WP 5 | My Faith-Based Journey
Stories Across My Faith Based Journey
I will be sharing about my own journey as a faith-based practice owner. I believe it's important as Christians, that we really remember what we've been through, not only for our own growth, but to help one another.
We know the power of testimony. When we hear someone else's testimony, it reminds us of things within our own life. It gives us the extra encouragement that we personally need.
I remember being in a Bible study where somebody was talking about the Israelites journey in the wilderness. God reminded them to put down stones so they could remember places that they had come from. That's so vital as we move on in our lives. We put those stones down like little memorials of the things that God has done in our life. When I think about practice growth, I think about the different stones along my practice journey. It is so important to remember because you were going to come up against obstacles in the future, and you're going to have to go back and look at that story. The truth is I love my practice, but my practice makes me a better person. And my practice makes me a better Christian. It forces me to look to God. I’m pushed closer towards God, and God does something in me.
God has a Plan
I got my graduate degree at Richmont Graduate University. My husband had gotten a full scholarship to Denver Seminary, so we moved out to Denver, Colorado. I applied for jobs way in advance. Months in advance. I think I applied for 30 to 35 jobs. I think I had two total get back in touch with me. Our rent was due on right away. And I remember if I didn't have a job and have some money by October 1st, we were not going to be able to pay the rent. I was about to go work at the Panera. Yes, with the Panera, with my master's degree. In fact, believe it or not, they were going to give me a second interview.
I had nothing to do every day because we had no money. I had no friends. I had moved to this new place and my highlight every day was just going on a walk. And this one day I just felt in my spirit I felt that I was not supposed to go on a walk. I stayed home and I got a phone call. It was from the psychiatric hospital down the street, and they said, we would love to bring you in for an interview. And I was like, great. They hired me on the spot. I started doing intake. And my first paycheck, October 1st. A way for me to see that God is in control of my work. I had been worried that maybe I wasn't supposed to be a counselor, maybe this isn't really going to work out.
And then when that happened, it was like, wow. Like God had this all lined up and I was the one sitting here worried about it. I ended up working at that hospital for four years while my husband was in school. In fact, when he graduated and he was looking for a job, talk about another moment in our lives that we were kind of discouraged and questioning calling.
God has a way of making the bad things good
After I finished working at that psychiatric hospital, we moved down here to Savannah. And again, I was applying for jobs. And no one was hiring. Savannah is one of those towns that you got to know somebody to get a job. In fact, I even went to the sister facility of the one I had worked at. I knew everything that they needed, and they were hiring for admissions. I already know the system. They were not interested. They didn't call me back. I was like, “Lord, like what is going on here?” I reached out to the other Christian practices in town. They weren't interested. And then if someone from my graduate school reached out to me and said introduced me to another therapist we went to lunch and he asked, “Are you interested in renting together?” And it was amazing.
God has a way of making the bad things good
God Provides
As I think about my practice, I can see how his hand of provision has been there the entire time. Even when I would look at my caseload and go, “Eek!”, like, am I going to be able to do all the things I need to do and pay all the things I need to pay? And then the right clients would call and, and they'd be able to take my full fee and they'd be able to come in when I needed them to come in and, and all the things would fall into.
And so, my practice was going really well for several years. I've never been full-time. I've always been part-time. I have little kids at home and so I was working three, four days a week seeing somewhere between 18 and 22 clients. My phone was just ringing off the hook. I was struggling to get people in. And then it was at that time that I started thinking, “Hmm, maybe, maybe I'll think about starting a group practice.”
Then fear started to set in. And then I was like, “Ooh, I don't, I don't know about that. That seems like a lot of work. That seems scary.” I have never been a boss before. I didn't know what I was doing, and I started putting out these little fleeces, right? Though we know the biblical story, where he puts the fleece out to see if there's going to be dew. So put some fleece out to see if there's going to be water on it or not. And I was doing the same thing, putting those little tests out there.
So, I took that leap. I got some coaching alongside because I wanted support to start my group practice with support. And if you haven't ever started a group practice, talk about a leap of faith. It is scary. In 2018, I hired my first clinician and I started with contractors. I didn't know what I was doing. And then I hired my second clinician. As a group practice owner, talk about challenges, especially with the people you hire and your team and their needs.
One day one of my team members came to my office and said, I need to quit. I had just gotten her full and she was running two groups. I was so proud and happy. I had no idea she wasn’t happy. After talking with her I left and cried my eyes out. Okay. All that to say is I remember questioning it all like what am I doing? Why did I start a group practice? What made me think I could be a boss? But then knowing that God is with me the entire time, and just because somebody's not happy with you does not mean that you did something wrong. We want to take that information and think through it, but it doesn't necessarily mean that they're right.
And so that was a moment where I thought this practice is falling apart. This was a mistake for me to start a group practice, but God has a way of bringing provisions. It was at that moment that I'm crying, and I go back inside that I had an interview already scheduled that day because the practice was growing. And so, I interviewed that, that therapist and she was fantastic. And in fact, she's still with the practice today and she's one of my best therapists. Sometimes something that can seem so awful, God has something so beautiful right around the corner if we just wait for it.
And then Covid Happened
We started running out of space. In this situation kind of took action into my own hands. I started looking for more spaces in the area, even though that just never really felt right. And so I remember pulling up to my office one day and thinking like just this quietness, almost like an inner voice that said, “today’s the day.” And so, I go upstairs and the gentleman that knew the landlord said, “Hey, want to rent the building?”
And so, March 1st, 2020, we moved into the space downstairs. We, in fact, we had just put all the furniture in there. The therapists were so happy, and we had a beautiful place to be able to offer to clients. Maybe two sessions had happened before Covid started. This was a challenging experience with our faith and our practices and moving forward. We all built resiliency and goodness through that.
As with most practices, COVID caused us to really explode and grow, and the need for mental health was high.
Hiring Challenges in 2021
I could not hire. I was struggling to hire. It took nine months of searching to hire somebody. And during the hiring process, it is so important that we listen to God in that process. There’ve been people I've hired hat were not a great fit. She had all the right credentials, but I knew, oh, this isn’t right. But I like to push things. And so, I pushed it anyway when I shouldn't have. And I reached out and tried to offer the job and she ended up turning it down. And I just think that was God's goodness in my life. I had to start the process over and I was so discouraged and exhausted with using our resources of, of the practice trying to hire.
And then another girl came, and she seemed excellent. She had a great reputation in town. And so, I moved her through the process pretty quick cause I really needed to hire, and she signed the offer letter. But even when she signed it, there was something that didn't feel. But I was really trying to fit somebody in because I really needed another therapist. She came back four days after signing the letter and turned the position down. I was again, devastated. Where do I go from here? And. God did something cool.
I'm talking to my husband about how down I am and tells me there's a lady that I teach Sunday school with. Her daughter is a social worker and she just told me her mom was looking to learn more about private practice. I got her phone number and went out for a dinner/interview. We hired her on the spot and she's still with us. A perfect fit.
Wait on God’s Timing
It’s importance of just waiting on God's timing. Waiting on the right person. I'm going to choose to have faith and believe that God has someone for this practice. God has someone to heal these clients, to help these people, and someone for me to bless. There's someone out there that needs a job doing private practice that's ready for a change, and I'm going to trust the process that they will come.
God has been so generous and so good here, and I believe the same for you. Having a practice is not easy, but you do not have to do it alone. God will help you along the way, but you do have to stop and give him credit. Look to him for help. This is the very reason that I started doing faith-based practice consulting because I think these things are important and faith's an important part of your business.
Connect with Whitney
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Transcript
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What is a Faithbased practice
Whitney Owens:
Hello friends and welcome back to the Wise Practice Podcast. Thanks for taking the time to hang out with me today. If you haven't already, please go back after this episode and listen to some of the other podcast episodes. I appreciate that. And if you are loving this podcast, Take a couple of minutes, give me some stars and a review.
It means the world to me. I actually go in there and I love reading 'em. So please take time to do that. Share the podcast with anyone that you think would benefit or anyone that you know who has a faith-based practice. It is my passion and mission to help faith-based practice owners grow their practice.
Cuz you know what? Clients need us and some of 'em can't find us. So send this to your friends so that they can learn how to grow their faith-based. So today I'm gonna talk about my own journey as a faith-based practice owner. I believe it's important as Christians, that we really remember what we've been through, not only for our own growth, but to help one another.
We know the power of testimony, that when we hear someone else's testimony, it reminds us of things within our own life. It gives us the extra encouragement that we personally need. And so testimony isn't important. It's an important part of the Bible. We read about it. We hear it in the. So I think when we're talking about private practice, we must talk about our journey.
Long time ago, I remember being in a Bible study where somebody was talking about, The Israelites and the stones that they would put down. So when they were going on their journey in the wilderness, God reminded them to put down stones so they could remember places that they had come from. And I think that's so vital as we move on in our lives, that we put those stones down, kinda, it's like little memorials of the things that God has done in our life.
And so when I think about practice growth, I think about the different stones along my practice journey. So as I shared this story with you, I wanna challenge you in a couple of ways. One, if you've never sat down and really written out your private practice journey, please do that. It is so important to remember because you were gonna come up against obstacles in the future, and you're gonna have to go back and look at that story.
It is the past and the things that God has done in our lives that give us the strength to keep going, and you will come up with challenges in your life and you will come up with challenges in your practice. So please go back and do that. And you might decide that writing isn't really what you wanna do.
Maybe you want to create a timeline or do something artsy or draw a map. I'm not really into art, but maybe you are. So do that. I like to write. Um, so definitely making sure that you're writing out your own story and then as I share with you today, be thinking about ways that maybe God is challenging you on your own faith journey as a practice owner, right?
The truth is I love my practice, but my practice makes me a better person. And my practice makes me a better Christian. It forces me to look to God because let me tell y'all I am weak and unable to be the leader that I need to be. Right? And so when I come across these challenges, I'm pushed closer towards God, and God does something in me.
He's gonna do something in the practice too. He's gonna help let clinicians, but the truth is he does something in me and I love the ability to be closer to God as I grow my faith-based practice. So I'm gonna share with you my story up till now of starting and growing my practice, and may it bring encouragement and strength to you as you are on your own practice journey.
In fact, I'm just gonna give you one more. Email me. I wanna hear from you as I share about my practice journey. If you have a story that resonates with you, shoot me an email and y'all, it's easy to remember. Whitney Whitney owens.com. Can't get any easier than that. So I wanna hear your stories as I also share my story with you.
So I got my graduate degree at Richmont Graduate University, which we talk about this a little bit in the first episode. It's a faith-based, um, group, not group, faith-based, um, counseling program. My mind just totally went blank there. And so when I graduated, um, my husband had gotten a full scholarship to Denver Seminary, so we moved out to Denver, Colorado.
Ugh, go ahead and talk about my first, um, leap of faith within work. I did apply for jobs way in advance, like months in advance. I'd been applying for jobs. I think I applied for 30 to 35 jobs. That involved having a master's in counseling, and I was struggling. I think I had two total get back in touch with me, and so we moved there.
It was August. And I can't remember exactly what year that was. Um, but when we moved there in August of some year, and our rent was due, of course, right when we moved in, and then we had to pay another month of rent. And I remember if I didn't have a job and have some money by October 1st, literally we were not gonna be able to pay the rent.
And so my husband was in school, he actually had already gotten a job working at the library. So kudos to him. And I was just devastated. Like I kept applying for jobs. In fact, I was about to go work at the Panera. Yes, with the Panera, with my master's degree. In fact, believe it or not, they were gonna give me a second interview.
Yes, they had two interviews, not just one, but God has a way of things. And so I had nothing to do every day cuz we had no money. I had no friends. I had moved to this new place and. My highlight every day, honestly, was just, um, going on a walk. And so, um, every day I would go on a walk and we had this great trail that was right by my apartment in Colorado.
And this one day I just felt in my spirit, in my gut, whatever you wanna call it, I felt that I was not supposed to go on a walk, like stay home. Okay. So stayed. And I got a phone call. It was from the psychiatric hospital down the street, and they said, we would love to bring you in for an interview. And I was like, great.
And they said, can you come tomorrow? And I said, yes. Like I didn't have anything else going on. So I went for the interview. They hired me on the spot. I started doing intake. And my first paycheck, October 1st. A way for me to see that God is in control of my work. I had been worried that maybe I wasn't supposed to be a counselor, maybe this isn't really gonna work out.
And then when that happened, it was like, wow. Like God had this all lined up and I was the one sitting here worried about it. I ended up working at that hospital for four years while my husband was in school. In fact, when he graduated and he was looking for a job, talk about another moment in our lives that we were kind of discouraged and questioning calling.
He applied for even more jobs than I did. And it was for over a year. And then he ended up getting this amazing job here in Savannah, which was totally worth every little bit of the waiting. But while we were waiting, he worked at the psychiatric hospital and so he was working on the adolescent unit while I was down in the admissions department.
So it was a, a really interesting time in our lives. Um, and it was actually when he was working there that he got his passion for youth ministry, which is the job that he ended up taking. At the current church it's, it's funny because he never thought he wanted do youth ministry until he worked in a psychiatric hospital.
After that, he wanted to do youth ministry. So God has a way of opening those doors, right? And you can probably think of times in your life where doors have opened. So after I finished working at that psychiatric hospital, we moved down here to Savannah. And again, I was applying for jobs, applying for jobs.
And no one was hiring and it savannah's one of those towns that you gotta know somebody to get a job. In fact, I even went to the psychiatric hospital here, that's a sister facility of the one I had worked at. So I knew everything that they needed and they were hiring for admissions. I was like, I already know the system.
Like I got this. They were not interested. They didn't call me back. I even went up there with a resume in person to the HR department. Nothing. I was like, man, Lord, like what is going on here? I reached out to the other Christian practices in town. They weren't interested. And then if someone from my graduate school reached out to me and said, Hey, Whitney, um, I know a guy who has a similar way that he thinks about faith in practice.
You wanna connect with him. It's like, sure. So we went to lunch and he was like, oh, well I'm kinda like working under a church right now, but I'm looking to get my own space. You interested in renting together? And it was amazing. Like I connected with somebody. We had a similar way that we integrate faith and he had a space available.
It was the kind of space that I never thought I would get until was much older and more experienced in this beautiful old Victorian home in a wonderful middle of the city relocation in. And because of my connection with him, he was able to get me under the church so that I could take payments. At least in the state of Georgia.
If you're not licensed, you can't just start your own practice. And that's a whole nother story. I actually was licensed in Colorado and when I came to Georgia, they would not give me reciprocity and had me go backwards and get another year's supervision. Now those things might seem bad and they did seem really bad at the.
God has a way of making the bad things good, right. And so because I wasn't licensed, I couldn't take health insurance. Now, I had never taken health insurance before and I can't say for certain if I knew I would have or not, but I couldn't. So I did cash only. Within one year, I built the practice that I wanted.
That was all cash pay, so there was no reason for me to go back. And so this thing that seemed kind of negative at the time ended up working out really well for me. And so then I ended up getting licensed and continued to grow my practice. It always seemed like when I needed money, when I was getting low on clients, I would pray and then the phone would.
It was really amazing where clients would come in and it would be so clear that I was the therapist for them, right? These are God's little ways within our practice. He brings us the clients that we can perfectly work with clients that have these similarities to us. You know, the Bible has a passage, I think it's first or second Corinthians, I can't quite remember.
I wanna say first now, where it says, we comfort others with the very comfort that we have been given. Right. We can love them and comfort them in the same way that someone has love and comforted us. And so it's just such a gift that we get to give. And I think God has a way of bringing those clients at the exact moment that we need them.
And so as I think about. My practice, I can see how his hand of provision has been there the entire time. Even when I would look at my caseload and go, eek, like, am I gonna be able to do all the things I need to do and pay all the things I need to pay? And then the right clients would call and, and they'd be able to take my full fee and they'd be able to come in when I needed them to come in and, and all the things would fall into.
And so my practice was going really well for several years. Um, I've never been full-time. I've always been part-time. I have little kids at home and so I was working three, four days a week seeing somewhere between 18 and 22 clients, and my phone was just ringing off the hook, right? I was struggling to get people in.
I remember having my little post-it note by my desk and having to write those names down to fit people in. And not having an assistant answer the phone, it just felt like a lot. And I wasn't really sure what my next steps was gonna be. And then it was at that time that I started thinking, Hmm, maybe, maybe I'll think about starting a group practice.
Hmm, maybe I'll do that. And then I was like, Ooh, I don't, I don't know about that. That seems like a lot of work. That seems really scary. How can I manage people? In fact, let's just be honest, y'all, I have never been a boss before. Like I didn't know what I was doing and I started putting out these little, like, I hate that I'm gonna say it like this, but like little fleeces, right?
Though we know the biblical story, where he puts the fleece out to see if there's gonna be mildew. Not mildew, but, um, water or not. Yeah, mildew. I think I'm saying that right. Boy, I'm having some blanks today. Okay. So put some fleece out to see if there's gonna be water on it or not. And um, I was doing the same thing, putting those little tests out there.
And so there were some other things going on in my life where I was like, okay, well God, if this works out, then I'll know. You want me to move forward? If this works out, then I'll know. Right? So I did that multiple times. I'm sure you can relate to that. And it was just over and over again. Things kept working out where it was, okay, you need to start a group practice.
You need to start a group practice. And so I took that leap. I got some coaching alongside it cuz I didn't wanna start a group practice without help cuz I didn't know what I was doing. And I started my group practice. And if you haven't ever started a group practice, talk about a leap of faith. It is scary.
Um, but I, I'll just be honest, a lot of the misconceptions that we have and a lot of the fears we have actually, Aren't all that real, like, I mean, they're real to us and they're legitimate to us, but the things aren't really gonna happen. So one of the big ones that I hear a lot and that I was personally worried about was, I'm gonna hire someone.
They're gonna ruin the reputation that I just developed at my practice.
But that very is very unlikely. That doesn't usually happen, so, so in 2018, I hired January, I hired my first clinician and I started with 10 90 nines. Cause I didn't know what I was doing. And then I hired my second clinician. Okay. And now I wanna go ahead and let you know that as a group practice owner, talk about challenges, especially with the people you hire and your team and their needs.
Okay? It only grows over time. One day one of my team members came to my office and said, I need to, I need to quit. And I was like, what? I had just gotten her full and she was running two groups. I was so proud and happy. I had no idea she wasn't, she wasn't happy. And I said, you know, you owe it to me.
Basically. I probably didn't say it like that, but I, I basically said, you owe me an explanation as to why you're leaving so I can grow. And she gave it to me. And I'm not gonna share all those details today, but let's just say I left and cried my eyes out. Okay. All that to say is I remember questioning it all like what am I doing?
Why did I start a group practice? What made me think I could be a boss? But then knowing that God is with me the entire time, and just because somebody's not happy with you does not mean that you did something wrong. We wanna take that information and think through it, but it doesn't necessarily mean that they're right.
And so that was a moment where I thought this practice is falling apart. This was a mistake for me to start a group practice, but God has a way of bringing provisions. It was at that moment that I'm crying and I go back inside that I had an interview already scheduled that day cuz the practice was growing.
And so I interviewed that, that therapist and she was fantastic. And in fact she's still with the practice today and she's one of my best therapists and she. Good clinical work, but also good work managing the team. And so sometimes something that can seem so awful, God has something so beautiful right around the corner if we just wait for it, right?
And just trust the process. So another time where God. Really grew my faith. Um, I was in this old building, I think I told y'all this beautiful Victorian home and there were three offices. So the man that helped me at the very beginning, we, you know, had partnered up and so he had his own office doing his own business.
I had my own office and then there was an office right beside it that I was using for the therapists in there. At one point in time were six therapists in two offices. And yes, this was pre Covid. We were not doing telehealth, so we were managing six people in two offices. Let me just say, it was kind of crazy.
And so as this is going on, I'm praying about the next steps, like what kind of space should I do? Should I expand? And then I just really felt a sense of, no, like you need to wait and I'm gonna work this. So in this building that we were in, there was a bottom floor, but the bottom floor had been taken with different businesses over time.
And I just knew in my spirit that God was gonna open up the bottom. Now logically waiting on the bottom to open up is probably not the best logically, but I think sometimes our faith trumps our logic. No, not all. Okay. But in this situation, I just knew, and I actually did kind of take it into my own hands and start looking at other spaces in the area, even though that just never really felt right.
And so I remember pulling up to my office one day and thinking like just this quietness, almost like an inner voice that said, today's. It's like, oh, today's the day. Okay. And of course, usually when that happens to me, I write it off and say that it's just me. And so I go upstairs and the gentleman that knew the landlord said, Hey, wanna let you know the building?
The building, or the floor below us just opened up. And I said, no way. I knew that was gonna happen. Right? And so March 1st, 2020, we moved into the space downstairs. We, in fact, we had just put all the furniture in there. I think maybe two sessions had happened before Covid started. But it was amazing that we opened up this new space.
The therapists were so happy, and we had a beautiful place to be able to offer to clients. So then Covid happened, and all of us. A challenging, uh, experience with our faith and our practices and moving forward, and we all built resiliency and goodness through that. Um, and then we were back in the office, we were seeing clients again.
So, um, as most practices, covid caused us to really explode and grow, and the need for mental health was high. And I could not hire, I was struggling to hire. In fact, it took nine months of searching to hire somebody. And during the hiring process, it is so important that we listen to God in that process.
We of course, wanna be logical and think through what's best, what's not best, but there's also something about fit and something about the Lord kind of showing you the person for the job. I mean, there've been people I've hired. Literally an hour after the interview because I just knew, right? And so when this process was happening, there was a woman that I was like, oh, she seems great.
She's got all the characteristics. She's been experienced, she's got all these things. But within me, I just knew, oh, this ain't right. But I like to push things. And so I pushed it anyway when I shouldn't have. And I reached out and tried to offer the job and she ended up turning it down. And I just think that was God's goodness in my life.
And really for. And she ended up staying at the hospital that she was at. And so then I had to start the process over and I was so discouraged and exhausted with using our resources of, of the practice trying to hire. And then another girl came and she seemed excellent. She had a great reputation in town.
And so I moved her through the process pretty quick cause I really needed to hire and she signed the offer letter. But even when she signed it, there was something that didn't feel right and in fact, I'm pretty sure part of it was we didn't align with faith background and vision for the practice. But I was really trying to fit somebody in because I really needed another therapist.
She came back four days after signing the. And said, I need to turn the position down. And I was again, devastated. And then I had maxed out. Every person that had applied by that time either had a job or you know, wasn't looking anymore. And I was like, oh goodness. Like where do I go from here? And. God did something really cool.
I'm talking to my husband about how down I am and he says, oh yeah, there's a lady that I teach Sunday school with. Her daughter is a social worker and she just, um, was telling her mom that she was looking to learn more about private practice. And so I got her phone number. She and texted her and said, Hey, you know, I own a practice.
I heard you're interested in learning more. I'd love to get on a call with you. We get on a call. She wasn't necessarily looking for a job, but she had just quit her full-time job cuz she just couldn't handle the agency anymore. And I was like, oh, wow. And I said, well, let's, um, would you be interested in a job?
She was like, sure. And I said, let's schedule an interview. But our schedules weren't aligning. And I said, well, let's just go to dinner tomorrow night. So we went to dinner, which by the. Good way to do an interview is over dinner and my admin came with me and we hired her on the spot and she's still with us and she is an excellent therapist, a perfect fit.
And so I'm so glad I got her over the other two, even though they were way more experienced. Um, the therapist I did hire was just a, such a better fit. So much more, um, in tune with her faith and her ability to just kind of meet the culture of the practice. Right. And actually after that, God really blessed me with a bunch of really great clinicians that came, boom, boom, boom, right after that.
But the importance of just waiting on God's timing, waiting on the right person. And so even right now, today as I'm recording this, I just put out another job ad and y'all, I. Be real. I'm discouraged. I'm not looking forward to hiring. It's a tiring process. But I'm also saying to you that I'm gonna choose to have faith and believe that God has someone for this practice because God has someone to heal these clients, to help these people, and someone for me to bless.
To be honest with you. There's someone out there that needs a job doing private practice that's ready for a change, and I'm gonna trust the process that they will come This. So another story I wanna share with you also about space. Um, we had this building that we're currently, well, I was telling you, we were in the top and the bottom and there were five offices and nine therapists.
10, nine, maybe 10. I'm going back and forth now. Um, And I was just waiting on, on. It was none. And so I'm waiting on some more space because even though we could use this space, the therapists were wanting more space to be able to see clients and honestly, I had no room to expand. And then it was amazing.
It was last Thanksgiving, the landlord calls me and as soon as I saw his number, I was like, oh no, like what's going on at the building at the holidays? And he said, Hey, you, you want the yellow building next door? I was like, what? Next door? Like this is great. So that opened up five more offices and it was just such a fun experience with my therapist being able to wrap up the key for Christmas and give it to them.
And we moved into this new space is now I have 11 offices. Or something like that, I'd have to count. And uh, I actually have 11 therapists, so it's been really nice. And now I have some room to be able to expand and add more clinicians. But it has not been easy along the way. I haven't even gone through several employee issues where I had one employee start a practice behind my back.
I had another employee lie to my face, um, was signing her initials that weren't accurate. Um, I've had other employees tell me they don't wanna work hard or they don't like the schedule I'm giving them. I mean, the list goes on. I get harm, harmful feedback. They come in and they tell me things that hurt and I have to trust that process and take that information and give it back to God and say, Lord, where are you in this?
Right? So God uses the things within my practice to. Mold me, shape me. I was just talking on another podcast about iron shopper's iron, right? And so I am being shaped and sharpened by my employees. It doesn't mean that everything they say is totally accurate, but it does mean that I'm taking those things to the Lord.
I'm allowing my character to be changed and I'm allowing him to do good things. So as I think about my private practice journey, I can see these stones along the way and I'm sure there are even more that, that I didn't go into today. But I just wanna give you a picture of practice growth. Oh, and, and I guess I didn't even talk about all the great things that have come in my life.
Like as I've had a group practice, I'm able to make more income. I've been able to spend more time with my kids. I actually have an autistic daughter, and so that flexibility. So important because then I can meet her needs by taking her to her appointments, being available for her when, if I have my own private practice, maybe I could do that as a so practice owner, but the income wouldn't be there when I needed it.
Right? And so I'm able to do good work in the world by having that flexible schedule, having the finances that I need. I mean, having a husband that's a pastor is excellent, but we all know that pastors aren't racking in the dough. So we need that extra income for our family. And then I'm also able to hire therapists that are needing jobs that's good for them, and we can serve more clients by having a group practice.
So God has been so generous and so good here, and I believe the same for you. Having a practice is not easy, but you do not have to do it alone, that God will help you along the way, but you do have to stop. Give him credit, look to him for help. And this is the very reason that I started doing faith-based practice consulting because I think these things are important and faith's an important part of your business.
So if you're hearing me today and you're think. Boy, I need some encouragement. I need some help. Or maybe you're thinking I need someone to help me discern God's calling in my life, God's direction in my business. Please reach out to me. I would love to get on a call with you and talk about God's work within your life and within your practice.
So you can email me whitney whitney owens.com, and you can also follow me on Instagram, Whitney Owens Consulting, and we can connect more about how God is growing our face through the work we do. Thank you for being a part of this podcast. Please share it with your friends so that they can grow their faith-based practice with.
