Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Lisa Hansen. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Alright, Lisa thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We’d love to hear the backstory behind a risk you’ve taken – whether big or small, walk us through what it was like and how it ultimately turned out.
Three years ago, in mid 2019, the thirteen therapists I’d gathered together to work with me in our LGBTQ+ clinic sat me down. The organization that had been paying us to see clients who couldn’t afford therapy was now changing and they wanted to talk. I’d told these amazing therapists they were free to work with that organization as it changed, but I would not be able to do that. Now they had come to a decision, the therapists told me. They wanted me to start a non-profit organization and they wanted to follow me there.
I didn’t know what to say. These therapists were being offered secure jobs with an organization that clearly wanted them. The venue was beautiful and the prospects of working seemed steady. What could I offer them? Where would I find an office were we could see clients? How could I pay these wonderful therapists? How could I find sustaining donors to support their work with clients who couldn’t afford therapy?
These therapists sat around me waiting for a decision. If I said it was too much to think about, they would all go their separate ways– working for this or other organizations. That was the safe decision, the one with no risks. They would all be OK. I would be OK. If I said I would organize a non-profit clinic to support them in continuing their work, I would be responsible for making sure several hundred clients were cared for — finding a place to meet, wages for therapists, funds for rent, licenses, furniture, and donors to help us afford to do all that, not to mention creating a non-profit organization that donors would support. This could be my future. I was already somewhat past 60 years old and had been planning to ease into my retirement years with a little therapy work on the side. Taking these risks was not in my life plan.
I looked at them and told them I would do it. I would create the non-profit organization. They committed to seeing their clients until we could get on our feet. One of our therapists had a place we could meet for a few months. Another organization offered to be our financial sponsor until our non-profit was approved by the IRS. The community started making donations of mostly small sizes, hundreds of them, that allowed us to make it through the summer and into the giving season.
Three years later, we have 36 therapists and two nurse practitioners, an office manager and three assistants, a beautiful suite of offices in Orem and offices in South Jordan. We have provided more than 27,000 sessions of therapy, more than 300 free sessions every month, and 50% of our sessions are provided at a cost of $25 or less. We have licenses in eight US states and offer teletherapy throughout Utah and those states. We have therapists who live in Georgia, Texas, and Idaho, as well as in Utah. We provide internships for ten universities.
We provide culturally competent therapy to the LGBTQ+ community — individuals, couples, and families. Our therapy is queer- and gender-affirming, and offers support especially for people at the intersection of religion and identity. We have therapists who are queer, trans, straight and cis, including therapists who are religious, post-religious, and non-religious.
This month we received the Mental Health General Outpatient Provider of the Year Award from Extraordinary Options, evidencing that our work is recognized and appreciated in the mental health community. We continue to need and seek financial support so our work can continue, and so that people who can’t afford mental health therapy can get it!
The risk has been so very worth it!
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers?
I grew up in Indianapolis during a time when civil rights and race issues were a daily topic of conversation. I saw that people don’t thrive when they are denied full participation in society. I’m always trying to understand why people support systems that keep others from full participation.
When I finally applied for grad school, I felt a strong nudge to pursue a mental health degree instead. This has allowed me to sit one-on-one with hundreds of clients in healing ways as well as to provide education to large groups about the mental health and well-being of LGBTQIA+ clients.
My therapists and I provide culturally-competent mental health counseling to LGBTQIA+ individuals, couples and famlies. The intersection of identity and religious life can be difficult to navigate, and we offer support for people at various places in that spectrum of experience. We aim to provide affordable therapy, which is why more than 300 sessions every month are provided free of charge and 50% of our sessions cost $25 or less. Even though we are based in Utah and Salt Lake Counties, we come from a variety of backgrounds and have licenses in 8 different US states so that we can be helpful to a broad range of people in the US. We provide both in-person and telehealth services.
We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?
Something I had to unlearn in my life was that it was my job to make life pleasant for other people even when I had to erase myself to do it. Hey, if I could pretend that I was OK so that other people weren’t bothered or hurt, why not? I remember thinking it was easy to do because I could usually manage my feelings and sometimes people couldn’t even tell I had any!
I rworked really hard to manage myself for lots of years. I remember thinking that love was when you felt so strongly about someone you wanted to erase all your (much less important) feelings so that the other person would feel wonderful when they were with you. I aimed for that! That turned out to be so wrong!
It took me a loooooong time to realize that
1) my own feelings mattered to me;
2) they weren’t more important than other people’s, but they did impact my health and well-being;
3) other people who loved me wanted to know my feelings and I wasn’t sure what they were anymore sometimes;
4) I didn’t know how to have fun any more because I couldn’t stuff just the feelings I didn’t like — they all went down;
5) my being a person with real feelings made me more real to people around me; and
6) sharing feelings didn’t make me a control freak — I could share them without blaming anyone for them.
There’s not much of a backstory to this one — just Wow — it took me long enough.
Do you think you’d choose a different profession or specialty if you were starting now?
No, I love getting up every day and doing the work I do with people who are helping to heal the world.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.flourishtherapy.org
- Instagram: flourishtherapyinc
- Facebook: flourishtherapyinc
- Linkedin: Lisa Hansen
Image Credits
Tori Hansen, Laura Skaggs, Brent Pace