Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Nicholas Terry. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Hi Nicholas, thanks for joining us today. We’d love to hear the backstory of how you established your own practice.
My wife and I opened Longs Peak Counseling, PLLC so that we could help clients improve their mental health in a way that aligned closely with our values. We understood that each client has their own set of unique circumstances that needed to be accounted for in order to best serve them. Whether the client had financial barriers towards getting help, or that they needed virtual sessions due to a lack of childcare, we wanted to build a practice that had the flexibility to meet these kinds of needs. It was also a priority of ours to make sure that the level of care clients received was not being sacrificed for the sake of the “bottom line” of a traditional business model. There are no quotas or target incentives to meet at our practice. There were some challenges in the beginning as this was our first time building a practice, but we were fortunate to get great help and advice from other practitioners and small business consultants through the city of Fort Collins. If we had to do it all over again, we would have utilized the services the city of Fort Collins offers small businesses much sooner. Through them, we were able to hire a wonderful CPA named Jackie Compton and get important business templates that helped us become more efficient and effective.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
My name is Nicholas Terry and I am a licensed professional counselor in the state of Colorado. I went to Colorado State University for Psychology and received my Master’s degree in professional mental health counseling from Oregon State University. I wanted to become a mental health counselor after I started going to therapy myself as a teenager. I realized then how important it was to have a professional help me work through my mental health concerns and become more intentional and secure. I have greatly enjoy my career and find it incredibly meaningful to help empower others to live healthier lives. In our practice, I work with client to gain more control over their thoughts, feelings, and behaviors using a blend of mindful and cognitive strategies. The greatest feeling is knowing that a client has left our care with an increase sense of self-confidence and esteem.
Training and knowledge matter of course, but beyond that what do you think matters most in terms of succeeding in your field?
In order to be successful in this field, you need to be genuinely compassionate to other people’s suffering, as well as the ability to be authentic in your presentation. I think that many clients unfortunately have been taught to think negatively about themselves and can have a difficult time being compassionate to what they have been through. You need to be able to communicate your compassion passionately to even have a chance at competing with their negative self talk. It would be next to impossible to challenge their negative self image if you did not genuinely feel for them.
If you could go back, would you choose the same profession, specialty, etc.?
I would. This profession is unique in the sense that there is not a script to follow for each client. Everyone has the same basic needs sure, but the way we get those needs met is different. I love this job because I get to sit across from another person and try to creatively express my care and understanding in a way that is meaningful to them. I never have to have the same conversation twice and therefore, I am always interested in the novelty of the next hour.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.longspeakcounseling.com/