WP148 | 5 Steps for When You’re Discouraged as a Christian Practice Owner
Hey friends, today’s episode is one of the most personal I’ve ever recorded…
I’m pulling back the curtain on my past year—the wins, the challenges, and the moments I honestly wondered if I was still called to this work. If you’ve ever felt discouraged in your practice, if you’ve questioned your leadership, or if you’ve wondered how God could possibly use the hard stuff you’re walking through… this one’s for you. I’m sharing the real story of how He’s been refining me as a leader, what I’ve learned through mistakes, and the practical steps that will help you rise back up when the weight of practice ownership feels heavy.
So grab your coffee, settle in, and let’s get honest about discouragement—and the God who meets us in it.
When the Year Feels Heavy
Owning a group practice has its high points, but this year has had its share of lows.
Hiring heartbreaks. We extended offers, even had people verbally accept, only to have them back out. It’s hard not to take it personally—especially when you’ve already envisioned them as part of your team.
A shift in the atmosphere. My practice has always felt light and welcoming, but lately, there’s been a heaviness I can’t ignore. A touch of toxicity that I’m still working to address.
Growing pains. Expanding into a new building, marketing without a dedicated director, filling caseloads—all while dealing with difficult employee situations.
Harsh feedback. Some critiques were valid; others were not. But they all made me question myself at some point.
There were days I didn’t want to go to work at all. Days where I thought, Would it be easier to just walk away?
But in those moments, I remembered something important: God is answering the prayer I prayed. He’s shaping me into a stronger leader.
The Pearl in the Process
It’s like the making of a pearl—the dirt and grit inside the shell are uncomfortable, but they’re exactly what creates the beauty. The hard moments are where we’re refined, where our faith grows deeper, and where we’re reminded that God’s hand is still on our work.
5 Steps That Help Me When I’m Discouraged
If you’re feeling that weight right now, here’s what has carried me through:
1. Remember the past.
Go back to the times God showed up in your practice. I think of when my first therapist quit, and I thought my group practice was over—only for the next interview to bring me one of my longest-standing team members. The same God who was faithful then is faithful now.
2. Be honest with yourself.
I had to admit I’d been sticking my head in the sand about certain areas of my practice because I was overwhelmed. Take inventory. What are you avoiding?
3. Be okay with mistakes.
Every great leader makes them. This year, I’ve made hiring mistakes, financial mistakes, and yes—said things I shouldn’t have. But each one has shaped me into a better leader.
4. Lean on your leadership team.
This has been my saving grace. My leadership team has been like the friends who lowered the crippled man to Jesus—they’ve carried me when I couldn’t carry myself.
5. Find a consultant or community.
You can’t do this alone. Whether it’s a business coach, a peer group, or a membership community like Wise Practice, having people who can speak truth, challenge you, and cheer you on is essential.
If You’re Feeling Discouraged Today…
You are not alone. God is with you in this. He’s using the challenges to refine you into the leader He’s called you to be.
Remember your past victories. Be brutally honest with yourself. Give yourself permission to make mistakes. Let others carry you when you’re tired. And seek out the community and guidance you need to move forward.
Take a deep breath, lean into God’s grace, and trust that He brought you here for a reason.
You can do this—because He’s doing this in you.
Show Sponsor Practice at Scale
This episode is brought to you by Practice at Scale, the done-for-you growth team for therapy practices.
If you’ve been stuck juggling marketing, operations, and admin tasks, and you know it’s time to scale beyond DIY, Practice at Scale is your answer. They become your practice’s growth team that can run your SEO, Google Ads, improve your systems, and help you bring in more ideal clients, all without needing a full-time hire.
Whether you're looking to grow your group practice or just want your evenings back, book a call with their team today at https://www.practiceatscale.co/schedule
Links and Resources
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[00:00:00] Whitney Owens: This episode is brought to you by practice at Scale, the Dumb for You Growth team for therapy practices. If you've been stuck juggling marketing, operations and admin tasks, and you know it's time to scale beyond DIY practice, at scale is your answer. They become your practice growth team that can run your SEO Google Ads, improve your systems, and help you bring in more ideal clients, all without needing a full-time hire.
[00:00:23] Whether you're looking to grow your group practice, or just want your evenings back, look to book with their team today@practiceatscale.co slash schedule. That's practice at scale.co/schedule. Hi, I'm Whitney Owens. I'm a group practice owner and faith-based practice consultant, and I'm here to tell you that you can have it all.
[00:00:46] Wanna grow your practice. Wanna grow your faith, wanna enjoy your life outside of work, you've come to the right place. Each week on The Wise Practice Podcast, I will give you the action steps to have a successful faith-based practice while also having a good time. Now let's get started.
[00:01:05] Jingle: Where she grows your practice and she don't play.
[00:01:08] She does business with a twist of faith. It's Whitney Owen and Wise Practice Podcast, Whitney Owen and Wise Practice Podcast.
[00:01:24] Whitney Owens: Hello friends and welcome back to The Wise Practice Podcast. I'm Whitney Owens, and today we're gonna speak. How about something near and dear to my heart that I've been kind of wrestling with over the past, I'd say year, maybe eight months. And this podcast, as you know, it's important to me that it's not just about giving you information, but it's really about our hearts, about our callings, about what God is doing in our lives.
[00:01:50] And so I wanna speak to discouragement. This past year has been. A different kind of year for me, but a good kind of year for me. But it's also been filled with lots of challenges and discouragements as a practice owner. So if you've ever felt discouraged in your private practice, maybe you're questioning yourself, you're calling, you're wondering if you're really cut out to do the work.
[00:02:14] This episode is for you. I wanna share some of my own story from this past year because it's been a season of refinement. Refinement for my practice, but also refinement for me personally. There have been times that I've felt like almost like God is just kind of taking the things outta my heart that have been there, that maybe are kind of the weeds, the things that haven't been assisting me, haven't been helping me, and God's kind of cleaning it out.
[00:02:46] Right. I even. Recently when I was feeling discouraged, went back to my journal. I don't know if you ever do that, but I like to go back and look at, what did I pray? Is this what I prayed for? So I went back and I was looking at an entry from the very beginning of the year where I started setting my goals.
[00:03:07] And I even wrote in there. God, I don't want this to be a year of necessarily a bunch of money, or I get in shape, or we buy this house we want, or we go on this vacation we want. And look, if those things happen, great, and I do kind of make these goals to be honest with you. But in my journal entry, what I actually said was more than that is I want God to change me the ways that I get anxious in my work.
[00:03:36] The ways I feel overwhelmed, the ways I struggle to delegate, the ways I wanna greater impact the kingdom. But that really starts with me. It starts with the refining of who I am and my prayer. My goal for this year was that God would do just that and, and as I sit and reflect and speak with you today, I look back and I'm like, wow.
[00:03:57] Like God actually is doing that. Has it been fun? No, but it's been the thing that. I have really needed. So I have dealt with a lot of different things this past year and I share these with you so that you don't feel so alone. I share these to hopefully bring you encouragement and strengthen where you're at.
[00:04:20] But the other day I was. Sitting outside my new office location. And so for those of you that don't know, I am here in Savannah, Georgia. I have two offices. One is located in Savannah and the other's on Wilmington Island, which is just outside Savannah. And um, during the year of 2024, there was a lot of construction on the building.
[00:04:43] I actually purchased the building right during that year, but had put the offer on the previous year. I have a podcast episode about this if you wanna go back and listen to the story about the building, but I was sitting outside, had just gone on a run. I was just thinking about the difficulty. It's been the past year as I sat outside that office.
[00:05:05] I was thinking, Lord, I really need you to come through. I was feeling down because of all the difficulty we've had recently with hiring, and this is just one of the things, but we had offered several people jobs. Some of them even verbally accepted and then came back and declined. And if you are a group practice owner, you know what it's like to hire.
[00:05:28] And for me, I get so into it. I like fall in love with people before it starts. Do you hear me? I'm working really hard on not doing that. I always say that hiring is like dating. We put ourselves out there and when you get rejected, it's so challenging, but truly I'm saying I love my practice. We have something really special here, and then they do something else, and that is really hard to hear.
[00:05:56] I was feeling very discouraged about that. Other things that have happened the past year, the practice has changed. I've had the practice for 10 years. It's always felt like a easy place to be. It has been a light and in a dark place, and it still is that. But lately it has felt a lot more heavy, heavier coming into the office, heavier with the team members.
[00:06:22] There's been something that has kind of come into our atmosphere, maybe a little bit of toxicity that I'm still trying to put my finger on and make changes about, but has really made me down because I love my practice so much. Seeing these changes has been challenging, knowing that this year was a year of putting a building together.
[00:06:45] Of getting staff over there, of watching that happen and trying to fill up caseloads in a new location and market for that. I also no longer have had a marketing director, so I've been hiring out companies doing the work. Thankfully, I've had a lot of great people that I've reached out to that are helping me, but it's still a struggle.
[00:07:08] It's a struggle. So I've also had some difficult employee situations. Now I've had difficult employee situations, but I've never had so many back to back. These conversations with my leadership team, with team members have been exhausting, and these team members have come back with really harsh critiques on me that I always wanna take them seriously.
[00:07:37] But I also know that it's not all correct, right? Some big allegations. So things have not gone the way I wanted them to. And when this happens, I ask myself, what did I do wrong? It's so funny. I, I've had this practice for a long time and I look back and I, I see other moments where I ask the same question.
[00:08:00] It's not always about what we did wrong, but we feel it, we fear it. We feared that it could all fall apart at any moment, or maybe I should have never done this, or am I actually called to this, or would it just be better if I got rid of this whole thing and went and did something different? Now I see that God is doing the very thing I was asking for, right?
[00:08:25] Developing me as a leader, it kind of reminds me of the idea of pearls that a pearl is in a shell. And when the dirt and the grime come into the shell, it's actually that that creates the pearl, because if you didn't have that, a pearl wouldn't be created. It's the difficulties of life that make us who we are.
[00:08:48] When things are going well, I'm not challenged at all. I'm not really thinking about who I am, right. But when I have to deal with my fears and deal with my insecurities, deal with my financial struggles. All these things can make the pearl occur, right? It's not fun. But I look back and I can see his hand in the challenges that I've faced, shaping me into a better leader for my team and for my clients, but most importantly, bringing me closer to him and closer to christlikeness.
[00:09:25] Another thing that has been hard for me this year, but good, is the development of a leadership team. Anytime we make changes in our practice, those are difficult. And the larger you get or the more set in your ways you are, that's even harder. So learning how to trust people. With my practice, I think about as a solo practice owner, when I first hired someone to answer the phones, oh, that was really scary, right?
[00:09:51] What if they don't say the right thing? Or what if something happens on a call? They're not gonna do it the way I'm gonna do it. Or when I hired my first therapist to see clients, well, what if they say something wrong? What if something doesn't go well with a client? Those are difficult things, right? So even as I continue to grow, it's still the same things coming up, but at a higher level, right?
[00:10:15] So now I'm trusting people. With the goals of my practice, I'm trusting them to have the hard conversations with team members. I'm trusting them with the finances and showing it to them and asking for assistance in it, because I cannot keep doing this alone. I am too tired and just my soul is tired, right?
[00:10:39] That is what this year has been, and as I sat outside my office. Earlier this week and was looking at my building thinking, wow, it sure has been, I say a year, but it really hasn't. We're just in August here. It has been something. So as I prepared for this podcast, I was thinking, what are the things that have gotten me through this that I wanna give to you?
[00:11:05] I don't want you to just hear me and think, oh, I get it. What do I do now? Right. Let's talk about those steps for when you're feeling discouraged as a Christian practice owner. So the first one I want to do that I alluded to a minute ago was remembering the past. So when I get discouraged, I like to go back and remember stories and remember what God's doing.
[00:11:33] Even though I don't really know what my next step is, sometimes the past will remind me of that and it will grow my faith. So, for example, I am reminded of one of the first therapists that quit. I thought my group practice was over and the quitting didn't go well. In fact, they tried to be really professional about it, which was good, but I was like, could you please share more with me?
[00:12:02] Like I was actually really surprised that they were quitting and wanted to understand why. And boy, she let me have it. About who I was as a business owner and who I was as her boss, and I was devastated. I left my office immediately. I walked outside. I walked down the street and literally bawled my eyes out and didn't know what I was gonna do.
[00:12:24] I was ready to give up. I had had two therapists at that point, so very small group practice. One had already quit, and then this was the second. Literally, I was a solo practice owner for a moment. I remember calling my assistant because she was such a support to me and just telling her how down I was.
[00:12:44] But I already had an interview scheduled for an hour later, right? And that was with one of my team members that's still with me today. What if I'd given up? God was faithful. I also remember as a solo practice owner sitting at my office staring out at the oak trees. Thinking, God, I need the phone to ring.
[00:13:10] If it doesn't, I don't know how I'm gonna be able to make rent. I don't know how I'm gonna pay my bills. And y'all, God always provided, always. So we've all done hard. We've done hard, and we'll keep doing hard and God will empower us to keep doing hard. I want you to go back and remember all the things.
[00:13:32] You have done and all the ways you have grown and all the things God has done in your practice. Remembering the past reminds me that the same God who is faithful is now faithful again, and he has called me to this work and he will sustain me to do it. So number two is being honest with yourself. Now, I think as therapists, we want to think we're honest with ourselves.
[00:13:58] Nah, we are so good. We are so good at putting on a mask because we know how to do it right. I know that I do that. So recently I hired someone to help me grow my practice, which I can talk about in another step. But while I was working with him, I was actually hiring him to help me with wise practice at least.
[00:14:23] So I thought, and he was like, Whitney. I really think you need to consider water's edge, and I said, no, no, no, no, no. Water's edge is great. It's flowing great. I have no problems. We're all good. Then as time was passing and I started working with this coach, I started noticing, oh, my water's edge needs some help.
[00:14:47] Where have I been now? Have I been showing up to work and doing the things? Yes, but I now see that I was sticking my head in the sand. Because I was feeling so overwhelmed with the growth of the practice. We were sitting at like 17 therapists, and I felt so alone in it. Even though I had people that worked for me.
[00:15:07] I was not giving them ownership. I was not allowing them to step in, and I was ignoring things about myself and my practice. So now I'm getting more honest with myself. I'm taking an inventory. What am I avoiding? And I'm starting to really see myself avoiding things. Even as I talk about 'em, I'm like, man, there's me ignoring that, right?
[00:15:33] I ignore the hard things. I don't wanna deal with them, but these are the things that I need to deal with and God will get me the strength to put, put those things in place, right? Put 'em in front of me. So the second is being honest with yourself. The third step. Is being okay with mistakes. So often we don't want to take any risks because we don't wanna make a mistake.
[00:15:59] So that might be just a business mistake, like a financial mistake, or maybe a mistake with our time. I get very scared of making a mistake with an employee, right? A hiring mistake or something, I say, but when we're on pins and needles all the time, it's no fun and we don't do good work that way. And we're not perfect.
[00:16:22] I know we say that, but like we need to know that on a deep level. And we also know that mistakes are the very things that make the difference, right? That's the very thing that allows me to do something different than what I was doing before. And I can certainly tell you that this year has been full of mistakes.
[00:16:39] I have financially invested in things that I probably shouldn't have. I've hired people that I shouldn't have. I've probably said things I shouldn't have, actually. I know that I have, 'cause people have told me, I said things that I shouldn't have and I would be so scared of getting things wrong. But these mistakes are helping me grow and refine the process.
[00:16:59] I think I was putting my head in the sand too, because I didn't wanna make mistakes. But this goes back to this idea of the pearl again, that it's through these mistakes, through the irritation, the imperfection that makes us beautiful, that refines us. It's the very grit that God uses to create something beautiful within us.
[00:17:19] So I am giving you permission to make mistakes. In fact, I'm expecting to make mistakes later today, and I'm gonna laugh about it, and I'm gonna be okay about it, and I'm gonna learn from it instead of being scared of it. Every great leader that you admire has made mistakes and so will you. Number four. I want you to develop a leadership team.
[00:17:43] I cannot express to you the difference this has made for me. I would say this has been by far my biggest blessing this year. I have remind, I've been reminded of the story of the cripple where the cripple can't get to Jesus and the friends take the cripple up on the roof and lower him down to Jesus. I.
[00:18:09] And there's a part of me that feels like that cripple, it's like, I don't know how things can get better, or I feel immobile, you know? And my friends are my leadership team. They're helping me get to God. They're helping me get our practice to where it needs to go. They're helping me do God's mission, right?
[00:18:29] But that involves trust. It involves sharing the deep things, and that's scary. Just the other day when I was so discouraged, I did not wanna go to work y'all. And that's very unlike me Usually I like to go to work. I didn't wanna go to work. I didn't wanna see anybody. I didn't know how I was gonna keep it together.
[00:18:49] I didn't know how I was gonna be able to show up, but I did. I went to my office. I tried not to talk to anybody. If you ever had that feeling, no one talked to me. Let me do my thing and get outta here. But my team came around me. They encouraged me, even though I didn't wanna be encouraged. I was scared to let them know about how sad I was, about where things were with the practice and how much I loved it, and how I was afraid about what was happening.
[00:19:20] But I did, and I said it. I was emotional in front of them. I was worried about what they think, and they came around me in a beautiful way, and each one of them played a role in that, in supporting me in speaking. To the heaviness. I was feeling to crying with me so I wasn't alone to also saying, we can do this and here are the steps we're gonna take forward.
[00:19:43] Even though I was like, I can't take another step forward, someone said, no, we're taking that step forward and I'll help you do it. And we did. And things are turning around. I'm feeling so much better, so much more encouraged, so much stronger. And isn't this what Christian community's really about? Like if I wanna exemplify encouragement, strength, and a culture of community in my practice, it's got to start with a solid leadership team.
[00:20:13] And that's exactly what we've done. So I encourage you to start taking those steps to get those people in place because you'll be so much more powerful. As a community and doing God's work in the world around you. So don't be afraid to be honest and ask for help. And the last one here is find a consultant or a community.
[00:20:37] You do not have to walk this alone. I currently have a consultant that I mentioned earlier when we got on our consulting calls. I'm totally myself. I'm raw in a way that I can't be with anyone else, right? And. It's just different as a business owner, even though I can be honest with my team, but he challenges me, gives me the space we process, and then he says, all right, get up.
[00:21:04] We're getting this done. Boom, boom, boom, boom. You gotta get these things done. And everything within me is like, no, I don't wanna do these things. But when I get off the call, I'm like, I can do these things right? So I have the direction, someone that's gone ahead of me. So if it's needing a consultant or needing a community, it's out there.
[00:21:24] We have wise practice. Most importantly, I need you to find what works for you. Don't keep sitting there discouraged and unsure get help. And I think that being in a community, either a membership community or having a consultant consistently is so good for us. I almost always have somebody helping me along the way because we go to the gym to help our physical, we go to a therapist with our emotional stuff, we go to church to help our spiritual, or maybe we work with a spiritual director.
[00:21:56] So a business coach is gonna help you focus on your business. Helps you get your head outta the sand, right? So within the Wise Practice community, if you are feeling alone and you're looking to connect with other faith-based practice owners, we have that. So make sure that you head to the website and learn more.
[00:22:12] If it's something that you're looking for, just shoot me an email, whitney@wisepracticeconsulting.com. I'd love to get you connected to either a community or a consultant or what it is that you need. We provide a space that's free from judgment and bring you encouragement and strength. So find a consultant or a community to help you in your practice growth.
[00:22:35] So if you're feeling discouraged today, I want you to know this. You are not alone. God is with you. He's refining you into the leader that he's called you to be. Remember your past. Be honest with yourself. Embrace your mistakes. Lean on your team. Seek out a community or a consultant to guide you along the way.
[00:22:56] Thank you for joining me on this episode. I want you to take a breath, lean into God's grace and know that he's with you. He brought you to this moment to hear this message because he wants to do something great in you. Until next time, keep practicing wise.
[00:23:16] Jingle: So click on follow and leave a review and keep on loving this work we do with Whitney Owens and Wise Practice Podcast, Whitney Owens and Wise Practice Podcast. And
[00:23:34] Whitney Owens: special thanks to Marty Altman for the music in this podcast. The Wise Practice Podcast is part of the Site Craft Podcast Network. A collaboration of independent podcasters focused on helping people live more meaningful and productive lives.
[00:23:48] To learn more about the other amazing podcasts in the network, head on over to site craft network.com. The Wise Practice podcast represents the opinions of Whitney Owens and her guests. This podcast is for educational purposes only, and the content should not be taken as legal advice. If you have legal questions, please consult an attorney.
