We recently connected with Jacqueline Plante and have shared our conversation below.

Jacqueline , looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. We’d love to hear the backstory of how you established your own practice.

After working successfully in solo private practice for a few years I reconnected with my now business partner, Traci Medeiros, who I trained with at the LGBT Center in Orange County. We chatted a lot about our growth in the years past, and our plans and hopes for mental health care in our community. When we got into the specifics about what we thought was working, we identified a gap we could fill, in accessible, but well informed care.

We essentially jumped in feet first: simultaneously creating a business model from the ground up, while hiring, and looking for a brick and mortar office space. The most helpful thing in those early days was reaching out to an extended community of professionals and asking as many questions as we could. A combination of mentorship, google, and strong intuition guided some of those early decisions, and while some things have shifted and grown with time, we still rely on our strong, early foundation.

Even now, decision making often comes back to that core combination. When something hasn’t felt right, we’ve been willing to shift direction, or to make some hard changes, knowing that our initial vision is still the guiding principle.

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

Gather & Grow OC is a mental health therapy, and wellness service provider located in Orange County, CA. We founded on the premise that quality mental health care should not just be a luxury afforded to few, but an accessible means of support for anyone looking to improve their quality of life and their relationships with those around them. Myself (Jacqueline Plante), and my business parter (Traci Medeiros) saw a gap in our area for mental health support for the LGBTQ community that wasn’t relegated to hidden space, but forefront, bright, open, and safe. It was important for us, that while we continue to serve and support anyone seeking mental health treatment, it was clear that our space is also affirming.

We’d love to hear about you met your business partner.

Traci and I met back early in our training while we were gaining hours and experience towards our respective licenses. We lost touch after going our separate ways (both on a path towards our solo private practices). After being licensed and in business for ourselves for a few tears, Traci formed a little educational cohort for local therapists supporting the LGBTQ community. I immediately jumped at the chance to reconnect with such a trusted peer, and during and after those groups we got the opportunity to chat about how we’d come to find some success on our own, and our plans for the future. We kept approaching such strong parallels in our business models, and ideology, and ultimately knew that the sum of our joined force would be greater than its parts. Thus the birth of Gather & Grow OC!

What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?

Consistency and follow through. It’s a little sad to say how often we hear potential clients tell us the number of therapists who just never called them back. We wanted to be different from that. Burnout is so high in our field, and we can easily identify why, but the core work of what we do on the business end of things is making sure our team is always feeling tapped in, connected, well-resourced, and supported by us. And not just financially, but educationally, and emotionally as well. I think this reflects in the kind of care we offer our clients, and happy clients refer their friends and family. That’s the highest honor we receive.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.gatherandgrowoc.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gatherandgrowoc/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/gatherandgrowoc
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@gatherandgrowoctherapy992/videos
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/gather-and-grow-fullerton
• Other: https://www.instagram.com/jacquelineplantetherapist/ https://www.instagram.com/compassionaterevolt/

Image Credits
Kristel Penn