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

Sara, appreciate you joining us today. Setting up an independent practice is a daunting endeavor. Can you talk to us about what it was like for you – what were some of the main steps, challenges, etc.

The early days at Empower Marriage and Family Therapy were a combination of magic and madness. Moving from solo private practice to a group practice was a big jump in responsibility, liability, and creative energy. Becoming a group practice owner taught me so much about myself.

Transitioning into private practice was such an emotional and interesting time for me. Graduate school doesn’t teach you the business side of running a therapy practice.

Opening a therapy practice will invite you into your work – and I don’t mean business work. I mean personal work, shadow work. Hello, limiting beliefs, imposter syndrome, anxiety about being a good-enough therapist – it’s all there and if you want to run a successful practice – you’ve got to address the barriers that get in the way. It’s been a journey of strengthening my boundaries, addressing my worthiness wounds, and challenging my money insecurity, and the narratives I unconsciously held around running my business.

After working in treatment, both as a therapist and as a director, I wanted to create a grounding environment for my team so that we could show up with the most regulated nervous systems for our community. Burnout is rampant in our field and it was important for me and my clinical director to create an environment that honored the level of energy, self/other-care, and intensity that comes with being a therapist.

Defining values for our practice was important in cultivating a culture of support, integrity, and groundedness. My approach to leadership is horizontal, meaning I will honor each person on my team and the gifts they bring. Our community is based on trust and empowerment and influence flows in every direction. Every decision I make at Empower flows from my values of generosity, openness, freedom, and impact. My goal is always to lead my community in a way of care, so that they are all grounded, nourished, supported, and generously financially compensated so that they can provide deeply meaningful care to their clients.

I had a lot of support from my husband, Lee, who is a leadership coach, as well as many colleagues and friends who helped me problem-solve, listened to me vent, and pointed me in the right direction. I could not have done this alone and the best leaders have coaches.

If you’re thinking about starting your own business, I’ll be your hyphy girl! It’s a lot of work, but also SO rewarding to build something of your own that is deeply grounded in what’s most important to you. My advice would be to get clear on your ‘why’ and let every decision you make grow from those roots.

Sara, 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?

I am a Holistic Psychotherapist/Founder of Empower Marriage and Family Therapy. We are a collective of therapists who offer individual, couples, and family therapy in addition to community healing groups.

We are a unique, unconventional, virtual group practice dedicated to holistic emotional wellness for adults, teens, and couples.

We provide individual, couples, and group therapy – all carefully designed to empower our clients to live a full life of joy, purpose, connection, love, and fulfillment.

Our therapists are trained in evidence-based practices such as Eye-Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR), Comprehensive Resource Model (CRM), Internal Family Systems (IFS) – just to name a few. We are a group of trauma-informed fellow travelers with our own lived experience.

In my clinical work, I specialize in trauma, helping folks integrate experiences that have fragmented them from their true nature. I work mostly with women who are liberating themselves from self-abandoning patterns such as people-pleasing, resentment, poor boundaries, and self-neglect.

I’m a cheerleader, an illuminator, and a guide for people on the journey into themselves. In addition to individual therapy, I lead groups on sexuality, archetypes, healing through lore and myth, shadow work, and sober-curiosity.

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

Building professional friendships has been a game changer. I used to hate the idea of selling myself at networking events, and it has been helpful to reframe it as connection and mutual support.

Connecting with other therapists, hairstylists, bartenders, doctors, attorneys, and folks in the community has been one of the greatest joys of owning a group practice. Community is really important to me and a pillar of our work at Empower. Some of my closest friends now were people I met while connecting with colleagues in the field. Not only does it expand the resources we can share with our clients, we are also each other’s biggest cheerleaders and consultants.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.empowermft.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/empower.mft/?hl=en

Image Credits
https://maribelfarinaphotography Maribel Farina