Good Neighbor Podcast: Rochester
Bringing Together Local Businesses and Neighbors of Rochester
Good Neighbor Podcast: Rochester
EP#126 Hope, Heal, Change Counseling with Josh Jostock
What happens when an elementary school teacher transforms into a mental health advocate? Meet Josh from Hope, Heal, Change Counseling, a passionate clinical mental health counselor who brings his unique journey to our podcast. Josh shares how his career took an unexpected turn from classrooms to counseling rooms, leading to the establishment of his own center in Rochester. From play therapy for the young to grief counseling for families, his team offers a wide range of services, all with the mission of destigmatizing mental health issues. Josh's inspiring story emphasizes that mental health matters to everyone, regardless of background.
Join us as Josh unravels some common myths about therapy. He invites listeners to rethink therapy as not a mystical solution, but a supportive space that empowers individuals to mend and nurture their self-relationship. This episode is packed with valuable insights, as Josh emphasizes the healing power of aligning with one's true identity. Discover how improving your relationship with yourself can be the key to unlocking personal growth and self-acceptance. Don't miss out on this enlightening conversation that promises to offer a fresh perspective on mental health and wellness.
This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Lisa Swiftney.
Speaker 2:Hi everyone and welcome to episode number 127 of the Good Neighbor Podcast. Today we have with us Josh, and Josh is with Hope, healing, change Counseling. How are you doing today, josh?
Speaker 3:I'm doing good, Lisa. How are you doing?
Speaker 2:I'm doing good, thank you. Thank you for agreeing to come on and be a guest today.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I've listened to some of the episodes and flattered to be here to give a little message to the community.
Speaker 2:Great, so tell us about your business. What do you do?
Speaker 3:Yeah, so I'm a clinical mental health counselor that's the official title for it, I guess. I have my master's in clinical mental health counseling and I opened Hope Heal Change Counseling back in 2019. Since then it used to be just me, but since then I've expanded and I have a couple of therapists with me now and we provide mental health therapy services to anyone in the public. We see people as young as five-year-olds, all the way up, you know, and we all niche in something a little different. So the most general form is, you know, helping people with, maybe, depression, anxiety. I do a lot of grief counseling. Some of our therapists here do play therapy, addictions counseling and, of course, family and couple counseling is a big thing for people too. So we're kind of a one-stop shop.
Speaker 2:Great and I appreciate you having this ability and having your center in Rochester. It kind of disputes the whole stigmatism on mental health.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I mean mental health, neuroses. It doesn't really discriminate. It doesn't care who you are, what you look like, it's pretty equal for all of us and we're really proud to serve this community and the community has been great to us. So our office is for people listening right by St John's School and Church next door, so we're kind of buried right into a nice neighborhood and some of our clients just walk to our office, which is such a neat thing for me.
Speaker 2:Oh, that's amazing. Tell our listeners about your journey. How did you get into this?
Speaker 3:Yeah, so I'm a career changer. I went to school originally for elementary education and I taught for four. So I'm a career changer. I went to school originally for elementary education and I taught for four school years in a public school and I felt like I was missing something and I went back initially to become a school counselor, thinking, oh, I belong in the office and I'll help kids with their guidance counseling. Once I got into school, I realized I sort of fell in love with the clinical part of therapy and delivering talk therapy and I sort of switched gear and went the clinical route. And you know, here I am now. So, yeah, I started an education. So I've always been in the human services field and just so happy to be doing what I'm doing now.
Speaker 2:Great, what an amazing story. Can you tell us about any myths or misconceptions that you hear about in your industry?
Speaker 3:That's a really good question. I think you know a myth is in our industry is that people are going to come to me and I'm going to heal them and I have got these magic tools and these magic potions and I'm like an alchemist. The truth is is I hopefully provide a space for people so that they can heal themselves. And it's not so much about giving tools we're big believers here at Hope, Heal, Change, Counseling that we're really here to help you improve your relationship with yourself. So many of us are in conflict with ourselves. We hate ourselves and or we're coping for something in our life and then we're. We hate how we're coping. So our job is to really provide a space where you can work on your self-relationship, because when our relationship with ourself is great, that's when the good stuff really tends to happen. That's where the healing happens. So I would say the myth is that I, you're going to come and pay and I'm going to give you the secret to life, and really it's about doing the work.
Speaker 2:Wow, I didn't think about it like that, so that is good. Yeah, so tell us, when you're now working with patients on your business, what do you like to do for fun?
Speaker 3:Well, I'll tell you what. I grew up just North of town and so I was born and raised in the area, moved away for a little bit when I was teaching I was a little bit of a lived up in Flint, but for fun I mean, how lucky are we. We have all these great golf courses around. I'm kind of addicted to the game. I don't get any better, but you know I still like to love to play. I love. Now that my business is in Rochester, I participate a lot in the downtown Rochester events. We just went trick-or-treating in the downtown trick-or-treating event. Big bonfire guy love sitting by a bonfire. We have a little dog, a little pug, named Marvin at home and I've got a three and a half year old, so my life usually consists of chasing him around playgrounds, parking lots, you know places where he's not supposed to be playing. So yeah, that's a little and go Lions. I mean, that's my big thing right now.
Speaker 2:Right, right. That's a great game that we saw yesterday, huh.
Speaker 3:Yeah, wow.
Speaker 2:Can you?
Speaker 3:describe for our listeners one hardship or a life challenge that you rose above and can now say because of that challenge that you're better for it and are stronger? Yeah, that's another fantastic question. I'm going to actually go back to an earlier part of our segment here, when I realized that I didn't want to be a teacher anymore. That was a really hard realization to come to. I had all this schooling, all this investment. I had people telling me that I'm a great teacher.
Speaker 3:Yet for some reason I didn't want to do it anymore and I learned something about courage. And I used to think of courage as like this huge thing where you stand up in front of a group of people and profess your truth. And really I learned that courage is just about making some decisions in the face of fear. And I talked to my dad and I said, dad, I got to make a change. And I took that change as one step at a time and applied to grad school again, thinking I'd be a school counselor. And I just rose above by just putting one foot in front of the other, making one decision at a time, until I got to an end goal. And that's how big things are solved, right, we solve one problem at a time until we get home, so able to rise above just by.
Speaker 3:I didn't see it like this back then, but just having these small doses of courage, and then I think it makes me. I didn't see it like this back then, but just having these small doses of courage, and then I think it makes me. I don't know if it makes me a better person. I think it's made me a more empathic person, because I work with a lot of people that are career changers. I sort of got my start in career counseling and changing career. That can be a head scratching for those around us, but the truth is is we're all trying our best and, to be more specific, when we graduate high school it's like well, what are you going to do, where are you going to work?
Speaker 3:And we're expected to make these huge life decisions at 18 years old or 22 years old, and so I think I just have more empathy now for people that feel a little bit stuck and wanting to make a change, and I'm here to help.
Speaker 2:You hit home on a lot of things there, so that is great. That is really good how you describe that challenge. What's one thing that you wish our listeners knew about your business?
Speaker 3:I think one thing I wish people knew about our business something that's probably hard to see from our clientele perspective, but we see very clearly behind the scenes here we really value quality over volume and we're a private pay practice, meaning most people coming here are paying out of their pocket, and it's a big investment and we take that very seriously. But because we're having people make big investments into their mental health, every staff meeting, everything is geared towards quality, whether it's the quality of our space, but more so the quality of our therapy and we would rather see fewer clients and provide fantastic therapy rather than seeing a huge volume of clients Right providing sort of a cookie cutter therapy. So well, I guess that's the thing I wish people knew is that when you're signing up for therapy with us, we're always thinking about how can we be the best therapy and therapy space for people.
Speaker 2:Wow, that is really good. So now our listeners are intrigued. They know that you have a quality practice. How do they learn more? How do they contact you?
Speaker 3:Yeah. So probably the best way to learn more is to go to our website, which is wwwhopehealchangecom. You can see our team and some pictures of what our facility looks like and also learn more about our philosophy. A therapy practice probably isn't the best place to just drop in, because we all might be in session. You might walk into an empty waiting room, but people are welcome to call. You know, our number is 248-930-9132. And I'm always happy if you know, reaching out for therapy is one of those courageous decisions. It's one of those small steps within a staircase that get us to where we want to go, and I'm always happy to have people come out one time or if I say hey, just stop in and get a feel for the place and see if it's for you. So our website's probably good. I'm on Facebook, I'm active on the Rochester community page and Lake Oregon and Shelby too, and DM me. I try to be as available as I can be.
Speaker 2:That's great. Well, josh, thank you for taking your time with us today and letting us learn a little more about you and your practice, and being a guest here on our Good Neighbor podcast.
Speaker 3:Well, thanks, Lisa. I guess the last thing I'll say if that's okay is, regardless if it's my business or not, if you or someone you know is struggling and they need help, don't hesitate to reach out, and I'm happy to point people to resources or other therapists that are the best fit. But don't wait. You deserve good things in your life and get the help you need.
Speaker 2:Great, that's amazing. Thank you so much.
Speaker 3:Thank you.
Speaker 1:Thanks for listening to the Good Neighbor Podcast, rochester. To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to GNPRochestercom. That's GNPRochestercom, or call 248-988-9640. You are.