Mindfulness in the Therapy Space

Meet Doree Lipson! In this spotlight, we talk about her awesome practice, Wellness Embodied Center, in addition to the importance of using mindfulness as a teaching method!

Tell us about your journey!

I got my MSW in 2003 at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. Since that time I have been honing my skills as a psychotherapist and working in a variety of agency, social service, and clinic settings. In each of these environments I found that despite the best intentions, the practice of managing staff and in turn treating the patient fell short.

I finally left the world of social service work two years ago and have not looked back. I hired my first colleague employee in October of last year and now have three more on my payroll. This month we are launching an Education Annex to offer groups, series, and workshops.

I’d love to hear more about Wellness Embodied Center and all the awesome things you’re offering.

I started my practice because so many private practice clinicians find themselves incredibly isolated, but often the only alternative has been working in an agency setting which can be incredibly dysfunctional. I’ve always had this desire to create a really wonderful working environment for clinicians because I am one!

It’s mildly selfish, but also how much good could we do if we were in an environment that was supportive, loving, compassionate, and fueled our desire to learn and be part of a community? A lot.

Wellness Embodied Center offers a variety of awesome classes such as group therapeutic yoga and mindfulness for kids. We’re also going to offer a self-care class that’s going to be made up of an intergenerational group of women, it’s so exciting!

If you think about it, what we crave most is a connection, right?  We need more than just a one-on-one relationship. To be able to engage in very deep meaningful interaction in a community setting could be life changing and that’s my hope with the classes we offer.

What’s your favorite part of being in private practice?

I love working for myself, creating an environment that supports well-being and healing above all, and being in a beautiful space.

The truth is, running a practice is not pretty. I work every day and I work nights… I work a lot! I think it’s important to be really honest about the cost of running your own business and while it won’t always be this way, just know that it will pay off in the end.

I’m truly lucky that I’m super organized! I have an old school paper planner where I write everything down and where I make sure that I have pockets of time each day where I can do my billing, payroll,  marketing, promotion… whatever I need to do at that moment in time.

Since we’ve grown so quickly in such a short period of time and since we offer so much, I work a lot and I wouldn’t be able to manage everything without my husband. I have two small kids (a 4-year-old and an 8-year-old) and I don’t want to lose any of my family time so it’s really a juggle sometimes.

Top 3 tips for getting sh*t done:

Be clear, be fair, be honest.

How do you use SP in your day to day & how has it helped your practice overall?

Scheduling above all else. It organizes the entire structure of our group practice and allows each of us to know when the others are in session. File keeping, note keeping, monthly statements for out of pocket patients. SimplePractice is clean, easy to use and invaluable to the management of my practice!

I also love text reminders! Once I enable text reminders for my clients it’s totally off my plate and I don’t have to follow up. It has helped lessen our no-show rate because people are familiar with our policy and if they want to cancel, they have to cancel the moment they get that text reminder.

Do you have any words of wisdom for people aiming for success in private practice?

Trust your gut! Go at the right pace for you. Focus on compassion for yourself and your employees and the rest will fall into place.

To  close, what’s your vision for your practice?

I think I am creating it day by day. I want to deepen into what I have already done, allow for the steadiness to continue and maybe expand again when the time is right.

You can reach Doree at wellnessembodiedcenter@gmail.com or check out her website here!