We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Ta’janette Sconyers a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Ta’janette, looking forward to hearing all of your stories 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?

When I decided to establish my practice, I quickly realized just how much I didn’t know. There was so much information to sift through and I didn’t know where to start. In the past, this would have been overwhelming for me but, when I made the decision to pursue the establishment of my business, I felt in my soul that it had to work. Thus, I postured my heart in a way that assured me that, even with the rollercoaster of emotions (from the highs of finding helpful checklists to the lows of finding out the costs associated with certain things) that it would eventually come together. The main things that helped me were finding credible individuals online who had YouTube channels and resources, and reaching out to friends who helped to guide me. Then, I created my own checklist to keep me on track. Knowing what I know now, I would have tried to start this process sooner and given myself different timelines because most things took much longer than planned.
If I were to give advice to someone who is considering starting their own practice, I would encourage them to: mentally, emotionally, and financially prepare; get organized; assemble their support system; and pivot as needed.

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 was a first-generation college student from a low-income background who knew that I wanted a different life than what I saw around me in my hometowns (Chicago, Illinois, and Howardville, Missouri). I didn’t see many examples of what I wanted my life to look like, so I kept an open mind and allowed myself to discover my path. In doing this, I went to college, where I learned about graduate school. Because I was a psychology major, I was told I needed to pursue a graduate degree to have more options in the field. In 2017, I completed my Ph.D. in Counseling Psychology with a minor in Multicultural Psychology and then held jobs that I initially thought were dream jobs. While they felt purposeful in some ways, a couple of them turned out to be nightmares for my mental and physical health. Thus, I found myself in a position where I needed to explore something different again. I decided to create my own business to have the flexibility and autonomy to live life.

My business, Inspired Consulting & Psychological Services, offers consulting and psychological services. With consulting, we collaborate with individuals and organizations to provide diversity and inclusion-related training, workshops, and more. With regard to psychological services, we provide individual therapy and specialize in obsessive-compulsive disorder, generalized anxiety, phobias, social anxiety, and other anxiety-related disorders. I’m most proud that I am an inclusive psychologist and person. I see people as whole and precious beings who know themselves best and are more than the sum of their challenges. I meet my clients non-judgmentally where they are and help them see the tools they have inside and around them to help them live the life they want to live. I provide a warm and validating space where people can feel safe enough to be vulnerable so that we can discover and work through the things that are contributing to distress. My services are rooted in science, and I prioritize the therapeutic relationship. I also bring my personhood into the therapy space so that clients know I am human and I’m with them.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

A lesson that I had to unlearn was that life was about working, retiring if you’re lucky, and then transitioning to the other side. Growing up, the value of hard work was instilled in me, and I adopted that strong work ethic. This allowed me to make good grades, go to college, and work to finance my life while being in school full time. It also came at a cost to my mental health. I remember, during my senior year of college, I had an intense course load, was working, and also organized a week of events with my sorority. In between a class and an event, I was driving home and on the phone with my grandmother, and felt like something in my body wasn’t right. My heart felt like it was pounding, it was difficult to breathe, and I was sweating profusely. In hindsight, I was having a panic attack. My body was letting me know that it rejected this notion that overworking was a badge of honor. That was probably the first significant sign of rejection that I can remember, but I know there were others. I also wish I could say that I changed my overworking right after then, but I didn’t. In fact, I have had periods of time where I worked two or three jobs at a time. It was not until I had several health scares and started my own business that I truly started to slow down and think about the things that are most important to me. Undoubtedly, my health and mental health are important. My actions are now in better alignment with those values.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

There have been multiple points of time where I had to pivot in my life. The one that comes to mind right now is when I was experiencing burnout in a particular work setting. I tried hard to push through and give the energy that I had in order to do my job well, but it got to a point where the environment was toxic for me and I didn’t have anything else to give. Thus, I decided to pursue a position that was outside of a traditional psychologist role. This offered relief in some ways, but was still not the best fit for me in terms of having a reasonable work load and work hours. Thus, I eventually decided to pivot and start my own business.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.inspiredconsultingstl.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/inspired_consultingstl/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/inspiredconsultingstl/