We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Lauren Fractor a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Lauren, appreciate you joining us today. We’d love to hear the backstory of how you established your own practice.
I have been a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (LMFT) since November 2021, but an unlicensed therapist since September 2016 when I saw my first client at my internship. I utilized skills developed during that internship at a community mental health agency that led me to my second post-grad internship at a high school. After a few years and right before I got licensed, I joined a group private practice where I was able to work with various populations, mostly teens and adults, which further lead me to my current positions. I started one year ago at a telhealth only group practice and established myself as a business owner with my own private practice, Forward Focus, Marriage and Family Inc. Since I am relatively new to the experience, I will say that I love the flexibility and freedom with private practice and it has been relatively seamless. My experience in prior settings and speaking with other colleagues with their own practices, helped me feel confident to take the leap into my own. The biggest challenge I experienced was believing in myself to be able to go on my own. My best advice would be to ask questions, gain experience, and believe in yourself and your abilities.
Lauren, 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?
I always knew I would end up in a profession where I was able to help others and give back in some way. When I was younger, I was often described as “sensitive and emotional”, but little did I realize that those terms also meant empathic and kind. I took a psychology class at age 17 and knew I wanted to go into psychology in college. I graduated with my psychology bachelors and became a preschool teacher for a year before I decided I wanted to become a therapist (rather than my previous dreams of being a child psychologist) and applied for graduate school. I graduated in 2017 with my masters in counseling with an emphasis on marriage and family therapy and have been working consistently since. I opened my own private practice a year ago and work primarily from a solution-oriented, client-centered, and strengths-based lens, which basically translates as wanting to work with clients who are more action oriented and bring their strengths to their life challenges. I work with adults via telehealth (for now) and abide by the concept of not wanting to change a client, but rather give them insight into their strengths and use those as assets to their life.
If you could go back, would you choose the same profession, specialty, etc.?
I think about this often because of how much has happened over the last 5 years after the pandemic, but I really love being a therapist and helping others. Being in this space has taught me so much about the human experience and how connected we all are. I love being able to support clients with their challenges and applaud them when they are able to overcome and work through the hard stuff. I also love supporting my clients when things are going well and when they have positive breakthroughs. It’s a unique field to be in and other helping fields and careers would understand more of the experience of working with people and how special it is. It can also come with a lot of emotions too, but I have learned so much about myself in this field too. Ultimately, I think this is what I was always meant to do.
Putting training and knowledge aside, what else do you think really matters in terms of succeeding in your field?
Being a therapist is a very unique career because you get to learn a lot about yourself while working with clients. I have learned that I am able to be less emotional when I need to be, as well as lean in to being supportive for clients when they are sharing deeply personal stories. I have experienced some very difficult times during the past 8 years of my career (pandemic, school shooting at another local high school, my own personal struggles to name a few) and have realized that resilience is key to being a good therapist. Not every client will find you helpful, some might even take out their personal feelings on you, and having resilience to know that it is ok to not have all the answers. It is important to take time for yourself when you need to and engage in healthy self-care practices, rely on your own support system, and self-reflect when appropriate. It is important to never give up and maintain resiliency in the mental health field because you are met with a lot of different emotions and feelings on a daily basis.
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