We were lucky to catch up with Genevieve Johnson, Alicia Lord and Brittany Alley recently and have shared our conversation below.
Genevieve, Alicia & Brittany, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We’d love to hear stories from your time in school/training/etc.
Alicia: After college, I (Alicia) had an inkling that I should get my master’s in counseling and, without any better ideas, I went for it. That was all well and good until I actually started attending classes. Now, there was nothing wrong with my classes; my peers seemed to leave each course with passion and curiosity. For me, however, it felt like nothing clicked. I didn’t love the work, and I couldn’t see my life after graduation. I walked from class to class, asking myself, “what am I even doing here?”
All of that changed when I showed up for a weekend elective. The topic: play therapy. Within the first hour, it felt like all the pieces had fallen into place. Play therapy, I discovered, is such an innate and authentic approach to counseling that it not only benefits the clients, but it improves the life of the counselor, as well. It requires us to be our truest selves and heal ourselves alongside our clients. At that moment, it honestly felt like magic (sometimes, it still does). Finally, I had an answer for what kind of work I wanted to do.
From that day forward, I was focused on my goal of becoming a play therapist. It turned out to be a winding path, with bumps and roadblocks like any other. But on that path I came to know two incredible humans, Brittany and Genevieve, who I found shared my sense of inspiration for the work. Over the course of years, our friendship and shared interest became a shared mission, and then, a physical manifestation of that mission in the form of Empowered Play. In the time we have known each other, we have talked about literally everything: the hard stuff, the beautiful stuff, work stuff, and anything in between. There’s very little we don’t know about one another, which is why it came as such a surprise to us when we learned we had a training in common.
Genevieve: Our paths may have been winding but years later we found out that we had all been in the same very small play therapy class without even knowing one another!
Brittany: That class ignited a sense of purpose in me more than I could have ever anticipated. The most beautiful part of it all is that not only did I walk away with that experience, two others did, too. It would be a while, still, before we became the triad we are today, but I have no doubt that something was in motion even then. Once again, the magic of play therapy is so clear.
Genevieve, Alicia & Brittany, 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?
Empowered play, thanks for joining us. Center for Child and Family Therapy is a Play Therapy practice serving many communities across the front range of Colorado. Empowered Play was founded in 2021 by Genevieve Johnson, Brittany Alley and Alicia Lord. Our mission is to provide high-quality counseling for children and families, and to provide a safe space to feel and grow, not just for our clients, but for the therapists that join our teams, as well.
Our relationships bloomed first as friendship between colleagues. But when we repeatedly found that the values we live by weren’t reflected in the therapy companies in our areas, we put our heads (and hearts) together and EP was born. While we are co-owners and co-creators of the EP brand, each of us owns and manages our own private practice. This means that we have support in all the places we were seeking it—in building a community, in dealing with difficulties, in the learning curves of business ownership, and in the creation of a mission that is aligned with the work we do. However, we also get autonomy in the places where that felt important—our fees, our hiring process, our business offices. Our business model looks nothing like any we had seen before, but we felt it made the most sense for us, and listening to that inner knowing was enough of a reason for us to move forward.
Though all three of us have extensive experience working with children, the biggest prerequisite we have found for being play therapists is first-hand knowledge about how hard childhood can be. If it were not for the moments of shame, pain, and disconnection that colored our worlds when we were small, we would not be on this mission today. Translating that pain into healing is a gift that we give to ourselves and to our communities.
While we are incredibly proud of the work we do with children and families, one of our biggest sources of pride is the healthy working environment we provide for other therapists. In a world of work-until-you-burn-out, where therapists are seeing 40+ clients a week, we strive to teach a healthy work-life balance. At Empowered Play, the expectation for our teams is that they learn how to trust themselves on a deep level, how to take care of themselves, and how to serve clients with their unique talents and skill sets.
Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?
Before starting Empowered Play, Alicia, Brittany, and I worked as therapists at another office. To say our experience was negative would be an understatement. As budding therapists, we put trust in those above us to guide us on the path of healing children and supporting their families. Instead, we worked in a culture that made us question our skills, ourselves, and ultimately our path. Being in a demoralizing environment took resilience. It took a number of years to muster the strength to step out into the unknown and start Empowered Play. As we have done so, we have made intentional choices to create a work environment that is supportive, trusting, and empowering. While as difficult as the time before Empowered Play was, we would not have amazing relationships with clients, clinicians, or one another. The passion for helping children heal ultimately led us to heal ourselves and bring our learning to the world.
Do you have any insights you can share related to maintaining high team morale?
Each of us has unique strengths in leading our teams, but the common ground between us is that we value the person before the job. Working in a helping profession requires an immense amount of personal growth and self-care; if those things get overlooked while striving for profit, therapists suffer. Instead, we prioritize making sure that our teams feel valued and supported. It has also been a wonderful experience to allow room in our environment for each staff member to contribute in whatever way makes sense for them. We are all bound to have different values, to see the world in different ways, and we have embraced that. Instead of requiring everyone’s work to look more or less the same, we provide a high level of creative freedom. For one staff member, that might mean permission to facilitate group therapy, while another staff member dives into marketing strategies. We have found that providing autonomy amongst our staff actually results in higher levels of community and involvement within the company. Finally, we know that it is normal for team members in any profession to grow and eventually move on, so instead of making that a taboo subject, we welcome conversations about what is coming next. Then, when a staff member does spread their wings and begin a new journey, we hope to stay in contact with them and provide mutually-beneficial support, consultation, and referrals. The more incredible therapists that are out there changing the world, the better.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.empoweredplayco.com
- Instagram: @empoweredplaytherapy
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/empoweredplaytherapy
Image Credits
Artem Podrez