Thank you to everyone who wrote in response to our last post with your well wishes, along with your questions and ideas. We received many touching and affirming emails about how we’ve been a part of the community and how many people have been helped in our office on Clay Street.
This really is a bittersweet time. Please know that it was my decision to sell the building and I am very pleased with how well (albeit quick) it went. I wish the new owner the absolute best in his new office. Yes, it will still be an office…it is a designated historic building in Winter Park.
Just as our bodies are a vessel for our souls, this building was a vessel for the heart and soul of our business. A lot of lives were changed there, including ours as clinicians. We grew professionally and personally. We loved the experience. And we are taking our souls with us as we go. The work goes with us.
A lot of you know that I love buildings. My father was a builder, and my first career and degree were in architecture and interior design. I feel the soul of a building when I go in there, and I also know, especially through this experience, that we take it with us.
We’ve decided to create a different type of center, one with multiple locations as well as a virtual component for telephone and video sessions. Jillian Sinnamon will see clients in East Orlando (check the website for location details as they become available), and Sandee Nebel will see continue seeing clients in Clearwater, as well as Altamonte Springs.
We have continued to counsel clients virtually through this process to bridge the gap and beginning in September we’ll be ready to see people in person again. We’ll also be restarting our virtual groups and workshop series.
We’re very happy with these choices. We loved having one central location and the atmosphere there, and you will see that we have recreated that same comfortable space for clients to share and do the work to progress in their recovery.
With my encouragement and support, other team members took the opportunity to launch their own individual practices in other parts of Greater Orlando. We wish the very best to Georgeanne Little, Jessica Fortunado, and Shawn Peverly.
The process of leaving our Clay Street location and securing our new locations took only a month but it felt a lot longer because we were packing for a couple of weeks before that. Really it seems like the whole summer was devoted to packing, storing, and seeking a new location.
I referred in the previous blog post to feeling like I was in a dark hallway. It wasn’t completely dark, but it was definitely dim. No matter how I tried, I could not find one ideal space to house everything we want to do with this business. I never dreamed our center would be a combination of spaces, but we are excited about continuing to do the great work we’ve done. We have the same respect and appreciation for our clients and the other counselors who’ve referred to us, and we look forward to the continued work and collaborations in these other spaces.
I’ve always been one to embrace change – bring it on, I say! However, this felt a little like being in a maze. Not one with brick walls, but more like Dole Plantation’s giant Pineapple Garden Maze in Hawaii, where you’re surrounded by soft bushes and shrubbery – but you can still get stuck.
When we’d come up against something that wasn’t ideal for one reason or another, it didn’t feel like we were hitting a wall, we just kept looking. I used my business experience in commercial real estate and property management to scrutinize every detail so we wouldn’t not end up somewhere that didn’t align with my values, or where I couldn’t imagine a future.
I may have momentarily lost some of my enthusiasm for change during parts of this process, when I wondered, so how do people know things will turn out for the best? Maybe it’s more that things work out as they do and this is ideal. Not even as they need to or for the best, as we sometimes say. It is my hope things end up being good for everyone, and in the meantime I will remain curious as I watch our growth unfold. We continue with our passion for our work, and to use our skills, training, and experiences, and chose new offices where people can feel those same warm and safe feelings they felt in our former location.
I’m glad to be starting a new season, especially in Florida where the humidity and heat seemed especially harsh this summer. I welcome what the future brings, and I am looking forward to people following us, continuing to refer to us, and getting even more of what they want and need from their counseling experience with us.