The Alimond Show
Welcome to The Alimond Show --join us as we share our entrepreneurial guests' stories, uncover their secrets to success, and explore the unique paths they've taken to build thriving businesses in our community.
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Molly Julien - Building a Practice with Purpose: One Therapist's Path to Balanced Care
What does it really take to build a thriving therapy practice that serves clients authentically while maintaining personal balance? Molly N. Julien, LPC, opens up about her journey from psychology student to successful private practitioner, revealing the unexpected path that led her to founding her own mental health practice.
Molly's story begins with her natural tendencies as a middle child—the family mediator and caretaker—which subtly guided her toward psychology courses in high school and college. After working as a case manager for adults with disabilities, she pursued her master's degree and made the bold choice to open her own practice rather than joining an established group. Starting by subletting weekend office space and gradually building her client base, she's created a practice that now serves approximately 30 clients ranging from college students to 70-year-olds.
At the heart of Molly's therapeutic approach is genuine connection. "The most important part of being a good therapist is the relationship," she explains, describing how she helps clients recognize patterns and maladaptive beliefs that once served them in childhood but may now be holding them back. Rather than adhering to a single methodology, she integrates various approaches—cognitive behavioral, person-centered, family systems—tailoring her work to each client's unique needs. This flexibility extends to her practice management, where she offers comprehensive insurance billing services and highly adaptable scheduling options.
Perhaps most revealing is Molly's reflection on what makes therapy transformative: "I am just like every other human being—messy and not perfect. The reason it works is not because I'm an expert on them at all. It's because I am fully present with their story and nothing else." This commitment to presence, combined with deep self-awareness and practical wisdom about navigating mental healthcare systems, offers listeners valuable insights whether they're considering therapy, building their own practice, or simply seeking to understand the human experience more deeply.
My name is Molly Julian. My business name is mollyandjulianlpc. I service. My clientele is adults ranging from 18 to my oldest 70. I don't. When I started my practice I don't specifically gear towards females, but that's kind of what it's evolved to over the years, just due to my own interest areas. But I still have males that I see as well.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so you've got a diverse clientele from 18 to 70. That is awesome. I would like to ask you what first drew you to the world of therapy and mental health.
Speaker 1:Well, I was thinking about this because I didn't really have this direct path going into college, as a lot of us don't necessarily. But I did take a psychology course in high school and I was very interested and looking back I can see why I was meant to be what I'm doing. I'm middle child, always kind of the mediator of the family, helper, love to take care of others. So then I went to Michigan State University, majored in just a general science degree, took a few psychology courses and really enjoyed the classes and changed my major to psychology. When I did graduate I wasn't sure what exact path I wanted to go down. So I did work as a case manager working with adults with varying disabilities for about four years before I pursued my master's degree.
Speaker 2:Okay, very nice. And then was there a moment early on when you realized this work was more than just a career for you.
Speaker 1:Yes, more than just a career, what I have built in the last since 2014,. I always wanted to work in private practice but I never thought that I would open up my own shop from the get-go and again from the get-go is post-master's and 4,000 hours that I had to complete for Virginia licensure Gotcha. So I worked for community mental health for those years. So I had a lot of experience, sat for the board, the state exam, passed that and really tried to figure out what I wanted to do. I just knew I didn't want my license just to sit. But I was also a mom of very young children. At that time. I had a two-year-old when I started and an eight-month-old, and now I have three girls. My youngest is seven Congratulations.
Speaker 2:That's awesome.
Speaker 1:So I've kind of grown over the years but I would say the last couple years I've really it's really become a full-time job. But I would say the last couple of years I've really it's really become a full-time job.
Speaker 2:But it doesn't feel like work. I love it. Good, awesome, and I guess hearing about your history and working and helping like community services in that way what made you decide to, instead of just joining another practice, to start your own.
Speaker 1:Good question. So I sat down with one of my mentors through Fairfax County, mickey Bakhtar, and he really laid it out for me because he had his own private practice and also worked as a clinician for Fairfax County and also worked as a clinician for Fairfax County and it came down to how much money that I would be making based on the percentage that you give to the practice and how much work is it really to identify your own clients, start a practice? It's really just finding a location, making sure that you have liability insurance and, um, I also became credentialed with several, several insurance plans. So that's a process. But that has been my revenue over the years is I do take insurance, I bill in-network and out-of-network, so that's kind of the.
Speaker 1:Really, the only major difference was finding a location and I called around and I was able to sublet from a local spa, a local therapy group. I worked weekends in the beginning when they weren't using their office space. Slowly building, paying hourly for the office space had more time that they could give it to me during the weekdays, and when I started realizing that hourly rate was starting to look more like what I could pay for a monthly lease is when I decided to lease a full-time office about five years ago.
Speaker 2:Okay nice, Very cool. And is it just you and your office or do you have a small team, or do you hope to have a small team?
Speaker 1:It's just me, but I would say I work and have office mates that we value the same overall health and overall wellness. I work with a functional doctor in the office Rachel Bonner, she's in there, yes, we love her. Yes, and I wouldn't say I work with her, but I have referred clients to her. She refers clients to me, so um, and then um, and another provider who provides acupuncture for infertility, wow, so yeah, okay, just around and it's just the three of us in the little space and these girl power, yeah.
Speaker 2:Love it All right. And then um, how do you help people reconnect with themselves when they feel completely disconnected?
Speaker 1:Reconnect with themselves. So, first and foremost for me, therapy I've been doing it a long time, um, over 20 years and the most important part of being a good therapist is the relationship. That is, I think, what helps me grow my business. I have clients that have returned over the years. I have some clients I've had for 10 years, not consistently, but it's the relationship. So to build that relationship it is me truly listening to their full experience and the reason I can see them kind of from that helicopter view is it's objective.
Speaker 1:Really, you know, I don't have any emotion or any skin in the game of how it makes me feel, of how it makes me feel and it's very clear and I'm able to help them connect the dots of maybe how they're feeling now is more a belief system that they've carried with them their whole life.
Speaker 1:That necessarily doesn't serve them well now, but it helped them when they were young and they didn't have much control over their life or their surroundings. So we tend to, in times of stress, fall back into reacting and believing those maladaptive beliefs. Really, understanding them fully is where we it becomes very easy to identify how to help them, whether it's navigating their. You know I work with a lot of women, their overall like health, whether it's infertility struggles, perimenopause, menopause, whether there's an underlying thyroid condition. I like to look at all of the things that could be affecting and if it's really no, it's really due to this time of life, this stressful situation, then we can really hone in on that. But it's hard to hone in on something right from the get-go if we don't look at all the whole person.
Speaker 2:Yes, from a, from a wide perspective. Yeah, and then I saw online you have some therapeutic approaches that you use. We have holistic, person-centered I'm not going to name all of them, but some of them uh, family systems, um, acceptance and commitment therapy, uh, emotionally focused and mindfulness based. Can you talk to me about some of those and how you use and how you're using them to help people? And I'm sure there's not one size fits all, because everybody has different backgrounds, everyone has different stories and methods that may work best for them. So talk to me a little bit about these approaches.
Speaker 1:Yes, so in school it was very much. These are the different theories and modalities and therapists of 20 years ago or so it was. You align with that and that's how you practice, whether it's your cognitive, behavioral, your psychodynamic, your motivational interviewing. That is what the person comes to you for. But as all healthcare has evolved in a lot of ways, there's no one size fits all approach that the therapist doesn't just go right in and problem solve and figure out solutions and have the therapy be brief, like only a certain amount of sessions. When the relationship is built, then it's easier to. I would say I lean more into a lot of times the cognitive, behavioral. So the core beliefs but that can overlap with a lot of different theories that are even shadow work are values that we identify with when we were younger but they might be different now and a lot of times when we're feeling like we're not just life isn't going right, a lot of times we're not in line with our values.
Speaker 2:We're clouded?
Speaker 1:Yes, and it's okay. Are we on this path because of an opinion, a judgment? High stress, load your stress resilience, load your stress resilience. So that's kind of the grounding work. Okay, let's re-look at the values and then and boundaries come in there too. So, when it comes, it's really just utilizing what serves that person the best.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. Now I want to talk about something else, and it's marketing. I want to ask what you're doing with marketing. Are you an avid social media user? Are you going to networking events? How are you getting the word out there about your business?
Speaker 1:So, I have never had to market.
Speaker 1:That's nice and I will explain why. And I don't. I'm coming here today because I want to stay current, but I also want to share at the end. Navigating, finding helping professionals can be frustrating when you can't find somebody or they don't take your insurance, so I'll talk about that later. To be more helpful, because I do get an influx of clients, because I am in network with several insurance plans and because I have the software and the billing knowledge. I also do the billing for out of network, whereas some out of network providers will give them what's called a super bill. But what I found is, when I did that, what's called a super bill, but what I found is when I did that, they weren't getting reimbursed much.
Speaker 1:But when I did, I was getting the full reimbursement and I'm not. It's just. I don't think the coding was any different, it's just submitted from the individual, the provider. I don't have to go through as many hoops, hurdle whatever it is. So again, they appreciate that and that is really nice, actually Super nice. Yeah, and the reason a lot of providers are out of network is credentialing takes a long time and insurance will pay out of network closer to the person's private rate, the clinician's private rate. So they're getting the payout that's worth their value, but out of network, that's all it is.
Speaker 2:It's still covered, it's just build a different way and you're able to help them with that, and I'm sure you understand that, since you do it, as opposed to someone who has never done it before does it. Once in a blue moon, it's just like, okay, I got $60 back, cool, or whatever it is Okay.
Speaker 1:Yes, yes, I just had a situation with it. I don't know it worked for my. My middle daughter has scoliosis and the brace came back not covered and I think they didn't realize they were dealing with a mom that knows a lot about billing codes. So we got it sent back and they covered the whole 10 grand of the scoliosis.
Speaker 1:So, I think it's just knowing billing and doing it for a long time. So, with that, when I opened my practice in 2014, I created a profile on psychology today so individuals would find me there or under their insurance plan, and I did have a Google business to find me. I did just publish a website, I'd say about five months ago Need some tweaking, but I have found that clients have found me through that recently, but I will typically get four to found me through that recently. Yeah, but I will typically get four to five calls for new clients a week. That's great. Yeah, it's great, but I can't. I can't for my own life balance and being there for my family. I really have to check in with myself about what I can handle and also providing good service.
Speaker 2:Yes, as well, yeah, absolutely. Talk about that a little bit more and how you're finding your balance and why that's important to you. Maybe for other business owners who may be listening and they find that it's a challenge for them to do them. They're just like I'll just keep taking it, it's fine, next week I'll relax and then it's just the same cycle over and over again.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Well, it kind of stems from and I'll remind myself of this when I worked for community mental health valuable experience. I mean I worked with such a vast what is called the serious mental ill population, but it is very challenging, but the knowledge I gained and the skills that I obtained from working with this population helped me when I opened my practice. I'm not you can't bring anything my way that I'm not afraid of.
Speaker 2:Wow For the most part.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, yeah. So very valuable and, honestly, I loved working with that population in a lot of ways. But when you're working under the government sector, your quality of service is minimal at that. Your caseloads are very high, the paperwork is Beyond what you think, so it's really just a revolving door of clients. So I knew that my value in the end would be to control it the way I wanted to and give you know. Even if an individual were meeting for two hours, I'll meet if I have that time carved out. There is no end point.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:If the situation is something that, if we stopped it right now, that could be we could, I could. We could do so much more progress and therapy if we continued on. Yeah, so being able to do it the way I want to and have control over it, I don't expect.
Speaker 2:I feel like you're kind of taking back your power right For this degree and career that you want and you get to do it the way you want and have the impact that you want, as opposed to what you just said of it being a revolving door, which I get.
Speaker 2:It would be very hard to not have it be a revolving door when it comes to like doing it through government community services because there's just so much, unfortunately, but the fact that you were able to take that knowledge, help all those people and see firsthand and see like, okay, this is what I want to not do and this is what I actually want to have an impact on with people and the type of services and care that they get when they come through my door, so I think that is awesome.
Speaker 1:That is so great and it's invaluable. Probably all the cases that you took and the people you were able to see.
Speaker 2:So kudos to you. Yeah, absolutely. And then let's see what does true self-awareness look like or feel like to you, beyond just intellectual understanding?
Speaker 1:Well, self-awareness is something as a therapist. Well, self-awareness is something as a therapist. It is very important part of doing your job. If I'm not self-aware, then I could be more subjective in a therapy session due to a client reminding me of some past situation in my life. So if I'm not constantly self-aware of how I am feeling during therapy sessions and if it elicits anything for me personally and it has at points in my life that I know acknowledge and then I can kind of work through and identify if I think that that client will benefit from continuing to work with me or if not. But it's usually something very small that I kind of identify on my own. But I would say my friends have always said I'm pretty self-aware in terms of just I'm so interested in the human body and the mind. So there's it's kind of um inherit in me.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, I get it. I'm a very self-aware person too, and sometimes to my own, to my sometimes I'm just why do I? Why do people get to not notice and I have to notice all these things? Right, it's just like it's exhausting sometimes, but sometimes I'm like I guess I'm grateful for it. It's like a blessing and a curse, right? Yes?
Speaker 1:Well, I say the highly sensitive which I am I can be Is if we use the powers for good, it's a wonderful, wonderful thing to notice and feel everything. That's what makes some of the best providers. It's just figuring out how to handle our emotional responses and working through those sorts of areas of our life that maybe affected us early on, that we're sensitive to.
Speaker 2:For our own therapy. Yes, that's right. So, true, and is there anything that I have not touched on that perhaps you want to share? I know you talked about a little bit about insurance and like self-submitting and how you bill everything. I don't know if you want to go back to that or if there was anything else that I have not touched on about your business or yourself personally. I would like to give you this opportunity to talk about that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I can touch on a little bit more on the again the out of network navigating finding therapists. I know there's a lot of therapists are a one-man practice, so I have found for me if someone reaches out to me via email through my website, I do all my scheduling that way, versus back and forth phone calls. So I'll usually even put that on my voicemail and I do all the scheduling. I'll send them my client portal invitation and then they can even schedule their first appointment with me through my scheduling. Nice, I also allow it very flexible. Clients come and see me weekly, every two weeks. This is not someone you see every six months. So changing appointment times we have to be flexible, given that they're coming to see me so often. So I have it in my online scheduling that you could change up to six hours prior.
Speaker 2:Wow, that's pretty darn good, because I know people have things come up, they have kids, they have other appointments, so I think this is great. Yeah, and I good because I know people have things come up, they have kids, they have other appointments, so I think this is great yeah.
Speaker 1:And I also say I'm flexible. But I will also say I hope you can be flexible with me too, because I do have three kids and not that I'm leaving all the time. I have an arrangement with my husband of how he helps and we tag team, but there's times that I also have to reset Exactly.
Speaker 2:We're all humans. Yes, yes, we'll just find ways to make it work. I love that and, really quickly, before I get to my last question maybe somebody's listening and they're just like I love her, like this is awesome. I would like to schedule a session, or I think I know somebody who may need it. Tell us what type of issues or mental health issues I would say that you help with, whether it's like PTSD, domestic abuse, mental illness.
Speaker 1:Yes, almost the full scope. To be honest, it's most individuals that I see I have about 30 clients right now range from. A lot of it is life adjustment, but there's anxiety in there and maybe now I realize I've always had a level of anxiety. It's just kind of ebbed and flowed over my life Grief, loss I've had several that I've lost loved ones, aging parents, managing kids with having diagnoses that they're navigating infertility.
Speaker 1:Obviously, I mentioned the perimenopause and menopause. It's not just that but it's identifying all of the additional anxiety that comes out during that time. And really, yes, I'm a therapist to help work through. But there might be again an underlying hormone issue that could also, if worked on, could help relieve the anxiety. Yes, absolutely, and interpersonal issues as well. So someone that's having problems with a relationship issues as well. So someone that's having problems with a relationship spouse, friend and I also welcome during our individual therapy for them to bring that individual in and as well as those going through divorce, love it. So the full scope, yeah, you've got a whole spectrum of everything that's awesome, that's very cool, and college too.
Speaker 1:I have a lot of college kids.
Speaker 2:Okay, yes, so now any last parting words that you would like to leave our listeners with, or a message, or anything at all.
Speaker 1:What I always tell my clients when they meet me for the first time is I just say if you see me out in the community, I am just like every other human being messy and not perfect and just imperfectly perfect. And the reason it works is not because I'm an expert on them at all. It's because I am in this room, fully, fully present with their story and nothing else. And for them to know that when they come in the room, that they have all of me in that regard, yes, wonderful.
Speaker 2:Well, thank you so much for coming on the podcast today and taking time out of your day to come and talk with us. Tell us a little bit about your journey, the services that you provide and how you've been able to help people. I really appreciate it. Thank you so much for inviting me. You're so welcome.