Today we’d like to introduce you to Amy & Dan Goldstein.
Hi Amy & Dan, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers.
Amy: Sure! We founded Nashville Psych, a private psychology practice located in Hillsboro Village, in 2016, after Dan finished his postdoctoral fellowship at the Vanderbilt University Counseling Center. We are originally from Miami, Florida. I have always loved people and helping others, which led to a career in marketing and communications for non-profit organizations and small businesses. When we first met, Dan was in real estate, working for his father in their family business – and I could tell that he didn’t enjoy his work. After we were married and started talking about having a family of our own, I told him that I could see that he was unhappy in his profession and I didn’t want him to model that for our future children.
Dan: My work was incredibly stressful and unfulfilling. I felt conflicted though because I was working for my father and I felt loyal to him. I always had an interest in psychology and with Amy’s support and encouragement, I took a tremendous risk and went back to school. When I started my master’s program, I remember taking long walks in our neighborhood with our eldest daughter in a baby carrier, while making work calls before heading off to class in the evenings. When I got accepted into a doctoral program in Counseling Psychology at the University of Georgia, we moved the family to Athens, Georgia. In addition to my coursework and clinical work, I taught undergraduate students on career planning, which felt very close to home considering my own career change.
Amy: I continued working remotely for my Miami-based employer, a nonprofit organization focusing on addiction prevention. We also had our second child in Athens. After graduating with his Ph.D., Dan accepted a postdoctoral fellowship position at the Vanderbilt University Counseling Center and we moved to Nashville. We fell in love with Nashville! We decided to put down roots and although our families were disappointed initially, they very much enjoy visiting this amazing city on a regular basis. I had heard so many wonderful things about the area so when Dan accepted the job offer at Vanderbilt, I quickly purchased the URL www.nashvillepsych.com. I knew that Dan eventually wanted to go into private practice. As he finished up his postdoc, we finalized the website for the practice. I continued working full-time while doing this work on the side.
Dan: To launch the practice, I started by doing some outreach, meeting with other therapists in Nashville. I also found a great office in Belle Meade with a group of independently practicing psychiatrists: Dr. Steve Snow, Dr. Jeri Fitzpatrick, Dr. Katherine Jalovec, and Dr. Ira Phillips. Amy worked on blogging and online marketing. After about a year or so, I was relatively full and had to decide whether to refer out all the extra clients or to grow. I had a dream of building a group of like-minded clinicians who I could collaborate with so we decided to go for it. We took a chance and leased a larger office space in Hillsboro Village with room to grow, hired our first two additional therapists, and the rest is history!
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Amy: It was especially challenging for the first three years before we hired our first Client Care Coordinator to help us respond to new client inquiries. We are incredibly committed to being very responsive to everyone who reaches out to us so we put a lot of pressure on ourselves to make it work. The first year, Dan was available to respond to calls and emails between appointments, but when he booked up, he needed my help. Then I took over the phones and emails along with my own full-time job and taking care of the kids after school. It was a real balancing act. It still is, but we now have additional support from two outstanding Client Care Coordinators who make everything run smoothly. And I’m now able to work at Nashville Psych full-time, allowing me more space to support our amazing team and ensure that our clients are receiving the best possible care.
Dan: I think the most challenging thing we’ve ever had to overcome was the pandemic. As therapists, we have to prioritize our self-care to be able to provide the best possible care to our clients. We need to be in the right headspace to meet clients where they are. However, COVID was uniquely difficult because we were experiencing a lot of the same fears, frustrations, and concerns as all of our clients. We had to find a way to keep ourselves centered while holding space for others who were going through something very similar. Like other businesses, we also had to pivot to virtual and quickly implement safety protocols for our return to in-person care.
We’ve been impressed with Nashville Psych, but for folks who might not be as familiar, what can you share with them about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
Dan: Nashville Psych is a boutique private psychology practice in Hillsboro Village that offers individual therapy to adults and adolescents, couples therapy, group therapy, career counseling, and psychological evaluations. We offer in-person and online appointments and many of our clinicians are licensed in other states. We are uniquely committed to taking exceptional care of our team. We focus heavily on the self-care of our clinicians so they are equipped and empowered to offer outstanding care to their clients.
Amy: We prioritize client care because we’ve been there. We are dedicated to treating you the way we would want to be treated – with warmth, empathy, respect, kindness, and the utmost professionalism. We know how daunting and frustrating it can be to finally have the motivation, courage, and energy to ask for help – only to leave a message or send an email that is never returned. We aim to respond very quickly to any and all inquiries.
And if our practice isn’t the right fit, we are committed to sending you in the right direction, rather than having you start over, having to navigate the process alone. We also offer a wide range of options, from working with a fully-licensed, seasoned therapist for $180+ to seeing one of our lower-cost therapist trainees for $50-$75. We love training and supporting Nashville’s future psychologists and counselors while providing more affordable care for those in need.
Are there any books, apps, podcasts, or blogs that help you do your best?
Amy: I love the We Can Do Hard Things podcast with Glennon Doyle, Abby Wambach, and Amanda Doyle. I love how authentic and open they are about their challenges. They are helping to shed light on issues around mental health, parenting, social justice, and relationships.
Dan: While I’d be happy to recommend many wonderful books or apps, the thing that has helped me the most has been participating in my own (individual and group) psychotherapy as well as experiential training. I believe that the more aware I can be regarding my experience in relationships (my impact on others and others’ effect on me) the better my functioning can be in all of my relationships, both professional and personal.
Amy: I second that. I love therapy and my therapist!
Contact Info:
- Website: www.nashvillepsych.com
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/_nashvillepsych
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/nashpsych
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/nashville-psych/
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/nashville-psych-nashville
