For the past few months, we have been a witness of plenty of Small and Local businesses suffocating due to the pandemic induced crisis. Even several healthcare professionals who run their private practice were not immune to this crisis. The fumes of uncertainty are still hovering and making the path to recovery indistinct. Yet many entrepreneurs have stayed positive throughout, learned new survival skills, endured tough times, and stayed afloat with limited damages to their business. Likewise, Health professionals had their own way of tackling the menaces that shook their private practice during the pandemic.
Voice of Local business had an opportunity to talk to a clinical counselor & a private practitioner from Pasadena, California, Arolyn Burns, M.A. LMFT, LPCC, of the “The A Treatment center” to know about the struggles she endured during the pandemic and how did she survive through it.
Tête-à-tête with Arolyn Burns
Arolyn recalls the initial set of challenges that came on her way when the COVID19 pandemic exerted its influence on the health sector. She said, “Figuring out how to do therapy remotely along with the challenges that came as many therapists were switching to similar platforms. I had Lots of disruptions. As a therapist, I am rarely going through the same challenges as my clients at the same time. The COVID19 hit everyone, so managing my own fears, anxieties, and stressors were imperative. I took a week to veg out, regroup, adjust, and do self-care so I could be available to my clients.”
As she took the time for rejuvenation, she was able to analyze and understand the business dynamics during the crisis. Of course, the business wasn’t usual, as fewer people were showing up for therapies. Eventually, she had an enormous decrease in her turnover.
“Initially, ironically, we had a huge drop – ironic because we specialize in Anxiety, Phobias, Trauma & Chronic Pain. But I believe everyone was freaking out and taken off guard. Many were furloughed, and as a number of my clients are in the entertainment field, their work stopped abruptly, even before other industries. In the last few weeks, we have had an influx of people wanting to focus on managing their anxieties and work on past trauma that was triggered by the virus.”, Said Arolyn.
Online therapy
Like most of the therapists, Arolyn Burns has also started offering online therapy. Online therapies are a great boon to the therapists as well as their clients during the pandemic. However, it has been a question of concern for most of us whether online therapies are as effective as traditional or conventional therapy sessions. While talking about it, Arolyn said, “Research supports the fact that Virtual therapy is as effective as in person. For things like creating custom hypnotherapy recordings, I have done it virtually but, it’s much better audio if done in person. I was surprised to find that I agree virtual therapy is very effective. We provide FaceTime as well as Phone sessions as the platforms provided were overloaded and appeared to crash and have glitches which disrupted the process and flow of sessions.”
Empathizing with so many small business owners who are prone to similar challenges, Arolyn said, “I feel your pain. We all face challenges, and it is those who look ahead are able to adapt and believe it’s their mission with passion who will survive and thrive on the other side.”
Although it still appears to be tough to run a business in these challenging times, hearing from professionals like Arolyn who survived this catastrophe gives us a sense of hope to overcome this situation. After all, it is an entrepreneur’s inherent quality to persevere, hustle, and succeed amidst all adversaries.
