided not to sublease the other half of the space. Less than a year later we were getting full in the first location so I took a second space in that building and at the same time, I took additional space here in our second location and built an admin team to support all of our growth. Lots and lots of risk but it all seems to be working out. Next up is 2 giant group rooms on the third floor in our Sudbury location. Hopefully we will continue to grow and hopefully I can continue to find amazing therapists to join our team.

Alison, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

My name is Alison Ratner Mayer and I am a clinical social worker. I own a child and adolescent group therapy practice in the Boston area. We have 2 locations and offer virtual services as well. We have about 25 therapists who work for us and we are unique because we are dedicated to offering group therapy as well as individual therapy. We offer social skills groups, creative therapy groups, movement based groups and much more. I always knew that I wanted to be a child therapist and did my undergrad in Psychology at Clark University in Worcester, MA and my MSW at Boston College in Chestnut Hill, MA. I am proud that our practice is child friendly, colorful, warm, down to earth and focuses on the individual clients and groups. We have incredible therapists and amazing clients and families.

Have you ever had to pivot?

I never wanted to own my own practice. I did not want to be responsible for the printers and the phone lines or the billing. I just wanted to focus on seeing my clients and running my groups. But when I moved back to the Boston area it became clear that if I wanted things done in a certain way, I would have to do it myself. So I opened my practice. I marketed like crazy, networked whenever I could and got busy. Instead of referring out, I added more therapists to the team. And the rest is history.

What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?

I think that meeting with people face to face or on zoom definitely helped. A lot of our business comes from referrals from other professionals in the field and people want to refer to someone they know. Meeting people is just so important.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.childtherapyinboston.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/childtherapyboston/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/childtherapyboston
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alison-ratner-mayer-licsw-82530238/

Image Credits
https://www.facebook.com/pixbykshot