Today we’d like to introduce you to Rachel Dubrow.
Rachel, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
Like many college students, I didn’t know what I wanted to major in. I knew I wanted to help people work through life’s struggles but didn’t quite know in what capacity. I had great success in my own therapy when I was in college. I had always felt a sense of gratification helping older adults, which solidified my decision to become a therapist. After graduate school, I gained experience working in a variety of clinical settings, including: inpatient psychiatry, the emergency department, several medical units in a hospital, and hospice. This helped me build my clinical toolbox as a therapist.
Initially, my practice specialized in working with older adults. However, I realized that I wanted to work with adults of all ages after gaining a wide variety of experience. For a few years, I made the transition by working a day job in my field, slowly adding hours to my private practice. As my practice grew, I knew that I couldn’t manage working a full-time job, having a substantial client caseload, and maintaining work/life balance. I finally made the leap into full time private practice in 2015 and haven’t looked back since.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
Thankfully, I grew up in a family of entrepreneurs. My grandfather and parents owned a family business and helped teach me the technical side of what it takes to run and maintain a profitable business.
One of the greatest challenges was deciding to transition to private practice full time. Fortunately, I have a great mentor who was able to help me with the ins and outs of being in private practice and this helped solidify my decision. I was working in a hospital during the day and was at a point in my practice where I was not able to accept more clients because I didn’t have the ability to rent additional office space. I then decided to work a more flexible schedule during the day, which opened up more time for me to rent additional office hours. Eventually, my caseload grew to the point where I was able to rent my own office full time.
Being an introvert, I initially struggled with marketing my business. It took me a while to find the right group of people to network with, but once I did, my business grew to the point where I now have great referral sources and am able to collaborate and cross refer clients.
We’d love to hear more about your business.
I am a psychotherapist who specializes in working with emerging young adults and older adults. With emerging young adults, we tackle relationship challenges and navigating the dating scene, career choices, and learning how to find work/life balance. The older adults I see often are dealing with medical conditions, finding purpose and meaning in life, and may even be wanting to find a new relationship if they have previously been divorced or widowed.
I am most proud of watching my clients grow and succeed in the goals they set for themselves. Nothing is more gratifying than seeing my clients “graduate” from therapy or when they come to the next session excited about a successful encounter or feeling they had as a result of what we talked about in previous weeks.
What sets me apart from other therapists is my focus on finding the right fit with my clients. I will be the first to admit that I am not the best therapist for every client. Instead, I focus on making sure that I can help potential and current clients with whatever brings them to therapy and if I can’t, I will refer them to someone who can better meet their needs. Therapy is such a personal and dynamic process and I want people to have a positive and fulfilling experience even if it is not in my office.
What were you like growing up?
I was a driven and focused student in school. In class and amongst my friends, I was a nerd who loved learning new things. Family was always important to me and I spent a lot of time with my two siblings and extended family, particularly my grandparents. I played a few musical instruments, dabbled in watercolor painting, and figure skated through my high school years. I enjoyed volunteering and helping those in need and this interest continued through college.
Contact Info:
- Address: 5225 Old Orchard Road Suite 5
Skokie, IL 60077 - Website: http://www.racheldubrowlcsw.com
- Phone: 847.313.8074
- Email: rdubrow.lcsw@gmail.com
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/racheldubrowlcsw
- Other: http://www.goodtherapy.org/therapists/profile/rachel-dubrow-20150731
Image Credit:
Lindsay Bustell Photography
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