Today we’d like to introduce you to Steph Fowler.
Steph, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
Well, I guess I was always the person that my friends confided in or came to for advice. I always knew I wanted a career where I could help people, but I went down another path initially. After working in the non-profit and higher education worlds for several years after college, I realized I wanted to become a counselor and went back to school for my Master’s in Counseling at DePaul University. After graduating, I spent several years working in various mental health programs and drug and alcohol treatment centers to figure out where I wanted to specialize – and then things started to fall apart with my plans.
I tried working for myself about 5 years ago and just as I started to get a little momentum, my life went through major upheaval due to a divorce. I had to scrap my business plans and get a steady job with benefits while I rebuilt my life over several years. It was incredibly hard and frustrating, especially as a recovering perfectionist because it felt like I had failed at everything. However, through the process of starting over, I learned a lot about myself, how I want to live my life and how I want to relate to people. I managed to slowly sort things out, piece by piece.
The process of rediscovering who I am and reconsidering what I want my life to look like eventually led me to start a business again last year. I made the leap in April 2017 and I haven’t looked back since.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
Ha! Smooth? Absolutely not. Aside from the personal setbacks I mentioned, there are no classes in grad school that teach budding counselors anything about running a business, so entrepreneurship has been a series of hard lessons and learning curves. I don’t see that ending any time soon, especially with the ever-changing landscape of insurance and healthcare. While I’ve gotten pretty comfortable with who I am as a therapist, I’m still figuring out who I am as a business owner. As an introvert, I’ve had to figure out how to comfortably network and market myself, and I’ve been surprised to discover how much I miss socializing now that I don’t have coworkers. I’m still trying to find balance between my personal and professional life, which I think is sort of the norm in the first year of business, but it feels like it’s starting to fall into place.
Although, I’ve had some challenges along the way, they help me to relate to my clients’ personal and professional struggles. The rebuilding process has also helped me to become a more genuine person and get rid of ideas and expectations that never fit me. I have to say, there have been many things that have gone much smoother this time around, and I attribute a lot of that to authenticity. I’ve found that being your truest self is really the only way to attract people who are a good fit for you, whether that be clients, customers, friends, partners, etc. Embracing all of who I am and not trying to be everything to everyone is really liberating, and the kind of clients I love working with are gravitating toward me naturally, which is a great feeling.
Please tell us about Steph Fowler Therapy.
Something I hear from clients, that seems to set me apart, is that I’m active and engaging in sessions. I don’t just listen and nod or guide people through a workbook. I’m also not a “sunshine and rainbows” therapist, by which I mean I’m not really focused on the glass being half-full if a client says the emptiness is the problem – why ignore the thing that someone tells you is the problem? My clients and I also have existential, “meta” conversations which can provide clarity about motivations and possibilities. And, while I take my work very seriously, it’s also fun to have room to be creative, a little irreverent and use some humor in therapy.
I say that my purpose is to help people reclaim their lives and identities from anxiety, substance use and disillusionment. In general, my hope is to empower clients to tackle their problems and hopefully work myself out of a job. I ask questions and challenge assumptions. I like helping clients consider different perspectives and reconnect with parts of themselves they might want to bring to the forefront. To do this, I spent a full year training in narrative therapy, which I find to be a really beautiful and artful approach to counseling. When appropriate, I also incorporate exposure and response prevention (ERP) therapy which can help people to overcome fears and minimize anxiety. The premise is essentially that avoiding the causes of anxiety only increases the anxiety, and facing the things we’re afraid of is actually the best way to decrease anxiety. Blending these two approaches, I’ve seen clients make dramatic transformations as they learn they are capable of things they had never dreamed possible. Although, I work with clients who have a variety of backgrounds and life stories, I especially enjoy working with other helping professionals, creative folks and black sheep.
If you had to go back in time and start over, would you have done anything differently?
I really, really hate cliches, but in all honesty, I don’t think I’d change anything. Part of me would like to have learned several lessons sooner, but I don’t think I would have been ready to truly internalize what I needed to if I’d gone through the difficulties any earlier. I look back and can see how each chapter in my life built on the last one, and every mistake taught me something I needed for the next chapter, both personally and professionally. Maybe I’d like to go back and do a better job of documenting my experiences and make more time for writing along the way.
Pricing:
- Initial session: $150
- Regular session: $130
Contact Info:
- Address: 4305 N. Lincoln Ave. (Wed – Sat)25 E. Washington Ave. (Tuesday)
- Website: stephfowlertherapy.com
- Phone: 773-669-4975
- Email: steph@stephfowlertherapy.com
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/stephfowlertherapy/
- Other: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/therapists/-chicago-il/325205
Image Credit:
Kyle Bice
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