When Life Changes Everything: Transforming a Counseling Practice After Profound Loss with Megan

If you think starting a private practice is just about picking a niche, ordering a nameplate for the door, and waiting for the right clients to waltz in, welcome to the grand adventure! The path to a fulfilling, sustainable private practice is anything but linear. It’s more like one of those meandering rivers: full of twists, turns, unexpected floodplains, and, occasionally, spectacular waterfalls.

On this episode, we joined Megan, a Pennsylvania therapist, author, and creative business re-inventor, for an honest, vibrant conversation about what happens when the life you planned for your practice collides with, well, everything else life throws at you. This episode is a playbook for therapists who are ready to listen to themselves and their business, especially when circumstances prompt an unexpected pivot.

Ready to glean wisdom (and maybe a little courage) for your own journey? Let’s dive in.

The Winding Road: Your Practice Evolves with You

Megan started her private practice with a focused intention: premarital work, personalized weddings, grief, and funerals - all beautifully blending her ministry and clinical backgrounds. “It’s kind of that minister side of you kind of combined with the therapist side,” as Shani observed. But, as it does, life had plans of its own.

First, the ecosystem shifted: six months after Megan went full-time private practice, COVID-19 shut the world down. Her caseload, and her client focus, evolved rapidly. Premarital work slowed. Burnout among caregivers exploded. Megan pivoted, welcoming social workers, nurses, teachers: “My caseload started to shift like everybody’s did... the practice grew from that.”

Takeaway:

Expect your practice to evolve. Sometimes it’s market trends, sometimes it’s world events, sometimes it’s personal events that change everything. Being responsive, not rigid, is the key.

Life Happens, So Should Your Practice

In the winter of 2022, Megan’s plans for her business were supercharged. She was ready to expand group programming for caregivers. Then, heartbreak hit: “My mother unexpectedly died and my father became ill and then died quickly thereafter.” Suddenly, all the careful planning was replaced with the raw work of surviving both grief and logistics. “I was shifting from, hey, I want to do these things to like, okay, how do I keep it together?”

But, crucially, Megan wasn’t left flailing. “Because of having been part of the zynnyme community, I actually had my own emergency plan. Like I had things. And so I was able to shift and function in my practice and very baseline sustain well, deploying and feeling like I could function in that way.”

Takeaway:

Don’t wait for a crisis to build resiliency into your business. Emergency plans aren’t just for tornado drills; they’re for real-life losses, moves, and burnout moments.

Let Your Practice Talk Back

If you’ve ever heard your practice whisper, ‘Uhhh, I want something different,’ listen up. Megan did. Even as she executed her parents’ estates and grieved, she realized she was ready to return to work, but “My practice didn’t want to be the same. Like what could grow from me was to, I was different. The therapist in me is different.”

She did something radical: she began communicating with her business, journaling from both her own and her practice’s perspectives. She meditated, prayed, invited in her spiritual director, and asked: “Am I running from myself, or am I listening to wisdom that’s coming forth from me?”

Eventually, it was clear: something new wanted to be born. And so she did the unthinkable, she grieved and blessed the old practice. “I wrote a eulogy for my old version of the practice, because thank the well for all that it gave me and life that it lived...and I just wanted to bless it and release it.”

Takeaway:

Your business isn’t just a vehicle for your clinical skills; it’s a living system, responsive to your experiences and needs. Listen deeply. Don’t be afraid of grief or letting go.

Outside the Box (and the Insurance Panels): Creating a Practice That Fits

When Megan was ready to return, she realized the traditional model no longer fit. Forms, paperwork, insurance headaches, and the medicalization of grief felt stifling: “I feel like I can’t even breathe here.” Her new calling required ditching the old trappings: “I’m actually not operating a traditional mental health practice anymore...I don’t call what I do things therapy, because also I don’t see grief as a disorder. It can be a very natural process, a very spiritual process.”

Instead, Megan designed a business blending practical guidance, spiritual support, deep mental health wisdom, and tools like brainspotting. She shows up for clients not only as an expert on emotions, but as an experienced guide for the daunting real-life to-do lists that come with grief: closing accounts, cleaning out homes, navigating legalities.

She summed it up best: “The practice kind of told me, I want to be different. I want to integrate what you’ve been through. And I want to do that as a way that you meet people where they are, that you incorporate the wonderful mental health background that you have, but that you [aren’t] doing that in the same way.”

Takeaway:

What if the practice you need to build, and the clients who need you, are outside traditional models? Give yourself the radical permission to build something different.

Bringing Creativity (and Yourself) Back

Megan’s journey has been both tumultuous and freeing. Is it scary to try something new, to create from scratch, to pitch group ideas to business owners when you don’t even have a program written yet? “The ease has been that, oh, my gosh. Well, I feel sometimes fear about making a move. But when I feel into that and sit with it. It’s conditioning from having served in the long. Like it’s not real if that makes any sense. It’s real in me. Yeah, but I’m not. But it’s not mine and it’s, it’s not a real rule.”

She’s been able to embrace creativity, experiment, publish a book, and deliver fresh, genuinely helpful resources to her community. Her work is a living example of the power therapists unlock when they step outside the ‘shoulds’ imposed by the system.

Feeling stuck in burnout? Pay attention: “I think one of the signs, like if you’re wondering am I burnt out, it’s when you feel like you can’t create. Like, you can’t even fathom something different. There is a lack of expansion. There’s a lack of option. It’s a feeling of stuck. It’s a feeling of victimized.” Reconnection with creativity is a sign you’re on the right track.

Takeaway:

Burnout isn’t just about exhaustion: it’s about a collapse of creativity. Build your business for expansion, not just sustainability.

Practical Tools for Grievers and Healers

It’s not all woo and vision-boarding: Megan’s practice is tangible help. She wrote a book, part workbook, part planner, for people navigating the overwhelming practicalities of loss. It’s based on real experience: “When you lose a person suddenly, unexpectedly, and they’re living a full life, they leave a full life that needs to be disentangled and resolved and dissolved and distributed...I was asking questions more about, like, they’re eating, they’re sleeping, where were they turning for support, really looking at like alcohol use. And so over time...I was like, I think my practice wants to be different…”

Her offerings include not just long-term support, but single sessions for people in acute need, planning support for those facing their own mortality, and workshops for solopreneurs to prepare for the ‘what ifs’ life throws at business owners, too.

As Megan explained, “I have an individual one-on-one. I actually offer a 45-minute session, just one time only. Because I get when you’re in the throes of it, you might not be at a place for longer-term work, but you might want somebody to hold space, listen, and also help you discern what could be the next couple.”

Takeaway:

Clients need your clinical skills and your practical wisdom. Don’t be afraid to create solutions for both.

The Practice as Legacy

Megan’s experience is a living reminder: as your life changes, so will your business. And that’s not just okay, it’s a sign you’re doing it right. As Shani puts it, “Your business is an extension. It’s a reflection of who we are and our values. And as we shift, so should our business. And it is okay, like what you had is going to be different five, ten years from now.”

Megan’s response? “Thank you for having me. It’s my story.”

And truly, it’s permission for all of us to embrace our own evolving stories, too.

Remember, you’re never alone in building a business that’s as dynamic and resilient as you are. Ready for your own next chapter? Start with Megan’s story, then create your own.

Visit a-new-path.com to connect with Megan and check out her resources. Here’s to your path, wherever it leads!