We had the good fortune of connecting with Laura Tanner and we’ve shared our conversation below.
Hi Laura, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?
I have worked as a Social Worker in the Oncology field for the past 10 years. Oncology is a huge passion of mine and will most likely always be a part of my work. I recently received my clinical license and was not 100% sure what I wanted to do with it. Having my clinical licensed allows me to offer therapy, which had always been a tossup in my mind. I wanted to give it a try and so I started offering telehealth appointments in August of this year and fell in love. After coming out of the past few years I think we can all agree that priorities were challenged, access to needs changed drastically, and our mental health has taken a toll. I saw an opportunity to offer therapy through telehealth and wanted to continue to support individuals facing cancer, anxiety, depression, and self-esteem issues.
Unraveled Therapy came from the idea that we could come together and literally “unravel” the messy through processing our thoughts, emotions & life events. In return gain peace & confidence around our lives and lean into being kinder to ourselves through the hard parts.
Alright, so for those in our community who might not be familiar with your business, can you tell us more?
My passion is working with cancer patients and caregivers, and I can assure you that they are all facing feelings of anxiety, depression, and even self-esteem. For the past 10 years I have worked within a Cancer Center helping individuals through barriers to care, financial toxicity, emotional support, and acting as a liaison between them and resources within the community. I am so excited to offer services to this population and in a format that hopefully isn’t adding to their current stress and calendar of appointments and treatments to get to.
Coming up with a plan for Unraveled Therapy has been a huge learning experience, which honestly, I thrive in the mental space of planning, learning, figuring out and opportunity to be creative. There is a lot of variables that go into starting an online private practice, there are of course the business needs (website, accessibility, records, legals, etc.), along with the knowledge and continuing commitment to growth in order to always provide the best practice to my clients.
One huge thing that I went after was also receiving my clinical license in the state of Colorado. Fun fact, I currently reside in Texas and have hopes to one day call Colorado my home. With that said, being able to offer Colorado residents my services were important to me.
Some of the challenges I have faced are finding the perfect platform to offer these services through. I wanted something that would align with my values and that I could feel confident in and run smoothly for my clients. Another huge challenge for me was my own mental barriers. I want to offer the best of me to my clients and my best is always a work in progress. So, feeling “ready” is something I had to embrace kind of like a “ready or not here I come,” mentality.
I hope that those seeking my services can find a warm welcoming place where they can unravel 😉 the hard messy stuff. So, they can have more space within them to face the journey ahead, to heal the parts of themselves that need special attention and thrive beyond their expectations.
Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
Since my secret it out and you all know I reside in Texas, I will share with you places that I know well. Honestly this is something I think about when sharing with friends and family, my reasoning behind hoping to move to Colorado one day. I can speak to the Parker area, as someone with young kiddos this area is amazing and close enough to the mountains for quick weekend getaways to places like Winter Park. Parker is what I imagine hallmarks movies are made in. The downtown area is like a postcard definitely hit up Fika Coffee House, they have the best coffees, teas, and sweet treats and a few doors down you will find The LOCAL a place where you will find all the things from gifts, food, home decor, jewelry all made from local vendors. For lunch or dinner hit up West Main Taproom + Grill they have an amazing menu and great drinks. The margarita flight is perfection. These are all great places but there is something about the Colorado’s weather, infrastructure and access to the outdoors that this Texan is earning for.
The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
Jumping in and taking risks is something that is extremely hard for me. My husband, friends, colleagues, family have all been so supportive and available to be that sounding board, encourager, editor, spellchecker, literally all the things. At times for many we can feel unequipped or not enough for our dreams and I really struggled and still struggle with that. Having them in my ear saying you know this, you can do this, heck you are doing this kept pushing me to check off each task.
Website: https://www.unraveledtherapy.com/
Image Credits
Hayli Wells Photography