“Create Your Personal & Professional Vision”

By Joyce Marter, LCPC

Years ago, while wrestling with how to prioritize and plan for my desires to both start a family and build a group practice, I saw Counseling Psychology Alumna, Arlene Hirsch, LCPC for a career counseling session.  Arlene said, “Plan your career in the context of your life, not vice versa”.  Her words were exactly what I needed to obtain the clarity I needed to strive for healthy work/life balance.  I realized I needed to get clear on my personal vision for myself, my life and my family and then build a career that would support that vision.

In 2004, my business partner, Lori Hall, LCSW, and I started Urban Balance, LLC (www.urbanbalance.org).  Our vision was to create an insurance friendly practice that normalized seeking therapy and made it more accessible and affordable to the general public.  We chose the name because we recognized (and experienced) the unique demands and stressors of balancing work and personal life in an urban environment.  We also saw the need to create jobs for talented therapists who wanted to work in private practice, but did not have the business and marketing interests that Lori and I share.  The vision was that UB would also provide Lori and me with the lifestyle and work/life balance that we both desired (I wanted to work close to home and during school hours, which I do—and Lori wanted to work in the city but also have a home in the country on a lake, which she does).  It has been amazing to watch that vision come to fruition as UB now has nearly 50 therapists on staff and 5 Chicagoland locations.  It is my belief that the universe will support endeavors if they are a win-win for all, and we are grateful for this success.

I believe that we largely create our own realities, both personal and professional, through the power of self-fulfilling prophecy. We came into this field likely because of our own experiences.  Those hardships are blessings that have gifted us with insight, empathy, awareness and compassion that we extend to our clients, supervisees and students through our work.  We sometimes constrain our own success with our fears, anxieties, limited thinking, and old patterns or belief systems.  As we sometimes see this in our clients, we too often create our own ceilings.  We can choose to open up our thoughts and welcome a world of possibilities for ourselves and those whose lives we touch (our families, our colleagues, our supervisees, our clients, etc.).

In my own personal experience of co-founding Urban Balance, I have come to realize the power behind where we put our energy.  A few years ago, I had tremendous fear and anxiety about Urban Balance and felt such pressure and responsibility that Lori and I seriously considered closing our doors (something that seems ridiculous now).  I did a lot of work on myself and have worked on detaching from the scariness of that responsibility and letting go and trusting even more in my business partner and colleagues, which has allowed me to grow personally and UB to flourish dramatically.  This is an example of how our professional lives can reflect our personal wellness or journey.

Here are some nuggets of wisdom I have gathered along the way:

• People come into our lives for a reason. Clients, teachers, mentors, friends, lovers—both those who bring us positive experiences and those who bring us challenges and hardship.These relationships shape and mold us into who we are and teach us invaluable life lessons. Be aware and grateful for those pivotal people in your life. Nurture the relationships with people who can help you grow.

• Business partnership is like a marriage. If you are considering a business partnership, realize that the relationship is an extremely important and intimate one.It is about communication, respect, clear boundaries, a shared vision, ability to tolerate stress and resolve conflict. Lori and I have different professional and personal strengths and interests that compliment one another. We make better decisions together and through our friendship and partnership, we continue to grow personally and professionally.

• Don’t let people say you can’t do something.I’ve had many people tell me something I wanted to do wasn’t possible.You can’t always listen to these negative messages and you need to forge ahead with your vision.

• Sometimes professional disappointments are blessings.I’m grateful to a boss that wouldn’t promote me at a previous job because that motivated me to leave and start UB with Lori, something I may not have done otherwise.Sometimes disappointments are opportunities to direct us towards a different path that will bring even better things to our lives.

• Networking/marketing can happen anywhere with anyone.My best referral source came from a conversation with a make-up artist, who connected me with her friend who is a psychiatrist.Be willing to share your work endeavors with virtually anyone and everyone.

• Look for how you can help people and they will be willing to help you.I always look for opportunities to connect good people, send business to someone or volunteer my services.I look at it as gaining good karma and “planting seeds” that will someday sprout.Look for what you can give rather than what you can get and you will be rewarded.

• Don’t be afraid of success. One of my favorite quotes is from Marianne Williamson, “Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.” It is not about ego, but about courage to put yourself out there and be an active part of your life and the world around you.

• Don’t give up on a good idea. Back in 2002, I came up with a concept for Pre & Post Baby Couples Counseling.It never really took off in the way I had hoped, but we kept it on our website and offered the service to the clients who were interested. Recently, UB was featured in cover story of Wall Street Journal about pre-baby counseling—the journalist found through Google. If you believe in something, stick with it.

• You really can choose who you want to work with and where. Keep learning new skills and growing professionally. If you feel burned out, learn a new skill or consider changing your client populations or clinical setting. Don’t accept that you are stuck in some job environment if it isn’t providing you with what you need personally and professionally.

• Personal and professional progress is not linear.  We all go through setbacks, or “loops” in life as a normal part of being human. It is how we respond to those setbacks that determines if we are going to grow and move forward or continue to cycle.

• Don’t be a martyr. As clinicians, we are focused on taking care of others, but we really must take care of ourselves first. The better we take care of ourselves, the better work we will do with our clients and the better example we set for our clients. Take care of yourself first, especially when making decisions about your work schedule, commute and managing tasks that could be outsourced like billing, etc.

• Our work can shift so that as we grow, the work we are doing is congruent with who we truly are at any given point in our professional career. We are lucky to work in a field that affords us with the flexibility of countless options to change the work we are doing at any time as our needs or interest change or develop.We can practice, we can teach, we can write, we can work in countless settings with virtually any demographic of clients.So, check in with yourself periodically and give yourself a personal and professional tune up. Quiet yourself through mediation and ask yourself what you really need. Ask yourself if your work is creating balance, wellness and positive energy in your life.If at any time in your career that answer is no, then empower yourself to reinvent yourself and create a new personal and professional reality.

Again, create a personal vision for your life and then look at how your career can support that vision. Develop an action plan and obtain the support of a mentor and others who will help you in that process.  And when in doubt, there is always the blessing of personal therapy as a platform for personal and professional exploration and development.