We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Lana Banegas a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Lana, appreciate you joining us today. Can you open up about a risk you’ve taken – what it was like taking that risk, why you took the risk and how it turned out?

The biggest risk I have ever taken was re-starting my private practice. I first started in private practice in 2014. I enjoyed working for myself and enjoyed building my own business. In 2017 I decided to go into a partnership with a friend and to start a counseling practice together. About a year later, it became apparent that the partnership was not working. The environment became more stressful than supportive and we decided to go our separate ways. Once the dust settled, I realize that, that experience that quite traumatic for me. I took some time to process and realized that I had two choices, rest, heal, and start again, from scratch. Or rest, heal, and work for a big company with great benefits and pay. Staring over would be mean taking a risk that things won’t work out again, and that if they didn’t, I wouldn’t have an income that would enable to support my family. Building a practice takes a ton of energy, time, and thick skin. If I chose to end my business starting days, I would get the security of a set schedule, set pay, and great benefits. If I started again, I would be able to go after my dream of creating a place for healing, support, and growth for patients and for fellow clinicians. In early 2019, I decided to take the risk and started my business completely over. I wrote a new website, rented a new building, invested more funds and put myself out there again. By 2020 I had two more clinicians working with me and currently in 2023, I have a team of 9 clinicians. I achieved my dream of creating a safe and supportive environment for my fellow therapists and for clients. We continue to grow, to learn and to deal with life’s curveballs but I have never regretted starting over.

Lana, 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?

In a nutshell, The Marriage Point exists to empower couples and individuals toward authentic relational living. We believe that your marriage is your most significant relationship and that a healthy marriage means a healthy family, healthy children and thus a healthy society. Our reason for existing is to strengthen marriages and to help couples and individuals find healing from relational trauma, so that they may become people of intimacy, accountability and empathy. We provide couples counseling, sex therapy and counseling for individuals with a focus on healing and improving
relationships.

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

What I believe has helped build our reputation within the market of counseling is our practices’ emphasis on empathy and accountability. We treat every person that calls or visits our practice with the utmost care and are truly empathetic of their pain. We strive to be responsive, timely, professional and warm.

Do you have any insights you can share related to maintaining high team morale?

The best advice I can give to managers is to take care of your people. I believe that creating genuine relationships with your co-workers and employees is key to a successful business. True relationship requires authenticity, accountability and warmth. I prioritize checking in with my team and ensure they feel valued and heard.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://themarriagepoint.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/themarriagepoint/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/themarriagepoint
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-marriage-point/
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/the-marriage-point-marietta

Image Credits
Jonathan Speights