From Couch to Career: Morgan Fancy on Therapy, Parenting & Building a Practice with Purpose

In this episode of Clarity, Confidence & Growth, host Brandon Sanderson sits down with Morgan Fancy — a registered psychotherapist with the College of Registered Psychotherapists of Ontario and founder of Fancy Therapy.

Morgan shares her personal journey into mental health, what led her to pursue therapy as a career, and how she built her practice into a thriving business — all while navigating parenthood.

In this conversation, Brandon and Morgan discuss:

• How Morgan found her path into therapy and what that journey really looked like

• The clarity (and messiness) that comes with doing the inner work

• Building and growing a therapy practice while raising a family

• Imposter syndrome in the therapy profession and how to work through it

• Why the toughest conversations are often the most transformative

Whether you're considering therapy, building your own practice, or just trying to find more confidence in who you are — this episode is packed with honest, grounding, and genuinely inspiring conversation.

Connect with Morgan: Fancy Therapy | CRPO- fancytherapy.ca
Instagram- www.instagram.com/fancy.therapy/

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Transcript

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Welcome back to episode two of the Clarity Confidence and Growth Podcast. I'm your host, Brandon Sanderson, and today's episode is a genuinely special one for me. My guest today is someone who's been there for all through my entire adult journey so far. I've known her since 2015, one of my closest friends, someone I had the absolute honor of standing beside on her wedding day, and honestly, one of the most driven, compassionate humans I know. She opened her therapy, practice, fancy therapy in 2021, fully remote, and has grown it into a physical location, all while raising two incredible kids and mentoring the next generation of therapists coming up behind her. She's a mom, a wife, a certified psychotherapist, a business owner, and someone who walks the walk when it comes to growth, not just for her clients, but in her own life too. Morgan, welcome to the show. So incredibly grateful to have you here. Thank you so much. I'm happy to be here. Tell us a bit about yourself. What does a typical week look like for you? I'm a registered psychotherapist with the College of Registered Psychotherapists of Ontario. I got my license about five years ago, which is like wild to think that it's been that long now. And I started fancy therapy right around that same time. Um, a typical, you know, week for me right now. I'm on a little bit of a mat leave, so I'm juggling running the business. I might have a couple clients, but nothing near what my typical case load looks like. And then being a mom, so I hang out with my kids, one or both of them, on any given day. And then do lots of like the emails and marketing and all that stuff that's running in the background. All the uh fun admin stuff that we love to do. What made you realize therapy was your path? I know starting out therapy wasn't a hundred percent your path. And what uh what did that kind of shift look like? Yeah, yeah. So when I was in high school, I took an intro to social sciences type course. So it covered anthropology, sociology, and psychology. And I took that course and was like, yep, this I could study this forever. I could learn, I want to learn everything about these subjects and specifically sociology and psychology. Anthropology is also really interesting, the study of culture, but more so on the the kind of different uh lenses of psychology and sociology were super interesting to me. So I continued in high school taking like sociology courses and more of the social sciences. So I took law, I took, yeah, like sociology, psychology, anything I could get my hands on at that point. And then when I was applying to university, I initially thought I was gonna go into social work. And I started at the Laurier Brantford campus, which is how we met and in the social work program. And then I quickly realized when taking uh like psychology courses as electives that it was more so my path to go toward psychology than than social work. And then yeah, I continued I continued learning about sociology and psychology. I ended up with a Bachelor of Arts with a major in psychology and a minor in sociology, and then went on to take my master's right after that in counseling psychology specifically. I wanted to work kind of one-on-one with clients. Yeah, and that's awesome. And I think that just shows how, you know, your clarity was always around servicing of others. Social service is very much around community and then into that uh psychology realm to really add that uh kind of community and social aspect. And I think in any of those roles, we're constantly learning, we're constantly growing. You can't put that uh growth hat away. So, what does clarity look like for you in that sense with your clients and just with all of the work that you do? Yeah, I think for sure, like what you said, the the clarity came pretty early that like, hey, I want to help people, and then kind of refined over time as to like what that would really look like. I remember sitting um in a clinical psychology class at Laurier and thinking, oh yeah, okay, like might take an abnormal psychology, which focuses more on like mental illness, which I found very fascinating. But clinical psychology I found like could be more just like your average person who's struggling. And I really, really resonated with that who might not necessarily have, you know, like a personality disorder or schizophrenia or you know, some major psychotic disorder, but just like anxiety, depression, ADHD, stress, um, and how that impacts someone's life. I really resonated with that. And with my clients, I work with a lot of parents specifically right now in this kind of era of my life who are struggling to like regulate their own nervous system while parenting. And so clarity for them comes from not feeling alone. Um, parenting can be really, really isolating. Um, I constantly hear online and you know, with my clients that you don't have the village, like it takes a village to raise a child, right? It's the old this old saying, but the village doesn't exist anymore. We're all so isolated in our own little bubbles. And so for them, feeling like what they're going through, they're not alone. They don't have their, you know, mom living next door typically and their grandmother down the block to like kind of take in their wisdom every day in the ins and outs and even just their helping hands to be like around and helping with kids. And so realizing that like we weren't meant to do this alone. It was meant to be a community and it was meant to, you were meant to have a village in mothering, and we don't. And so that's stressful, and that is actually resulting in a lot higher rates of perinatal mental health challenges, challenges in parenting, and challenges in kids. Yeah, I think you can really see that since the pandemic as well, and since the isolation kind of happened. And I think of it also this way you have parents that don't have those villages, they're moving away to get that career, they're moving away from all of their family, and it is very isolating. It's very alone. And when you're having that isolation, and say you're also maybe building a business, you're doing that on your own as well, that's a lot of isolating alone time to really uh get caught up in those nervous system feelings and not being able to regulate that nervous system. And I think uh what an alignment that has as well is that you're a parent going through those struggles and working with other parents, and that brings a lot of that growth. And I think it's back to what coaching and therapy kind of is all about is like you're teaching your clients, but you're also learning with your clients. And that's a big reason of why I chose this kind of journey as well, is I wanted to be able to build and grow with my clients and know that yeah, I might have those struggles too, but it gets better. So, from that lens, building a business from scratch takes seriously belief in yourself and you're doing it as a mom, as a wife. What did that inner journey look like for you when you were starting and what does it look like as you continue on now? Yeah. So when I first was starting my business, I was still in my master's program, and there were many nights that I was up working all hours of the night. There's specifically a video that my husband has that it's like, he's like, You've been working since 10 a.m. or 9 a.m. and you haven't left this spot. It's now 10 p.m. You know, like the long hours, the long days doing I was working full time, starting a business. I was in school also full time. At the end there, I actually did like double the workload in school to finish faster, basically. And so those early days of launching a business, I thought I was just going in it for myself. I thought that I would just have like my own little private practice. Um, I would just, you know, see my 20 clients a week and be done. I definitely thought I was going to work with at that phase of my life, like young adults uh who are stressed in university because that's who I related to the most at that time. I thought I would work with, you know, like relationships, stress, life transitions type stuff. And in a way, I do, uh, but I work more in like the the perinatal space. So all those things are still true, but a little bit of a different population. And uh so I thought I was launching just this like little small thing that would just be for me. And what ended up happening after I started is I had my, you know, I think it was about 10 clients per week when I quit my full-time job. I was able to do that within a very short amount of time. It was about a month before I gave my notice to my boss. You were very quick at quitting when that came up. You were not long into the practice, I remember, when you fully quit. And just to give some context as well, Morgan was working full-time trying to finish her school and working on full-time at that point while starting the business, and they were trying to have a baby and start their life. So it was a lot going on, and that's the reason why the rush was there, anyways. Yeah, yeah. So yeah, I was in, I got my license in June of 2021 and launched fancy therapy a few weeks later, and then a very short amount of time, I think it was four weeks after that. I had given my two weeks' notice to my employer. Um, because honestly, it was a lot. It was a lot to work full-time. I was seeing these clients because I did want to like build that on the side. I was also in school. Um, and like you were saying, yeah, we were trying to have our our first baby at that time too. So uh yeah, quit my full-time job and was able to focus solely on fancy therapy. And what happens shortly after that, working on my own, is I had other therapists, uh, folks that I knew, quaint acquaintances in my network and random strangers approach me and ask if I would hire them. Basically, they resonated with our values, my values, um, because the business is an extension of myself. And they saw what I was doing, they liked, you know, our vibe, and they wanted to be a part of it. And so I built this thing that really was supposed to just be for me. And it resonated so deeply with other people that it grew into this clinic now that we have in any given semester, depending on how many students I take, anywhere from, you know, 30, we've been as big as almost 40 clinicians. So it really happened organically and from, you know, the vibes you send out into the universe of folks wanting to work with me. And then I started taking on, as I mentioned, student therapists. It's always been a really big passion of mine to kind of, you know, as you're moving forward and you're, you know, moving toward what's meant for you to kind of turn back and lend a helping hand um back towards the folks who are coming after you. And so my practice of experience was interesting to say the least. There was a very small amount of support at the site that I worked at. And I had to figure out a lot of things on my own. And so I built this student program that basically gives students everything that they need in one spot. They don't have to go like creating their own forms and figuring out how to take notes and all the little things. They don't just sign up for their own Jane app if you're familiar with Jane. And so I built something that I would have loved to have at that point in my career. And now I've helped over a hundred therapists, student therapists graduate their master's program. That's amazing. Over a hundred students. That's awesome. I think you hit the nail on the head of how important community is and how important it is to give back to those students who are coming up that same journey that you went through and realizing kind of the gaps in the community or in the network that you're going through. I know that's something similar to what I seen in coaching. Now that I finished is I finished this program, we are unsupervised hours done, and then it's like, okay, go out and start the business. And some folks don't have any business experience. They've never started a business, they've worked all for companies that they don't want to go out and start filling up these forms, make a website, do all these things. And I think that's a big piece of what's missing in a lot of these universities, courses, anything you kind of do is it's just kind of okay, go out there and do it. But not everyone wants to do that. So I really do appreciate that space that you have that's so collaborative and helps folks who don't want to do the whole business side and get all that administrative stuff done and make it easier and simple for them. It's honestly some vision I have for coaching in the long, long future is to help uh my long-term goal is to help uh other coaches get clients and work with their niches and build kind of almost a community so that I can support those folks that don't want to start that whole business and take on that whole journey. Um is a lot. And I think you resonated so much with any business owners who are listening that those long days of like, oh my God, it's 11 o'clock, I've been sitting here at the computer all day. Whoa, I need to get up and eat. It's something I know I resonate with a lot and have been seeing a lot happen lately. And it does take a lot of strength. And you need to have that ability and belief in what you're uh what you're building and what you're becoming. And I do honestly believe it is not just a business. The business is an extension of you and who you are. And any person who creates that brand is recognized. And I think I love whenever I see posts from you. I know it's your post, like just from your branding and your imaging. And actually, I got a sweet message today from a girl in our coaching community who said the same thing. She's like, I know when I see a post from you because it's all aligned. And it's like when you have that brand vision and that brand vision comes to life, but the way you want it, people see that and it starts to grow. So, with that being said, where do you see confident struggles most in either your clients or other business owners who are starting out? Yeah, I'd say imposter syndrome is super, super common in the therapy world. Every therapist goes through it at every stage in their career. Um, you can have certain clients you feel really confident with and others that you might feel more of that imposter syndrome. And that's totally normal. And it happens. And you could be, you know, even five years in as I am now, and still have that, you know, kind of feeling that uh you don't belong. And it's it's okay. You can overcome that. It's really helpful to like talk to people about it and know that it's like totally normal. And it's one of those things that it's kind of comes with the territory. I have worked with, had the pleasure of working with many longtime supervisors who still have said, you know, 20 years in, you can still have this like situation that throws you for a loop and you feel a little bit like a fish out of water. And so it's really about having those like core skills that you can come back to and ground yourself in and feel like you can help that client in that moment, even if however you're feeling is still in the room there. And then figuring out how to move forward. And that's about having support. That's about having a support system when you feel a little lost of of where to go. And so supervision is really important and helpful for those things and ongoing throughout your career. Even in my field, you have to do a thousand supervised hours, but even after that, seeking supervision as needed for those cases, for when you're going through a bit of a funk and are feeling that imposter syndrome more than usual. And uh yeah, having the confidence to even own up to that, even you know, admit to that to someone takes a lot of courage. And so, yeah, definitely confidence is a huge, huge factor in just therapeutic work in general and being someone that people turn to because it can feel like they're they're trusting you so much. And oh my gosh, I'm just a person. You know, I'm just I'm literally just a girl. Yeah, I'm just a boy. What is this going on? I felt that so much and the imposter syndrome and the like supervision. I feel supervision is something you don't end. Like you've got to keep that supervision around. And especially as a solo business owner, no matter what you're doing, I think supervision has helped me so much. And in the coaching world, it's not rec, it's not recognized or something you need to do as a requirement. And I will literally tell first-time coaches who now message me, I'm like, you need to do supervision because supervision is your next step. Now, to get accredited, you do need supervision hours. Like, yeah, I get it, but you do those hours and that's all you need. And I'm like, no, you need the supervision, you need that support. And I literally uh was talking about like clarity and how I needed more clarity in one of my sessions. And actually with my therapist, when I met uh with my new therapist, I just switched therapists through uh fancy therapy and through the student program. And with uh that, I said when they were like, What do you really need from a therapist? And I'm like, you know, I'm like, I don't need a ton from a therapist. I think it's my clarity and my imposter syndrome, like to keep that down and at bay. Because I just finally had this breakthrough of really talking to a coach about the struggles of first-time coaching and opened up and we had a very good conversation. I uh didn't know like where to turn and I finally was just open with her on what was going on and it pushed me into this whole momentum of just post the post, do the thing that you might not want to do. Because in the end of the day, doing that soulpreneur and starting that business is a journey of doing the things that you don't want to do and doing you're you're that one person, you have to do it. So I think that was great. And then supervision is also great for that. I had a client who I was coaching in tech support and helping him build his website, and then he started really getting busy with his current business that is busy during the summer, and he was like, I need to stop this right now. I can't focus on the business side of things, but I still want to meet with you. And it was about relationships and things, and that imposter syndrome of I don't know what I'm talking about, I can't do this was like a vague thing, but we meet every week and we always get something out of it. So it really is about being you in front of that client and just working through those, how am I qualified to handle this? But you have those skills, you have that background, you just need to put those skills to work. So going into the that, what has growing fancy therapy taught you about your own growth and your own development? Yeah, I think that'll big part of being a business owner and how that shows up personally is being able to have tough conversations. Specifically as a business owner, that was really hard for me. I was kind of conflict averse, especially when I was first starting the business. But working with people every day, you have to have tough conversations and sometimes they're uncomfortable. It's not my favorite thing to do. It's still not my favorite thing. But being able to have those conversations and kind of share how you're feeling is really valuable and just like one of our my values is transparency and authenticity. So to really show up as yourself and to be transparent with the people that you're working with is something that I've always valued. And so I have to kind of walk the walk, right? And so it's something that I still strive to do. And then like on a clinical level, I learn from my clients all the time. Clients bring things that, yeah, might not be something that I've faced before, but you still have the tools to to help people. And the human connection is really like your biggest tool. And so by showing up for my clients, I I learn all the time, all the time. And then I would say I do a lot of like training and research that helps me with parenting as well. So I have learned so, so much about attachment theory and like relationships and how relationships form and how the brain works. And I utilize a lot of that information on the daily with my kids. It really like is a framework for how I raise I'm raising my kids. And all of those things I wouldn't have had prior to being a therapist. I mean, hopefully I would have like gone out and done the reading, but being a therapist has really kind of forced me to do the research and in order to be there for my clients, and then it is helpful in in my day-to-day. Yeah, it's I think that's the one nice thing about any type of personal development, like business journey of where it's the growth of others and it's that continuous professional development that's needed. It really does help push that lifelong growing that is so important to do in today's day and age, especially with how fast things are moving, how so much is changing, we never know what's going to happen. I mean, and it's so powerful too, like you said, of when the growth does come through and you learn so much more about the brain and how you how you function as yourself too with the self-awareness piece. And you really come to know, like, I do have the power to do that. I do have the strength to take on this. Is that me speaking? Like, it's almost like, whoa, did that did that growth actually happen? So that's amazing. And I think it can definitely s be seen in your parenting of how the calm parenting, the gentle parenting, the making sure that the kids have their voice and what the small voice they can have, and that's so important. And I commend all of my learnings on anything to do with kids and parenting to you, because you've done a lot of help with me learning and growing and just the way I speak to any of my friends' kids. It's so nice now to get to that gentle point. And the actually the other day when I was with you guys and uh we were signing the card there for our other friend, I when I was handing it to your son, I said, What do you say? And he's like, Please. And I was like, Where did that come from? What am I doing teaching manners these days? And I'm like, whoa. So it's crazy, just all the growth and what it does to you as a person. And I think the personal development piece of it is lovely. Yeah, yeah, like attachment's so important. Connection with your kids, connection with kids in general. They need, you know, like they need adults in their lives that care about them. And so, you know, you being one of those adults for my kids is really, really valuable for them. And seeing that just adults in this world care about them. They care about how they feel. They care about what they have to say. They care. They care. They show up. They're there. And they'll listen. Right. I think that previous generations kids were supposed to be seen and not heard. Um, you know, you kind of like there's the kids' table, right? Like you're kind of like off to the side, all the kids sit together because you're gonna be loud and uh interrupt adult conversation, and that's not okay. And now, you know, kids aren't hopefully being disregarded so much. And of course, like parents had the best of intentions, and I'm not bashing my parents or or any parents of that generation at all. It's just that it's a different kind of way. Kids need that connection, they need softness, they need warmth, and they need firm boundaries. And so it's this constant kind of balance of yes, we have rules, we have boundaries, they are firm, you know. Like I'm not just letting you do whatever you want. But um, we can do that with warmth, and we can do that while maintaining our connection to our kids. And hopefully, hopefully this works out in seeing more well-connected teens and adults who can have healthy relationships. You know, I think we've seen this play out all the time with folks our age and older, that, you know, we are attracted. We even see this in like media. We're attracted to like the toxic relationship, right? That feels good for some reason, even if you know it's a little toxic. And so that all comes from somewhere. That comes from attachment, right? Like that comes from not getting the attention that you wanted from your dad, maybe, you know. People call it daddy issues, right? Like mommy issues, whatever it is. And whether that came from a parent who was present and really didn't pay you enough attention, or a parent who completely left and you have more of those like abandonment wounds, something in a lot of people kind of is okay with people kind of being half in and half out of a relationship, or, you know, there's different dynamics all the time. But hopefully, through specifically and intentionally parenting for secure attachment, forming secure bonds, being responsive, we will see the outcome of that be like a secure attachment that they can take with them into adulthood. Expect more from partnerships and also friendships. Expect, you know, have high standards for the people that they have in their life of like, hey, my parents treated me like a princess. And I'm not going to take any less from no man or woman, you know, no friend, no romantic partner, nothing. Like, I don't want my kids to ever feel like mistreatment is okay. And that starts at home. That starts from how they're treated as kiddos. It does for sure. I think of back to my toxic relationships I've had in the past, and I've learned so much about my internal family systems that caused some of that to make me think that was okay. And it's okay that people do these things to you. And it's all in learning and growth. And I think you hit the nail right in the head when you said a lot of our generation is working to push out of that and not make that a continued family trait. And I think that is a very positive thing of our generation. And I hope it continues. Yeah, and it's not unique to our generation for sure. Like, I think a lot of folks in at least my parents' generation, my parents are relatively young, just as a note, but they started to really think about like physical punishment's not okay. And I grew up in the late 90s, early 2000s, and that started to be the idea of like maybe we don't spank our kids. And that was groundbreaking, right? That was the new and improved kind of breaking the generational cycle. And so I was never hit as a kid, and that was never something I was grateful for. But now I'm like, oh, like, you know, that was kind of a new idea. And so they did break those generational cycles. And now it's, you know, now it's maybe, you know, holding our kids and treating their emotions gently isn't actually spoiling them and it's not gonna raise soft kids, but actually kids who are more emotionally resilient. And I think in a world of so much uncertainty, anyways, we could do with a bit more softer approaches. We don't need all this hard and heavy approaches. Soft is okay. Yeah, and it's okay for your home and your parents to be your soft landing. It's okay if I'm the one space in the world that they know they can come and cry and not be judged, right? I want that for them. I would rather them feel safe and come home to me and feel like, well, mom's got me. I can go out in the world and I can explore and make mistakes and you know, take a wrong turn, and my parents are still gonna have my back. And yes, the world is hard, the world is cruel. They'll get enough of that. I promise you. Like they will face enough hard, cruel moments. The world will do that for us. Home doesn't need to do that. Yeah, it doesn't need to start a home. Not when you walk out the door and it's there for sure. And I think that is a positive parenting piece of us growing up, is you know, like, yes, we had different parenting backgrounds to the sense of my parents are older on the spectrum than where yours are, but I think it all comes back to we had those parents that it doesn't matter if we mess up, it doesn't matter what we do, we can always go back to them and say, hey, I need support on this, and they're not going to turn that away. And I think that's a powerful piece when you have those parents. And even if there is childhood trauma and things like that, having the supportive parenting style helps you come back to that in a in your adulthood. And I know it's made my relationship with my parents grow is just having those parents who are supportive and open and saying, you know, I know things weren't great as a child, and I'm not gonna hold you for all those things because I still love you, but like let's move forward on that as an adult. And I think that's powerful is you can do it in both sides if you had that parenting. You can work to correct that it was their first time, and also like, hey, this is my first time living. I might need some support, and I think that's the powerful uhness of our upbringing. So just to close, what uh do you want uh listeners to walk away feeling today? And where can people find you in Fancy Therapy? Yeah, I hope that through listening today you're able to, you know, see that everything's a journey, and you know, the people that you see on socials, not that my socials are huge, but you know, they're consistent. It took a long time to get there. You know, everything is a growth journey, everything takes a lot of effort. People see I don't work a lot now. I'm on a maternity leave, but even when I'm not, you know, I only see a few clients each week. And people see that as like, you know, uh an accomplishment of some sort. It took a ton of work to get to that point. I did my time, I promise you. I worked crappy customer service jobs, I worked in fast food, I worked babysitting, you know, to put myself through school to get to this point. I did those 12, 13, 14 hour days where I barely left my desk. Um, and I'm not talking like one-offs, I'm talking consistently over the course of months. And so I hope that, you know, you can see hard work does pay off. I get to be home with my kids, I get to make my own schedule. I get a lot, a lot of freedom. And of course it comes at a cost. It's a high stress situation, but you know, growth takes time and it takes effort. Where can you find me? Like I said, we're on socials. Our Instagram's fancy.therapy, or you can email us if you are seeking support or just need to chat. It's info at fancy therapy.ca. And you can also visit fancytherapy.ca to get matched and work with a therapist. Morgan, thank you so much for being here today. And I loved what you were having everyone walk away with. You know, it does take a journey, it does take those long days, long nights. Me and Morgan met when we were both at Best Buy when I was still working in the Brantford location, and Morgan was there for a brief time, and I seen her work through those journeys. And then I was finishing my coaching course and doing that same thing on my lunch breaks, taking extra time off to do calls. You know, it takes a village, but it also takes a lot of strength and determination to just keep moving, keep going, know when things are starting slow, things are starting out rough, you know, just keep pushing, send those emails, keep moving forward, and those 60% days are going to be more meaningful than you know. They are what really keep moving the needle forward. So thank you so much, Morgan. Thanks for having me, Brandon. Uh don't forget to subscribe so you'll see our next episode that will be out in two weeks. Also, if you want to follow along on my coaching journey and while I build Brandsan Solutions and Services, you can follow us on Instagram at brandsan.s.s, TikTok, or Facebook Brands Solutions and Services. Thank you so much for being here and supporting my new journey of hosting the Clarity Confidence and Growth podcast. And just in case you forgot, I see you, I believe in you, and I'm cheering you on. Until next time.