Latest / Rooted & Real With Keenan / Built by Faith: The Heartbonds Story
Transcript
- Keenan: Alright, so let's kick things off, Stacy. How all this get started? Like every good story, it's good to start from the beginning. So Stacy, what is your story? Okay, but you moved to Florida all by yourself. That must have been kinda scary, right? What stands out to me about Stacy's story is that Harpbond's counseling was not built from one perfect plan. It was built through one faithful decision at a time. She followed an early interest in psychology. She responded to a calling to serve vulnerable children and families. She moved across the country with limited resources, took risks without knowing exactly how everything would work out, and continued walking through the doors. speaker-0: So what does it take to turn a calling into a movement? Today's guest started with a passion for psychology, adoption, helping vulnerable children and families. What began as a one-person practice in 2015 has grown into Heartbonds Counseling, a thriving group practice of more than twenty counselors united by one mission, providing compassionate, ethical, accessible mental health care. Keenan: That opened in front of her. Over time, one counselor became more than 20. One person's willingness to serve became a place where thousands of people could experience compassion, safety, support, and healing. This is what can happen when we stop waiting until we feel comfortable, until we feel completely ready and begin faithfully using what God has already placed in our hands. Stacy's story is also about her. speaker-0: So every person feels valued, heard, empowered, and capable of healing. Joining me today is Stacy Greenberg. She's a licensed clinical social worker, licensed marriage and family therapist, qualified supervisor, and owner operator of Heartbonds Counseling. With more than fifteen years of experience, Stacy has dedicated her career to helping individuals, couples, and families discover their worth, strengthen relationships. Keenan: Is also a reminder that meaningful work is rarely accomplished alone. We need mentors. We need community. We need people who challenge us, support us, and remind us of the vision when leadership becomes difficult. importantly, we cannot become so focused on building a career, a business, a ministry, or a reputation that we neglect our own spiritual and emotional health. speaker-0: And heal from life's most difficult experiences. Her expertise spans adoption and foster care, adolescents and young adults, couples therapy, trauma, depression, anxiety, family dynamics, spirituality, older adults, and much, much more. She has advanced training in cognitive behavioral therapy, dialectic behavioral therapy, trust-based relational intervention, clinical hypnotherapy for trauma. Keenan: Success means very little if we lose ourselves while attempting to achieve it. So let me leave you with this question. What calling, what idea, or what opportunity have you been quietly carrying but have been too afraid to act on? You may not see the entire path yet. Stacy did not. But you do not need to see every step before taking one faithful one, the next faithful one. speaker-0: Sensory motor psychotherapy, Gottenham Couples Therapy, and Emotional Focused Couples Care Therapy. Today, Harpond serves individuals from ages four to one hundred, offering care to people from every background and making therapy more accessible through a diverse team of specialists and multilingual services. this episode isn't just about credentials or buildings or successful counseling practice. Keenan: Thank you again, Stacy, for your leadership, your honesty, and for creating a practice where clients and clinicians can feel valued, supported, and empowered. Thank you all for joining us for this conversation. Please share this episode with someone who is building something meaningful, entering the mental health profession, or trying to find the courage to follow where they believe God is leading them. Remember, stay grounded in truth, be honest about the work. speaker-0: We'll get to that. It's about following a calling. It's about taking risks when the future isn't guaranteed. Leading with faith instead of fear. Building a culture where both clients and clinicians can thrive and creating something that impacts far more people than you could ever reach alone. Whether you're a therapist dreaming of private practice, a student entering the mental health field, a practice owner looking to grow, or someone simply searching for hope and purpose. Keenan: And never underestimate what God can build through one faithful yes. I'm Keenan Crowley, and this is Rooted and Real. Until next time, stay rooted and keep it real. If you want to connect with Stacy and her team, her website will be in the description speaker-0: I think you're gonna take something today from this meaningful conversation I had with Stacy. So settle in, buckle up. This is a conversation about healing, leadership, resilience, and what happens when compassion becomes the foundation of everything you build. I'm Keenan, this is rooted and real. Welcome, my supervisor, Stacy Greenberg. speaker-1: I was always very interested in and psychology. I had this book when I was a kid on psychology that was really cool and interesting. I remember I did a science fair project on psychology. So like I was always interested in that. and I was al always also interested in adoption. So my mom is adopted and when I would play with my Barbies, which was a lot, I would usually have like a Barbie. orphanage or someone would be adopted and so so these are like some interests of mine from when I was very small. And then ⁓ when I got older and I went to college, I decided to major in psychology and in English. And I'm I'm not really sure what I thought I was gonna be doing, but I thought I was gonna hopefully like make a lot of money. That was kind of like part of my plan. Yeah, exactly. But somewhere during college I sort of went through a ⁓ like a spiritual Experience and awakening. And my priorities shifted. And I became less interested in making money and more interested in helping people. And ⁓ back at home, when I would go home during the summers and after I graduated, I made friends with a family that was foster parents. And so they were fostering a child from the local like Native American reservation that we have up there. it was sort of like ⁓ I just realized that that was what I was like meant to do. So I I I felt very called to that. Then I ended up moving to Florida and Within a month, I was able to get a job working as a ⁓ foster care case manager in the adoptions department. I that's pretty amazing actually for some young person with no real experience in that field. And I did that for five years and I loved it so much that I went back to school and got my master's degree in social work during that time and spent a little time working in the adoptions world and I also started doing a little bit of like therapy on the side. Because as a social worker you can do that. And then I think I just had this idea that maybe I would like have this adoption focused group practice. so two things. One, I had a friend who was moving here after college. I mean, and okay, three reasons. One, I didn't want to live in in Syracuse anymore because it's like no offense to Syracuse. Just kind of gray and cold. Yeah. ⁓ two, I had a friend moving to Florida after college, so I thought that would be cool. And three, in Florida, unlike in New York, you can work in foster care. with just a bachelor's degree in something like psychology. In New York they make you like already have your master's degree in social work or something like that. So yeah. You know. It was super scary. Also because I this job, these these types of jobs were not willing to interview me and consider hiring me when I had a New York address. So I was gonna have to move to Florida without the job in order to get the job. So you know, I was like twenty two, twenty-three, I had two thousand dollars in savings. I had a futon mattress and a Toyota Corolla. speaker-0: ⁓ speaker-1: And a friend. Yeah. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah. I prayed a lot. Yeah. Yeah. Like a vision. And I I mean it even actually turned out to be a lot like my vision. I had this vision of me sort of like in this harried frenetic office, like running around, like being stressed, like lots of paperwork, people really needing help, inspiration, but also like stress. And it was like exactly like that. speaker-0: But was it like me? speaker-1: Yeah, I didn't know the exact like practice that I wanted to be at. I just knew I wanted to work like in the foster care system. And ideally in adoptions, which ended up being a much better role than like just in the in a regular case manager role. Because it's a lot like happier. You get to like see positive outcomes for people. Not that adoption always ends happily, as I as I have learned throughout the many years. But speaker-0: So do you say why? Yeah. I was gonna find speaker-1: Yeah. Especially as a therapist now, I end up doing a lot of work with not just people who are adopted, but people also considering adoption. And I mean, there are different ways that adoption can work, whether that's domestically, privately, through the foster care system, internationally. But I think when people adopt through the foster care system, they need to understand that these are kids that have experienced trauma. Like they're not gonna be there if they haven't experienced some kind of trauma. And so people need to not think like, ⁓ I'm gonna step in and like save this kid because like all they need is love 'cause like someone who has had severe trauma in their early years, like needs more than just speaker-0: So I mean speaker-1: Yeah, I mean my parents tried to talk me out of it basically like a couple of weeks before I left and everything was already said. Yeah. And I was like, it's kinda it's kinda too late. Like I'm already I'm going now. Yeah. speaker-0: ⁓ there wasn't arguably. speaker-1: Always. I always listen to everything everybody says and doubt doubt myself, but I've I persisted. Yeah. speaker-0: So at the And this job. So you're doing that now. speaker-1: Yeah. I'm working at the job. It's great. I mean it's hard, but it's great. I go I I go back to school at UCF, right? So you can yeah, go nights. This room is so black and girls. Yes, exactly. Yes, go nights. So get my masters in social work. You know, I'm still working in the foster care system. So I think now that I have my master's degree, maybe I'll go work at a private adoption agency. I did that. It was Interesting. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Anybody if anybody I know watches this who works there, they'll know what I mean. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Leave it in leave it in the comments. But there was some stress being at this private adoption agency. Okay. And so I got a part time job because I thought, you know, working some more would help. Yes. ⁓ yeah. Yeah, exactly. So I start Seeing a couple clients on the side in a private practice. you you know, when you're a social worker, they don't really teach you in school like as much about being a counselor as they do in a counseling program. So there was a little bit of like, ⁓ let me see if I like this, you know. ⁓ I did like it, and people seem to like meeting with me. And it just kind of like ballooned out from speaker-0: you a bit play. speaker-1: Well, it kinda grew. So I was at the adoption agency and I was doing this private practice and then I had the opportunity to leave the adoption agency and go work in a community agency doing counseling. Okay. I was working at a community agency doing counseling. And I was working in the private practice doing counseling. And my focus was still a lot on adoption and foster care. So at the community agency I was working with foster kids. In my private practice, I was working with adoptive families. And I thought this is actually a really great way to help adoptive families because like I said, when you're raising a child that's had a lot of trauma, people don't always know how to handle that. So if you get good counseling, it can kind of help with that and It just felt like a a great next step with what I was doing. speaker-0: But that was speaker-1: Yeah, or like kids that had been adopted or were getting adopted. Yeah. Yeah. So I'm working in two places. One I have my own private practice, I'm like in a counseling group. And one I'm at the community agency. speaker-0: yeah. No, I'm not speaker-1: Right. Well, yeah. So I think there was some part of me that was like, you know, since I knew that helping these kids and families was my calling, I wanted to make sure that if I was doing counseling that I was still supporting them. So once I I figured out that that actually was a good way to support them and was actually necessary, I think I felt more comfortable kind of transitioning and ⁓ also I felt like I was doing more good there than I was at the adoption agency. Yeah. And logistically what happened was when I was at the community agency and at the private practice, I was also kind of doing some contract work somewhere else. That's sort of like as an aside. But it all like the private practice cases were increasing, you know? So it got to the point where it was really hard to do all of the work that I was doing. And transitioning just to private practice is kind of scary, right? Because there's no There's no benefits, like you're working for yourself. If the if you have a bad client week or month, you know, like you're not are you making enough money to support yourself. But I just felt it felt like the right thing to do and I was having enough clients. And so eventually slowly I pared down. I was at part-time at the community agency. And so it eventually it got to the point where eventually I think what happened was I took on a supervisee at my private practice. And so I was like, I'm gonna have to leave these other places to have enough time to focus on myself and also my supervisor. speaker-0: It'll be speaker-1: Yeah. I mean, I don't think there was ever really a time, and that's true now too, where I didn't work with some aspect of I mean, I don't only work with adoptive kids and families now and you know, when we get into the spoiler alert, like group practice, you know, not everyone not everyone here works with that population, but there's never been a time when I haven't been in that world involved. Have some kind of client or clients that are part of that. And that's true now too. So I I didn't really have the opportunity to miss it because I was still involved in it. But I I guess, you know, some part of me sort of misses the aspect of being on the the front lines of like the system, except that also that's very stressful. So I don't Yeah, exactly. speaker-0: Okay, so so you are speaker-1: Yeah. speaker-0: Well I want more like What the I speaker-1: Yeah, I think yeah. And I think like I said, there is some big support ⁓ in helping people with trauma that is gotten through therapy that's not achieved through case management, you know. speaker-0: Why? speaker-1: Yep. That's not. ⁓ going back to what I said before, you know, I took on my first supervisee and I was like, Let me let me see how this goes and I mean she she had worked in adoption too, actually. So I would get clients when I was full and then I would sort of pass some of the clients along to her and supervise her. And ⁓ that was really cool. I enjoyed that a lot. And so then I took on another supervisee. He didn't really work in adoptions, but I was like, This could be cool, right? And he worked in some other things that I had learned about at the ⁓ community agency. He worked in ⁓ dialectical behavior therapy. ⁓ well, so it's like the combination of ⁓ cognitive and behavioral therapy. So like changing your thoughts and changing your behaviors, but also with this like mindfulness component and skills component. Yeah. So but it it basically helps people who I mean it helps all kinds of people, but it helps people that have more severe kinds of problems that sometimes are sometimes are eating hospital hospital. speaker-0: So that's what this supervisee mainly did was D Me T or dialectic dialectical behavioral care. speaker-1: Yes. Yes. DBT. So I was supervising them. And then I you know, before I kinda realized it, I had a little group practice. Okay. And so it was three of us. ⁓ the space where I was, I like asked to rent out another office. And then I then I ⁓ another supervisee. Yes. It was definitely like a lot of word of mouth and connections, which is mostly how I bring people on now too. Which tends to work out well. But yeah, it was sort of like people kept finding and I and I don't I mean, I could have said no, and I have said no to people over the years, 'cause you just can't take on everyone. But ⁓ I guess at this point, because I'd left my other job, I had some like time on my hands and some energy on my hands. And so okay. So me think. ⁓ this started like around twenty eighteen. So in twenty eighteen I was Thirty three, thirty four? Yeah. Yeah. it was great. I loved it. Yeah. It worked. well I definitely feel like I could help more people this way. Because, you know, if you're a therapist, you can help however many clients you can see. You can burn yourself out trying to see more, you know, but I think the statistical number that they say is like the average number that people get burnt out around in terms of how many clients therapise weekly is twenty eight. So let's say maybe you can help twenty eight people a week. I've seen more clients than that. I think I do see more clients. yeah, that's like, you know, the statistical number. So if I was seeing a certain number of clients per week, but I also was helping supervisees see a certain number of clients per week, then ⁓ helping more people, right? So that's cool. And then it was also I learned I learned how to take insurance. I was taking insurance and I could help my supervisees take insurance. So then we were helping even more people, right? And we were We were taking Sunshine Medicaid. That was like one of the first insurances that I took because the kids that were adopted through foster care had that insurance. So that's how we started taking Medicaid and Yeah, things it it's hard to remember back in retrospect how it all happened, but it just seems to kind of like grow a little bit more and grow a little bit more. And then, you know, the smoke the snowball is rolling down the hill and like it's picking up more snow and then it's like whoop. No, I don't really think I felt that way. I I think there was a point, maybe it's similar, where I think this was before I took on supervise. There was a point where I thought, kind of like, I'm a little bored. Like I wonder what's next for me, like what should I do? speaker-0: Well what speaker-1: Yeah. I mean, I think after a certain amount of time having been licensed, you can become a qualified supervisor. And then I had a friend, my friend Daniel, who was like, I'm gonna take this qualified supervisor trading. Like, do you wanna take this with me? And I was like, Yeah, that could be good, right? Yeah. And once I brought on my supervisee and she started s taking cases, I was like, I think I had this sense of like, ⁓ this could be this might be what's Yeah. So for reference, right? Right now my practice, Heartbonds Counseling, I think has twenty two counselors at it. So we've grown from one to like, you know, twenty two times more than that. Yeah. And it's been well, so twenty eighteen and now it's been eight years. So ⁓ it's been quite a process. There've been there have definitely been some ups and downs. Yeah. Yeah, a little bit. definitely takes a lot of faith, right? Faith you know, faith in like God and or your higher power, whatever you sort of believe in outside of yourself. If you believe in something outside of yourself and and also I think like faith faith in a vision, you know? Now for me it wasn't like I envisioned when they're gonna have boot access between two counselors and you know. ten ox, whatever, like it wasn't like that. It was more just this vision of like, I really feel what I'm doing is right. So far up until this point, like my steps tend to be leading me in the right direction, you know, like and that That has worked out. I think like faith is part of it in some ways because like when I moved into this current office space, I didn't have there's like five six offices on my in my original space that I moved into. I didn't have six counselors in the practice. So I had this faith of like I'm gonna be paying a certain amount of rent for space that I'm not bringing in all of the business for yet. Right. It's kind of that, ⁓ you know, like in in that movie Field of Dreams, did you see that? Where says, like, if you if you build it, they will come. Yeah. So it was kind of that faith of like, I think this is right. Like I believe this is right. So let me like take on this risk and like see what happens. ⁓ and I think I think like you have to have a certain amount of like I mean, I'm I think of myself as a risk averse person, but there's a certain amount of risk balance you have to have and like faith that your risks are gonna be. speaker-0: Yes. No. Leave it happen. speaker-1: Yeah. I mean, again, yeah. Faith, prayer, support of people like in my life, right? Like mentors, other people who had done it, people who were like, I've got your back, you know, like that was helpful. And I think like as I've grown, having resources to help me has helped. Like there's there've been times, for example, where I had to like load the business with my own money when we've gone through difficult seasons, you know, like now I've built up to a point where I can do that. But I think anyone can do something like that if they have like supports or people who are willing to help them or they can reach out like for grants or you know, there's there's different things. I think you have to be resourceful, right? But I really don't think anyone can do everything completely on their own. Like you need people and supports and communities and places where you can lean on them. Because this is hard to do all in a Yeah. Super important. I've had a lot of like good mentors over the years. I have a lot of good colleagues. I have some other colleagues who are like group practice owners now and other therapists who are colleagues. I wouldn't want to I wouldn't want to do it without them. It can be lonely being a therapist or a private practice therapist or a group practice owner. So I think that's really important. speaker-0: And speaker-1: Yeah. Yes. And and now I do a little bit of like coaching of people who are thinking of building up their own practices. ⁓ 'cause I've I think I've learned some things along the way and I I know like how beneficial that is. But yeah, I connect with other people who do that too. I think I I go to some like conferences sometimes too, of people who are doing this kind of stuff. So I think that stuff can be really helpful. Yes. ⁓ I think networking is really important also for getting clients for your group practice. you have twenty two counselors that you wanna like help get clients, networking is probably pretty important. So like what is speaker-0: Yeah, you're speaker-1: I think so. For me, yes. I like to let people know about my practice that I'm here, like who I am, right? 'Cause the the character and the person of the owner sort of like filters down through the practice. Right. I like to tell people we take all the insurances 'cause I think that makes us stand out. We have a in person practice that's got a very central location. So like the more people I can kind of connect with and let them know who I am and who we are, like the better it is. And then of course That works both ways too with the networking the referrals because even though we have a big practice, we get full or people don't have specialties or whatever. And so it's good for us to know people too. But yes, I ⁓ you're a good networker too, so you understand. Yeah. speaker-0: Wider. speaker-1: Yes. And I'm surprised sometimes, like I hear from people sometimes and I'm always surprised by it though I don't know why. But like people I know are like, ⁓ yeah, I like always refer people to you or I always refer my couples that need someone to you, or I always refer like my Medicaid or my Medicare people to you. And I'm al I'm always like like thank you. You know, I didn't I didn't know that's where all these people were coming from. So like thanks. speaker-0: What do you mean? speaker-1: Yeah, I mean you can't you can't be like, hey, like Mr. and Mrs. Smith called the other day. So like thanks for referring them to me, right? 'Cause then you're like breaking confidentiality. And I certainly you certainly can't like pay people for referrals or like give them shouldn't be giving them like Starbucks gift cards or something, you know, like that's not really ethically allowed. But once I hear from people that they're sending referrals my way, like I thank them and I'm very appreciative. And you know, I think To me at least, and I hope to other people too, it's not just about the like. the tangible benefits or you know, like certainly not just about like the money that comes from it. That would be very transactional. So to me it's about the relationship and therapists are relational people, you know. So to me, I think if we can spend genuine time connecting and like you know my heart and my character and I know yours. And that means sometimes we're gonna send clients because we care about where we send people and like helping people, then I I think that's like the best possible outcome. Yes. Exactly. Yeah. Yes. Yeah. I mean it's a funny business that way, right? And of course, like at twenty two counselors, I do have to think about money and business and profits and and all that kind of stuff. But at the end of the day, my goal is to help clients, but also like help the counselors that come and work for me. Like I I it has always been so important for me that my practice be a safe space for clients and for counselors. I mean for me too. and I think I have had people say that they They feel that way here, which always makes me feel Hmm. Yeah. I mean, I think there is definitely a good amount of like bleeding together. I'm not great, no. I run the practice. I'm not great at like I'm going on vacation, I'm gonna like not pay attention to the practice at all. I do have now that we've existed for a while, I do have other licensed people here now. So that's really helpful if I'm not available that I have help from people. Send out, you know, lots of policies and protocols about things like that. all time. ⁓ so that helps. I think ⁓ you know, I married this year, right? Thank you. So I think I'm mentoring probably like a new chapter of family life and keeping some maybe a little bit more distance between my personal life and my professional life. And but I think there's been a blessing in that too because I've been able to focus so much of my energy on the business and practice. Yeah. The whole time. You know. But yeah, I think mentally, emotionally, you need to have some compartmentalization skills to be possible with speaker-0: Yeah. speaker-1: Right. And our clients really need our help. Right. And when you run a group practice, your clinicians might really need your help. It's like maybe their clients aren't doing well. there's a lot of layers to it. And I I have always been someone who sort of likes to have a lot on her plate. So it it doesn't doesn't tend to bother me too much. So it does bother me. There are times where it bothers me when I feel like I'm giving a lot and sort of not Not getting appreciated. But then, you know, that's probably like my own speaker-0: So it's like Europe. speaker-1: Yeah. Yeah. It is. And I I like it and I'm comfortable with that role. But yeah, like so I've I've told you so much of my whole story now. I don't think I ever really set out to be a leader. That's sort of like the interesting part of this story. Like I mean, there might have been times where I sort of had this like far off vision of like it'd be cool to have group practice. I don't think I thought I was gonna actually do that. I don't think I pictured like what this has become. So at times I feel kind of like a reluctant leader, you know, 'cause it's like there's so many Responsibilities and things that are part of that. But I think it's more just like I saw I saw a need and stepped into it, you know? Yeah. We'll see where that kind of leads. speaker-0: No, I mean what would they speaker-1: Well, I don't really I always say I don't really feel the need to grow the practice more, but that being said, ⁓ it's possible the practice will grow a little bit more in the following years. My husband and I may be interested in growing a family, so we'll see what that would look like doing that and running the practice at the same time. I don't really I know like you never really know how you're gonna feel, but I sort of picture myself still having the practice and have we'll just see the landscape is always changing and and I wanna find good good efficient safe ethical ways to roll with the punches, you know. Yes. And and that's basically how I've done it the whole time. So speaker-0: Just so speaker-1: Maybe I should be more like that. I mean, you know, I do try to like get good systems in place. Like I do have a good accountant and a good bookkeeper and we have an admin team and a billing team, you know. So so those people do kind of like keep me on track. ⁓ but yes, I think there is an element where I'm sort of like, Let's see what happens. I yes, that's a good way. okay, well okay, good. Like don't neglect don't neglect your spiritual life. Like figure out figure out what you believe and like find find that and live out of that, you know? speaker-0: Yeah. speaker-1: I'm big into life with meaning, you know, so once you figure out like what you think is true and meaningful, like go go live that. think that's the important thing. I'm like Samuel Swan. don't neglect your mental health. Okay. ⁓ I feel like there's a whole there's a whole other world of self awareness out there that people are missing out on by not exploring their methods. ⁓ I feel like there's so many people who've said to me There's so much I didn't understand before, you know, or or there's just like I can't believe that I used to not be able to see these things or see things. And I guess I'll also throw in there the whole adage that we therapists talk about about like the most important thing in a therapist is finding a therapist that you really connect with. So if you had like a bad therapy experience or you've had bad therapy experiences before, like I would encourage you not to give up, you know, like Find a therapist that you connect with. If you find a therapist you connect with and then you don't like therapy, then fine. You know what I mean? But don't don't judge it based off of like a therapist that you didn't buy. speaker-0: No like speaker-1: That's good. Yeah, we have a really great we have a really great article about it on the HeartPonds Counseling website on how to how to find a good therapist for you. Yeah. Yeah. speaker-0: So speaker-1: Yeah, just go to w heart response counseling dot com. Yeah, there's info about me, about the practice. You know, like our therapists here at the moment are I'm mostly only licensed in Florida, so we can only help people in Florida. But I do coaching for people in all states who are wanting to have a practice, so happy to help. And then, you know, there are gonna be developments happening over the next years, maybe we'll be able to be counseling people. It it was great. Thanks for having me. That was I think it was great.