How to Attract Your Ideal Client with Bewindi Bobb | FP 52

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How to Attract Your Ideal Client with Bewindi Bobb | FP 52

Are you wanting to connect to both non-believer and Christian clients alike? How can you as a counselor attract them both without turning the other away? What are some general tips you can follow?

In this podcast episode, Whitney Owens speaks about how to attract your ideal client with Bewindi Bobb.

Meet Bewindi Bobb

Bewindi was born and raised in the beautiful, gorgeous Island of St. Lucia in the Caribbean. Her journey towards accepting the calling to be a counselor is interesting, but let’s just say, she eventually stopped running (insert laughter) and realized that being a counselor is not just a profession but a God-given and ordained calling and ministry.

She helps professionals who are dealing with unresolved emotional conflicts such as depression, anxiety, grief, stress,etc live freely by equipping them with tools to renew their mindsets. She loves to encourage and empower clients and when they apply the tools, they are able to show up for themselves and be their best selves in all areas of their lives. Additionally, she provides Christ-Centered Counseling to whom it applies and for those who request.

With over 14 years of clinical experience, she is driven and fueled by her professional and personal values including but not limited to Faith, Empower, Purpose, Service, Encourage, and Teach. She is so honored to be in this space and knows that whether she is providing therapy, coaching, supervision, or speaking to an audience or on her podcast, ‘Empowered to Empower You’, she is convinced that people are definitely encouraged and ignited.

Visit her website. Connect on Facebook and listen to her podcast.

In This Podcast

  • Attracting Christian clients without turning away others
  • Empowered to Empower You Podcast
  • Bewindi’s advice to Christian counselors

Attracting Christian clients without turning away others

Affirming daily to ask God to bring the right people, whoever they may be and whatever they believe, to come to the business.

Everywhere Bewindi’s business is marketed, it is marketed as open to anyone. Even during counseling sessions, Bewindi explains to her clients who she serves and that she also offers non-religious counseling as well because she believes that counselors can be solutions for people, no matter where they may come from or who they follow.

Bewindi also asks on her online questionnaire to potential clients if they are faith-based or not to understand them better and how she can move forward in their counseling. Even in non-believers, Bewindi still knows she can serve and help them.

Empowered to Empower You Podcast

A platform for offering hope to people, talking about wellness, what hinders spiritual wellness, and so forth. On the platform, Bewindi mainly discusses how people can improve their lives and maintain their internal selves.

Bewindi’s advice to Christian counselors

They need to know that their work is a stage for God, and He uses counselors as a guide for his healing.

Books mentioned in this episode

Useful Links:

Meet Whitney Owens

Photo of Christian therapist Whitney Owens. Whitney helps other christian counselors grow faith based private practices!Whitney is a licensed professional counselor and owns a growing group practice in Savannah, Georgia. Along with a wealth of experience managing a practice, she also has an extensive history working in a variety of clinical and religious settings, allowing her to specialize in consulting for faith-based practices and those wanting to connect with religious organizations.

Knowing the pains and difficulties surrounding building a private practice, she started this podcast to help clinicians start, grow, and scale a faith-based practice. She has learned how to start and grow a successful practice that adheres to her own faith and values. And as a private practice consultant, she has helped many clinicians do the same.

Thanks For Listening!

Feel free to leave a comment below or share this podcast on social media by clicking on one of the social media links below! Alternatively, leave a review on iTunes and subscribe!

Faith in Practice is part of the Practice of the Practice Podcast Network, a network of podcasts that are changing the world. To hear other podcasts like Empowered and Unapologetic, Bomb Mom, Imperfect Thriving, Marketing a Practice or Beta Male Revolution, go to practiceofthepractice.com/network.

Podcast Transcription

[WHITNEY]:
The Faith in Practice podcast is part of the Practice of the Practice podcast network. A network of podcasts seeking to help you start, grow, and scale your practice. To hear other episodes like the Imperfect Thriving podcast, Bomb Mom podcast, Beta Male Revolution, or Empowered and Unapologetic, go to practiceofthepractice.com/network.

Welcome to the Faith in Practice podcast. I’m your host, Whitney Owens, recording live from Savannah, Georgia. I’m a licensed professional counselor, group practice owner, and private practice consultant. Each week, through personal story or amazing interviews, I will help you learn how to start, grow, and scale your private practice from a faith-based perspective. I’m going to show you how to have an awesome, faith-based practice without being cheesy or fake. You too can have a successful practice, make lots of money, and be true to yourself.

As practice owners, we tend to be so busy running around, meeting to meeting, a lot of doing, right? You’re not only seeing clients, but you’re also managing your practice, you might be working from home, caring for your family. These are really crazy times that we’re living in and I just wanted to take a minute to talk about the importance of slowing down. And this is something that I’ve been thinking about. I can’t say I’m the best at doing it but hey, I’m giving it out to you. And so hopefully I’m going to be better at it now that I’ve talked to you about it. But I want to encourage you guys to slow down in your lives. I was just reading a great book, and so I’m going to go ahead and give this to you. If you’re looking for a good book on being contemplative and slowing down and understanding God’s love in a totally different way, I want you to read Thomas Merton – New Seeds of Contemplation. I am finding this so insightful for just my own life and the way I view the world and the way I’m connecting with people. And it’s just a fabulous book. I actually heard about it on the Typology podcast, which is another podcast that I love listening to about the enneagram.

But all that aside, so in the book, he talked about how saints are ruined with hurrying around. And it just made me think about us as business owners, and we know this, but I think it’s always good to go back to it, that we can lose our focus, we can lose understanding of the things that are really important when we find ourselves rushing and hurrying, and especially group practice owners. So it’s so important that we take the time to delegate out, create a solid team, so that you can take steps back and do the things that are really important in your business. You do not want the business to suffer just because you’re busy running around and you don’t have perspective. And y’all, it’s not just about business. I mean, we know that we went into this field because we wanted to change things. We wanted to maybe spread the good news of God through counseling, not necessarily with our words, but with our actions and with our love. Or maybe you felt like God was calling you to this. And so I don’t want you to lose sight of that, and lose understanding of that within the details of what we’re doing.

So let this be a time you’re hearing this, that maybe it challenges you later to take a few minutes and take a step back. And maybe just be quiet or idle with your time. Or maybe you go get that book. Or maybe you carve out some time every week to just slow down for thirty minutes and think about your practice and the direction you’re going in. Or maybe you use this as a challenge to go on a retreat every three months for a day where you think back on your practice, you reconsider where God is and where He wants you to go and what He’s done. So I want to encourage you to slow down, and take those intentional steps, and listening.

So today on the podcast, I do have Bewindi Bobb, and she was fabulous to talk to. I just loved her personality and her strength. But also she does a really good job in talking about how to get your ideal client into your practice. And for those of us that are listening, who have a strong faith-based perspective, maybe you outright explain that you’re a Christian counselor, you’re going to really love this interview because that is some of the perspective that she comes from when her clients are calling and she’s able to really use her marketing to get that ideal client in the door, and that way she can really enjoy the client she’s working with more so instead of working with clients that maybe she’s not as skilled at or wanting to work with as much. And we all know that that’s what it’s like in our practice, we want to really attract that ideal client. And so Bewindi does a really good job sharing that with you today. So we’re going to jump right into this episode and this is episode number 52. How to attract your ideal client.

________________________________________

[WHITNEY]:
Today on the Faith in Practice podcast, I have Bewindi Bobb. She was born and raised in the beautiful, gorgeous island of St. Lucia in the Caribbean. Her journey towards accepting the calling to be a therapist is interesting. And let’s just say she eventually stopped running and realized that being a counselor is not just a profession but a God-given, ordained calling and ministry. Bewindi is super passionate about seeing people become free to live happily and free from emotional baggage, free from whatever is blocking, delaying or hindering their healing. She loves the opportunity to create a space where clients receive permission to express themselves, their feelings, and find themselves while gaining a new and changed perspective. She helps professionals who are dealing with unresolved emotional conflicts such as depression, anxiety, grief, stress, and they live freely by equipping them with tools and renew their minds. She loves to encourage and empower clients and when they apply the tools, they are able to show for themselves and be themselves in every area of their life. Additionally, she provides Christian-centered counseling to those whom it applies and for those who request it. For over fourteen years of clinical experience, she’s driven and fueled by her profession and personal values, including but not limited to faith, empower, purpose, service, encourage and teach. She is so honored to be in this space and knows that whether she’s providing therapy, coaching, supervision or speaking to an audience or on her podcast, Empowered to Be You – which can be found on Spotify, Podbean, iTunes, Google and other players – she is convinced that people are definitely encouraged and ignited. Well, thank you so much for taking the time to be on the show today.

[BEWINDI]:
Thank you, Whitney. It’s such a pleasure to be here. I’m so excited.

[WHITNEY]:
Yeah, I was immediately drawn by the idea that you are from St. Lucia and my husband and I went on our honeymoon there. And boy, I remember just crying when it was time to leave because it’s such a beautiful place. And for those that don’t know, that’s where Pirates of the Caribbean was filmed, correct?

[BEWINDI]:
Yes. Yes.

[WHITNEY]:
Yeah. So which part of the island are you from?

[BEWINDI]:
I was born and raised in the main town called Castries, but we lived in… I don’t know if you’ve been to Gros Islet, Soufriere? Soufriere is where the Pitons are. But I was born and raised in Castries. But we moved a lot throughout the islands, but we definitely lived in Castries and Gros Islet most of the time.

[WHITNEY]:
Yes, it’s the Pitons? Am I saying it right?

[BEWINDI]:
Yes. The Pitons. Mm hmm.

[WHITNEY]:
Yes, we stayed in this amazing – and maybe you’ll know this, you’ll probably know this place and so many people don’t – it was a resort up on the mountain right there.

[BEWINDI]:
Oh wow.

[WHITNEY]:
And it was like a forty-five minute drive up the mountain to get to this place.

[BEWINDI]:
Did you stay in the Sandals Resort?

[WHITNEY]:
No, it was like a private resort.

[BEWINDI]:
Oh, my god.

[WHITNEY]:
And all three rooms were enclosed and then one room was completely open. And you could close and open your shutters kind of like a door. It was the most amazing… and the ladies would come at night and make your room smell so good. And then they would put the netting on your bed. And you’d sleep at night like you’re outside. And it was just… it was a beautiful place.

[BEWINDI]:
Wow, that is so… it’s so interesting, because I was supposed to go back this year in June, but of course, COVID.

[WHITNEY]:
Yeah.

[BEWINDI]:
That would have been the first time because I haven’t been home in years. So that would have been the first time I would have gone back with my father. But I didn’t get to go. So hopefully another opportunity will come, for sure.

[WHITNEY]:
Yeah. And so your family is still there?

[BEWINDI]:
No, they’re all over the States. They’re in Georgia, they’re in, you know, they’re all over the world. New York, Brooklyn, New York, all over. Yes.

[WHITNEY]:
Yeah. That’s wonderful. Well, I love that we just had that moment. Because not everybody’s always been there, so yeah.

[BEWINDI]:
Absolutely.

[WHITNEY]:
Well, great. Well, why don’t you share with us a little bit about your practice and all of your kind of story to starting a private practice, kind of whatever you’re feeling led to share today?

[BEWINDI]:
Absolutely. Well, I am so honored to be here. As you said in my bio, this journey of accepting the calling – because it truly is a calling, to counsel people and to help them through their pain – was a very interesting one. I remember in grad school, even before grad school, in college, I was really running away from this idea of being a therapist or being a counselor and I started to major in computing information systems. And I was like, what is this? This is French. I don’t understand what this book, I don’t understand what COBOL is, like, what am I learning? And so the registrar was like, baby, you are failing. You need to change your major. And I went ahead and changed my major to rehabilitation services, which helps people with disabilities. But of course, grad school, you really, really have to buckle down and identify okay, what are you doing with your life? And so, I majored, got my masters in social work at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri and moved from there to Memphis, Tennessee.

And my career started, this whole space of mental health started… I’m not sure if you’re familiar with a company called Youth Villages.

[WHITNEY]:
Yes.

[BEWINDI]:
It’s a huge children and family serving agency and their mission is to help children and families live successfully. And that was my basic training. That was where it all started. I worked with teenagers with developmental disabilities, teenagers with dysregulated behaviors, a lot of pain and trauma, family dysfunction, you name it, I dealt with it. And I worked with the girls, I worked with the boys, I worked with also the boys with developmental disabilities. And so as I was doing that work. I knew that I wanted my license; I really, really enjoyed family therapy. I enjoyed this idea of putting on different hats to facilitate the session. There were times that I had to be the referee and there were times that I had to be the facilitator. There was times that I had to be the teacher. But all of that work started there. I got my license in clinical social work in 2010. And I’ve been serving.

I knew that at some point, I wanted to have my own practice. And I also knew that one day, I wanted to be a Christian counselor, I wanted to do some Christ-centered counseling. My faith is my anchor. My faith has gotten me through life, the difficulties, the vicissitudes, everything in life that I’ve been through, overcome depression, low self-esteem, suicidal ideations, all the things that I’ve gone through in life, my faith was the thing that kept me kind of weathering every single storm. And so I knew that I wanted to help people with that. So I established my… even if working for several jobs and doing different things, like from leadership, to helping to build an IOP, which is an individual outpatient program for persons with disabilities, medical social work, I’ve done a lot of things in the mental health space, I established my… I’ve also worked for an NCO in Tennessee. But I established my private practice in November 2017.

So the people that I serve, I really love. I’m so honored to be in this space, and it’s so much more real now, as we are in the pandemic, than ever before. The people that I serve are… I attract a lot of professionals, young professionals, or just professionals as a whole. And young adults and adults who are struggling with emotional conflicts. These individuals are unhappy, but they’re wearing a mask saying that they’re okay. They go to work, they function, they’re very functional, they’re highly functional. They may be very intelligent. Most of them are believers. So they know that they could just pray it away and read their Bibles. But they’re not okay. They’re wearing a mask and they’re struggling with unhappiness, they’re struggling with stress, they’re struggling with depression. They don’t even know what it is but they know that they’re just not themselves, and they don’t know who they are.

So I think over time, that’s become very, very clear for me, that I get a certain hype, a certain energy when I know that I, oh, this is my ideal client right here. Because I’m excited to work with them because they come ready, they’re hungry, because they know that they’re not functioning in their purpose. They’re not walking in the way that they’re supposed to function. And so those are the clients that I work with. And a lot of my work that I do with me is helping people renew their minds. The Word of God says that we are not to be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of our minds. And my main framework is helping people with their identity because I know that most of the issues – not all, because trauma is a real thing – most of the people that I work with, the reasons why they’re struggling with what they’re struggling with is because they don’t have a sense of identity. They don’t know who they are, and they have not adopted the identity of the Lord. And so my job, my world, what I do, because I know that Satan doesn’t want us to know our identity, because he knows that if we don’t, we won’t walk in our purpose. I’m helping people every single week to really understand that God is the one that gives you identity, God gives you validation, and God gives you purpose. And so, I know we’ll get into some more questions with that. But that’s a lot.

All of my clients are not believers. And I’ll talk about, when you ask, I’ll talk about how I attract the believers or what are some ways that I do that. There are some people that I’ve worked with, and I do work with, that are not Christians, they believe other things, and I don’t open that door unless it’s opened. But the people that come to me, I have a lot of people that are Christians, and they believe in Jesus, and they believe in the Word, and some people – most of them – don’t even know about their tools to use because there are certain tools that we have as Christians that if you’re not taught, you don’t even know what those are.

[WHITNEY]:
Thank you. You brought up so many good things about the journey of becoming a therapist, and even the very beginning. We’re actually getting preached… we’re doing a sermon series at church on Jonah. So when you were first talking about school, and you know, and Jonah, like…

[BEWINDI]:
He ran.

[WHITNEY]:
Not only ran, but he ran to the absolute furthest place he possibly could go, like, considered the ends of the earth. And so that’s what your technology [unclear] degree, that’s as far as you can get from therapy.

[BEWINDI]:
Right.

[WHITNEY]:
Yeah. Oh, man, I love that. And I love your point on clients that are your ideal clients bring you life. And you just… I remember, when I started seeing clients at my practice here in Savannah, I got in my car, and I played music and I was like, this is it, like, I have made it, this is what I love. And that helped me know, this is the calling.

[BEWINDI]:
Yes.

[WHITNEY]:
And God wants it to be exciting. And he wants us to enjoy that. And I love how you express that, and I can hear it in your voice. And like, that’s His calling in your life. And it’s just so beautiful. Yes. I would love to dive into this idea of how do you attract your ideal client? And in the way that you work with Christians and non Christians, like, how do you attract the Christian without turning away the one that wouldn’t call themselves a Christian?

[BEWINDI]:
Sure, sure. That’s a really, really good question. One of the things that I do – and I’m sure this is like one of the obvious that we know – but I pray a lot. I pray, like, Lord, bring the right people to my business. I have a set of affirmations that I speak over myself and [unclear] over my business every single day. And one of my things is God, bring the right people, you know who I am. So I am here, you have called me, you have given me this platform, this journey to help the right people to help people and so bring the right people to me another way. Another way that I do that is there is a sentence on my website that says, I offer Christ-centered counseling for anybody who requests. So out of everything that’s right there for people to see, it is on Psychology Today on my profile, I also have a profile on onlinecounseling.com. I have said the sentence there. I’m contracted with MD Live, I think I say something there.

So everywhere that I’m marketing, there is something that when people read my page, or read something where I have a digital imprint, they’re saying, okay, wow. Of course, a lot of people are looking for a black therapist, let’s just be honest. But they’re also looking for a black person who is a Christian. I have a lot of people specifically calling, and by the time they call my phone, they’re looking for a black therapist, a woman, who is also a Christian. So that’s one way.

I also discuss it in consultation, I even say it. Because some people may have just found me by word of mouth, a lot of people come to me by word of mouth, or they just Google black therapists in the area and my name comes up. I’m also a member of Therapy for Black Girls, so that’s a whole nother platform that I’m marketing there too. So people find me through so many different ways. But in consultation, I say that as well. I say a little blurb of who I serve, and that I also offer crisis counseling. And then I ask them, I say, is there anything I said that resonates with you? And the person goes, oh, my gosh, I need a Christian counseling. Like, I’ve been praying to the Lord that I need to unpack this. You are the person that God, like, all people will say, oh, my gosh, you exactly what I pray for. It’s just something that matches with what they’ve been praying. Whatever I’m saying, there is a… I believe that we are solutions for somebody’s problem. We are solutions for somebody’s prayer. They’ve been praying for something, but there’s something I’m saying that offers a solution.

There’s also a question in my intake paperwork. And obviously, by the time they come to my intake, that means I’ve already done the consultation, I’ve already connected with them somehow. But clients have a choice to fire me too, at the intake. They have a choice to say, this is not a good fit. But I say there’s a question on my intake that just kind of asks around spirituality and religion. There’s a question on their online paperwork that they’re doing before they even come to see me. And the reason why I ask that question is because I want to know, first of all, what is it to you? Is it spirituality, is it religion, and tell me what that means for you? And I want to know, is faith a protective factor? And when I say protective factors, for people who don’t know – I mean, we know – but protective factors are things that help to promote resilience. I want to know, is faith a thing for you that helps to keep you grounded and anchored in the difficult times? Because I know that every person who comes to see me has a whole lot of risk factors. We have risk for a lot of things. But I want to focus on the protective factors so I’m asking that question to know… because I know that if faith is a protective factor for this client, then that means the therapy outcomes, the therapy and the gains are going to be way more massive for that person versus the person who’s not a believer.

So that’s kind of how I attract those people. I also attract them through my podcast, and we’ll talk about that later but that’s another way that I attract them. So those are some examples of how I attract them. And so the people that tell me no, I don’t really believe in God, or I have some issues with God, I don’t focus on that piece with them. I focus on how can I help them? How can I serve them? I still see an opportunity for me to serve, because whether I talked about Jesus or not, the light of Jesus and the life of God is going to flow through what I do anyway. I could never talk about Jesus, but that’s the main piece.

[WHITNEY]:
That is so true. When I was in graduate school, one of my professors, he was an amazing man, and he said, I’ve had clients say to me, don’t you be praying for me, I don’t want you to do any of that praying.

[BEWINDI]:
Cos they weren’t.

[WHITNEY]:
Right. He would, of course, pray for them outside of sessions so it was really funny. I want to dive into what you shared here about on your website, make it super clear. For those that are requesting, you offer Christian counseling. Do you ever find that people get turned away because they see that you’re a Christian counselor? Or how is that for people who don’t call themselves a Christian?

[BEWINDI]:
You know, I don’t know. I don’t know if people get turned away because, Whitney, I have been full since I started. So if there are people that are turned away, number one, I wouldn’t know. But by the time they call me, they have seen something that they… there’s something that I’ve said that resonates with them. If you don’t want to focus on faith, but you know for sure that you are wearing a mask, I’m here for you. If you don’t want to focus on faith, but you know for sure you’re dealing with depression, anxiety, I’m here for you. So there’s so many things that I offer, if you don’t want to focus on faith, that’s okay. I still see you as valuable, and I want to serve you.

[WHITNEY]:
Mm hmm. And what percentage of clients would you say are faith-based that come in to see you at any given time? Take a guess.

[BEWINDI]:
If I were to guess, I have about a good sixty percent of people that are believers. And I am so thankful that people… because not only is there a stigma around black, and not just black, because I’ve worked with agents, and mental health is not the thing that they seek. So there’s a stigma around mental health for a lot of different ethnicities, but especially in the black community. But there’s especially a stigma with people that are going to church, because they have been taught to just pray it away. They have been taught that you just have to pray, just pray. And I believe in prayer, don’t get me wrong. And so a lot of people come and they are feeling shame. I had a client that when I was going through the screening, and when I helped her to see that she’s been dealing with anxiety and depression, she wept. She wept because she felt so ashamed and embarrassed that, I’m not supposed to feel these things. I’m a Christian, I should know better. And so I love that so many believers are seeking mental health.

[WHITNEY]:
I also want to point out here that you make it very clear that you’re faith-based and you still have, I mean, forty percent or so of clients that are not faith-based still come see you. And so you’re able to attract your ideal client, but you’re also not turning away people that are not faith-based. And I get that question a lot, so I love that. I mean, I’m guessing you’ve advertised yourself as Christian ever since the beginning of starting your practice.

[BEWINDI]:
Yes, ma’am. Yeah.

[WHITNEY]:
That’s awesome. I love that. I also… I’m gonna take it back a little bit to what you’re talking about prayer. And that is so, so important, you know, the prayer piece. And when I was starting my practice solo, I can’t tell you how many times I would lose a client or I’d be low on clients or thinking about bills needing to be paid and I would just be like, okay, God, like, there are people out there that need help, and I’m here and I need you to send me a new client today.

[BEWINDI]:
Yes, yeah.

[WHITNEY]:
Now there’s no guarantee. Right? But so many times, I’d get a new client that day, you know, I can’t tell you how many times and it’s just the way that we… that whole ‘build it, they will come’ you have faith every day. Like, that’s what I’ve loved about this whole journey of starting and growing a group practice, and consulting, all this, it’s been my life allowing me to trust God more, which brings us closer together. And that’s what I really love about the private practice journey.

[BEWINDI]:
Absolutely. Because I just jumped into full-time in July. I was working other jobs and private practice at the same time – I was doing both for a while since November 2017 – but I just jumped, July… I had felt a little, you know, kind of miserable, like that pulling, like, okay, it’s time. And I just made that jump in July. So July 13th was the first day of working full time and it has been non stop ever since. Like, I’m seeing more of God’s vision. And because I trust him, and I trust his promises, like, it has been crazy nonstop, with people seeking for help. And a lot of Christians are coming forward too, as well.

[WHITNEY]:
Oh yeah, it’s so true. It’s so true. Now tell me about your podcast.

[BEWINDI]:
So my podcast, the name of my podcast is Empowered to Empower You. And that podcast is about all things Jesus Christ and mental health and anything to help people be the better version of themselves. I am so… I love the podcast, I’m a solo podcaster. I don’t even know, I’m so… I literally taught myself how to podcast, like, I just looked up some videos, I was gonna sign up for this class and pay $100 and I was like, you know what, there’s a YouTube for everything. Like, there’s something free content out there for everything. So I just kind of looked around, I saw this list of this is what you need to have to start a podcast, I printed it out. I got the equipment and I just pressed play. Like, I just started recording.

And I started in January 2020 and I… so if you listen to my first you’re gonna be like, oh my gosh, she was all over the place – it’s way better now. But I love it because it allows me a platform where I can just offer hope to people and I talk about things that… a lot of it from therapy. Of course while keeping confidentiality, I talk about things like I just started doing a series around wellness, I talk about wellness, and spiritual wellness and what hinders people, what hinders your spiritual wellness, I talked about emotional wellness, I just finished one on stewarding your mental health. So I just talk a lot about different things to help people be the better version of themselves. I don’t even, like, I don’t even know how to invite a guest. I don’t know. I’m not really savvy when it comes to how do you do all the bells and whistles. But so far, it’s just been every single week I sit down and I say okay, Holy Spirit, I literally just get the computer and start typing and I type of script. And every single week I’ve recorded every week since January 2020. So, I love it.

[WHITNEY]:
Yeah, that’s awesome. Yeah, I always like to look at the podcast while I’m interviewing people. I love your image here.

[BEWINDI]:
Thank you.

[WHITNEY]:
I don’t know what you’d call… your cover, I guess is what you’d call it.

[BEWINDI]:
My cover, yes.

[WHITNEY]:
You look so confident and so relaxed.

[BEWINDI]:
Thank you.

[WHITNEY]:
Beautiful.

[BEWINDI]:
Thank you. Thank you. And it’s so funny because every time I look, I’m noticing that more people are listening to it. I started with zero downloads and now it’s over a thousand plays and streams and downloads. And I even found somebody who found it all the way in the UK and reached out to me and said, oh my gosh, I love this. We were in a group together. We were in some type of coaching group and she’s in the UK. And so she shared it with our friends, and so people are just… I’m just so honored. I’m just so honored to be able to speak in that way. Yeah.

[WHITNEY]:
Yeah, I totally agree. When someone tells me, I heard your podcast and it meant this to me, or I made this change in my business, like, yeah, it’s amazing. It’s amazing, because you spend so much time and energy creating a podcast hoping that the words that you’re speaking get out and change somebody’s life. And I love changing business owners so that they can have a better lifestyle, but honestly market their practice better so that Christians can find them because there are all these Christians out there going where do I find a good Christian therapist?

[BEWINDI]:
Yes, yes, yes, yes.

[WHITNEY]:
Yeah. Mm hmm. So I love that you’ve talked about how you attracted your ideal client, because those are some of the biggest questions I get from counselors. And so your feedback here today has been really helpful, I think, for people.

[BEWINDI]:
Thank you.

[WHITNEY]:
Yeah, wonderful. Well, great. Well, why don’t you tell us a little about your practice. Tell me the name of it, location.

[BEWINDI]:
Okay. So my practice is Against All Odds Professional Counseling Services. I’ve been doing, since March, I’ve been doing all online, so tele mental health only; I have not worked in the office. And honestly, I love it. I love doing tele mental health. I love doing telehealth, I think there’s different names for it now – telehealth, tele mental health, virtual therapy – but I absolutely love it. It’s almost made me think about do I want to go back to the office? Do I really want to go back? I mean, my lease is not up until June next year. So I really, really love working with people in that way. So that’s pretty much… and then people can find me on my website at www.aaopcs.net. And they could just read the website and then if they’re interested, they could send an inquiry that way. And I’m also listed on several profiles, as mentioned, Therapy for Black Girls, Psychology Today. Have you heard of Open Path? I’m also listed there too.

[WHITNEY]:
I have.

[BEWINDI]:
Okay, so I’m there as well. And yeah.

[WHITNEY]:
Awesome. Awesome. Well, I want to ask you what I ask everyone that comes on the show. What do you believe every Christian counselor needs to know?

[BEWINDI]:
I was waiting for this question, because I listen to your podcast.

[WHITNEY]:
Well, thank you.

[BEWINDI]:
Yes, ma’am. So I believe every Christian counselor should know that our work needs to be a stage for God, point blank, period. The Word of God says in Philippians 2:13, that God works in us, giving us the power and the desire to do what pleases Him. Our work needs to ultimately please Jesus, and there should not be any compromise with that. And all of my work that I do, I never promote anything that would displease God. The Holy Spirit also is our guide and our counselor. I’ve heard counselors say things like, I am a healer. And I tell my clients, I am not the healer, God is the healer, but He will use me to facilitate your healing. And so that’s something that I will just, you know, advise counselors, Christian counselors.

[WHITNEY]:
That’s wonderful. Well, I love being able to interview people because I find it refreshing myself and being with you today has been so encouraging, and reminding me about the work I’m doing and just a pleasure to sit with you.

[BEWINDI]:
Yes, you too, Whitney. Thank you for having me.

[WHITNEY]:
Yeah. Thank you.

[BEWINDI]:
My pleasure.

________________________________________

[WHITNEY]:
Thank you for listening to the Faith in Practice podcast. If you love this podcast, please rate and review on iTunes or your favorite podcast player. If you liked this episode and want to know more, check out the Practice of the Practice website. Also, there you can learn more about me, options for working together, such as individual and group consulting, or just shoot me an email [email protected]. Would love to hear from you.

This podcast is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information in regard to the subject matter covered. This is given with the understanding that neither the host, the Practice of the Practice, or the guests are providing legal, mental health, or other professional information. If you need a professional, you should find one.