Today we’d like to introduce you to Christopher Taylor.
Hi Christopher, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
I founded Taylor Counseling Group in 2015 with the mission to provide affordable, accessible and reliable mental health services for everyone. My business was founded upon five core values: Affordable Care, Transformational Change, Collaborative Growth, Community Support and Human Capital. Over the past six years, Taylor Counseling Group has quickly grown to nine offices throughout Texas, with locations currently in Dallas, Galleria Dallas, Coppell, Southlake, Fort Worth, Waxahachie, Houston Memorial Park, The Woodlands and San Antonio. We are excited to open new locations this year. Each day I am proud to work with my team of 45 highly-trained professional counselors who help those in the communities we serve.
I am passionate about giving back to the community, frequently participating in local charitable initiatives and connecting clients with community programs to improve and enrich their lives. Since 2008 I’ve had the opportunity to work with various state and private organizations, such as Child Protective Services, to help broken homes in rural and urban communities. From 2013 to 2016, I served as the court coordinator and program developer for Legacy Family Court in Dallas County to aid this issue. The time our team dedicated to this cause led to Legacy Family Court being recognized as “An Agent of Change” by the Council on Drug and Alcohol Abuse and was awarded an official resolution by Dallas County. Shortly after, in 2016, I was appointed by the Agricultural Commissioner to serve on the Rural Health Task Force to assist in developing solutions to expand mental health programs in rural Texas communities.
In 2015, I had the privilege of being appointed by Governor Greg Abbott to serve on the Texas State Board of Examiners of Professional Counselors as a professional member and was voted as Vice-Chair of the board in 2018. In April of 2021, I was reappointed by Governor Abbott to continue serving on the board. I look forward to continuing our work in growing mental health awareness and programs throughout the Lone Star state.
Outside of my professional and community work, I host a podcast called For Self-Examination, where I connect with mental health professionals to tackle various everyday issues that impact our daily lives. I also work as an adjunct counseling ethics professor at the Dallas Theological Seminary – where I received my Master’s degree – as well as Amberton University.
As you can see, I keep very busy, but I am fueled by the individuals and organizations I have the opportunity to work with on a daily basis. I know we are doing important work in helping make mental health more affordable and accessible to those in need. Together we are helping pave way for healthier, happier futures for individuals while building stronger communities.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Rough seas make for good sailors, and Taylor Counseling Group has successfully navigated rough seas throughout the pandemic. As a counseling group, our services and processes have been battle-tested. In response, we have been given the opportunity to clean up our protocols and update our systems to better suit the needs of our clients and counselors. The pandemic has also revealed the greater need for mental health care in Texas. We have always known that the need was present and necessary, but now more than ever, we feel confident in our mission to provide affordable, reliable and accessible mental health care. Now that our mission has been proven, we want to push ourselves even further and set more ambitious goals. We want to maintain this urgency to provide to those in need.
Overall, we have become stronger and more united. Our counselors and support staff have made sacrifices throughout the pandemic in order to ensure clients received the services they needed. We had people showing up and asking, “Where do you need me?” who were willing to come in day-in and day-out and work overtime to make sacrifices. It gave us an opportunity to learn who committed to our vision. The best thing we discovered was that everyone was bought in and here for the right reasons. They gave so much more than they would have if they were only doing what was convenient for them.
Our counselors and clients do not know how challenging it has been as a support staff to adjust to the pandemic and provide necessary resources to both counselors and clients to succeed. But that means we are doing a really good job making sure everyone gets the help that they need. One of the most fulfilling things is getting done at the end of the week and realizing you have helped complete 700 sessions. That is 700 people who are getting better because of our collective efforts as a counseling group.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about Taylor Counseling Group?
Taylor Counseling Group will be celebrating its six-year anniversary this summer, and we are energized by the fact that we have grown to be the largest counseling group in the Dallas Fort-Worth Metroplex. Since the first day we opened our doors; our mission has remained the same: to make mental health services available to everyone, regardless of their income level.
Taylor Counseling Group is proud to help clients of all ages, with services ranging from traditional individual counseling to more complex therapies. Our team of professional counselors utilize existential psychotherapy to provide treatment for individuals struggling with loss of identity, depression, anxiety and divorce recovery.
In 2020 Taylor Counseling Group was included in the Dallas Business Journal’s 2020 Best Places to Work list. As the only counseling group to make the list, this speaks volumes to the amazing company culture at Taylor Counseling Group. I enjoy working with these talented therapists who love to help others and contribute to the larger mission of providing affordable, reliable and accessible mental healthcare.
In April 2020, Taylor Counseling Group began its partnership with Mental Health for Heroes, an initiative that provides mental health resources to the medical community. Through this partnership, our offices are able to offer free counseling to medical professionals and first responders serving on the front lines of COVID-19.
A few months later in July of 2020, Taylor Counseling Group had the privilege to begin a partnership with Okay to Say, an award-winning public awareness campaign that strives to break the stigma behind asking for help. From each session, Taylor Counseling Group donates $1 to Okay to Say’s efforts to encourage people to talk openly about mental health. Not only does this partnership support Okay to Say’s mission, but our clients also feel more empowered during their sessions because they understand that they are directly contributing to mental health education, awareness and support. Since the partnership launched, Taylor Counseling Group has donated more than $30,000 to Okay to Say. We look forward to hitting our $50,000 donation milestone this summer.
To further ensure wellness in the community, Taylor Counseling Group has provided $35,000 of pro bono sessions since the beginning of 2020. This includes sessions provided to Mental Health for Heroes, Special Needs Assistance Program (SNAP), families and veterans who cannot afford counseling and clients furloughed and impacted by COVID-19. Taylor Counseling Group takes pride in the work we have and continue to do to aid these communities and plan to continue growing this support.
Pricing:
- While most therapists charge $125 to $200 per hour, Taylor Counseling Group offers individual, couples and family counseling at a private pay rate of just $90 per session.
Contact Info:
- Email: info@taylorcounselinggroup.com
- Website: https://taylorcounselinggroup.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/taylorcounselinggroup/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tcgdallas/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/TCG_Dallas
- Other: https://podcast.taylorcounselinggroup.com
