WP107 | Faith-based Consulting and the Power of Community
In this episode of the Wise Practice Podcast, Whitney shares her inspiring journey from college mentorship to becoming a therapist and faith-based business consultant. You’ll learn how her deep-rooted faith shaped her career path and how unexpected setbacks led her to create a thriving private practice. Whitney also dives into the challenges and revelations that ultimately pushed her into consulting for faith-based practice owners.
Whether you're a therapist, a business owner, or simply looking for guidance on balancing personal and professional life, Whitney’s story is full of wisdom, purpose, and practical advice for building a community of support and faith. Tune in to gain insights that can help you align your business with your deeper calling and connect with your local church communities.
From Mentorship to Ministry
In an ever-changing world where personal and professional demands often clash, it’s easy to lose sight of why we do what we do. For Whitney, that moment of clarity came after college while mentoring students at the Wesley Foundation, a campus ministry at the University of Georgia. As she guided students through their faith and college experiences, she realized she had a natural gift for helping others. This insight set her on a path to become a therapist, leading her to a faith-based counseling program in Atlanta.
Faith, Challenges, and Success
Growing up in the church, faith had always been central to Whitney’s life, and she couldn’t imagine a career that didn’t align with God’s calling. After completing her studies, Whitney faced challenges in finding a job. Even with experience working for a large hospital corporation in Colorado, doors didn’t open when she relocated to Savannah. But what initially seemed like a setback was, in her words, “God’s hand involved in my life.” When traditional job opportunities didn’t come through, Whitney started her own private practice—and found success.
Embracing a New Calling
With her private practice flourishing, Whitney began to see her calling expand beyond one-on-one therapy. She wanted to help other faith-based practice owners, but at first, she resisted this pull. The world of consulting felt overwhelming, especially with so many already in the space. However, during a retreat by Lake Michigan at Joe Sanok’s Slow Down School, Whitney had a transformative experience. Inspired by the biblical story of Mary and Martha, she realized she had been “consumed with so many things” but was missing the most important calling: consulting for faith-based practice owners.
Faith Meets Business
Whitney’s transition into consulting wasn’t without its challenges. She worked with Practice of the Practice, receiving mentorship and guidance, but ultimately parted ways to create her own venture, Wise Practice Consulting. Despite the inevitable ups and downs of running a business, Whitney remains deeply connected to her purpose—helping others grow in their faith-based practices while also nurturing their identities as individuals and business owners.
Her consulting is about more than just offering business strategies; it’s about helping clients discover who they are in their work and how their businesses reflect their personal and spiritual lives. For Whitney, business decisions are not purely logical; they are also spiritual. She seeks wisdom from those with similar faith backgrounds, prays about significant decisions, and always considers what is best for her community.
Building Community and Faith
Whitney’s passion for community building is clear. She understands the isolation that therapists and business owners often feel, and her goal is to create spaces where people can connect, grow, and support one another. Whitney believes that creating a diverse and supportive community is key to breaking down divides and fostering collaboration in the therapy world.
If you’re a faith-based practice owner looking to connect with your local church communities, Whitney also offers a free resource with four tips for networking and marketing with churches. According to her, churches are an untapped market that can provide meaningful connections for practice owners, regardless of whether their practices are faith-based.
Whitney’s journey is one of faith, perseverance, and finding purpose in community. While she may face moments of doubt, she always returns to the core of why she does what she does—serving others, building relationships, and following her calling.
Show Sponsor RevKey
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At RevKey, a trusted digital marketing agency, used by myself and many other therapy practices, they leverage Google Ads and digital advertising to get your business to the top of search results and keep your business front of mind with potential clients.
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Links and Resources
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[00:00:00] Whitney Owens: Have you ever thought about digital advertising and how it can benefit your business? By now I'm sure we've all realized that every business needs an online presence. Now more than ever, the online presence can make or break your growth and revenue potential, but being online is not the same as being found online.
If you want to boost your presence and get more of the right clients in your practice and get them coming to your website, it might be time to invest in digital advertising. At RevKey, a trusted digital marketing agency has used By myself and many other therapy practices, they will leverage Google ads and digital advertising to get your business to the top of search results and to keep your business front of mind with potential clients.
Get started on your Google ad journey today and unlock your business's potential with Revkey. 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. Want to grow your practice? Want to grow your faith? Want to 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.
[00:01:21] Jingle: Well, she grows your practice. She don't play. She does business with a twist of faith. It's Whitney Owens and the Wise Practice Podcast, Whitney Owens and the Wise Practice Podcast.
[00:01:39] Whitney Owens: I have an exciting episode here for you today. It's going to be a little different than what you're used to because this is a reverse interview. So that's right. I usually. I'm interviewing someone on a podcast, but I had the pleasure of being interviewed by Liz Lansky. She's a coach for practice owners.
And she asks some of the best questions. She's so authentic and cool. So she interviewed me for a virtual summit that she did a few months back and I was loving it. I looked back at the interview, it was like, that was great. She had the best questions. It was exactly The way I wanted to convey myself. So she really brought that out of me.
And I was like, can I have that recording? Because I want to put it on the podcast. So that is what we are doing today in the interview. We talk about why we do what we do and really going back to why wise practice consulting is what it is. What does it mean to be a Christian consultant? Like, what does that work actually like?
What's it like to integrate faith in the room? And then what do we do when challenges come up? How do we finish strong? How do we handle when people have a different faith background than us? How do we bring acceptance into that space and love, even when things are different than what we thought they were going to be?
So I loved this interview. I think it portrays a lot about, The mission and the values of wise practice consulting. So I'm looking forward to sharing that with you today. So jump on in with me and enjoy this Reverse Podcast interview with me and Liz Lansky.
[00:03:19] Dr. Liz Lasky: I know that your work is very special to you. And tell everyone a little bit about your work and what you're up to these days.
[00:03:30] Whitney Owens: Yes, it is very special to me. It's working with faith based practice owners. So people ask me a lot, what does that actually mean? It really just means I don't want to say Christian practice owners, because Christian has a pretty negative Spin on it these days, unfortunately.
But I also wanna show that we are an accepting and inviting community, you know? And so if someone from a different faith did wanna be a part of the community, that would be totally fine as long as they were comfortable with other people having different faiths within the community, right? So it's for people who consider faith to be an important part of the way they live their life, maybe a part of the way they run their business, or it could be completely everything they do in their business.
So we find that these. Practice owners are wanting to incorporate that in some way. And so I kind of help them incorporate that, but I also help with just practical business stuff. I specifically really enjoy helping private pay practices. It's something that I've done with my group practice. And then I also really enjoy group practices.
I love the dynamic and helping understand like, what does it mean to be a leader? How do we communicate all the fires we have to put out? And then also like, how do we keep, you know, what the summit is all about being strong and meeting our goals and moving forward, even when. Okay. Your practice has a lot of stuff going on or whatever your business might be.
Along with the faith based practice component, I do a lot of different things involving that, like podcasts and summits and community. So just different outlets for people in different places for what they might need as a practice center.
[00:04:57] Dr. Liz Lasky: How, tell me a little bit about how you got into this and I, you really, you know, you piqued my interest in a variety of ways and even just what you said about this idea of using the word Christian or using that as an adjective now is even, it can even be seen as controversial these days.
It's not something, you know, even, even. Saying something like faith based and having that connected to mental health can be controversial these days. Yet our faith oftentimes is something that's such an important component in our lives and often acts as a compass for so many people. Tell us a little bit about your story of how this became, this became your story, your business story with that big personal component and the professional component as well.
Mm hmm.
[00:05:47] Whitney Owens: Well, thank you. I appreciate your question. It's good to go back sometimes and remember while we're doing what we're doing, right? When things get kind of crazy. Yes. So I decided to become a therapist right after college. I worked at a campus ministry. It was called the Wesley Foundation at the University of Georgia.
So go dogs. And while I was there, I was mentoring girls just kind of in their faith and their college experience. And I was like, Hmm, I think I might have a gift for this. Like, yeah, this sounds like something I might need to do. So I went to a faith based school called Richmond, it was in Atlanta. And I did that because faith had always been a part of my life.
I grew up in the church. You know, I didn't feel like I could pick a career that I didn't feel like God was calling me to. I mean, that's just goes hand in hand. So I did a Christian counseling program and then I had a few different jobs along the way, my husband went to seminary. And then I got here to Savannah and started a private practice simply because I couldn't get a job anywhere.
Don't tell anybody. I couldn't get a job anywhere. Yeah. Even though I had worked for the exact same hospital corporation that was here, like the equivalent out in Colorado. I had worked at UHS. I came here. I had worked there for four years, knew their system and everything. They just, you know. Didn't really care and, but, you know, for every time something doesn't work out, something does work out, you know, it's, it's, I mean, to me, it's God's hand involved in my life and I started a private practice and then I got down, started getting down the road and realized that I was full and it was working and people needed it.
And faith, I would say, is a part of my sessions, a part of the work I do, but I don't incorporate it into every session with every client because not every client needs or wants that, you know, but it's a part of my life. Then I started hiring therapists. I hired a coach at that time. I actually had worked with Practice to the Practice, if you're familiar with the company.
Joe was my consultant and was very helpful for a long time in helping me grow my business. And while I went on, he had a retreat he called Slow Down School. This was several years ago, and I'm hiking along the waters of Lake Michigan. And one of the things that's really sweet about that experience is he encourages you to slow down and think.
And we're so busy in our businesses. It's hard for us to actually know what we want. And for me as a faith based person, it's hard for me to hear God's direction in my life and which goes hand in hand, usually with what I want. And as I'm walking along the waters, I'm looking out and I feel this like sense within me that I'm like, think about the Bible verse of Martha was consumed by so many things and Mary knew to sit at the feet of Jesus.
And I felt like the Lord was kind of impressing on my heart. Whitney, you were so consumed with so many things, but the main thing you're missing, which is doing consulting for faith based practice owners. When I was looking for a consultant, there was not one out there that incorporated
faith.
[00:08:36] Whitney Owens: And I was, I knew that God was calling me to that.
And I did the Jonah thing, you know, I'm getting all religious in my language here. I ran away from God for a long time. I was like, I don't want to do consulting. Everyone's in the space. You know, this is too much. And I just felt like he kept kicking me in the butt, like Whitney, get over it, get over it.
And so it was at slow down school that I decided I was going to do consulting for faith based practice owners at the time, Joe hired me because I was right there and he thought it was a good idea. And he mentored me some through the experience. And then through some different reasons, I ended up parting ways about two and a half years ago.
And so now it's wise practice consulting. I'm still doing my dream, still feel called to it. There's a lot of ups and downs as it is with any business. There's so many times to be honest, I want to give up. So I'm laughing as you told me today, because today's been one of those, I think I might not want to do this anymore,
[00:09:28] Dr. Liz Lasky: but
[00:09:28] Whitney Owens: it will be a different story.
[00:09:32] Dr. Liz Lasky: And, and what do you attribute your, you know, stick to itiveness to, and this momentum in your business is that, is that something it sounds to me, but you'll tell me if I'm, if I'm missing a piece, it sounds to me like it's a healthy dose of good business skills. and also faith and being open and listening for direction for you.
[00:09:56] Whitney Owens: Well, I do love the business stuff. That's fun. Yeah. Like the logistics and all that kind of stuff. I really enjoy that. I didn't really know I did until I started doing it. I mean, you might be the same way in that, in that sense. It's not like we went to school to learn how to run a business and then we started doing it.
We were like, This ain't so bad, you know, I think the thing right now, as you're asking me this question that motivates me to keep going is the people that I serve. And even the other day I was so discouraged and I was like, okay, I've got to go back and watch these testimonial videos where people said, Hey, this is how this impacted me.
This is what you said, or this is the community you've brought together. And I wouldn't know these people or know this about my business. If you hadn't been there and that's what I'm like, okay, like, that's why I do what I do. And they're always going to be highs and lows in any business, any life life is like that.
Yeah. We just have to keep moving forward. And then you can look back and go, well, like, I like to always look back and go, okay, well, that moment was a moment that I thought I'd never get over. And I did. And I moved on and I'm going to say it again about another moment, because that's what happens. When we do life.
[00:11:03] Dr. Liz Lasky: So it sounds like the way you're doing business is the way you're doing life. I guess so. It's that mix of skill and that mix of faith. And I'm curious to hear from you too. You know, a lot of what I'm focusing on for this summit is finishing strong. And I am curious to hear from you. What's your opinion on that, on what it means to finish strong?
And I want to even bring that question down even more focused and bring it to therapists and business, because you have the luxury of talking to a ton of business owners who are therapists, and I don't know about you, maybe your crowd's a little bit different, but I know that sometimes it's really hard for therapists to finish.
Sometimes it's hard for them to start, And sometimes it's really hard to finish strong. And I'm curious because you seem to be a finisher. Like get it going, get it together, let's get out there, wait for my message and it's okay I'll get there, but also like let's finish something and get it into the marketplace.
Tell me a little bit about what you think of that, what you see with the people you work with, and what's important about finishing something.
[00:12:19] Whitney Owens: Yeah, you're bringing up a lot of good questions here. When I think about what does that mean to finish strong, I think the most important part is that you're listening to yourself and you're not doing things for other people the whole time.
Like, even though it might look strong to serve everybody else all the time. And I did just say that I do it because of the people. I did say that, but I'm also doing it for me. Right. Okay. And when I bring faith into the mix, I mean, business is great, but for me, it's, it's about how God changes me through my business.
I become a different person because of the challenges I face. So I think finishing strong is listening to yourself, paying attention to the challenges and allowing them to change you. I mean, we could say, Hey, finishing strong means you hit a million dollars this year. Finishing strong means you delegate it out, or it means, you know, you put this package out there and it worked or this course.
And that's great. Like, that is great and that is finishing strong, but I care a lot more about what I, what, how, what finishing strong means for me personally. Am I doing the work that I love? Am I making the boundaries in my life that make me happy? You know, and, or am I just pushing myself for absolutely no reason?
Because that's usually where I go, you know, talking about, I do get really determined. I'm doing this thing and I'm doing it well. I don't care what anyone has to say about it, but I need to step back and go, wait, am I doing this thing for me? Because I want to do it, or am I doing it because of an obligation, or I have to, or I'm looking at money, or whatever the case may be.
So I think it's really listening to yourself.
[00:14:00] Dr. Liz Lasky: I know, don't, when we take ourselves sometimes just right out of that moment, when we're like, I got to hit a quarterly goal, or I got to hit this milestone, and we some, we leave ourselves sometimes. I know that I'm, I'm certainly guilty of that. I try and do it much less, but it, we sometimes.
We leave ourselves because we're just working so hard towards the goal. You know where I see that the most? When people are doing their websites.
Huh. Uh huh.
[00:14:27] Dr. Liz Lasky: Because I have seen people spend 3, months working on a website. And it's like, let's just finish something. You know, like, that is not, bottleneck to their business.
But it isn't. You still got to market. You still need lead gen. You still got to do all of these other things. You need clarity in your offer before, you know, get off the website. We don't need to spend so much time on the website.
[00:14:52] Whitney Owens: Yes, and so I think you're bringing up another point to think about what causes someone to not finish their website, or I was just talking to one of my consultants this week that works with me.
It was like, this person's not following up on their console calls. It's like, why are they what's going? Oh, yeah. I can't tell you how many times. People pay all this money and they don't do their consult calls. Now there's all personal reasons, of course, but in the end, I think about what's the motivation, what's happening here.
I think a lot of therapists don't finish things because they're scared. They're
[00:15:24] Dr. Liz Lasky: scared of fear about like, where do you
[00:15:26] Whitney Owens: think the
[00:15:26] Dr. Liz Lasky: fear is
[00:15:26] Whitney Owens: really hitting them? Oh, imposter syndrome. Yeah. For sure. Rejection. If I finish and put this thing out here that I've worked all this time on, what if no one comes?
What if no one purchases? What if this is a flop? You know? And we can, we can be successful all day long and still question things. It's like we forgot. I just accomplished this thing. Like, why can't I accomplish this thing? I wrote this book. Why can't I write another book? You know, and all of a sudden we're like, no, I can't do it.
We're fearful of what's going to happen and so then we don't take a step out. And I think we don't even realize that we feel that way. A lot of people.
[00:16:06] Dr. Liz Lasky: You know, it's so funny about the imposter syndrome too. And I see that a lot. And I mean, I'm sure you and I both felt that at times too, you know, when we have, and it's self evaluative to have, to, to have that little piece of imposter syndrome, cause we want to make sure we're showing up with integrity and we feel confident in all those things, but there are actual imposters out there, you know?
And I don't think our crowd, I don't think our community is really actual imposters. We just have those little feelings of like, Oh man, is anyone going to show up to my party? It's that little doubt. It's that little doubt there and, and I don't know about you, but I've certainly had flops. Have you? Can you remember like any really good flops where no one showed or you thought you'd have more or they didn't show up?
Like I know I've had, I've had a hundred people sign up for a webinar and six showed up and only one of them stayed, you know, and only one of them stayed. And I was like, is anybody here? Am I talking to anybody? Like we've, I think we've all, anyone who's really gone through the business ranks have like, we've all had those, those flops, those things that people are afraid of.
Yeah, definitely.
[00:17:23] Whitney Owens: And, and then we have to go back to like, okay, we'll focus on what is working. Focus on the one that did show up. Like, you're a podcaster. Podcasting is hard. You know, and then I go look at my numbers and I'm like, is this worth it? Is this working? All this money and effort I put into podcasting.
But then I have to remember, okay, I have to remember these people heard the episode. These people were impacted and that's why we're doing what we're doing instead of focusing on what's not working focusing on what is working and then do that thing over and over instead of going oh I have to create this new thing I have to do this other thing like just do
[00:17:57] Dr. Liz Lasky: what's working.
And also bringing you back to your to your Point before your very strong point before we have to make sure that what we're doing feels good to us. Yes, we're doing it for other people. And we want to be of service. I think anyone who's listening to this wants to wants to do that. But I don't think we always allow ourselves to say, you know, this isn't for everyone.
As therapists, this is, you know, when I teach in, in my MSW program, for example, and I have, and I have these young social work students, you know, I'll, I'll always bring up the question. And they're always looking at me like, Dr. Lasky, like, how am I supposed to answer this? But like, is this fully altruistic work or is there room for us also to feel gratified in our work?
And I think for us, just as humans to not allow for room for us to to have to feel gratified in our work isn't like it has to work for us too because we're going to be fired up we're going to feel better we're going to show up even more for our clients if it feels congruent with what we want and how we want to be showing up
[00:19:01] Whitney Owens: reach it
[00:19:02] Dr. Liz Lasky: yeah I know.
Am I Christian now? Okay. So, when you're working, when you're working with your people, when you're working with your clients, um, tell me a little bit about who's your ideal person who's coming to you.
[00:19:18] Whitney Owens: Man, Liz, doesn't it feel so good when your ideal person comes to you?
[00:19:24] Dr. Liz Lasky: It just feels like the stars are aligned.
[00:19:28] Whitney Owens: I mean, just here, just when you said that I smiled because I got somebody this week. That was my ideal person, you know, and that doesn't happen every day, but yeah, I got done with the consult call. It was her first one. I was like, yes, we're going to have so much fun together.
[00:19:42] Dr. Liz Lasky: Right. Yeah.
[00:19:44] Whitney Owens: Yeah. So I'm thinking about her as I, as I'm sharing with you, I.
I do love working with faith based practice owners. I like when they have questions about their faith, their journey, but really what I was talking about earlier, like helping them see who they are. In their job, like, not just I'm not just going to help you with here are the things that you need to do to make your business thrive.
It's who are you in your business? How is it a part of you? How are you presenting yourself? Because really, our business is a extended hand of who we are to other people and to our community, you know, I love working with group owners. You know, especially those that are, I mean, I like helping people start their group practices because that's a special time, you know, it's, it's kind of like, it's like coming of age, you know, you're there, you know, but I also love when they have 5, 10 therapists, maybe, and so you're, you've gotten down the road enough that you're having a lot of problems.
And you really got to fix them. I love like looking at that dynamic and helping them work through that. But I just really love community. I love creating community. I love seeing people connect with one another because our work is lonely. And I think when we connect, that's where the magic happens.
[00:20:56] Dr. Liz Lasky: I agree.
It does feel lonely. And when we don't have other people who can see us and we can see them and be like, Oh man, we all had trouble with that. We all went through that. We all had to jump over that hurdle. It just feels so normalizing.
[00:21:15] Whitney Owens: Yeah. I was, I was to have a friend that lives overseas and we do WhatsApp, you know, so in the mornings I could up and run or walk and do the WhatsApp and, and she says this today, which is so in line with what we're talking about.
She was Whitney. The truth is we're all dysfunctional. And when we're by ourselves, we think that we're the problem. I'm the problem in all these relationships. What's wrong with me? And then we start talking to people and we realize that everyone's the problem. And it's okay to be dysfunctional and we're all working on our stuff.
I mean, some more than others, but yeah, we're all working on our stuff.
[00:21:48] Dr. Liz Lasky: Yeah. I mean, that takes us right out of victim mode, right? Because if we're all, we all have a level of dysfunction, we all have some level of dysfunction, then listen, it's up to us to be, to pull ourselves out of it to the other thing that you're saying too, that I think is something that helps you finish, but you'll tell me if I missed it.
I think also you get the right support. You know, you work with Joe, you hired coaches, Joe Sanok, right? We love Joe Sanok around here. Yeah. You know, there's so much that just. is coming from you around the importance of getting support and the right support.
And I imagine
[00:22:29] Dr. Liz Lasky: that your people who come to you are looking for that right support with the faith based component.
That's right. I have a real big theological question. I didn't know it was going to come to me, but can we do it? It's a tough one. I love it. So what's more important faith or skill?
[00:22:53] Whitney Owens: In which part?
[00:22:54] Dr. Liz Lasky: Like I'm thinking of these business owners. I'm thinking of, of even myself, right? I'm not Christian, but I'm, I certainly, you know, I, I am a religious person and spiritual person, but I, you know, thinking about people who are working in these faith based and I know people in my life and in my family and like, and we hear this a lot of handing things over to God.
And. I also know people who run very successful businesses where no one's mentioning God, spirituality, faith, leaning on anything. And it's a unique, it's a unique pocket you got, because I would imagine those people are fierce business owners, and they're also fiercely committed to their faith. And can only imagine this question comes up in your community.
What's more important, the skill, the business skill, your clinical skill, your whatever skill or faith and belief in God. And I asked that question mostly, and I'll just give you some context. I asked that question mostly because I recently had a session with someone Who before we started this recording, by the way, I already referred, referred her to Whitney, someone who I'm working with.
And I already said to her, I said to Whitney, you know, if there's someone better for someone I'm working with, I'm, I'm cutting ties and sending them so you can get the right help. And I really mean that. And one of the things that came up in our session, my session with her, which was so powerful was how much she leans on God.
And how much she leans on her faith that it just supersedes almost anything else, any other, almost clinical skills. Now, I also just want to say she follows her ethics and state licensure very clearly, and she's not bringing that into session and in all the yada yada, as I'm supposed to mention, but.
There's this moment where I thought to myself, what is more important? Is it the skill or is it this faith of how people are led? What do you think of that?
[00:25:03] Whitney Owens: I mean, does one really have to be more important than the other? Can't they just both be what they are? I mean, if I have a business decision to make.
[00:25:12] Dr. Liz Lasky: Yeah.
[00:25:13] Whitney Owens: I don't say, okay, I'm only going to make this decision based on what my faith tells me. I got to find a Bible verse. I got to find a pastor, figure this out. Do I only make a decision based on what logically is the best business decision without praying and thinking about it? No. Well, if it's a little decision, probably I just moved through life.
Just to be honest, I don't pray about every decision. But yeah, if I have a big decision that I need to make, I'm going to think logically, but I'm also going to pray about it. I'm going to seek out wisdom from other people that I admire. Probably people who have a similar faith background because they understand the way I think and feel, and I know they're going to pray for me and guide me.
But I'm also going to think about, is this good for my business? Is this good for the people I serve? Does this meet the needs of the community or the financial needs or whatever? And I truly am of the opinion that all good work is God's work. You know, a therapist. A therapists that aren't Christian May not like this, but I'm gonna say it
I think a therapist, even if they don't have a faith background or call themselves a Christian or anything like that, which most people have some kind of faith background, but even if they don't, if they're doing good work, I think they're doing God's work. Because I think of the world as created by God and good things are of God, you know, and they're moving forward in that.
And to tell you the truth list, some Christians won't like that I said that 'cause they want it to have the Christian label on it to be godly, you know? And I, yeah, I just, I, I think I've heard that too. Yeah, we don't need to put things in categories so much. That's actually what the problem is, is that people are putting things in categories too much in our culture and being able to be more accepting and loving.
And let's, let's put these things together. Let's make faith a part of these things, but not a mutually exclusive thing.
[00:26:59] Dr. Liz Lasky: Thank you for helping me shift my thinking on that. I didn't think that's what you would have said. And I'm glad, so glad I asked that because I really did make an assumption. I actually thought you were gonna say, at the end of the day, faith really comes in, comes in Supreme, and you didn't say that.
What I actually maybe tell me if I'm extrapolating this too much, you're it. It's like they're on the same, they're on the same level. It's all on the same playing field because that's just how you live your life.
[00:27:28] Whitney Owens: And so I'm totally picking on you right now. Yeah, no, give it to me. I want to learn. I love this.
And this is why I don't call myself a Christian consultant. What just happened right here. Because when, as soon as you use that label Christian, you assume that they're, You know, on this whole nother level of faith and I got to pray about everything and everything needs a Bible verse. And, you know, you thought that that's what I was going to say.
And I can't stand that about people personally, because, because we, we miss God by doing all this other stuff. Yeah. God is involved in all the things. And because we say it has to be this way as Christians, then we miss it. And I don't want people to miss God's work. God's work is right now what we're doing right here.
I've already been impacted by this conversation on a very deep level that we can talk about after the episode or whenever you want to talk about it. But that's God working.
[00:28:24] Dr. Liz Lasky: Yeah. Okay, this is why I'm obsessed with you. I'm obsessed with you because I am sitting across from someone we share. I would imagine professional vows.
We don't share the same religious or, or, you know, personal spiritual values. And I just want to acknowledge I feel like this is a very, I feel very well respected by you and I just feel like this is a respectful conversation and I want to acknowledge that because I want to also model for people who are listening that you can have two people from different ends of a spectrum and you can still have a respectful conversation and find commonality.
So I want to acknowledge that piece. The other, the real reason I'm obsessed with you is because there is a whole market, a whole business market in America that truly is, is Christian. I'm going to use Christian because I do mean that Christian based families, communities who the typical, uh, I might, I might get slammed for this and you'll help me.
By the way, all of you listeners. Come and slam me, nicely, cause I'm still a person, but come and slam me and give me feedback because maybe I'm wrong about this, I might be wrong about it, but I'm open to learning and feedback. I think the typical therapist Is the open is the loving is the self determination.
Everyone has certain rights. There is also reality in this country in America. There's a lot of this country who doesn't believe in some of those I'm going to say traditional values. For example, I'm just going to name it a woman's right to choose rights to abortion, marriage, what a family should look like.
By the way, I'm not making this up. You don't need a Liz Lasky newsletter for this. Like this is just turn, open the newspaper or turn on the television, right? We're in a, we're in an election year folks. So the, now there is a, I think a feeling sometimes from therapists of like, those are not my people. I don't want to serve that community.
And by the way, this is also why you don't use Christian. Cause I get you now, you know, like we're not going to put a label on that. Right. But here's the thing, those people who are getting labeled, they still need mental health services and they're still deserving of good care. Sorry. I'm saying that I believe it.
I'm, I'm not gonna, I'm not going to sit and say someone who doesn't believe the same thing as me, doesn't get to have. Good mental health care and I I don't even really know. I don't know your politics I don't know how you vote, I don't really, like, you and I don't know each other very well. I don't wanna know, by the way, like, it's none of my business and you don't have to share that.
I actually hope you don't share it because I think it's gonna even enrich this conversation even more. But, I think we have to also be aware that we have to build bridges with communities that aren't like our own, and this is the way, this is where not only individual and interpersonal healing happen, but hopefully we can bring greater healing.
Which every therapist is invested in to parts of this country and I get why you're saying faith based I really really understand you because you're right that when you hear the word Christian people bug out So that's why I'm obsessed with you because I think you're serving a really important need You know, I think you're you're you're giving direction to people who really need it to Communities that actually really need the services so You know, all of the people you're working with, and I wish we had more time today.
Maybe you'll have to come back, tell everyone a little bit of advice, a little bit of a wish for them, uh, whatever they're doing right now, how they can finish strong. We're a hop, skip and a jump to 2025. How can your people, the people listening to this, whether they're having, they're running faith based practices or not, how can they stay?
How can they finish strong?
[00:32:41] Whitney Owens: Yeah, well, Liz, thank you for what you just shared and I echo and agree with everything you said. Tim, thank you for that. How can they finish strong by slowing down and paying attention to what your heart is saying, what your soul is saying. I have found when I push myself hard and hard and hard, I actually move kind of slower, like don't get as much accomplished.
But sometimes if I take a full day or a vacation, I get inspired. I get energy and I've become way more efficient in what I'm doing. And I'm actually doing what I want to do instead of all the stuff I don't want to do that I just keep doing automatically because it's on my to do list.
[00:33:24] Dr. Liz Lasky: Well, I think you just slowed us down right here.
And I think we've had so much to digest from this conversation. I know that I have, and thank you so much for showing up as a leader and sharing of yourself and speaking from all of your experience and helping all of us finish strong and you're given your message is loud and clear. We all got to slow down a little.
[00:33:48] Whitney Owens: Thank you.
[00:33:49] Dr. Liz Lasky: Now, Whitney, I know you also have something that you're working on, and I want to make sure that everyone here knows about it and is invited to us. Tell us a little bit about your in person summit. Tell us a little bit about that. And also you have a freebie for our listeners. Yes.
[00:34:06] Whitney Owens: Thank you, Liz.
Well, as we've been talking about, community is very important and it really does take down those divides. You know, we can email and talk about things and there's so much conflict when we get together. There's something special and powerful. So we are having a summit. It's called the Wise Practice Summit.
It's in Charlotte, North Carolina, October 3rd through the 5th. You can gain up to 15 CEs by the MBCC. All are welcome, faith based or not. There's plenty of not faith based people coming, but there will be a faith based component and that's who the conference is for. Along with that, I do have a freebie. If you go to wisepracticeconsulting.
com, there's a pop up there for four tips to network and market with churches. I have a lot of practice owners, faith based or not, who say, how can I get into churches? Y'all, this is an untapped market that we need to be using.
[00:34:53] Dr. Liz Lasky: Thanks for joining us for this episode and we will see you next time. So
[00:35:00] Jingle: 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 the Wise Practice Podcast.
[00:35:18] Whitney Owens: Special thanks to Marty Altman for the music in this podcast. The Wise Practice Podcast is part of the Sitecraft 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 sitecraftnetwork.
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.
