At Birmingham Anxiety & Trauma Therapy, owner Diana Paulk said she has one main goal: to serve as many people as possible with mental health services in the Birmingham metro area.
“That’s how we count our successes,” she said. “We don’t count the money. We count the people.”
Her team is very people-oriented, she said, and people notice the difference as soon as they walk in the door.
“I don’t care if you’re a client or if you’re delivering the mail — we’re going to smile and offer you some water,” she said. “When you're in the South and someone walks into your house, that's the first thing you're going to ask them, ‘Do you want something to drink?’ That bill has gotten larger and larger as we've grown, but it's important for us to make people comfortable.”
At Birmingham Anxiety & Trauma Therapy, the business leaders aren’t at the top of the food chain. This is how Diana describes their hierarchy: clients are at the top, and then the front office workers are the next most important people.
“Our front desk workers, Abbigail and Dorelle, they’re the first interaction anyone’s going to have. They’re the front line for us.”
They’re also excellent at matching a client with the best therapist for them. Birmingham Anxiety & Trauma Therapy has 15 therapists, and each therapist has a different background and specialty.
“In addition to knowing all about anxiety and trauma, each therapist brings in their own specialty, such as anger management, depression, couples therapy, women’s issues and more,” Diana said.
And if a client doesn’t like their therapist for any reason, Diana said they will assign a new therapist to that client.
“So much of changing your life has to do with the fit of the client to the therapist, so we want to make sure we get the right fit. You can run through every single therapist we have. If you don't like those therapists, we're going to help you find a therapist outside of our business. Usually that never happens.”
Diana said she strives to make it as easy as possible and as pleasant as possible to do the hard work of therapy. She said not every session is “rainbows and lollipops,” but she’s there to help people with the hard things.
She’s learned that sometimes, it’s the little things that count.
“I’ve rearranged my office for a client before,” she said. “He came in, and at the end of our session, I asked how he felt, and he said the office was a little messy. So I hid the computer wires and rearranged things. The next time he came in, he said, ‘You did that for me?’ I said yes! We really mean what we’re saying here.”
Diana has owned Birmingham Anxiety & Trauma Therapy since 2004 and has gradually been growing the business and adding additional therapists. She laughed and said their current space has 12 therapy offices, and the company is all about sharing.
“If someone needs my office for a client, and I’m not with a client, I tell them to kick me out. Clients are at the top of the food chain here. I don't care if I own the place, if you need my space for a client, you can have it.”
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