New Business / August 2007
The Counseling House
 Candy Lanvoigt, Patty Groom, Carolyn Escandon |
By Pat Lawrence
Change can be a challenge even for professionals who have dedicated their lives to helping people change.
For Patty Groom, a licensed professional counselor, certified hypnotherapist and owner of The Counseling House, her latest change began when she was considering how patients felt while they waited for their appointment. “It’s easy to forget how anxiety-provoking it can be just to make the call-much less sitting around and waiting. I never expected to have a business of my own, But once I began thinking about a place where people would feel really comfortable, I started looking around to find one.”
“I looked at so many places that just didn’t feel right.” Then, she found it, an older house that had been remodeled. “I wanted a place with really good energy! I’d drive by and look or stop and to peek in the window.” She didn’t do anything for a year. After months of agonizing, “When I finally decided to ask for the building, it had become unavailable. But, two weeks later, everything fell into place.” The Counseling House opened with Patty and office manager Becky Curfman on October 20, 2006.
Patty, originally from Charleston, became disillusioned with nursing school after three years and switched to sociology and psychology. “It just took one class to discover counseling was for me.” As part of her Master’s program, Patty spent one summer in Austria. “It was amazing to study where so many psychiatric therapies originated.” She started working at a mental health clinic in 1971. The clinic merged with Shawnee Hills, where Patty counseled for thirteen years before going into private practice with a Charleston psychiatrist. Marriage took her to Rhode Island, Virginia, back to Charleston and finally Marietta, Ohio, where she joined Counseling and Wellness Center and became a single mom. She provides general counseling and group therapy, along with hypnotherapy. She says, “Mental health isn’t an exact science, but there are many tools available now, better medications, new techniques and new therapies, to help clients.”
In November, Candy Landvoigt, joined The Counseling House. Candy is a licensed professional counselor and play therapist with a doctorate in education from WVU. She works mostly with children, but also with parents, teaching them to relate to their children through play. Candy says, “Most young children don’t have the abstract reasoning skills or verbal abilities to articulate their thoughts. Play therapy is a way for them to express their experiences and feelings through a natural, self healing process. It can be very beneficial to grieving, anxious or withdrawn children. Kids with behavior or impulse control difficulties, or children who have situational probl ems like a new sibling or a divorce, can learn coping skills from play therapy.” Candy, originally from Virginia, is President elect of the WV Association for Play Therapy. After seven years at CWC, Candy says, “The idea of a small practice was very appealing. I like the individual attention a small practice allows.” Still, it took almost a year to finally decide to make the move. “It wasn’t an easy decision!”
Carolyn Escandon, an Advanced Practice RN, board certified in Child and Adolescent psychiatric nursing as well as adult psychiatric nursing, joins the group this month. Carolyn, with a Master’s degree from OSU and extensive neurological nursing experience, was the clinical director for St. Joseph’s psychiatric unit for seven years before joining Counseling and Wellness Center in 1997. She does general counseling for families and for individuals with depression, anxiety and other mental disorders and often works with adolescents, “one of the most satisfying, gratifying parts of my practice.” She says, “People have to be willing to change. It’s often hard, because it means changing patterns they’ve had for life. It takes commitment and diligence. Deciding to change was hard for me, too, but Patty and I had worked together for ten years at CWC. We have complementary styles and shared goals and the same vision of patient care. A smaller group is going to be a new experience. It’s an opportunity for fresh ideas and more involvement with the patients.”
According to Carolyn, it’s important that counselors maintain close contact with psychiatrists and community physicians. “Many people need medications and the standard of care for many conditions requires both therapy and medication. There’s such an overwhelming need for the medical part of treatment, in many cases, local psychiatrists focus on the medical and share therapy with the counselors.”
The Counseling House has day and evening hours with flexible appointments and the practitioners are approved by most insurance companies. Carolyn says 8-10 sessions are most common. Patty also offers a series of weekend Personal Transformation Intensive group sessions. Carolyn moderates adolescent and other groups. She says, “The goal is different for different disorders, but ultimately, it’s to live more effectively and more happily.”
In preparing the new business budget, Patty originally figured a single practitioner. “My dream was a positive place, a safe place, a place people could heal. But, I was terribly scared. Then a colleague asked, ‘How can you expect people to change when you don’t step up to the challenge yourself ?’ Now I am where I was meant to be.” And, she has a house full of people who feel the same way.
For more information, contact The Counseling House, 3017 Emerson Avenue, Parkersburg WV, 304-865-5444.
Copyright © 2007 A Woman's View. All rights reserved.
Top • Home • Subscribe • Advertise • Submit • Distribution • Contact
Support Our Advertisers • Organization Resources • Women Owned Business
Designed by Livewire Studio
Send an Email About This Article