We were lucky to catch up with Hannah Dorsher recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hannah, appreciate you joining us today. Can you share an important lesson you learned in a prior job that’s helped you in your career afterwards?

A few years into my career as a therapist I got a job at a group counseling practice in my area. My friend had already been working there so I trusted the company immediately because of the connection. However, during the training process, red flags quickly began to surface. There was, in my opinion, an over-emphasis on money as the main qualifier of success–so it was preached that the more you work (the more clients you see), the more money you make and, therefore, the more successful you are. What I know now is that this mindset is problematic in the counseling field, it has the potential to reduce human beings in our care into numbers and creates an expectation of poor work life balance, which is obviously not the mindset you’d want your therapist having if you were their client. So, when two colleagues in my training cohort spoke up about their concerns with this mindset to the CEO, I was shocked when they were let go the next day. In my gut, I knew this was not good, that the culture here was not one that would help therapists and clients flourish; however, I stayed. I ignored my gut feelings. Unfortunately, this would not be the last time I ignored my feelings here.

This continued for almost 2 more years as I worked at the company, even moving into leadership and mentorship roles. The unhealthy culture did not stop with the obsession on numbers and the complete lack of healthy work life balance, but there was a clique-like culture amongst all of leadership. I will spare you the dirty details in the name of “staying classy”, all this to say, the red flags did not stop… the entire time. By my second year at the company, I was deeply troubled by the culture, but was working so much I felt like I had such little time to change anything. Until I started having health issues.

Right before COVID, I started having what felt like mini heart attacks which, after spending thousands on heart tests, turned out to be anxiety symptoms caused by stress. When I brought this up to my co-leader, I was told that I should come in on Saturdays again to make up for the time that I spent at the doctor in the last month. I was literally speechless. I was being told that the answer to helping my pseudo-heart attack anxiety spasms caused by stress was to work more, according to my co-leader. This was almost the final straw for me. At this point, I realized I needed to leave as this was clearly unhealthy in so many ways.

Then COVID hit. All the sudden we were all forced to stay home and start seeing clients virtually. My caseload decreased and I was able to spend more time with my then fiancé (now husband). I was able to go on walks, paint again, relax, and get off before it was dark most days. It was eye-opening! I had the realization that I could build my own business and it could work for me and my life. That it could allow me to prioritize my family over work, allow me to take care of my health, and to take care of myself in a way that I could show up as the best version of myself for my clients. So, a couple months into COVID, I excitedly handed in my notice and left the company to start my own private practice.

While I learned a lot during my time at this company and do credit some of my ability to start a business to learning some of the ins and outs of the company’s business structure, I also learned what not do to. Most importantly I learned to trust my gut and trust it early. There were so many places in my three years at this company that could have been the “final straw” yet I hung in there, ignoring my intuition. Why? At times it was fear of the unknown or fear of change, other times it was that I was stressed out and had so little time for the things that job hunting or building your own business requires. I don’t shame myself for taking so long to finally leave, I have learned to pay attention to my intuition and to trust it and to act on it much quicker. This has honestly been a strengthening experience in that regard. So, moral of the story: Trust your intuition early on!

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?

Hi! I’m Hannah Dorsher. I am a licensed professional counselor in CO and FL and an anxious attachment coach. I own a private mental health therapy practice based out of Fort Collins, CO in which I specialize in helping people with attachment/relationship issues, anxiety, self-esteem, and trauma. I also am building a coaching business to help women with anxious attachment navigate relationships and motherhood. I will be hosting a group coaching program for healing anxious attachment in early 2024 and plan to host amazing retreats aimed at helping moms revive their identity after having children and improve their sense of self-confidence, power, and lust for life. I am so excited to get to dive in deep with these ladies! On the side, I also create guidebooks, workbooks, journals, and cards of a mental health variety to help people with their self-work.

I love working with people on healing anxious attachment wounds and patterns that are contributing to repetitive issues in their relationships. I have worked with so many women who find that their attachment issues really come to the surface when they get married and/or when they become mothers. It is important to me to provide support for women and moms who are wanting to build healthy, secure attachments to their partners and babies while also healing attachment wounds that they carry with them. I have seen so many amazing transformations with my clients when they begin to heal their attachment wounds. Suddenly they begin to feel more compassionate and loving towards themselves, learn to regulate their emotions skillfully, learn to communicate with their partners and children effectively, and feel a greater sense of peace and security in and out of relationships.

Not only have I witnessed this is so many people’s lives, I have also experienced it myself. One of the things that sets me apart from other professionals is that I have had my own ongoing healing journey with anxious attachment issues. I have experienced firsthand the amazing changes that occur when you start to heal attachment wounds. This healing process is what drew me into specializing in helping people heal attachment issues and I have devoted much time and focus to constantly learning more about how to help people heal from attachment trauma. I genuinely feel like it is my mission to help others experience healing from attachment issues too!

One of the things I feel most amazed by is the trust and vulnerability my clients share with me in our therapy and coaching sessions. They are truly inspiring people and I feel honored by their trust in me and in our work. I take our work very seriously and am very committed to my client’s progress.

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

One of the best things someone in private practice can do is network. It may sound obvious that in order to get referrals you must network, and that is definitely true, but one of the biggest benefits I have found in networking the that you simultaneously build referral sources AND a support system. Since I am in private practice, I spend a lot of time by myself (when not with my amazing clients, that is). It can be a little lonely to not have coworkers and managers to chat with or to talk through work situations. Luckily, I still had relationships with many of my old colleagues when I started my practice. I quickly learned that it was imperative to keep those relationships strong and close. Now, I meet with one of my best friends who is also a private practice therapist every other week to do work on our coaching businesses, and I attend consultation groups monthly to talk about client issues. I’ve also met with numerous therapists for coffee dates just to get to know each other. I also meet with other wellness businesses occasionally to learn what they do so I have referral sources for my client’s needs. At this point, I feel well-supported and well-connected in the Northern Colorado area.

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

I think one of the things that has helped build my reputation is that I am very consistent with my clients and with my marketing. I genuinely give my best to each and every session with my clients and I think it shows. I am also very dependable and consistent in scheduling, meaning I am on time and very rarely cancel on clients. A large portion of my referrals are from previous clients. I take that to mean that they are happy with their therapy services, and I think my consistency is a big part of that. I am also super consistent with marketing—I am easy to find on social media and write blogs and offer other free helpful content for people to learn from. I think it is easy for people to feel like they know I can help them because I offer so much free content on my social media and my website and this has built trust for them already.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.hannahdorshercounseling.com
• Instagram: @healing_with_hannah
• Linkedin: Hannah Dorsher