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

Alright, Allison thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Was there an experience or lesson you learned at a previous job that’s benefited your career afterwards?

The most important lesson I learned in a prior job was that not only could I survive being laid off, but the experience would end up being one of the best things to happen to me professionally.

I worked as a salesperson in a technology company in Silicon Valley. While I am an extroverted people-person and sales came naturally to me, my job was slowly killing me with the sales pressure and long commute. When the dot-com bubble burst in 1999-2000, my company laid off nearly the entire sales team. Even though many people were laid off and my logic told me it wasn’t personal, I still experienced a lot of shame and sadness about this loss.

As I began by default to apply to other technology sales positions, I also started question what I really wanted to do in my career and found myself dreaming of jobs that would feel more fulfilling.

I realized one thing I loved to do every day was talk to people about their life experiences and relationships. I never tired of hearing people’s stories and being with them in those experiences and emotions. While continuing to interview for tech jobs, I also started looked into graduate programs for counseling.

With much doubt about my chances for success, I applied to San Francisco State University’s Master’s in Counseling, Marriage and Family Therapy program. To my enormous surprise, I was accepted. However, as an International Political Science and French undergrad, I had a long way to go in the prerequisites department, so got to work right away taking the courses I needed.

Coincidentally, my former company realized the error of laying off all their sales team, so I was re-hired along with a few others. I somehow managed to summon enough energy to work full-time in sales and take the needed pre-requisites at night. As soon as I completed those, I left my career in technology for good and started my new education and career as a Counselor.

I use this story sometimes to help others when they have gone through something that feels like a huge failure or the worst thing that has happened to them. Getting laid off freed me to dream of what I really wanted to do instead of staying on the path I thought I should follow. Were it not for getting laid off, I would not be where I am today!

Allison, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I am a married mother of a teenager and a college student, dog mom to two awesome pups, and a wife to my best friend. My parents were married for over 60 years before we lost my dad to cancer, and I look to their relationship as a model of commitment, friendship and security.

I consider myself a relationship counselor, one who helps people to have meaningful, deeply connected relationships with their most important people. I love sharing this passion with those I manage and supervise, and find their growth from nervous new therapists to confident and genuine relationship counselors to be incredibly rewarding.

I’m most proud thinking of all the couples and families we have impacted over the years and thinking about the potential generational ripple effect of helping others create and learn to be in secure attachment with loved ones.

My counseling practice turned 15 years old in August of 2023, and I’m enormously proud of the business community I’ve built with my team of incredible clinicians and our collegial friendships.

I am a married mother of a teenager and a college student, dog mom to two awesome pups, and a wife to my best friend. My parents were married for over 60 years before we lost my dad to cancer, and I look to their relationship as a model of commitment, friendship and security.

I consider myself a relationship counselor, one who helps people to have meaningful, deeply connected relationships with their most important people. I love sharing this passion with those I manage and supervise. I find it incredibly rewarding to witness their growth from nervous, brand new therapists to confident and skillful relationship counselors.

I’m most proud thinking of all the couples and families we have impacted over the years and thinking about the potential generational ripple effect of helping others create and nurture secure attachment with loved ones.

My counseling practice turned 15 years old in August of 2023, and I’m enormously proud of the business community I’ve built with my team of incredible clinicians.

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

I received several pieces of advice about growing my business that have helped me achieve success.

First, I broke down every big step into tiny little tasks, and committed to doing a few every day. If ever I felt overwhelmed with how much there was to do, I would think about breaking the step into even tinier tasks.

Second, since I had small children when I was starting my counseling practice, I relied upon naptime and blocks of childcare to work on my business. I would go to the office, or work on my business during naptime even when I didn’t have clients so that at least I could be working on my business when I wasn’t providing therapy.

Lastly, as my business matured and I was spread more thinly, I followed business consultant Peter Drucker’s adage to “Do what you do best and outsource the rest.” I regularly review tasks I’m spending time on to evaluate if I’m the best person for the job or if someone could do it more efficiently than I could. I also listen to my own emotions about work tasks. If it isn’t something that is “sparking joy” – thanks Marie Kondo – then I try to outsource that task as well.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

My parents both came from families with little money, and they had to work diligently to arrive at some financial security. I come by my work ethic from their modeling, and I am so grateful they showed me what was possible if I put my mind to something and committed to accomplishing lots of small steps towards that goal.

However, the biggest thing I’m working on now is my ability to sit still, to not work. It is not easy to unlearn busyness and default to work tasks as a way to occupy my free time. It’s not that I don’t enjoy other interests, hobbies and friendships. I do! However, I want to strive to work smarter, and then to simply be in a state of not-work.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://thrivefamilyservices.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thrivecouple_familycounseling/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ThriveCoupleandFamilyCounseling
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/thrive-couple-and-family-counseling-services
• Other: https://thrivecounseling.intakeq.com/booking

Image Credits
For professional group photos, Wendy Pilling