Meet Whitney Hancock

We had the good fortune of connecting with Whitney Hancock and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Whitney, can you walk us through the thought-process of starting your business?
I wanted to start Dynamic Counseling to meet a market need for high quality therapists in comfortable, home-like settings. My hope was to provide expert care – not just a therapist who nods along as your tell stories about your week – but a therapist who can enter your internal world and relational dynamics to provide compassion, insight, and change. Our therapists are also very knowledgeable in mental health diagnoses and holistic health. While some practices avoid diagnosing, I have seen time and time again where a diagnosis like OCD can be a big relief — it helps you realize you’re not alone; there is an explanation for the symptoms you’re battling; and there is also a specific evidence-backed treatment that can help.

With a background in business and marketing, I also care a lot about customer service. I want our clients to feel taken care of, and I do this by providing warm, inviting office spaces and top notch service. We will return office calls and emails within 1 business day and schedule you for the same week as you call. While this may be the norm for other health care services, you will hear endless tales of clients calling therapists who never get back to them. When you’re struggling with mental health and you take the leap to ask for help, this can be even more defeating. I believe high quality care starts from the first phone call, email, or text message, and it doesn’t end until symptoms are reduced and quality of life is improved.

Lastly, being a therapist can be an isolating job. You sit in your office and listen to difficult symptoms and stories for most of your day. Because of this, I also have a passion for therapists feeling connected to other therapists and not working alone. In our field, many therapists go work for themselves in order to bring in the most income, but my goal is to employ therapists who are well-compensated for their work, free to make their own schedules, and who have opportunities to move into management roles. And ultimately, I want to protect therapists from the burnout and possible depression that comes from isolation, low pay, and lack of freedom in their work. This is really important to me, as the therapists in our practice are just as important as the clients we see.

Can you give our readers an introduction to your business? Maybe you can share a bit about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
I wanted to start Dynamic Counseling to meet a market need for high quality therapists in comfortable, home-like settings. My hope was to provide expert care – not just a therapist who nods along as your tell stories about your week – but a therapist who can enter your internal world and relational dynamics to provide compassion, insight, and change. Our therapists are also very knowledgeable in mental health diagnoses and holistic health. While some practices avoid diagnosing, I have seen time and time again where a diagnosis like OCD can be a big relief — it helps you realize you’re not alone; there is an explanation for the symptoms you’re battling; and there is also a specific evidence-backed treatment that can help.

With a background in business and marketing, I also care a lot about customer service. I want our clients to feel taken care of, and I do this by providing warm, inviting office spaces and top notch service. We will return office calls and emails within 1 business day and schedule you for the same week as you call. While this may be the norm for other health care services, you will hear endless tales of clients calling therapists who never get back to them. When you’re struggling with mental health and you take the leap to ask for help, this can be even more defeating. I believe high quality care starts from the first phone call, email, or text message, and it doesn’t end until symptoms are reduced and quality of life is improved.

Lastly, being a therapist can be an isolating job. You sit in your office and listen to difficult symptoms and stories for most of your day. Because of this, I also have a passion for therapists feeling connected to other therapists and not working alone. In our field, many therapists go work for themselves in order to bring in the most income, but my goal is to employ therapists who are well-compensated for their work, free to make their own schedules, and who have opportunities to move into management roles. And ultimately, I want to protect therapists from the burnout and possible depression that comes from isolation, low pay, and lack of freedom in their work. This is really important to me, as the therapists in our practice are just as important as the clients we see.

I started by working for other practices and paying attention to what worked and what didn’t work. I worked for a practice once where the owner forgot payroll and never explained how or why we were paid and what we were paid. That was abysmal. I also worked in community mental health where I saw the huge hurdles that individuals in poverty had to face to improve their mental health. A lot of the therapists there were underpaid, burnt out, and had difficulty caring anymore. Because of this, the individuals needing the most care often got the worst care, or they got new, excited but unknowledgeable interns like myself. I wanted to change all of this.

I’ve learned to ask for feedback – what is working and what isn’t working? It can be scary to ask for feedback from employees or from clients, but you have to know that it will only help you and your business improve. You have to be secure enough in your choices and in the awareness that you’re not perfect, you’re human. You’re going to be imperfect and make mistakes. People will be unhappy with you at times, and that’s part of life. Meet it head on instead of avoiding it.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
I love good food. I’d say, let’s go to Garden of the Gods Cafe for brunch and the Rabbit Hole for dinner. These are both near downtown Colorado Springs. I also love some good Mexican food, so Dos Santos downtown or Torchy’s (yes it’s a chain, but a good one!) would be on the list. I just tried Nana’s Dim Sum in north Colorado Springs and it was awesome. It’s like Asian tapas and it can’t be beat (Can you put Asian and tapas together?). I’d probably take them to Garden of the Gods, Palmer Park, and Red Rock Canyon for an easy hike, and maybe into Cheyenne Mountain for a longer hike. If it’s winter, then we definitely head to Beaver Creek, Vail, Breck, or Crested Butte for skiing (Can’t beat that Colorado Kids ski pass…). Work hard, play hard, eat good food, sleep hard. The good life!

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?
My biggest supporter is my husband, Layne, who not unlike Travis Kelce and T-Swift, always supports me in my dreams, makes me feel like I’m the smarter of the two of us (even though he has a PhD from Notre Dame 😉 and switches off childcare 50/50 so we can both pursue our goals.
I’m also thankful to Eric Johnson, who taught me about how to be a compassionate therapist to all, and to myself. I am thankful to my dad, Kirk Wakefield, who got me into the world of business by passing out marketing surveys at Memphis Redbirds games and selling golf balls we pulled out of the swamps at our neighborhood course. I’m thankful to my mom, Robin Wakefield, who mid-business school suggested that I may find more purpose in a different career path. Much of my creativity and confidence to takes risks comes from them and their support.

Website: https://www.dynamiccoloradosprings.com

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/whitney-hancock-77155a27/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/p/Dynamic-Counseling-Colorado-Springs-100092605343263/

Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/dynamic-counseling-colorado-springs