Good Neighbor Podcast: TN-WNC-SWVA
Bringing together local businesses and neighbor of the TN-WNC-SWVA region. Good Neighbor Podcast hosted by Skip Mauney helps residents discover and connect with your local business owners in and around The TN-WNC-SWVA.
Is your business serving the residents of TN-WNC-SWVA? Then, we need to talk! Visit gnpTri-Cities.com to schedule your free interview.
Good Neighbor Podcast: TN-WNC-SWVA
EP# 294: Healing Minds, Changing Lives with Stephanie Strouth of Anchoring Hope Counseling
What makes Stephanie Strouth with Anchoring Hope Counseling a good neighbor?
When boredom strikes during a pandemic, most people pick up a hobby. Stephanie Strouth started a mental health revolution in rural Appalachia.
From humble beginnings in a single back-office space to three thriving locations across Southwest Virginia and Northeast Tennessee, Anchoring Hope Counseling represents something far greater than just another therapy practice. It embodies Stephanie's powerful vision to transform the mental health landscape of an underserved region.
During our conversation, Stephanie challenges one of the most persistent barriers to seeking therapy—the belief that one must be in crisis to deserve help. "People feel like they're not struggling enough," she explains, highlighting how this misconception keeps countless individuals from accessing life-changing support. With a team of specialized counselors treating clients as young as two, Anchoring Hope addresses everything from trauma and ADHD to anxiety and depression through various therapeutic approaches including play therapy and EMDR.
What makes this practice truly special is their commitment to holistic healing. Beyond traditional counseling, they've recently added medication management services through their psychiatric nurse practitioner and formed strategic partnerships with local gyms and spas to address the mind-body connection. Their telehealth capabilities, expanding from Virginia into Tennessee, further demonstrate their dedication to removing barriers to mental healthcare.
Perhaps most inspiring is Stephanie's personal journey—how her painful divorce became the catalyst for her career in mental health, ultimately leading to both professional fulfillment and finding her life partner. When she's not revolutionizing rural mental healthcare, you'll find her finding peace among her apple trees, a simple practice that grounds her amidst the important work of helping others heal.
Ready to experience the Anchoring Hope difference? Visit AHCHOPE.com to learn more about their services and join their community of healing and growth.
To learn more about Anchoring Hope Counseling go to:
Anchoring Hope Counseling
(276) 298-5034
This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Skip Monning.
Speaker 2:Hello everyone and welcome to the Good Neighbor Podcast. So we are thrilled today to have a very special guest in our studio for the first time, and I'm sure you'll be just as excited as I am to learn all about this person and what they do, because today I have the pleasure of introducing your good neighbor, ms Stephanie Strouth, who is the owner-operator of Anchoring Hope Counseling. Stephanie, welcome to the show.
Speaker 3:Hey, happy to be here.
Speaker 2:Well, like I said, we're thrilled to have you here and very excited to learn all about what you do. So if you don't mind, why don't you start us off by telling us about your business?
Speaker 3:Sure Anchoring Hope. Counseling is basically here to change the mental health landscape of Southwest Virginia, northeast Tennessee. We have offices in Wise, abingdon and Pennington Gap and we offer premier outpatient mental health counseling and medication management and we're passionate about helping people wake in, reconnect and live.
Speaker 2:Very good. So how did you get into the counseling world, Stephanie?
Speaker 3:Well, I guess I started my business in 2020 because I was bored. You know as many of us were sitting there twiddling our thumbs, but it just kind of turned into what it was. Today I just started renting an office in a back of a building and now we've grown to three locations and we have a great team. So that's where we're at now.
Speaker 2:Very good. So in your I know there's lots of types of counseling in your realm. What are some? Myths or misconceptions in that industry.
Speaker 3:Oh gosh, I mean I think we always go to like there's still that stigma of seeking mental health treatment, but that really goes into that misconception that like people feel like they're not struggling enough to like need to go to therapy or you know there's other people who have it worse than me that would need it before I would so that's probably one that we see a lot of times is it I'm not sick enough to go see, get mental health?
Speaker 2:Wow, which is absolutely not the case.
Speaker 3:Right Well very good.
Speaker 2:Well, you know it's a a a growing business. You've been in business since 2020. Who are your target clients and or customers, and how do you attract them?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I mean we, we use a lot of different methods to attract, but mainly we work with all ages. We have different providers who work with ages two and up and different specializations. So we have people who are with trauma, adhd, bipolar disorder, anxiety, of course, depression. We have a wide range. We have therapists who are certified in play therapy, EMDR, different kind of CBT, different kind of treatment modalities. So we're in a rural area, so we haven't, like, specialized in on a very specific thing, so we're trying to serve a wider population with a lot of different needs. How many?
Speaker 2:counselors have you had.
Speaker 3:That's a tough one. I've just hired six or seven, don't quote me on that.
Speaker 2:That's a lot. Each have a specificity, I would think.
Speaker 3:So seven and seven, and then we have our nurse practitioner. So we have a psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner who can prescribe medications.
Speaker 2:Oh, very good, Very good. So basically you can get everything you need right there.
Speaker 3:Yep. And we're expanding and that's one thing we really focus on is like a holistic approach to healing and know that it can take multiple disciplines. So we also have partnerships with other local companies, like other small businesses like gyms, spas, that kind of thing, to really take a holistic approach.
Speaker 2:Oh, very cool, very cool. Well, if you have it sounds like you're really busy all the time, uh, with that many practitioners in your, in your practice, um if there is time outside of work, what do you like to do for fun?
Speaker 3:uh, right now, the thing that I am doing a lot of is we we have, uh, fruit trees in our in our yard, so it's always like the a fun daily thing for me to go just see what apples have fallen or to pick apples. It's so simple, but I I love it and I love nature and it's just the grounding aspect of that and just being able to like connect to some earth in that kind of way is really calming and a great way to start and end my day.
Speaker 2:Plus you got apples.
Speaker 3:Plus I got apples, yeah, you got apples man.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I love apples. I grew up in Western North Carolina. We used to go to up toward Asheville to go once a year in the fall to get apples and I loved picking apples but didn't like the bees A lot of times there's a lot of bees, but you got to have them right.
Speaker 3:Comes with the territory.
Speaker 2:That's right. That's right. Well, let's switch gears for just a second. Stephanie, if you could describe a hardship or a life challenge that you've overcome that made you stronger in the end.
Speaker 3:Does anything come to mind? Yeah, and I won't go into too much detail, but I would say as if I'm taking my whole life as a span and like the toughest thing I've ever gone through would be my divorce, and that was a huge shift in my life. But it was one of those that you're in the middle of it. It seems like it's the worst thing in the world and you're never going to come out of it. But what came out of that was that that is actually what started me on the trajectory to get into the mental health field, so that led me to be a therapist and also it led me to my now husband. We're actually celebrating nine years together today.
Speaker 2:Well, congratulations today. Wow, very cool, very cool. Well, been there, done that as well and couldn't agree more. You end up much better off done that as well, and couldn't agree more. You end up much better off. So, stephanie, if you could think of one thing that you would like our listeners and viewers to know about Anchoring Hope Counseling, what would that be?
Speaker 3:I think right now the thing is where we just added medication management in May. It's still a pretty new thing, so we are we're able to do that now. It's like anchoring hope counseling and you don't automatically assume there's medication management. So we're doing that and we're actually in the process of being able to provide that via telehealth across all of Tennessee as well. So we can do telehealth across Virginia now and we're going to be adding Tennessee.
Speaker 2:So Very cool, very good, very good thing to remember, because that's not always the case for sure. Well, for those of us who are interested, going through a divorce, going through some sort of traumatic situation, or just, you know, in need of mental health, how can we learn more?
Speaker 3:Yeah, our website is probably the easiest. It's A-H-C-H-O-P-Ecom, so A-H-C-H-O-P-Ecom, or if you can't remember that, you just go to Google, type in Anchoring Hope, counseling, wise Virginia, you'll find us. Gotcha In Wise Virginia and from there you can get to our Facebook, our Instagram, you can subscribe to our blog, basically stay in contact with us, all those ways.
Speaker 2:Very good, you ever done a podcast before.
Speaker 3:I have, you have I can tell.
Speaker 2:Have you ever done a podcast before I have? You have, I could tell you're good. Have you ever thought about having your own podcast?
Speaker 3:um, I considered it, but I haven't committed to that well, there you go.
Speaker 2:Well, we can talk later so okay well, stephanie, I can't tell you how much I appreciate you taking time out of your busy schedule and, uh, spending some time with our listeners and viewers and telling us all about anchoring hope, counseling and what you guys can do, including, you know, medical, pharmaceutical help that you can get right there. So we appreciate that very much, appreciate what you do for the community and moving forward. We wish you and your family and your fruit trees all the best. All the best.
Speaker 3:I appreciate it. Thanks, skip.
Speaker 2:All right, thank you, and maybe we can. Maybe we can have you back on the show sometime.
Speaker 3:Happy to anytime.
Speaker 2:All right, all right. Thank you so much.
Speaker 3:Thanks, bye, bye everyone.
Speaker 1:Thank you for listening to the Good Neighbor Podcast. To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to gnptry-citiescom. That's gnptry-citiescom, or call 423-719-5873. 873.