We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Dr. Spirit, PhD, LPC, NCC, CPCS a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Dr. thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us 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 started my own practice in 2015 after becoming exhausted by the circumstances I felt helpless to have any real impact on as an employee in the fields that I was working in at the time. I didn’t feel that the suffering of those seeking help, and a genuine investment in their getting the care they needed to improve their lives was as urgent and important within the systems that I was a part of as those things were to me. I was also suffering heavily from my own work related stressors due to racial and gender discrimination in the workplace. So, I made the decision to venture out on my own when I arrived at a critical juncture in my life where I had to decide: keep fighting to create change from within the system, or step outside of the system and create change by building something new. I stepped out on faith and the encouragement of an amazing partner, and the rest is history in the making.

The road to building a behavioral health firm hasn’t been an easy one, nor do I believe it ever will be. Every day is a concerted effort of doing our best to fight for a cause we passionately believe in, not always knowing how we will make a way, while at the same time having unbridled conviction that a way must be made, even when no way seems to exist. The key challenges, which sadly are commonplace – especially for clinicians of color – is having to bootstrap an entire operation with extremely limited resources and support. This line of work doesn’t require large amounts of expensive equipment or materials that you can use as collateral, so securing operating funds, access to lines of credit, or other necessary support needed to sustain or even grow your business is always a significant challenge. Also, operating as a “one woman band” in the beginning made it impossible to work within the business, and work on behalf of the business at the same time.

The trials and tribulations, successes and knowledge acquisition is ultimately what led me to expand my practice to form a group because I learned several important lessons about the power of collaboration versus competition or operating within a silo. I came to realize that we (i.e. the business, my colleagues, and those we serve) could go farther faster if we could find the synergy in working together in pursuit of mental wellness for all. For any young professional out there considering starting their own practice, I’d encourage them to begin with the end in mind and ask themselves, “Do you truly want to add the responsibility of overseeing a daily business operation to the work you do, or are you simply wanting to be self-employed,” because they are absolutely two very different things.

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 the Owner and Founder of a behavioral healthcare firm that works to solve the world’s most complicated mental healthcare challenges through bold, innovative solutions. The firm features an in-house group therapy practice, non-profit arm, and a media, marketing and consulting agency. These divisions work in tandem to develop and deliver evidence-based, sustainable interventions in response to multi-systemic complexities that lead to barriers in access and sustained recovery within historically marginalized communities at local, state, national and global levels.

In addition to traditional mental health services (i.e. individual, couples, family, group, etc.), my work has been featured across countless national and international outlets throughout her career, including radio and television networks, within Fortune 500 C-Suites, national sports leagues’ training rooms, school districts, and even the halls of Congress.

The driving motivation of the work is to to enhance mental health access and utilization through extensive community engagement. This advocacy not only includes organizational consultation and board membership for varying nonprofits and departments of education, but also lends her expertise to organizations within the entertainment, judicial and political industries where the proper depiction and support of mental wellness initiatives are a primary objective. My most noteworthy goals are currently the implementation of a national mental health program that she has created which provides school-based mental health services for students grades K-12 while identifying and training the next generation of emerging mental health professionals and a global mental health respite, repository and documentary which
focus on integrative global health and wellness driven by mental health stakeholders across borders.

Do you have any insights you can share related to maintaining high team morale?

Lead from the front, authentically, transparently, and passionately. Don’t be afraid to let people see you succeeding and laboring to succeed. Also, at the same time, remember the responsibility that your position requires, and do your best to excel at it consistently so that those you’re leading are forced to suffer under your leadership because you’re not upholding your responsibilities in a manner that allows them to excel, without worry, in their role.

If you could go back, would you choose the same profession, specialty, etc.?

Absolutely. To say that I love what I do would be an understatement. I understand mental health in extraordinary ways, and I have a deep commitment to not only helping people understand their feelings, thoughts, and behaviors, but also working with stakeholders across sectors to collaboratively design and implement culturally sensitive, comprehensive mental health care systems tailored to the diverse needs of communities at all levels (i.e. local, state, and national across the globe), in ways that foster accessibility, high quality care, and equity for all. I have a strong sense of the ways my gifts, training, and passion uniquely position me to create and affect things that most people cannot. That combination drives me to give and do as much as I can, and most of the time, what I’m doing doesn’t feel like work to me. The only downside to the work I do is not having enough resources for what I’m trying to accomplish.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: instagram.com/talk2spirit
• Facebook: facebook.com/talk2spirit
• Linkedin: linkedin.com/talk2spirit
• Twitter: twitter.com/talk2spirit
• Other: You can find me at “talk2spirit” everywhere.