We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Kim McGuiness, M.Ed., NCC, LPC and GC Clinical Director. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Kim below.
Kim, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Was there a moment in your career that meaningfully altered your trajectory? If so, we’d love to hear the backstory.
Actually, there were defining momentS throughout my career. My career has spanned being a teacher, an Executive Administrator/Human Resource Generalist then Officer of Executive Development and Training, to Executive School Board Member, Business and Leadership Consultant to Clinicial Mental Health Counselor/Small Business Owner. Each time my career evolved it gave me insights into my strengths and areas of opportunities to grow. For me, having the opportunity to be adaptable and flexible with the plan for myself allowed me to take chances in my career that today have provided unique perspectives in helping my clients. I often wonder had I not given myself permission to be open to learning through change, if I would have stayed in jobs that over time would have felt less fulfilling. In terms of the defining moment that lead to my current role I would say it came from a need that my family couldn’t find in the marketplace. We felt the challenges many feel when looking for counseling services that support more than what shows up in a counseling session. We wanted a provider that could assess not only how someone’s mental health was impacting their life, but also how it influenced overall health and wellness in all parts of life. What we have learned in our group counseling practice is that life is hard and seeking counseling where the whole person is the focus is a part of feeling less stress in being able to navigate personal, professional and life goals.
Kim, 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?
Get Centered was started based on a simple premise – What if we could provide a single resource where people could go, that provides a holistic approach to their physical and mental health?
After years of being frustrated trying to help family members and loved ones find the right resources, and then having to ensure that there was a connectedness between a variety of health providers, we soon learned how complicated this process is and how much work it takes on the part of the individual to source like-minded providers that actually work together to care for a client.
Our concept strives to take the burden off of the client as we have thoughtfully designed a collaborative arrangement with mental and physical wellness providers who are committed to ensuring that the path to wellness is holistic in approach and measurable in results.
Our goal was to find affiliations with providers who understand that each person’s journey is a unique and highly personalized experience. Most of us come with pre-conceived ideas about what we are struggling with either mentally or physically, and when the two issues are co-mingled we want providers that not only understand our overall health and wellness, but are willing to communicate with other providers. We work to provide collaborations in care for our clients to take the burden off of the clients in finding their own resources that will complement their counseling and/or coaching care.
Our practice specializes in counseling for mental health in all areas of life and for all stages of life. From birth through adulthood we provide counseling for ADHD, social emotional awareness, anxiety, depression, defining purpose, trauma, grief, postpartum, life on the spectrum, disordered eating, relationship challenges and premarital planning. We provide coaching for those moving to maintenance in counseling allowing on-going accountability in their care as they transition to using their counseling strategies and tools. We also provide career coaching, life coaching, speech pathology and executive functioning services to address other life challenges. We work with individuals, couples, parents, and families. We are confident we can serve any challenge, no matter the age and find strengths in clients that allow them to be their best authentic self.
Any advice for growing your clientele? What’s been most effective for you?
Small business owners will probably know the statistics of the success timeframe for a business. Typically a small business has between 1-5 years to establish a place in the market and determine if their business idea and plan will be sustainable. When we created Get Centered our strategy started in understanding what was missing from the services being offered in the market. Once we knew the whole person approach of partnering with collaborators was unique, we evaluated the St. Louis area demographical data to learn more about who we were going to market to and what type of services they may have a need in receiving. With the information we learned our clients would be unique in wanting a customized service that felt different not only in the counseling or coaching setting, but from the minute they entered the practice. The most effective strategy in growing our clientele was in collecting information about our client, finding a location that was visible and not hidden in an office building or other medical setting, and then providing immediate responses to requests along with exceptional care.
How do you keep your team’s morale high?
Many times, as a business owner, the focus on the business strategy can interfere with the need to understand not only the why of the business, but on the how you’ll accomplish the goals and objectives based in the business plan. Coming from a Human Resource background and knowing that the people that do the work are the way to achieve business goals was a defining moment of that came in handy in understanding the management of the center. My husband and I own and manage our practice together and both agree that if we focus on creating an environment our counselors and coaches feel valued and heard the rest will take care of itself. We truly believe and try to practice our belief that each of our counselors and coaches deserve what they work for, can share in the successes as much as the challenges, need autonomy and recognition in how they do their work, plus support the idea that we will all find success working together vs in competition with one another. We also believe working in an environment that provides access to what they need when they need it along with a few perks that support a work/life balance demonstrates our commitment to their well being as much as our clients. Within the year, we will be reaching our 5 year mark of being in business, and over the 5 years while we’ve watched other group practices have an ebb and flow of counselors in and out of the practice we have not experienced movement of clinicians other than for movement out of the state or change in commitment to Get Centered practices and processes. In fact, one of our counselors that moved for her husband’s relocation career opportunity continues to be a part of the Get Centered team.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://getcenteredcounselingstl.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/getcenteredcounseling_coaching/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GetCenteredCounselingandCoaching
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/get-centered-counseling-coaching-and-wellness
Image Credits
Ben McGuiness Photography
Barry McClintock Photography