Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Stacey Rowland. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Stacey, appreciate you joining us today. We’d love to hear about how you went about setting up your own practice and if you have any advice for professionals who might be considering starting their own?
I’ve been in the Mental Health field in some capacity since 2007, and I knew in college that I’d like to pursue a career as a therapist. So I completed a Master’s of Counseling in 2012 and jumped right into working in community mental health. I worked for various agencies providing mental health and substance abuse services to adolescents and adults, in both outpatient and residential setting. The days were long, the pay was low, and the stress was high! Flash forward about 5 years, and I was the clinical director of an agency and a new mom. I was completely burnt out, spread thin, and I knew that either my work or my home life was going to suffer if this continued. So obviously I chose to free up some of my energy to focus on my home life, and decided to step down from the agency and start my own practice.
It was a scary leap to drop a salaried and benefitted position to be entirely responsible for an entire practice, but I felt it was worth it for my own mental health, and career growth. I opened Strive in 2017 and was a solo provider for about a year, before taking a break to have another baby. When I returned from maternity leave, I really started thinking about where I wanted my business to go, and I knew I missed having colleagues and a team to work with. I decided to bring on another therapist to offset incoming referrals and start to build that team atmosphere again. This ended up being a great decision, and so I continued to grow by bringing on more therapists to join the team. As much as I wanted to build a safe environment to help mental health clients, I also loved being able to create an environment with a healthy work/life balance, not only for myself, but for other therapists.
We have continued to see a demand and need for quality mental health services in the Phoenix valley, so Strive now has 9 therapists (including myself), and a wonderful care coordinator to help support us. We also recently opened our second location in Scottsdale, and are actively hiring new therapists to joint he team and help us continue to support the community. .
While I learned a ton in community mental health, I also really value the opportunity to be independent and maintain a healthy work/life balance to not only support myself and my family, but to be a better, more present therapist. I am excited and proud to also be able to offer a workplace, where therapists just starting out can get quality supervision and create that balance for themselves as well. Having a healthy balanced team of therapists means that we can provide better support for the folks that need us!
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, Can you tell us more about your business. How did you get into this field, what types of services do you provide, and what problems do you solve for your clients?
I Stumbled into this discipline after starting college as a music major. I had taken some psychology classes as an elective and fell in love with the idea of how and why humans behave they way they do. I changed my major to Psychology and then later went on to pursue a masters in Counseling so that I could become a licensed therapist. I later specified my interests into the treatment of trauma after working in a residential treatment center for adolescents.
Strive provides individualized treatment for mental health concerns. Across our team, we have many specialties including trauma, substance abuse, relationship issues, parenting/child therapy, among others.
Ideally we aim to help people live the life they have always wanted to live. We provide the knowledge, tools, and support so that our clients can not only feel better in the moment, but we hopefully set them up to continue functioning at their best, and reach their goals.
I am definitely proud that we are able to provide these services while also taking care of ourselves. The work-life balance for us is so critical. Burnout is high among mental health professionals, so I always aim to allow our providers to set themselves up in a way that works best for them, so that they can provide the best care for their clients, and so far that is working!
Any advice for managing a team?
I think the best advice is to create a comfortable environment where the expectations are clear, but one that fosters independence. I want my team to create the dynamic that works for them (schedule, clientele to work with, etc.). I try to be very present and accessible while not micromanaging. As therapists, we are human before we are anything, so we want to make the sure “human” in us is well taken care of, so that we can take care of others.
Do you think you’d choose a different profession or specialty if you were starting now?
100% without hesitation. Working in this field gives me the opportunity to help others and also continue to learn and be challenged. That’s the perfect mix for me!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.striveccs.com
- Instagram: @strivecounselingandconsulting
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Striveccs
- Other: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/therapists/strive-counseling-and-consulting-services-phoenix-az/1059624