We were lucky to catch up with Frances Echeverria Logan recently and have shared our conversation below.

Frances, appreciate you joining us today. We’d love to hear the backstory behind a risk you’ve taken – whether big or small, walk us through what it was like and how it ultimately turned out.

Life since 2019 has been about taking risks and betting on myself and my ability to be successful in spaces where I have felt like I was forging my own path. In 2019, I was recruited to join a news/talk radio station after 15+ years working in music formats. The jump was predicated on my experience working in mental health and at the time, it was impossible to know how much that would impact my broadcasting work as we navigated so many volatile situations in news and politics from 2020 onward.

Within one month of shutdowns due to COVID in March 2020, I left a job working as an in-house therapist for a psychiatrist and launched my own telehealth based private practice serving clients throughout the state of California. This was immediately beneficial in my professional growth and ability to increase my income. I built on this further when I retired from radio for good in November 2022 to focus solely on growing my private practice.

No one was going to pay me what I could make myself once I was established and managing my own practice. Furthermore, the freedom to create my own work schedule has allowed me to say “yes” to new courses to teach at my university and most importantly, allowed me the financial stability to take time off and enjoy life outside of work.

Frances, 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 career is a unique amalgamation of education and work experience that spans broadcasting, academia, agriculture and mental health. In this new season of my life, my primary focus is on providing mental health counseling to individuals and couples, along with teaching for the past seven years in the graduate department for counseling at our local state university.

As a therapist, my areas of expertise include trauma, addiction/recovery, depression, anxiety and issues related to LGBTQ+ and BIPOC communities. More recently, my areas of interest have also grown to include anti-oppression, liberation psychology perspectives as we reckon with the reality that older approaches to mental health can be stigmatizing, create barriers and reinforce harmful systems. I pride myself in the work that I do with clients and am honored to be a part of their healing journeys. I also take that lived experience into my work with students, who are developing their educational foundation in pursuit of work in the mental health field. Through supervision and mentorship, I can share my expertise and help prepare them for work in an ever-changing and absolutely necessary field.

Training and knowledge matter of course, but beyond that what do you think matters most in terms of succeeding in your field?

My background working in media has been incredibly beneficial in understanding the need to stay connected to the community. It is important to understand the resources that are available so that therapists can provide worthwhile resources to clients to use outside of standard session times. The work of therapy continues outside of a 50-minute session. It’s also important to have a strong network of professionals in the area, not just for referrals, but to facilitate the sharing of knowledge, mutual support and to gather inspiration from one another.

Additionally, it is important to be educated in what is going on in communities in order to understand the impact that it is having in clients’ lives. Therapy is political, although some in the field would like to argue for Freud’s blank slate approach, etc. People coming into therapy are absolutely impacted by what is happening on local, state and federal levels and by issues worldwide. A therapist’s own “stuff” that does not allow for open processing of that in session reinforces harmful treatment outcomes. A general understanding of the issues that are being faced in your client populations’ daily lives is basic mandatory knowledge at this point to provide competent care.

Any advice for growing your clientele? What’s been most effective for you?

My most effective strategy for growing my private practice has been based on referrals. Those referrals come from satisfied clients who see the value in my services and share their experience with others. As therapists, we have legal and ethical guidelines around confidentiality, marketing and providing treatment to folks that may be too closely connected to one another. That said, I’ve been fortunate that my clients are more than willing to share my contact information with others when they openly talk about their growth in treatment to those in their lives.

So, what does it look like to get there?

The biggest complaint I hear from clients who have previously sought mental health treatment is that there was a lack of consistency in their interactions with a provider. Knowing that, I am consistent with my scheduling, provide reminder calls and regularly check in with clients to make sure that their needs are being met. I stay relevant in my training and take time off to avoid burnout. I return calls, texts and emails within a timeframe outlined to clients at the start of treatment. I also return every inquiry for services, even if I don’t have room. If I can’t provide an appointment, I make sure to give them names of practitioners in their area. This encourages their quest for help and supports providers that I feel confident identifying as referrals. I maintain a 48-hour cancellation policy that assures I will get paid for my time and while it has led to a handful of folks dropping out of treatment, most appreciate my clear communication of boundaries related to payment. In addition, I encourage work between sessions and provide resources, homework, etc. so that clients can maximize their potential from the work we are doing together. Success in therapy has a ripple effect in clients’ lives and sometimes those ripples cross paths with others that want to make the same kind of changes.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://frances-echeverria.clientsecure.me/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/francesecheverrialmft/

Image Credits
Phil Perez, Perez Photography