Today we’d like to introduce you to Kaylin and Dakota Lawrence. Them and their team share their story with us below:
Mind The Gap is a love story between two people, their passion, and their community.
Kaylin and Dakota met in 2013 in Florida, both freshly out of college and freshly into their careers. Dakota was working in a crisis stabilization unit, providing group and activity services to community members in crisis. Kaylin was working as an OTA in a neuro-rehabilitation setting, helping those with TBI’s, stroke, and the like gain functional independence. At the time, it didn’t seem like our jobs had much to do with each other.
But we were so wrong! We learned as we got to know each other that the space between mental health and physical health wasn’t as large as either of us thought. How many people recovering from a stroke experience depression and anxiety? How many people struggling with a mental health crisis have occurring physical health problems?
A whole lot.
In 2016, we moved to Nashville to attend graduate school. Kaylin went to Belmont University for her Master’s in Occupational Therapy and Dakota went to Vanderbilt University for his Master’s in Human Development Counseling. We fell in love a second time: with the Middle Tennessee Community. We got to know our neighbors and found that Nashville and Murfreesboro are both full of humble, hard-working, and compassionate people.
After graduation in 2016, we each began our careers anew, got married, and moved to our forever home: Murfreesboro. Kaylin developed and started the first occupational therapy program of its kind in the entire nation by implementing OT services in a recovery court setting. Dakota began interdisciplinary practice, seeing mental health clients in a medical setting.
It was in these places that we ran into the same problem.
Health professions traditionally exist in silos: isolated from one another and deeply specialized. This isn’t inherently a bad thing, but it means that important pieces of our client’s overall healthcare slipped through the gaps between services. So an idea was born: to offer mental health services that spanned the space between mental and physical domains. OT is often utilized in a physical health setting and counseling is primarily utilized in a mental health setting. By combining and collaborating, we weave together a safety net.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey have been a fairly smooth road?
The past year has really proven how challenging life can be. We have experienced a ton of loss both personally and professionally and grief really hit us hard. Loss is always painful, but sometimes it leads to growth and new life. We have dreamed about bringing our vision of mental health care, client care, community engagement, and meaningful connection to life for years. We truly believe that Mind The Gap would have just been an idea on a shelf if it hadn’t been for the challenges and obstacles that came our way this year. Life was pushing us to the edge and so we decided to take a leap of faith! We chose the Ginkgo leaf as the symbol of our practice because the ginkgo tree has long been a symbol of strength/longevity (they can live for a thousand years), resilience (these trees survived the blast at Hiroshima and are still growing even today), and hope. These are our values and the gifts we hope to give our clients: strength, resilience, and hope.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your business?
Mind The Gap is an integrative therapy practice offering whole-person mental healthcare to the Middle Tennessee area. We provide individual therapy, occupational therapy, and group therapy to those in need. We believe that quality care incorporates mind, body, spirit, culture, & community. Our providers are specially trained in working with trauma (PTSD/CPTSD), neurodivergence (autism, ADHD), depression, anxiety, chronic pain, self-harm, and suicide. We see people across the lifespan: children, teens, and adults. We firmly believe that therapy should treat the mind and the body.
Can you talk to us a bit about the role of luck?
Luck is a weird word. In some ways, it has a connotation of “coincidence” or “happenstance” and that’s not how we think about it. Luck is about capitalizing on opportunity. Opportunity only presents itself when we put ourselves out there and move into discomfort and vulnerability. In this way, luck has certainly played a role starting our practice. We’ve taken some big risks! We’ve wrestled with anxiety, moved into discomfort, and continued to be vulnerable. But luck isn’t everything. We’ve also put in countless hours of hard work, dedication, and a whole lot of passion. Mind The Gap is a part of our story and hopefully our legacy, we have poured our heart and soul into creating this business out of a love for our profession, each other, and the amazing people in our community. We teach our clients to move into vulnerability and accept healthy risks. We do try to “take our own medicine” in this way. We certainly feel “lucky” to be able to pour ourselves into our own business and live this life together.
Pricing:
- Psychotherapy: $125/session
- Occupational Therapy: $75/session
- Group: $50/session
Contact Info:
- Website: mindthegaptn.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mindthegaptn/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100085667221861
