How Your Strengths & Skills as a School Counselor Can Be Used in a Private Practice with Lorraine Holeman [Episode 51]

Lauren
Welcome to this week’s episode of high school counseling conversations. This one has been a couple of weeks in the making, because I posted about this colleagues experience and asked y’all on Instagram if it would be something you’d be interested in hearing more about.

Lauren
And as a resounding yes came from the crowd, I said we have to put Lorraine Holman on high school counseling conversations. She offers so much value just in her background and her unique skills and abilities to rally and lead a team, I knew that she would have so many good things to share with you all and let me tell you, she did not disappoint.

Lauren
Let me introduce you to Lorraine before we get started, and then you can come on over and listen in on our conversation. Lorraine is a licensed professional counselor and the founder and owner of Summit Greenville, an innovative counseling co working space in Greenville, South Carolina.

Lauren
She’s a recovering school counselor who served 10 years in Greenville County Schools. As a middle school counselor, high school counselor and district level employee. An Army veteran and adventure junkie Lorraine took a leap of faith in 2021 and decided to open a private practice and counseling co working space for her colleagues.

Lauren
One year later, she has no regrets and lives her best professional life every day. In this episode, Lorraine and I talk about what that journey has looked like for her through grad school to changing careers to now jumping into something completely different.

Lauren
We talk about her experiences as a department head in her high school counseling program and what makes a good leader and what makes a good teammate. Talk about making that leap to private practice because it’s really scary seeming but she has had so much joy and success as she has jumped into this new season of her life. Let’s dive into this week’s episode.

Lauren
Welcome to the podcast. Lorraine. This is high school counseling conversations. And this is my first in Person guest interview. So I’m so glad that you’re here.

Lorraine
Thank you. I’m excited.

Lauren
Okay, tell us about your professional background because it is unique is different from mine. And I think it’s going to be different from a lot of counselors who are listening.

Lorraine
Absolutely. Thanks, Lauren. I am in my actually in my third career. So my first career after college, I was an Army officer for five years, I served active duty around the world, great time in my life loved it gave me a lot of good leadership experience.

Lorraine
And then I was a stay at home mom for nine years that was a privilege to be home with my kids. During that time, I decided that I wanted to be a school counselor at the recommendation of my mom who was a lifelong educator and said that I would be good at mentoring kids and helping kids and so I went to Clemson University, got my degree in counseling, was a school counselor for 10 years.

Lorraine
But during that time, because I get bored doing just one thing. I went after my LPC and got certified as a counselor, so a little bit of private practice while I was also a school counselor. So I had really one and a half jobs, which was too much. But then decided two years ago that I wanted to be go full in and be in private practice. So now I’m a business owner running a practice seeing clients and I love it.

Lauren
Hmm. Where did you think that there were any advantages or disadvantages to like changing careers midway through your life? I mean, you came into grad school and you had already lived life a little bit. I came from straight undergrad. I think there are advantages and disadvantages in that.

Lauren
But maybe there are people listening who are thinking about switching to high school thinking about switching to school counseling, thinking about changing careers. What would you say to that?

Lorraine
I think for me, it’s very exciting to switch things up and try new things. I don’t know if you shared this previously, but Lauren and I went to grad school together, way back when so we’ve known each other for a while and I did feel like a fish out of water at first and grad school I was 32 were the people who were a lot younger than I was. I had two small kids at the time.

Lorraine
So I would say a disadvantage was I was in a different phase of life to be a grad student. And there were a lot of late nights of writing papers and completing projects after my kids were asleep so that that part was difficult. But the advantages were is I feel like I had more perspective on what I was taking into a new career, what I was bringing to a new staff coming from the military and jumping into education was fun and exciting, but also very different.

Lorraine
I had to learn the nuances of being an education versus the military. People don’t just listen to you, because you’re have a certain role or in charge if you have to really persuade people to believe what you believe and follow a certain path. So I think it was really fun. But I think it did give me perspective.

Lorraine
And at that point in my life, and mid 30s, I felt like I knew my strengths, and I knew who I was. And I was more confident as a counselor, I do think it helped that I was a parent as well, not that you can’t be a great school counselor and not have kids. But you do have that added empathy for parents as you’re meeting with them.

Lauren
Definitely. And I would say, some coming right out of undergrad and going into grad school, I did know what I wanted to do. But I felt like there were people in our program who were on that younger side, were like, I’m just gonna see if this is what I wanted to do.

Lauren
It sounds like you knew like, this is my next step, I’m committing to grad school, this will be my next career. So you kind of already you had that made that decision, because you had a lot of other things riding on it, you had a husband and kids who needed probably that structure. And if I’m gonna pay this money, I better do it.

Lorraine
Yes. And it was a great career for me as a young mom. So having the same schedule as my kids, having summers off or as much off as you can, as a school counselor, was really a great lifestyle for for my family at the time. So it was it was good at the time.

Lauren
So of all of those careers, and maybe it could be this one too, that we’re going to talk about in a second with private practice, you can include that which of your favorite seasons or careers has been your favorite?

Lorraine
Oh, they’re also different. I think. I really love being in the army, I loved the excitement of the adventure. I love the people and the camaraderie that that’s one thing that I definitely miss, because it’s hard to replicate that in different environments. But I don’t know, I loved each season.

Lorraine
And I think each season really match who I was as a person. And as I’ve grown, I’ve realized, okay, I have these strengths. And, and I can apply them here. But recently, I did a values inventory. And it was like a giant light bulb went off in my head that, yes, I have these strengths.

Lorraine
And I can be a great school counselor, and I was a good school counselor. But what I was doing was not in line with my personal values. Because I value adventure and creativity and freedom and connection. And those are hard things to do and education. There’s not a lot of room for creativity and freedom and autonomy.

Lorraine
So I had to really look at what are my strengths? And yes, I can continue to do this school counseling thing, which I’m good at. But I’m burnout and the system is continuing to take from me and I’m not getting any compensation. So what could I do that would allow me to have more autonomy and more creativity.

Lorraine
And I decided that I wanted to try a private practice, and more importantly, create a place where people could thrive as entrepreneurs. So that’s, that’s been really fun for me. So each phase has been great. It’s played to my strengths. But my mom gave me great advice. So when I was a young mom, and I was sitting at home with my kids, and I knew I wanted to do something professionally, but I didn’t.

Lorraine
I wanted to do all the things right then. And she said Lorraine, you will get to do all the things, but not all at the same time. And that has been advice that has really carried me through my professional life. Because I have been able to do all the things and each season has been great for each of those things.

Lauren
That’s how I have thought about it too, as I have left being in a school full time, I’m like it is a season, I can go back to that if I want, I can go do something else if I want. Like, I’m the one who gets to dictate what that is what that next step is. But I also have a lot of other things to consider, you know, on the table like with kids and stuff.

Lauren
So I just look at it as it’s a season and nothing has to be definite, you can change and move and grow according to your strengths and what your family looks like and what your needs are. So that’s encouraging. That is good advice to take for all of us.

Lauren
Okay, before we get into private practice stuff, let’s talk about school counseling. You were my department head for a couple of years, you know, we’ve had we had changes in leadership changes in what our team structure looked like. So what did you learn about leading counselors or leading people when you were a department head? And tell us a little bit about that?

Lorraine
Oh, yes. Well, I will say first of all, that it’s a very difficult position to hold in education when you’re in charge of something but you’re not really in charge. So you have all of the responsibility, but none of the ability to really do things freely on your own.

Lorraine
So if something’s gonna go wrong, you’re in charge of it going wrong, but you didn’t have a lot of ability to to be creative and own things and really be in charge. It’s different than being an administrator. You just get more work and you’re supposed to smile about it. And I I think you did.

Lorraine
You did smile about it. I did, I cared about the team and I cared about our mission and what we were trying to do for our kids. So I would say, you really have to listen to your team. And you listen to your team by being really conscious about making time with them.

Lorraine
So one thing that we I feel like we did really well is we met regularly, we had it on our calendar, we knew that on Friday at two o’clock, or whatever it was, we were going to sit down in me, and that’s what we were going to do. And we had an agenda and we had goals, and we had things we wanted to talk about, and we made time to be a team, it’s very hard to work in a team, if you don’t make that time.

Lorraine
I also had to learn to make space for disagreements and make space for people that aren’t going to buy in to what the team thought was a good idea. And that’s okay, so everybody gets a vote and gets an opinion. And I had to learn to be okay with, not everybody’s gonna like you all the time.

Lorraine
And it can be a little bit lonely at the top. But at the same time, if most of the group is moving forward and helping kids, then I felt good about what we were doing. And yeah, so just time to listen and time to meet.

Lauren
Yeah, I’d say that you did a great job at keeping a structured like, that was something that I saw as such a strength of yours. And I assume it’s coming from the military, like you brought in so many strong leadership perspectives that I know had to have come from there.

Lauren
Like, like you said, when we sat down, we had an agenda. I knew that when we gave up our time with students to sit down and have a meeting together, that it was going to be productive. We were going to walk away not feeling like that was a waste of time. Why were we even there? So being aware of people’s time, I guess, I felt like you did a good job with that.

Lauren
And like you said, like making time to listen to what people need, that they feel heard and valued. Because even if you have a different opinion, like that might change, you might get on board with the team if you feel heard. Or if you can see the other side of like, why does the rest of the team want this, I feel like you did make that space to bring everybody in no matter, no matter their personality, no matter their strengths and weaknesses. So I appreciate that about you.

Lauren
Okay, if you could give a new department head some advice, what would it be?

Lorraine
Have grace for yourself, because you’re going to make mistakes, and it’s okay. So it is a very difficult position, there’s a lot of demands. So definitely have grace for yourself, I would say keep kids in the forefront of what you do every day, it’s very easy to get absorbed in the administrative tasks of running a counseling department.

Lorraine
And you really have to be an advocate for your time so that you don’t get pulled into a lot of that those administrative tasks, which is hard to do. So, for me, I thought it was important to be on pace with my team, I had a caseload of students, I wanted to know what was coming up for them so that, you know, I could predict what they were going through because I was going through the same thing with my students.

Lorraine
So yeah, continue to be an advocate, advocate for kids have grace for yourself. And I really think even though it’s scary and daunting, just being aware of ramp and Aska. And what that is, and making some steps to, you know, incorporate those practices into your counseling department and makes you a better team.

Lorraine
I think going through the ramp process, which we did when we were a counseling team and achieve ramp was an enormous task and a very heavy lift. But it made us a great team. And it made us a great department, and we serve kids. So having some aspirations towards that I think is is noble and great for kids and great for your department.

Lauren
You said that so well. And so nicely because RAMP was took a lot of time it was a beast, I heard somebody would say it’s a four letter word, but a different four letter word. But it made us better as a team, it made us serve students better. I mean, everything was better, because we were moving in that direction, whether we would have gotten it or not.

Lauren
You know, that can be a conversation for another day. But I love that you mentioned to managing your time well. I talked about that in a podcast a couple of weeks ago about using your calendar and using your time to advocate for what you need and to advocate for your profession. Because ultimately, that serves students better and it doesn’t happen on its own. And if you don’t dictate your calendar, somebody else is going to.

Lorraine
I will add it is such an enormous job to be in charge of a counseling department. But you can also serve as a great model for your team by setting boundaries for yourself. I could have lived at that school from seven in the morning till seven at night, but I didn’t and part of it was just happenstance.

Lorraine
Like I couldn’t because I had kids at the time who needed me to take them to soccer and all the things but it is okay to have boundaries and by having boundaries you model that for your team and keep them healthier. Because that work is never done. So you have to be okay with like leaving things on your list that don’t get done, which you all know because that’s your whole day all day as a school counselor friend. And there’s even more things on your list when you’re a department chair. So modeling that for your teams is helpful and important.

Lorraine
And if you model it the other way, if you are the first one in the building the last one to leave, you’re coming in on weekends, then you know, there’s this pressure that is put on your team, whether you intend to or not that everybody feels like they need to sacrifice their time with their family or eat dinner in their office or something.

Lauren
So you are setting a model whether you realize it or not positively or negatively, for what the expectation is for the rest of your team.

Lauren
I’m pausing this episode to let you know something fun and valuable that’s coming. Doors to the Clique Collaborative, my high school counseling membership are opening again to welcome new members on January 18. During the month of January, you can expect regular weekly episodes of high school counseling conversations, plus a challenge to help get you ready for the new year.

Lauren
I’ll offer three live workshops throughout the month to help set you up for success as the second half of the year starts. Be sure you’re on the Clique Collaborative waitlist to be the first to hear of all of these plans. Go to cliquecollab.com to join the waitlist today.

Lauren
Okay, let’s talk about still more team things. What characteristics habits strategies do you think make a successful high school counseling team? Like what do you think needs to be in place to make that team function? Well,

Lorraine
I think you have to trust each other. So you have to be you have to know that the people in the offices to the left and right do you have your back? We definitely trusted each other very much as a team and knew that we all had a shared vision, we knew that we were there to help kids. We were vulnerable with each other.

Lorraine
So I think as a group, we could say, you know that I’m not great at this. But you’re great at this, can you can you do this or I’m having a really hard day because my dog just died or my mom is sick, or, you know, my kid is at the principal’s office and I have to go get him or her like being authentic and vulnerable with each other allows you to have trust and allows you to know that you’re going to support each other even in the hard times.

Lorraine
I think it’s really important to have fun. I think our department did have fun. Because if you’re not having fun at school, everybody knows and then it’s just miserable so that the kids pick up if you’re having fun the parents pick up if you’re having fun and and you can have fun because it can be a very fun environment.

Lauren
And don’t laugh about it, you’re gonna cry about it.

Lorraine
You might as well laugh, there were many times where we went behind closed doors and either laughed or cried. So, but that’s because we trusted each other and we allowed each other to be vulnerable.

Lorraine
I think another thing that helped our team too is is we were deliberate about how we split up things. So we all took Strengths Finder and we put it on a big chart. And we said okay, I’m good at the details. And, and you’re not or you know, what are you doing that you could give up to someone else because this is their strength?

Lorraine
And I think don’t just assign tasks because there’s 100 extra tasks for your department. Don’t just don’t assign them at random, like have a plan behind that.

Lauren
That increases your job satisfaction too, when I’m working in my zone of genius when I can give someone the task that has all the details. And like, you know, the coordination of that field trip, I’m like, Oh, I can do the thing that somebody else doesn’t want to do because I can thrive in that environment.

Lauren
So I’ve mentioned Strength Finders before. And I’ll link that in the show notes. Like where you can do that little quiz is a book with an online quiz. And we took that in the summer before the school year started. And it was so cool. It gave me a new perspective on the teammates that I worked with.

Lauren
I was like, why are they like this, you know, sometimes in frustration, but then I saw, okay, because their strengths aren’t the same as mine. And that’s a good thing. Like we don’t all have to be the same. But we should use that to our advantage. We’re different, we have different strengths.

Lauren
Let’s put those in place. So everyone is happier. Let’s talk about it so that we can work better together and just have more grace for each other. And then you mentioned sharing in humility, almost like I’m not good at this. And I have realized that through some, you know, self discovery or self awareness and to be able to give up control over something that well I’ve always done it okay, but I’ve always hated doing it. So let me give that to somebody who might learn something new and might actually really enjoy it.

Lauren
As a strong advocate for the school counseling profession. how do you work with an administrator who doesn’t really understand what you do or who doesn’t see eye to eye with what you are doing?

Lorraine
This is one of my favorite questions. Because I had I lived it and had to do it. I think that a couple of things. So most importantly, you have to use data to change their minds. Administrators, that’s how they see the world. That’s how they enact change. That’s how they you know, run their day is by data. So you have to speak their language and you can’t really speak their language unless you’re doing things according to ASCA and ramp.

Lorraine
So getting in that mindset of having data that informs your program is super important. So you can go in front of them and say, Hey, we did this thing. And here’s how it helped increase this thing that you care about. So that makes you a strong advocate for your time with kids, which is essentially what you’re looking for.

Lorraine
I feel really strongly that as a school counselor, you are a leader at your school. And so you should act as a leader. And acting as a leader means that you have a seat at the table. So if there’s a leadership meeting at your school, and you’re not there, then you’re not necessarily acting as a leader, because decisions are being made for your students, and maybe even for you and your time, when if you don’t have a seat at the table, your time will be spoken for you.

Lorraine
So I see Lauren smiling right now, because she knows what I’m gonna say, because I’ve said this a million times that if you’re not at the table, you’re on the menu. And there were many times where I was not at the table. And so my time was on the menu, and it was given to other things that were not in the scope of my job. So I decided to have a seat at the table and really speak on behalf of my department. And that made a huge difference.

Lauren
And maybe not even just decided to have a seat at the table like that took some stepping out of your comfort zone to say, hey, I need to be here, no one was just going to invite you. I mean, we’re just people in the school until you say I need to be at this meeting. Because this is important because we were working with students all the time, or we have this large scale event that affects the whole school, and I need everyone to hear about it.

Lauren
You mentioned data, I will link in the show notes to a free data collection ideas guide, it has 49 different places to look for data that’s already in your school with academic behavior, attendance, like there’s so much data that’s already in your school that you could be you could peek at that, look at some of those bullet points and say, Okay, well, here’s what is important to my administrator, I know that they’re trying to increase the attendance rate for our freshmen this year or something.

Lauren
And you can say, okay, as a school counselor, how can I pair with them and show them what skills I have as a school counselor, because we’re on this, we should be on the same page, we want to be moving in the same direction and be teammates, and not just adversaries like going head to head with each other in school, like we have a lot of the same goals in mind.

Lauren
So we can open up that conversation and show them that we bring value in those places. They’re going to start coming to us to to hear what we think. Okay, let’s talk private practice. How did you decide to make the leap to private practice, and what has that journey looked like so far for you, you kind of mentioned it a little bit in the beginning.

Lorraine
the leap that I just took in opening Summit, Greenville, which is a counseling co working space that has 12 people currently working here was a long time in the making. So private practices, this is not my first rodeo in dipping my toes into private practice, I got my full licensure in 2017. And was seeing clients on Saturday afternoons and Sunday afternoons for about four years.

Lorraine
So I had some experience in working with clients. Because I worked with kids in my day job as a school counselor, I wanted to try working with adults. And I found that I really, really enjoyed working with adults, particularly people that are in their early 20s. Maybe they’re in college and trying to find out their strengths, their values, what they’re good at helping them kind of craft a work life that that works for them.

Lorraine
So that is the space I really love to work in. I also have a heart for working with veterans as a veteran. So recently have done some training and work in PTSD and plan to incorporate that into my practice as well. So this idea came to be I knew that I wanted to be in private practice, because I loved it so much.

Lorraine
And after doing the values inventory, realize that education was not serving me and my values and learning, there’s this thing that you also are licensed to do, why don’t you just go do it. But there are some aspects of private practice that don’t really align with my personality and my values. I am an extrovert, and I love to be around the team. And I love to be working in concert with other people.

Lauren
That has always scared me about private practice thinking, Okay, I’m gonna go into an office, I’m not going to see people all day, I love the chaos of the school and having teammates. So is that kind of what you were thinking as maybe a roadblock to doing private practice, you’re like, I need to find a solution for this.

Lorraine
Exactly. You hit the nail on the head. So I knew I needed to solve the problem, not only for myself, but then realized for others that private practice can be very lonely. And so people that are in the helping profession, many of them are extroverts and thrive in that team environment I certainly did as a school counselor.

Lorraine
But the models that I saw for private practice, were really limiting. So either you’re by yourself, you’re running space in an office where you don’t see anybody except your clients all day, which no one goes to counseling because everything’s wonderful. It’s can be very sad. Have you work all day long, or you’re in a group practice where half of your paycheck goes back to the group to keep the lights on and it just for me financially, that didn’t feel like what I wanted.

Lorraine
I wanted to run my own business. I wanted to be an entrepreneur. I enjoy the hustle of it. it, and I wanted to see something that would grow. And it is hard to to experience growth in a group practice. So I figured there had to be another way to do it. And I started doing some research on co working space and particularly medical co working. And it was kind of an up and coming model where private practitioners get together, they share the cost of, you know, the overhead for the building.

Lorraine
And they make that as low as possible by sharing that cost. But then they operate together in a space where, you know, they’re all in the similar space. So my office has, our office building has seven offices, a conference room, a training room for CEUs and workshops, and community type training. But we also have built into our schedule times where we meet, which was really important to me.

Lorraine
So we have peer supervision, and a couple of times a week, we do something social, we’re going to have some team building stuff. So having a co working space that supports entrepreneurs was important to me. And I think we’ve made it because everyone here seems pretty happy. So far, this is only our third week being open, but we’ve had staffing lunches and everyone is encouraging to each other to really grow their own business, and not do it in a space where you feel alone.

Lauren
So that was something you wanted to take from the school counseling experience that teamwork, that camaraderie, and you’re bringing your leadership expertise from there, and leading these counselors here. And the counselors who are in your practice, I guess you call it, a lot of them have school counseling backgrounds, right?

Lorraine
Yeah, it’s really fun. So there are 12 of us at Summit, Greenville, and eight of the 12, either our former school counselors are currently in still in school counseling. So there’s a few of us who are full time counselors during the day and then are seeing a couple of clients, you know, a couple afternoons a week. So it is fun to be in that space again, with colleagues.

Lauren
Have there been any roadblocks along the way? Or things that have taken longer than you expected as you’ve been trying to open up private practice?

Lorraine
Definitely. So I, let’s see, it’s been 12 months in the making. This was not this is not a small undertaking to open a business at all, I kind of came to me in the middle of the night.

Lorraine
So I couldn’t sleep one night last October 2022. And I was thinking about what am I going to do next I was not happy in my current job. And the idea came to me like no Lorraine, you you can create a space where everyone can thrive and do their own thing. And you can provide the leadership in the space and, and share the cost.

Lorraine
So having that thought 12 months ago, and then sitting here in the conference room today doing this podcast and people are here working is is no small undertaking. Luckily, I had six months to really plan and thoughtfully map it out. Because it does take a while, this is not something you can do while you’re also doing a full time job.

Lorraine
So I had six months to really do a lot of the planning. I would say that the challenge is for me, certainly the costs were more than I thought it would be. And I think

Lauren
as any like renovation or building anything like that ends up being.

Lorraine
The costs were more than I than I expected. But I had to overcome the fear the mindset of fear that I can’t do this because it costs too much money. And I had to be really smart with my business plan about how can I spread out costs? How can I take on some debt that that I know over time I will pay so just getting past that fear was was huge.

Lauren
And even if someone’s not going to like go open up their own business, they probably have a lot of the same fears and mindsets like, will I have enough clients to replace my income? Or can I give up the time in the evenings to start this new career that I’m a little nervous about?

Lauren
Like there’s a lot of fear and mindset work I’m sure that has to be done. Absolutely. And that you have to like encourage other people in and find your people so that you can say hey, we could do this.

Lorraine
Yes, absolutely. So I am fortunate to be an LPC es supervisor. And so I have six interns right now, who had those same fears. And I was able to kind of coach them through, no it’s going to be okay. Yes, there is an initial costs, we’ll kind of keep it as low as we can. Here’s how you do that – I had checklists for them and ways for them to make the costs as low as possible.

Lorraine
But there is that fear of how do I afford to do this? I would say another thing that I learned is just to be patient, just because my idea is on fire, and I want to get it going doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s everyone else’s emergency. So that’s very true when you’re working with contractors and marketing and website builder. So just learning to be patient and have a timeline.

Lauren
You’re like, can you be on my timeline, please? Because I’m trying to manage this big project.

Lauren
How did you build your team for this space? Like where did you find people? Did you advertise? Was it word of mouth? Like? It sounds like you’re really excited about your team? How did they all end up here?

Lorraine
It was word of mouth for sure. I got a small group of friends together after I had that vision in October that I wanted to do this and said hey, I have this idea. And I think I’m gonna solve this problem. If I if I come up with this idea and you were there.

Lorraine
We shared a couple of beers and talked about it and every But he was excited. And I think that got me excited that that yeah, I can do this. And there are people who, who want this sense of belonging, but want to share costs and want to be together and run around to run their own business. So

Lauren
That probably gave you a boost of confidence, a push in the right direction, like Yeah, other people see this as a need, and had the same fears of going into private practice. Like, I’m going to be by myself. And this solves the problem like yeah, hey, we’re following you take us take us to the next step.

Lorraine
So I was really fortunate that I didn’t have to market to a larger group of people. Everyone who works here, I either know personally, and I’ve worked with them, or they know someone who’s working here. So I’m very fortunate that we have a great team that we trust,

Lauren
How are your days now structured as an LPC, as a supervisor, as a business owner?

Lorraine
however I want them to be, which is pretty awesome. I’ve had to get away from the mindset of needing to be here from 830 to five every day. So I am really intentional with my calendar, and I have an ideal calendar that I follow. So I know that I want to see 10 to 12 clients a week, I’m not there yet. But hopefully that will come soon.

Lorraine
I supervise six interns. So I find you know, I’m really in the office, I would say about three and a half days a week. And I’m not here the whole time because I might be going to volunteer or meeting my husband for lunch or running an errand. So it’s important in private practice to have times that are amenable to your clients.

Lorraine
So there are a couple of late evenings here and early mornings, and then times for my supervisees when they’re not seeing clients. But I also have the ability to do some work from home if if I need to or want to and I don’t work on Fridays, I choose to go hiking and be outside on Fridays.

Lauren
That sounds like an awesome schedule. And that autonomy of getting to choose it is sounds probably very appealing to a lot of listeners.

Lauren
What advice would you give to a school counselor who is looking to get into private practice?

Lorraine
I would say go for it. I do not have any regrets at all, about getting my licensure as an LPC, it took me longer than than I thought it would. So it actually took me four years to complete the process, you have to have a certain number of supervision hours, depending on what state you’re in and working full time as a school counselor, it’s it’s hard to get those supervision hours in.

Lorraine
You can meet the client our requirements, but the supervision hours are difficult. So you know, you can start slow, you can take two to four years, that’s fine. I think it makes you a better school counselor, actually to really review those clinical skills and gives you a little bit of credibility that yes, I’m not just someone that fixes schedules, I actually am a mental health provider as well. So it’s a little bit of, of credit.

Lorraine
I’m a firm believer of having a plan B that has served me well many times in my life. And I think having that licensure in my back pocket kind of gave me the courage and the push, and, and the safety of knowing if this really goes south and I’m burnout and I’m not loving it and it’s not in line with my values that I I have another plan.

Lorraine
So I would encourage you to reach out to someone that you know, who has, you know, has an LPC and just ask about the process. Find a supervisor that you’re a good fit with, study for that exam and go for it. I have no regrets and having that option.

Lauren
That’s awesome. You mentioned some of the characteristics or traits or things that are good that you learned in private practice that you were applying in schools while you’re kind of still doing both? What strengths do you think school counselors bring to private practice?

Lorraine
Oh, so many and so many that you don’t even realize, so you have an intimate knowledge of how schools operate. So if a kid or parents come to you with questions about difficulties in school there, there are things and insights that you can offer. Especially if you’re working with teenagers, if you’re a high school counselor, and you know and live and understand the college application process, there’s so much that you can help families with there.

Lauren
Do you feel like people like still come to you for that kind of stuff, or where it’s kind of incorporated into some of their issues or problems?

Lorraine
I think we just all hear it because it’s such a big part of high school and it’s on kids minds. And I think you can kind of you can help relieve some anxiety about that process because you know, the ins and outs of it. I would also say that my school counseling experience makes me a better counselor because I had so much experience in the school, I saw all the things.

Lorraine
The demographic was super wide. I got a lot of experience working with a diverse culture. It gave me a lot of experience that I would not have had if I had gone right into private practice.

Lauren
You worked with so many different types of students and families like socioeconomically racially, culturally, that if you were just in an office with whoever came in, you might just have like a tiny little sector of experience versus in a school where you’re not picking you know, you get a little of everything.

Lorraine
It’s like agency work. I think it’s very wide in scope and Yeah, I’m really grateful for that time.

Lauren
Okay, I think this is one of our last questions. What surprised you the most moving into private practice?

Lorraine
We laugh about this pretty frequently here in our office, because there are so many of us who are school counselors, but it’s really quiet.

Lauren
there’s no bells ringing to cut off your conversation?

Lorraine
There’s no angry parent storming in and knocking on your door, it is very quiet and peaceful. And I’m never interrupted. So if I want to close my door, and do some deep work on a workshop that I’m thinking about, or I really want to study up on cognitive processing therapy, because I’m gonna see a client who needs help in that way, I have the time and space to be the expert in what I want to do. And I really love that and value that.

Lorraine
So that has been the most surprising thing, I was not ready for how quiet it would be. I also wasn’t ready for how much I would love it. Like I I love having the freedom to structure my time and my day. And I also love the that I get paid to do what I love.

Lorraine
So you can make money, and you can make great money helping people. And there’s nothing wrong with that. Like that’s, there’s value in that. And it feels great to help people. But it also feels great that I can make a living doing that.

Lauren
That’s awesome. Lorraine, is there anything we haven’t talked about that you were like, I have to mention this to high school counselors, whether it is about your career path, any of those careers, specifically moving into private practice, or like a pep talk that you want to give them.

Lorraine
I would say, if you have the dream of trying this, and of getting your licensure and dipping your toe in private practice, find a group that is doing something similar and talk to them, consult with them. Because together, you can create some synergy so that you have the courage to do it. Because it does take some courage to do it.

Lorraine
And probably some hustle, hustle to learn, you need to learn a bit of marketing and I, I promise you, you know somebody who’s already good at that. So capitalize on those friendships and, and talk, but be bold. And if it’s something that you really want to do, you’re going to find a way to make it work.

Lorraine
You don’t have to be scared of being on your own and having your own business, I think you will find clients you will make money it will be an experience that is worthwhile.

Lauren
You gave us so many good things to think about and process. I know that listeners are gonna love listening to this episode when I put it out there. When I had come over and seen your new place. I went posted on Instagram. And I was like, Would y’all want to hear more about this? And I think it was 100%? Yes.

Lauren
Like there was no one who was like mad doesn’t sound interesting. I think everybody wanted to hear, because there’s just a little bit inside of us that’s like, Can we do something else? We have skills that can lend other places. I think school counselors are like, the Jack and Jill of all trades.

Lauren
I mean, you have so many skills, so many strengths that can be used all over the place. Educators in general, really. So I know that high school counselors are gonna love listening to this episode. So thank you for your time.

Lorraine
Thank you so much. It’s always good to see you.

Lauren
Thank you, Lorraine, for that awesome interview, I cannot wait to hear feedback from the listeners. Now y’all heard Lorraine say a couple of times that she used a values inventory for herself, and she uses it with her clients a lot. I’m going to link those cards for you in the show notes. They are the sort cards that have different values on them. And you can narrow down and kind of sort them put them all on the ground and mix them up and move them around.

Lauren
I think that this will be really helpful for you as a person if you’re looking to narrow down on your values and see if you’re moving in the right direction for you know your own job satisfaction. But I’ll also link them in case you would like to use them with your students.

Lauren
As soon as we got off of the podcast. I was like hey, you need to show me these. I need to know what you’re talking about because that sounds like such a valuable resource. Thanks for listening. I’ll talk to you next week.

Lauren
Thanks for listening to today’s episode of high school counseling conversations. All of the links I talked about today can be found in the show notes and also at counselorclique.com/podcast. Be sure to hit follow or subscribe wherever you listen to your podcast so that you never miss a new episode. Connect with me over on Instagram, send me a DM @counselorclique. That’s C-L-I-Q-U-E. Thanks so much for hanging out with me. I’ll see you next time.