We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Beth and Chris Bruno a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Beth and Chris, thanks for joining us today. So, let’s start with trends – what are some of the largest or more impactful trends you are seeing in the industry?

Mental Health care is in a completely different space than it was 10 years ago. Not a day goes by that we don’t run into someone in town that comes up to us proudly declaring they are clients at ReStory Counseling. People talk about having a counselor or therapist in the way one might talk about their personal trainer or hair stylist. “Oh you go there, too?” The widespread acceptance that everyone has “mental health” that needs tending has drastically reduced the once prevalent stigma of “going to counseling”. The rise in mental health challenges, particularly among GenZ, and increased attention and funding, has all led to an altered landscape in this industry. Additionally, “trauma informed” has permeated culture to a degree that “trauma” is the new buzz word, for better or worse. It has opened up new pathways to healing and transformation, but runs the risk of diluting trauma’s impact.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

Chris and I co-own and lead ReStory Counseling, a 12-year old business based in Northern Colorado. What began with Chris and a rent-by-the-hour office is now a team of 20 therapists and Storywork coaches spanning 5 states who offer counseling, intensives, online courses, and consulting. We’ve authored books, hosted podcasts, and crafted experiences all to help provide aha moments and intentional transformation.

The first 10 years of our careers we were with an international non-profit before transitioning to graduate school where Chris received an MA in Counseling Psychology and I received an MA in Community Development. Afterwards, we moved to Colorado to start a business with a non-profit heart, committing to help both clients and counselors come alive. One of the ways we strive to do this is by offering an experience and depth rarely known in grad programs and traditional therapy. Clients regularly tell us they’ve been to multiple counselors and never touched on “these stories”. Staff receive in-house training on our ReStory® approach where they too journey into their own shaping narratives, equipping them to be present in a different way with clients.

We’ve seen the most growth in our online marriage community – a space we created at the beginning of the pandemic to offer an in between of traditional marriage counseling and marriage conferences. It’s the only marriage membership that provides high touch and live engagement with marriage counselors and it’s been an incredible compliment to couples who are in individual counseling, stepping down from marriage work, or just wanting to grow more connected to their spouse.

Additionally, our individual, marriage, and group intensives are in high demand. People fly in from all over to spend 3-5 focused days working on things that would otherwise take more than a year of weekly sessions to uncover. While these are emotionally costly to facilitate, they are some of the most rewarding experiences we offer.

Our goal is to continue to adapt to the greatest needs of our community while increasing our scope to newer audiences. It’s a challenge to be a locally rooted, national organization, but one we welcome.

If you have multiple revenue streams in your business, would you mind opening up about what those streams are and how they fit together?

Our business started very simply. We did not have a vision for what ReStory has become. Chris started seeing clients as “Chris Bruno Counseling” and a year later contracted with someone to take a few off his waiting list. Restoration Counseling was born. Each subsequent year we added a contractor, but were only breaking even. Everyone was trading time for money and there didn’t seem to be a better scenario, despite trying to learn from other counseling centers.

In 2017 we hired a business coach and everything changed. He wasn’t from the mental health world and so he pushed us to think outside of the box and start taking risks. We began to think differently around who we hired as coaches and how we could help train them. Long before COVID, we were offering virtual sessions with Storywork coaches in different states. One of the things we also decided to do was take what we knew and talked about all the time inside the office and digitalize it. We made our first course in 2019. We made a membership community in 2020. Now we have 9 courses and a growing membership community.

As our offerings grew (courses, consulting, destination intensives) and we trademarked ReStory®, we outgrew Restoration Counseling. In 2022, we rebranded to ReStory Counseling to encompass the breadth of our products and services.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

After slowly growing to 5 counselors, our lease was up and we needed to find more office space. It felt prudent to purchase a space, but incredibly risky. We did not take out a business loan and borrowed a bit from a family member to buy and remodel a unit too big for us. We moved in and needed to sublease 4 of the offices immediately, but it still felt worth it. However, there was some differing vision in our burgeoning team and some relational tension. Four months after moving in, three of the five counselors left! Now, we had 7 offices to sublease to cover the mortgage and a shattered “business” to rebuild. That’s when we hired our business coach. In many ways, the story of our business started in 2018 as we rebuilt with a clearer vision and plan.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.restory.life
• Instagram: @storyrestored
• Facebook: ReStory Counseling
• Linkedin: @ReStoryCounseling

Image Credits
First pic @prestonmiller