WP153 | Answering the Call: Pivoting to a Christian Counseling Practice - Podcast Takeover with Amy Dover
Hello friends, and welcome back to the Wise Practice Podcast! Today’s episode is extra special. My friend and colleague Amy Dover, Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, group practice owner in Lower Alabama, and Wise Practice Consultant, is taking over the mic as part of her four-part takeover series.
Amy has such a gift for sharing wisdom straight from her own journey as a practice owner, and today she’s talking about something that many of us wrestle with: the decision to pivot to an explicitly Christian private practice.
Why Pivot to a Christian Private Practice?
For Amy, this shift wasn’t just a business decision—it was a call of obedience. After nearly two decades in the field and over ten years running her practice, Amy felt God asking her to fully align her clinical work with her faith. Earlier this year, she officially made the change to identify her group as a Christian counseling practice.
This pivot has brought alignment, peace, and clarity—not just for Amy, but for her team and her clients.
The Impact of the Shift
Amy walks us through five powerful reasons why identifying as a Christian practice has transformed her work:
1) Alignment with Calling
Counseling isn’t just a job—it’s a calling. By openly counseling through the lens of her faith, Amy has found a new level of authenticity in her work. Clients notice that kind of alignment, even those who don’t share her faith.
2) Creating a Safe Space
Many Christian clients long for counseling that acknowledges their beliefs without judgment. Amy’s practice provides a space where prayer, scripture, and worldview are not only welcome but integrated when clients desire it.
3) Differentiation in the Marketplace
In a town of just 28,000 people with more than 15 practices, standing out matters. By naming her practice explicitly Christian, Amy has given her community a clear identity to recognize and connect with.
4) Shaping Team Culture
Hiring shifted dramatically once Amy became clear about her practice’s mission. Her team is now united by both skill and shared faith, creating a healthier, more supportive culture where therapists encourage and pray for one another.
5) Building Legacy
This isn’t only about branding—it’s about kingdom impact. Amy sees her work as part of a larger story of healing, growth, and legacy that will outlast her time as a practice owner.
Overcoming the Fears
Of course, pivoting to a Christian practice comes with fears—What if clients leave? What if people criticize? What if the practice feels too narrow?
Amy is honest about wrestling with these same questions. Her guiding reminder? “Please Him, not them.” While some clients and therapists may move on, the right ones will come—and the fruit of obedience always outweighs the fear.
Final Encouragement
Whether or not you feel called to identify your practice as explicitly Christian, Amy’s story is an invitation to examine alignment in your own work. Where is God asking you to trust Him more deeply? Where might a pivot bring greater clarity, peace, and legacy to your practice?
Amy closes with this encouragement: obedience to God’s calling always bears fruit, even if the results don’t look like what the business world expects.
Links and Resources
Email Amy directly at amy@wisepracticeconsulting.com
Looking for support and connection: Join the Wise Practice Community
Learn More about Wise Practice Consulting
Connect with Wise Practice on Instagram
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[00:00:00] Whitney Owens: Hi, I am 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. 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.
[00:00:29] Jingle: Where she grows your practice and she don't play. She does business with a twist of faith. It's Whitney Owen and Wise Practice Podcast, Whitney Owen and Wise Practice Podcast.
[00:00:48] Amy Dover: Hello my friends and welcome back to the Wise Practice Podcast. I'm so glad you're here with me. I'm Amy Dover, licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, crew practice owner in Lower Alabama and Wise Practice Consultant.
This episode is a part of a four part podcast takeover that Whitney has again, so graciously allowed me to do so. Thanks you guys for joining me. So today we're diving into something close to my heart, the reasons a Christian practice owner might feel called to pivot and identify explicitly as a Christian private practice.
Maybe you've wrestled with this yourself. Maybe you've wondered, should I be more open about my faith in the work I do? Would that limit my practice or would it actually set it free? After a huge change in transition in my group practice over the last 18 months, I actually officially made the shift to a Christian private practice in May of this year.
It was a call of obedience and has changed so much in my practice for the good. So today we'll talk through why this shift can be so powerful, how it impacts your clients, your team, and your mission, and some of the fears that might hold you back. I also want to add in here an important caveat to all of this.
So I turned 50 years old this year. I know ladies, you guys are probably fainting that I even said that on this podcast, but yes, I'm owning it. I turned 50 in May of this year and I cannot believe it. So I thoroughly enjoyed my forties as it was a time of deep spiritual growth in my walk with the Lord.
And so as I began reflecting on turning 50, I was challenged to think about some things that needed changing. Other things were also happening in my life as well. About a year or so ago, my husband and I officially became empty nesters. So our, our personal home looks different too because our sons are both in college and out of the house.
Um, we are both officially in our fifties. My practice has been in existence for over 10 years now, and I've been in the field as a therapist for over 20. So lots of things were kind of happening. As I, as I began to reflect on turning 50 and the lead up to my 50th birthday this year. But I was challenged on some things again, that needed to be changed, some things that were just no longer working for me, and I felt such a strong pull to completely align my clinical work and practice with my faith in and love for Christ.
And man, I'm so glad I made that move. So my first reason for making this shift was just alignment with calling. Many of us got into counseling, not just to help people, but because we sensed a calling. And yet in the business world, we're often encouraged to hide or downplay the faith Foundation. Eva. Many of our graduate programs encourage us to not discuss faith in the therapy room, which is crazy to me.
A person's belief system is a huge part of their life, and I can't imagine not allowing that into the therapy room, even if they don't share my belief system. Pivoting to a Christian practice has allowed me to say, this is who I am and this is the lens I counsel through. This is also the lens that I see life through.
That kind of alignment has brought such peace to my work. Clients pick up on authenticity even if they don't share my Christian faith. We were already working with a very diverse client population, plenty of clients who don't share our faith. And in making this pivot, we've continued to serve those folks because they appreciate the authenticity and because we offer clinical excellence.
And I also like to think that even if they don't believe in Christ, they feel something different at Dover Counseling. And it's because Christ dwells here. And they can't help but be touched by that. Second, pivoting has created a safe space for a specific community. So many believers want counseling that doesn't leave their faith at the door.
They want a place where prayer isn't strange, where scripture isn't dismissed, where they don't have to explain the basics of their worldview. By being clear about my Christian identity, I'm actually serving people who felt unseen or unheard in other counseling settings. I've told you guys before that I'm located in the deep South.
I'm down in lower Alabama, and this is also considered to be part of the Bible Belt. You would be surprised at how few counseling practices in my area of rural Alabama integrate faith into their work with clients. A lot of them don't. A lot of them refuse to. So this pivot has also allowed my practice to identify a specific population we work with and to be open about that.
So the third reason that this pivot has begun to really work out well for us, not only because it was a step in obedience and God blesses our obedience. But because it's been good for differentiation, I mean, there are a lot of counseling practices out there. Even in my community alone. I, my practice has been in the community for over 10 years, and when I opened, I was maybe one of three in the community.
Now I'm one of about 15, and I'm not even kidding. I mean, where I am in, in Alabama, there's, it's, it's a town of 28,000 people. A lot of our clients will are from the counties around us and even from the Florida panhandle. But that's a lot of practices to have in such a smaller area. So, you know, pivoting to a Christian practice has actually made me more unique.
So when I made the switch to a Christian counseling practice, I gave my community a clear identity to recognize and connect with. I also wanna be clear that this isn't about excluding people. It's about clarity. Clear branding builds trust. When someone sees Christian counseling, they immediately know what I stand for and whether that's the right fit for them.
We're clear on all our content as well as on all of our client paperwork that we are Christian private practice, but that we work with clients from all walks of life. But I love that from the get go, they know that client, excuse me. They know that the therapist at Dover Counseling are all Christians who do this work because of their love for Christ and desire to serve him.
In this space, the clients can choose to utilize their faith, but they know where we therapists are coming from. So number four, this change has also helped change my teen culture, change it, and shape it. When you name your practice as Christian, you naturally attract therapists to share that vision.
Suddenly hiring isn't just about skill, it's about shared mission that unity shows up in the way my team collaborates praise for each other, for clients, and supports one another. A faith-driven culture is healthier, more resilient, and more life-giving. And I have definitely experienced that these last.
Goodness, what month are we in? I'm recording this in August. I'm not sure when the episode will drop, but I, when everyone, when nine people left last year, there were six of us left, six therapists left, and all of us who were left who, who stayed were Christian. And since then, practice culture has been extremely healthy.
Just everything is different. The air is different around here and it's. So great guys. It's, it's good. But when therapists began leaving my practice in 2024, I did immediately begin to try and hire and attract new therapists. I had so many referrals still coming through the doors, and I was watching my gross revenues shrink quickly, and I knew I had to increase those.
But honestly, God shut every door and it. I had to work really hard not to panic, but it wasn't until I made the shift to a Christian practice completely revamped the way I did my hiring process to include two specific interviews, carefully worded interview questions that also incorporate our core values and mission statement and change the wording of my job postings, that the resume started coming in fast.
I was able to interview solid candidates and pick and choose exactly who I wanted on my team. Who aligned with my practice's mission and vision, and who were Christians themselves. Interviewing is never easy for me. It's probably one of the least favorite things I like as a group practice owner. But I have found that being open with who I am and what their practice is, has made all of it way better.
And I was able to hire three therapists at once who will have their new employee orientation at the end of August and start seeing their clients. And I thoroughly believe that God shut all the doors last year and earlier this year until I heard what he was saying. Change systems and policies that needed to be changed in the practice and then step forward in obedience.
So finally, legacy. Pivoting to a Christian practice isn't just about branding, it's about impact. You're positioning your work as kingdom work. You're shaping how families heal, how individuals grow, and how faith intersects with mental health in your community. That ripple effect goes beyond the therapy room and it leaves a legacy that outlasts you.
I tell my folks all the time that we're leaving a legacy no matter how long Dover counseling is in existence. Whether I close my door this year, which I hope not, or if the practice lasts for another 10 or 20 years, the services we provide and the healing we get to partner with God in changes individuals, heals families, and leaves a legacy.
It's amazing to me that God allows me the privilege of doing this work with him, so I know what you might be thinking. If I switch to an explicitly Christian private practice, won't I lose clients? Won't people criticize me? Won't this make my practice too narrow? Hey, those fears are real. I struggled with them myself, but one thing I always kept coming to and I would, when I look back in my journal over the last year, I wrote this sentence quite a bit actually, 'cause there's power in, in pen and paper, but I wrote multiple times, please him, not them.
So yes, you're going to have fears and you're gonna struggle with the fears, but if you actually do what you feel like the Lord is calling you to do, then fully embrace it and go through the transition. Here's also a truth when you pivot. If you do decide to, to become explicitly a Christian private practice, you might lose a few clients.
You might lose a a few therapists, but you'll gain the right ones. The clients who come will be those who you're most called to serve. I've certainly seen and experienced this and I can't tell you how much I love bringing God openly into the therapy room. And we also have to remember too, as believers.
Obedience to God's calling always bears fruit, even if the growth looks different than what the business world promises or what you thought it would look like. So to recap, pivoting to a Christian counseling practice has brought alignment with my calling. It serves a specific community, clarified my brand, strengthened my team culture, and is building a legacy of kingdom impact.
If you've been wrestling with this decision, take some time to pray, reflect and ask God, is this the direction you're leading me in? And I'll also say this, for those of you who don't believe that you're being called to explicitly identify as a Christian private practice, that's okay. I did it for years and we were still able to serve clients.
Other Christians in the community and those who were not, and we still had great impact. This is a very personal decision that you make with the Lord. And so this has just been my experience and my journey, these last few months of changes in my practice. And what I have seen happen as I began to explicitly identify, identifies Christian private practice, but don't believe that that's what you need to do for your practice.
Again, that is, is that is a decision that you need to make with the Lord. All right guys. Thank you so much for joining me today. Please, if I can be of any assistance to you, email me, reach out to the Wise Practice community. My email is amy@wisepracticeconsulting.com. I love connecting with other practice owners and just talking clinical work, talking business growth, talking, hiring and interviewing.
And if I can do be of any assistance to you, please reach out to. To me with that, and I am gonna be running a mastermind starting up in November of this year. Again, not sure when this episode is gonna drop, but if you're interested in joining my mastermind on growing into a group practice, definitely email me and drop me a line.
If this episode encouraged you, share it with another counselor who might need to hear it, and as always, keep pursuing the work God's placed in front of you with faith, with courage, and with hope. Take care, guys.
[00:13:48] Jingle: So click on follow and leave a review and keep on loving this work we do with Whitney Owens and The Wise Practice Podcast, Whitney Owens and Wise Practice
[00:14:04] Whitney Owens: Podcast. 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.
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.
