40: Breaking the Mold: Patrice Flannagan-Morris on Redefining Mental Health Care

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Narrator

Hello and welcome to Sherie Lindbergh's Elevated Life Academy. Stories of hope and healing. Through raw and heartfelt conversations, we uncover the powerful tools and strategies these individuals use to not only heal themselves, but also inspire those around them. Join us on this incredible journey as we discover the human spirit's remarkable capacity to heal, find hope in the darkest of moments, and ultimately live an elevated life.

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Cherie Lindberg

Welcome, everyone, to another episode of Elevated Life Academy, and I am your host, Cherie Lindberg. And we have a special treat today. This is our third podcast that is launching around the Women Entrepreneur series. You will see a ribbon on the podcast Art indicating who we are interviewing for this. So we're interviewing many women from different developmental pieces in their life and wanting to understand what it's like for different women owning their own businesses.

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Cherie Lindberg

And so we have Patrice Flannagan-Morris with us this morning, and I would like to wåelcome her and have you introduce yourself, Patrice. Let us know where you're from and talk a little bit about your practice.

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Patrice Flannagan-Morris

So I am from the Waukesha, Wisconsin area. I run a group mental health practice and have seven clinicians that are working underneath me currently, and we offer a wide variety of services. We do individual and couples counseling and then community workshops and are moving in the direction of kind of expanding into an emotional wellness space. So outside of just direct one on one therapy to really provide holistic healing to our community as much as possible.

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Cherie Lindberg

Beautiful. So I've known Patrice. My goodness. Like, how long have we known each other now?

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Patrice Flannagan-Morris

2017? Oh, years.

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Cherie Lindberg

Okay, we're going into our eighth year, so I have had the privilege of watching you grow and expand. And it's it's been absolutely wonderful. But take us on a journey with you. Like help our listeners learn about your journey from working in an agency after graduate school to where you're at now, or your managing seven clinicians in your private practice.

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Patrice Flannagan-Morris

Yeah, I think it's really wild because I never imagined I was really big on five year plans and this is never a five year plan. And I gave up after my like, second five year plan just collapsed in on itself. But I worked. I went into social work to really be able to support people's healing and growth and wanting to help our community as much as possible.

00;03;01;14 - 00;03;29;26

Patrice Flannagan-Morris

And a lot of the agency settings that I worked in, I found, were either following the medical model really closely to a point that it was damaging the people that I was working with and in some cases, traumatizing them. And so I was in an outpatient practice before starting my own and just kind of decided, you know, my gut, my I think my step in any direction has been like, how hard could this really be?

00;03;29;27 - 00;04;08;04

Patrice Flannagan-Morris

And if I don't make it, like, I'll probably find a safety net somewhere else that I can land. And so I went out on my own to be a solo private practice. And as I started growing that private practice, it felt really good to get to support people in the way that I felt like they needed to be supported, to provide individual, individualized care to my clients, and to help people learn about different ways of healing that exist that I think are really unknown and start to break the mold of what therapy really looks like and is and and what it looks like in the office when you're sitting across from somebody who really understands

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Patrice Flannagan-Morris

and sees you. And I had a friend who was also working in agency settings and just getting very burnt out and tired and was like, would you ever hire somebody? And then I was like, that can't be that hard. You know, people do it all the time. And it turns out I was really challenging. There's a lot of learning curves.

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Patrice Flannagan-Morris

I was unanticipated, like, not anticipating whatsoever. A lot of business stuff. I all of a sudden had to learn that I, you know, you start a solo private practice. It's like there's some businessy things that exist, but you really just managing your caseload and making sure you're getting payments and you have to get insurance. But once you add an employee and like payroll and all of this stuff really adds another layer into it.

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Patrice Flannagan-Morris

inician, and I must have been: 2021

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Patrice Flannagan-Morris

So I ended up one of them left and I ended up having to let go. The other one, which was a very hard but transfer of experience for me in being really clear with employees from the start what my expectations are and when those expectations aren't being met. Having direct conversation. So I was kind of passive and trying to let things work itself out and let people be who they wanted to be.

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Patrice Flannagan-Morris

And I really wanted to go into hiring people so that I could provide them a space where they feel seen and heard. And that's a really hard thing to balance leadership in a way that like, makes people feel really connected, but also having expectations as a business owner. So once I had let go, that employee, I just kind of started having people like universally, like dropped at my doorstep likes.

00;06;30;26 - 00;06;48;24

Patrice Flannagan-Morris

I think I looked for a couple of the employees. I have probably like two, two of them, and then the rest of them I just met along the way and was like, you seem like a great person. Once you come in for an interview and maybe I'll hire you. And it's like really worked out well for me.

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Cherie Lindberg

Great. So talk a little bit more about the surprises of, you know, some of these business things and how how did you learn some of the things that you had to learn?

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Patrice Flannagan-Morris

I think kindness and like honesty and transparency are things I really tried to lead with within my business. But it was really hard to find a way to translate that into like a capitalistic society that is really focused on, like making money and selling a product and selling a catch of, you know, a guarantee of something happening. A lot of the people that I worked with on website development, I developed my first website and it was fine.

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Patrice Flannagan-Morris

And then I decided they wanted to move in the direction of having somebody support me. Learning to delegate has been a really big thing for me, and that hoarding money. But like being like, I have to invest in my business so this can represent me well and this is not something I'm going to learn well enough to do.

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Patrice Flannagan-Morris

So, you know, really finding externally supports that help the business has been probably the most challenging and most surprising thing because you really have to find like minded people who understand the brand that you're trying to build and want to support you in building it, rather than people who are just, like, really interested in helping you sell something.

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Patrice Flannagan-Morris

Yeah, I think that was the big surprise. And then I think just for the managing people, it was kind of surprising how as the business grew and I could see where our finances were growing, how much personal work I needed to do to stay in integrity. I think it's really easy once you start making money to like, I look at the other group practices around us and some of the things that they do that like fill the pockets of the group practice owner.

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Patrice Flannagan-Morris

And it's easy to get away with using people for your own well-being. As an employer. It's because people just don't know. They don't know their rights. They don't know. Especially newly licensed clinicians are like very easy to take advantage of because they're just trying to make their way. And I had to really work on making sure that I was stepping out of scarcity.

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Patrice Flannagan-Morris

Every time I felt myself pulled in so that I could stay in integrity. And what I'm trying to do for people rather than what I'm just trying to do for myself. And that was really surprising for me, because I'm really big on like integrity and honesty. But there are some carrots that get dangled, but you're very tempted to take.

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Patrice Flannagan-Morris

And I think part of the reason I've been, you know, given as many people as they have universally is because I've continued to do that work to really shift out of the scarcity mindset as much as possible.

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Cherie Lindberg

While I hear you and I get this, I really hear you trying to stay aligned with your governing principles in any situation, and then a new situation presents itself, and then you got to align again, I hear that. So talk about the challenges to to delegation, because I know when I, when I coach business owners, one of the hardest things for practice owners is investing in their business delegation because of that scarcity mindset.

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Cherie Lindberg

Like they don't, they're afraid they're not going to have enough money or whatever, or they're afraid to trust somebody with a responsibility. So talk more about that. What was that like for you? Yeah, I.

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Patrice Flannagan-Morris

Think the trust piece and like having people that I felt like aligned with what my vision was, was probably the most challenging piece for me. Investing in it is definitely scary in some ways, but I feel like I invested in people that didn't pan out. And then it feels like a waste. And I think that that's really hard to spend time and energy in delegating and then have to re delegate to something else is just like, man, I'll just do it on myself and like at least I know I can do it fast and I can get it done well.

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Patrice Flannagan-Morris

And I'd say that's the other piece that I'm still working on personally, is letting people find their own way of doing something, as long as it's effective and understanding that it might not be done the way I would like to do it, or as efficiently as I would like to do it, but that I've also been doing all of this for so many years that I have a much more well oiled machine when I delegate out, it means pieces are going to kind of fall apart for a little while until they come back together.

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Patrice Flannagan-Morris

And I think as a business owner, that's really hard because you're like, I've made this like really nice car. I understand that if I have somebody else work on X, Y and Z, it could get better. But that process of it being stalled out is not something I really like signing up for.

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Cherie Lindberg

Oh, I hear you. I hear you on that. You have a vision, you take it to someone else and they may take it in a different direction than what you thought. And then you have to regroup and bring it back. But that's the learning process too. Like there's a learning curve here for for everybody. And, you know, helping the well oiled machine create a really efficient process, I guess is what I'm talk more about, you know, what is it like being a business owner and also having your own family and, and managing all the different balls in the air?

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Patrice Flannagan-Morris

Yeah. Before I had my, our first daughter, it was a lot easier. I worked a lot more and I had just the time and energy to invest, and I didn't have as much as I had to take care of and like, really build at home. So that's when I really challenging thing and transitioning into like young motherhood and having a really small child at home and wanting to support her and make sure that she set up for the rest of her life has kind of meant that, you know, I've had to take a step back from advancing as fast as I think I would have had we not had her, and that's been really hard

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Patrice Flannagan-Morris

to find the balance. I've been very grateful that I had the time. Probably I had like 3 or 4 years before I had her to really have an established business, which was great. But, you know, we're in this place now where you can, like, feel that we want to grow, to be bigger and unfortunately, because I'm the driver of that ship, like having a family at home means that that growth is a lot slower.

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Patrice Flannagan-Morris

And so dealing with some of the grief around that has been really important for me, so that I can show up in both settings wholeheartedly and and in a non resentful way, but also finding balance and allowing sacrifice to happen to know like this just isn't the season that like the business is going to like blow out of the water?

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Patrice Flannagan-Morris

It's it has to be the season where like we're coasting a little bit more. We're creating sustainability practice says we know where we want to go. But I also have to make sure I'm putting the time and energy in at home, which means professionally, I just don't get to be as far as I would like to be.

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Cherie Lindberg

e, this is the time I look at: 2026

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Cherie Lindberg

Something like that?

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Patrice Flannagan-Morris

Yeah, I have a yearly business journal that I've been using for the past few years that I really, really like. And it's I keep all of them so that I can kind of look back to see where I've come from, what I was thinking about a few years ago versus like where we're at right now and, and how we want to grow.

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Patrice Flannagan-Morris

So those have been really helpful. And then usually in like transition seasons, I try to spend some time really reflecting. And like sometimes I'll even like pull tarot cards and just like really engage in some mindfulness around what's been feeling really good about the business, what creativity has then coming forward to me and then what do I feel like is actually plausible to follow through on?

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Patrice Flannagan-Morris

Because when I was first establishing the group, I was trying to do, like so many things, all at the same time, and I finally hit this point in those practices where it was like, you've got to make a choice and you've got to walk a path, which means you need to let go of these other paths for a little while so that you can really focus on fostering and growing this one.

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Patrice Flannagan-Morris

And if you don't want to do that, then you need to walk away from this and spend your time and energy elsewhere. So I really try to like filter a lot of the ideas that come in to be like, what's what's doable? And what do I really want to focus my time and energy on, even when it gets hard so that I can have this like long term sustainability, what.

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Cherie Lindberg

Happens or what have you experienced when you start to reflect and you realize, I'm going to have to let go of this and the experience or a process that happened that was surprising or hard, and how did you handle it?

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Patrice Flannagan-Morris

I think I have a personality where I really feel like I can do a lot more than I should allow myself to do and still enjoy my life. So that's been a big practice of mine. Is finding joy in pacing because I'm such it's like almost like being like an adrenaline junkie. It's like I love, like, sprouting things and making new things and being like, look at all this cool stuff that I'm doing all at the same time, even if it's causing me to have mental breakdowns at the time.

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Patrice Flannagan-Morris

And I really, really had to work hard on how do I enjoy life when it's slow? How do I enjoy life when you know I don't have a training to go to every other weekend? I'm not flying around professionally developing. I'm not growing the business and all the different ways that I want to. I'm sitting on the floor playing magna tiles, you know?

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Patrice Flannagan-Morris

And how do I really refocus? Because it's easy to put all of our success in these ways that we're achieving. And I really had to focus on like, but what is this also supporting and teaching me and my daughter about what productivity and rest look like. And I was never really taught rest growing up. I wasn't good at it.

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Patrice Flannagan-Morris

I would say I'm still have a hard time with it. I think all of my employees would agree with that as well. And so I really like having a child is probably one of the biggest things that has helps me be like, slow down, find rest, find your own rest for yourself and rest with her. Like you've got to take a step back and you have to enjoy this process.

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Patrice Flannagan-Morris

Otherwise I would just hate it the whole time until I could like, speed up again.

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Cherie Lindberg

What advice would you give a person that's new to the desire of wanting to run their own private practice?

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Patrice Flannagan-Morris

Yeah, I would just say to really find your support systems in it and don't expect it to all be wonderful and click into place for it to be successful in the long term. You know, even you look at a year out, you just don't know what new opportunities and what new ideas you're going to have. And if you just keep allowing yourself to look for resources from a mindset of like, I want to continue gathering knowledge so I can grow this, rather than I have to find these resources so I can succeed.

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Patrice Flannagan-Morris

It's a very different physiological experience and allow yourself to enjoy a slow build, like it doesn't have to happen overnight.

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Cherie Lindberg

When are you at your best self? What are you doing? What does that feel like?

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Patrice Flannagan-Morris

Like in the business.

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Cherie Lindberg

Or in life? It could be either one.

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Patrice Flannagan-Morris

Yeah, I just think when I'm my best self, I'm very present. I'm very attuned for like bids for connection from other people. So being able to notice even something suddenly that's kind of an ask for you to move in. That's really when I'm in my best self. That's one of the ways I can notice that I'm getting too flooded is like, somebody will be talking to me and I'm answering them, but I'm also answering an email.

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Patrice Flannagan-Morris

I'm doing this. I'm not like focusing in and being really present in there with them. And then I'd say, just like internally, I feel very fueled, but not like I have to spend all the fuel right away.

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Cherie Lindberg

And one last question. Is there anything I haven't asked you that maybe would be good for you to share with our listeners?

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Patrice Flannagan-Morris

I don't think so. I think just like a reminder that failures and setbacks are a part of a process of owning a business. And the moments I, I read something or listen to something that was really helpful in a moment, I was really struggling is like, right before you get to the top of the mountain is usually the point you want to give up.

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Patrice Flannagan-Morris

And so if you're feeling that, like push to give up, it's okay to sit, it's okay to take a rest, it's okay to breathe. But like get back up and keep going to the top of the mountain because that's usually where you hit the breakthrough. And then all of a sudden it feels good. And when it feels good, let it feel good.

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Patrice Flannagan-Morris

I was really good at like, okay, I'm at this peak and now I'm going to climb up to the next one and I'm really working on like allowing things to be a plateau and just like, enjoy the goodness for a while before I jump back into the craziness again.

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Cherie Lindberg

Yeah, no, I can really understand what you're saying there because I know for I do that too. I have to be really cognizant of that. And what it also gives me is an opportunity to understand any limited beliefs that are present. You know, because you know me, I'm a striver as well. And learning pace, like you said earlier, is really important piece, right, to balance things out so that you can enjoy when you get to the to the peak.

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Patrice Flannagan-Morris

Yeah. And I think it's hard when you really enjoy it too, because it doesn't always feel like I have to do this to prove my worth, or I have to do this to like, it's not always limiting. Like sometimes it's just like, this feels really good to be able to give back in this way, to connect with people this way.

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Patrice Flannagan-Morris

And I think we get so like charged by that feel good sometimes that we forget that there is a part of that needs to be sprinkled in, rather than just like super charged for a short period of time.

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Cherie Lindberg

Even just taking a moment to go, I get to do this like this in my I get to do this. This is my job. Not everybody gets to do what I'm doing and enjoy that even knowing. Yeah, well, Beatriz, I want to thank you for for coming on the podcast and sharing. You know, what it's like to be a woman entrepreneur with a little ones that.

00;21;39;24 - 00;21;58;29

Cherie Lindberg

Well, it will be little ones at home here, but yeah. And, you know, managing all of that and managing a private practice and again sharing, watching you go from, you know, right out of grad school and seeing where you're at now and having you on this podcast and being able to share your successes is really heartwarming to me.

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Cherie Lindberg

So thank you for being here today.

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Patrice Flannagan-Morris

Of course. Thank you for having me.

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Cherie Lindberg

You're welcome.

00;22;06;02 - 00;22;33;12

Cherie Lindberg

Thank you so much for joining us on our Third Woman Entrepreneur Series podcast, where we're inviting women to come and talk about what it's like to own their own business, some of the challenges that they have found, some of their successes, some of their own personal and professional development that they had to go through as they are learning to rise in their business.

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Cherie Lindberg

And just as always, if there is someone that you think really could benefit from hearing this podcast, if you could please share. Because we're really trying to share with the world how to live an elevated life and sharing behind the scenes stories of hope and healing so that communities can have some positive energy in their life. So thank you so much for listening and sharing.

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Cherie Lindberg

Until next time.

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Narrator

Thank you for joining us on another uplifting journey on Cherie Lindberg's Elevated Life Academy. Stories of Hope and healing. If you found resonance or connection with what you've heard today, we encourage you to share this episode and consider becoming a subscriber. Please spread the word so others can live an elevated life.