Today we’d like to introduce you to Chris Epstein.
Hi Chris, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
I began my career in the clinical world working for a boutique outpatient program in Dallas called Innovation360, whom I worked with for about 11 years. They offered traditional wrap-around clinical services (IOP, individual and couples therapy, process group therapy, psychiatric care) alongside a unique service/concept aptly named Life Development. In 2008, I was hired part-time to work in Life Development to complement the other traditional services with “treatment in the midst of life”, as we would be with clients in their worlds, not in the safety of our own offices. We would often meet at gyms or in homes, or even planned therapeutic trips with multiple clients in the program! After 6 months, I was offered a FT job in a new role called the Client Advocate, which is essentially a clinical Case Manager, and I held that position for 5 years. After a small stint as a Clinical Manager, I360 offered me another FT position as Clinical Director, (back then known as Director of Therapeutics), which I held until I left the company in 2019 to explore the exciting world of independent practice!
I cherish the experience gained in I360 for those many years. I would not be the clinician I am today without the experience gained working with complex individuals and their family systems alongside some incredibly talented practitioners with many different credentials and backgrounds! (MD’s/Psychiatrists, PhD’s, PsyD’s, Masters level clinicians, LCDC’s, and even clergy.)
I left the safe environment of Innovation360 to begin my own group practice with friends from I360. Michael and Tiffany Ashenfelter were private practice clinicians who officed out of I360’s space for over a decade. It helped that we also went to graduate school together in the mid 2000’s. We dreamed of offering to other clinicians what we had received so wonderfully at Innovation360–a beautiful and collaborative space managed by clinicians for clinicians. Hence, 214 Counseling Group was born in the fall of 2018.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Of course not! When is life a smooth road?! I once read a short phrase that caught my eye on the back of a shack on the island Jost Van Dyke in the British Virgin Islands…”I’d rather be scared to death than bored to death.” 15 years later it still sticks with me.
One of the struggles I experienced was that I had no clinical experience entering my graduate program at Dallas Theological Seminary. (Come to think of it, I had very little theological experience either!) So many friends in my cohort in school had completed a 4 year bachelors in Psychology….when I had just graduated with a maritime-focused business degree. Talk about diving into the deep end. I remember recognizing that I was lacking within the first semester, so I began calling therapy practices in the DFW area to see if I could volunteer for them to gain ANY type of experience-to make up for my lack thereof. Eventually I found a small faith-based center in Highland Village that took me under their wing for 6 months. Twice a week I would drive up and do whatever tasks they assigned…for free. Listen to recordings of theories and techniques and summarize for the clinicians, learn how to file insurance claims, answer phone calls and place new clients with clinicians I barely knew. It didn’t matter, I would do it all. Eventually they offered me a potential FT job as an office administrator, which I attempted to do for about 3 weeks before they let me go. I had no experience reading EOB’s and negotiating with insurance companies! That experience was an example of learning what you do not want to do.
Another struggle was being newly employed during the Great Recession in 2008, with a small healthcare start-up that had little structure. I remember just showing up at the office off Sherry Ln @ 7am, just hoping they had work for me that day. I believed (and likely tried to manifest) that if they only saw me in office, I could be top-of-mind to place with the few clients I360 had in those early years. That eventually paid off when they offered me the Client Advocate position.
Lastly, I learned that working with a client’s substance abuse/dependence doesn’t always work out for the better. I still remember the dear people I wanted to help overcome addiction that ultimately lost their lives. I spoke at some of their funerals. Such a sobering reality to lose young men and women that way.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your business?
I essentially have 2 businesses in 214 Counseling Group.
The first is the brand of Chris Epstein as psychotherapist in private practice. That brand I am proud to have built and continue to refine since 2008. I enjoy mainly individual therapy (but some couples/marital/family therapy too) with a clientele who are interested in depth psychology and the exploration of purpose in our lives. My favorite poet, David Whyte, once said “To live intentionally is to ask beautiful questions, in very unbeautiful moments” Great therapy is to be with another mind and soul and practice the quote above. With our minds together, we can explore scary moments or seasons of our lives and make sense of them; integrate them into understanding how we’ve become who we are because of those moments. I am well versed in the Attachment Theory literature and also Relational Psychoanalysis: both theories are developmental models of the mind looking to answer how a thing has come to be in our lives, and solutions on how to ease that suffering. That suffering could be relationship difficulty, addiction, anxiety and depression struggles, grief and loss, spirituality and faith questions, or processing developmental or situational trauma–I welcome an opportunity to share in that struggle.
The second business is the office space rental that 214 Counseling uniquely offers. We offer a turnkey office space for thriving clinicians looking to have a beautiful therapy office in conjunction with other great practitioners also growing their businesses. Some clinicians may want to rent 4 hours a week, and others want to accomodate a full time clinical load. 214 Counseling offers more than a space, but a place to belong. More details on specific services for clinicians could be found at our website–214counseling,com.
So, before we go, how can our readers or others connect or collaborate with you? How can they support you?
I feel myself getting older…and a part of that aging is I tend to welcome face to face interaction. That could be coming to my office for a coffee or lunch, or meeting for a dinner after work. Of course Im open to a phone call for collaboration when needed, but there is purpose to why I’ve been in a consultation group that meets weekly, and in person, for nearly 8 years.
Pricing:
- Individual therapy – $190.
- Couples therapy- $200
- For 214 Counseling therapists: a flexible scheduling agreement is $35 for each hour they book.
- For 214 Counseling therapists: a block schedule minimum of 3 hrs a week would be $30 an hr for each appt.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://214counseling.com
- Instagram: 214counselinggroup
- Facebook: 214counselinggroup
- LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/chris-epstein-b21985137
