Hidden Gems: Meet Aron Strong of Pathways Counseling and inRelationship

Today we’d like to introduce you to Aron Strong.

Hi Aron, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
Changing careers at 40 was scary. My wife and I had dreamed of moving to Tennessee for 8 years before the opportunity finally came in 2010. To us, it was the promised land with blessings and goodness waiting to be claimed. We had no idea about the journey that awaited us.

I had spent the first half of my career life working for a local church. It was natural to take another church job. However, after moving across the country to Middle Tennessee, we discover that the church was not as healthy as we were led to believe. Within a year, things started falling apart. It was shocking given the great experience I had at my prior job, but within a year there was an internal revolt and a division of leadership, and I was collateral damage.

The stress of those first couple of years was difficult. Not only did my job fall apart, my mom passed away from cancer weeks after moving here. As a result, my family imploded after her death. We had already taken a 55% pay cut as my wife initially became a stay-at-home mom. Jobless, with limited resources and connections, we were terrified. Our Promised Land had turned into a desert.

Once I secured a job that provided for my family, I turned my attention to the future. What should I do with the second half of my work career? I made a list – I wanted to help people. I wanted to have influence and ownership. I wanted a flexible schedule. I wanted to work in an area of strength and passion. As I write these things down, a profession came to mind- therapy.

Though I had never been to therapy, I had plenty of experience with pastoral counseling. Because of this, I also knew its limitations. I wanted to help people change their lives, not just provide advice and consolation. I did my research, found a university, and started grad school.

I don’t recommend the path I took. While in grad school, I continued to work. My wife had also returned to the workforce to help cover the gaps. I was working 50-60 hours a week at an adolescent crisis center, traveling across middle Tennessee assessing kids under 18 who had attempted suicide, were having suicidal ideation, were highly aggressive, or were psychotic doing mental health exams to create a plan for stabilization, safety, and treatment. I was driving to hospitals, schools, homes, and detention centers. For the first time in my life, I was also working nights.

So, grad school and internship by day, crisis work by night, and I didn’t sleep much for a couple of years. But I loved everything I was learning. It was hectic, chaotic, and overwhelming, but I kept telling myself I could do anything for just two years. As I approached graduation, I began to explore how I wanted my new career to look. I named my practice Pathways Counseling as I dreamed of a day I would work with a team rather than by myself. I had my website up and ready for the day I graduated.

I continued working my full-time crisis job, in which I was thankfully on day shifts by this time. I worked four 12-hour days for crisis and then saw clients two days a week. I was protected by Sabbath – a much-needed day of rest to keep up with the pace of life. It took a year until I finally had enough clients to quit my full-time job and become a full-time therapist.

I spent those early years continuing to study and learn. I was drawn to attachment work- the science of relationships. I started getting training in emotion-focused methods and learning more about somatic experiencing and interpersonal neurobiology. These fancy terms simply describe how people are wired to need relationships and how distress always shows up emotionally, and not as much mentally. Emotional distress, I found, is where people struggle the most- not with their thoughts.

The more I learned, the better I got. I began developing my techniques and methods. As I grew, so did my clients and I began to develop a wait list. I started adding people to my team. My dream of a group practice was coming true!

Around this time, I also met another therapist, Lindsey Castleman, who shared my passion and focus. We started doing marriage intensives several times a year. As these grew in popularity, we decided to form a company focused on helping people develop healthy relationships. We decided to call it inRelationship.

Today, my two companies are growing and thriving. Pathways Counseling has offices in Murfreesboro and Mt Juliet and has grown from just myself to 8 full-time therapists and 3-5 graduate interns at any given time. While we treat all the general issues people come to therapy for depression, anxiety, trauma, and life changes, we continue to excel at relational issues. We work with numerous families where multiple members of the family see different therapists. Our coordination of care allows us to treat each individually, as a couple or group, and towards creating healthier and more adaptable relationships between them.

inRelationship has also grown. We’ve expanded our offerings from our Created for Connection Marriage Intensive, which is limited in size due to the amount of resources we put into them, to include a marriage workshop called Being/With which allows us to interact with hundreds of people at a time. We offer regular training for therapists to help them grow in their clinical skills with webinars and member groups.

Our most recent expansion is into corporate training. Contracted by Bridgestone to help impact employee retention at their Firestone stores across the country, we created a training series called Improving Retention by Creating a Healthy Work Culture that focuses on empathy and relational interactions. The feedback has been tremendous. We now offer it to other corporations, organizations, and churches to help develop a healthy and dynamic work culture.

Changing careers wasn’t easy. But it feels as though we’ve finally arrived at the Promised Land. As I reflected on that Bible story, I realized that going through the desert is part of the process of getting to a promised land. It helps you change from who you were to become something more than you were before. More resilient and transformed by work, blood, sweat, and tears that prepare you for the challenges and blessings to come.

I’m still growing, still learning. And still excited for what has yet to come.

For more information on Pathways Counseling visit findyourpathway.com. For more information on inRelaitonship visit inRelationship.us.

We’ve been impressed with Pathways Counseling and inRelationship, 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?
Pathways Counseling is a community of like-minded therapists focused on helping people become their best selves mentally, emotionally, spiritually, and relationally. Our therapy is based on modern research in interpersonal neurobiology and attachment science. As a faith-based practice, we can integrate principles of the Christian faith into therapy as much or as little as we desire.

Our integrative approach can quickly identify core issues, resolve conflicts and traumas, recover relational connection and intimacy, and get you back on the path to the life you long for. inRelationship’s mission is to equip people to grow and excel in healthy personal and professional relationships. Grounded in modern research, neurobiology, attachment science, and faith, our events, training, and materials help people discover the security, confidence, and connection they long for.

We provide marriage workshops and marriage intensives. We train therapists through groups, events, and online courses in therapeutic approaches integrating attachment science and faith. Finally, we provide organizational training to improve the relationships of teams and employees, from companies like Bridgestone to churches and non-profits.

Do you have any advice for those looking to network or find a mentor?
Being an entrepreneur, finding mentors has been a challenge given what feels like the unique space I am in.

Rather than find one single mentor, I have built relationships with fellow therapists who own counseling agencies and draw from friends who are experts in marketing, networking, and finance.

Pricing:

• Pathways Counseling’s fee is $125 an hour with a sliding fee scale available down to $80.
• Aron Strong’s therapy fee is $150.
• inRelationships marriage intensives are offered three times a year in February, June, and September and have an early bird rate of $960.
• inRelationships corporate training is priced according to the size of the organization. Contact us to inquire and for more details.

Contact Info:

• Website:www.findyourpathway.com www.inrelationship.us
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/pathwayscounselingtn/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aronstrong