Miranda Walton: ALC ChangeMakers Podcast Interview
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Audio Only - All Participants: [00:00:00] Hi everyone. Welcome to the ALC Changemakers Podcast. I'm your host, Jennifer Sconyers, and today I have Miranda Walton. Welcome Miranda. Thank you for having me. So excited to be here. Yeah, we're so glad to have you. So for listeners, Miranda and I met in the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small businesses program in Columbus last year.
So we've had some of my classmates on previously. Miranda was also in the class. So that is how we met. And I'm so excited for you all to hear Miranda, what she's doing and her story. So Miranda, why don't you tell listeners a bit about you and your leadership journey. Yeah, so I'm Miranda Walton. I'm the founder and executive director of Restorative Pathways Counseling.
We're a private practice group in Zanesville, Ohio, so kind of right on the edge of Appalachia, um, in a pretty rural area. We are [00:01:00] working on influencing real sustainable change in the lives of those that we get to work with. Um, and ideally making an influence on how behavioral health is done in our community, and ideally long term in our state and maybe even beyond that.
'Cause we just think that behavioral health can be done differently than the way it's been done in the past, and that there's a lot of opportunity for change and shift there. So we're trying to make a little change where we can. Mm-hmm. Yeah, that's, that's a little bit about the business. Yeah. Yeah.
Well, what brought you to behavioral health? 'cause I'm super curious about, we work with nonprofits, small businesses, so depending, some people use the term theory of change, but really it's like, what's the change that you want to see and behavioral health and what just brought you to the field? Yeah. As far as what brought me into it, I actually started my education off thinking that I was gonna be in nursing.
So not this. Um, that was kind of what all of the women in my family [00:02:00] had done. And so I was just following along that path as well. Um, but when I got into my psychology courses in undergrad, I realized I really like that instead. And so I shifted my course and pursued my undergrad and psychology and really loved just learning about how our brains work, how people operate, and their relationships and in their lives.
And then I took a couple of years off. After school just trying to figure out what I wanted to do. Counseling was always something I was really interested in, but it just, I think the timing wasn't right yet. And I think how I got here was definitely a divine intertwining of different areas of my life.
Uh, it was kind of the way that I like to think about it between. An entrepreneurial spirit I had as a kid and my interest in helping people and kind of a passion just for justice for other people and being able to stand up for people. Um, my spirituality and faith journey was just this intertwining of all of these things that came together.
Um. A [00:03:00] couple years after I graduated, I had, uh, an experience with one of my friends, Jeff, shout out Jeff, uh, who was a counselor. We were camper camp counselors at a camp that I grew up in, and he had asked me if I'd ever considered becoming a counselor like he was. And it was one of those things of funny you should ask that, yes, I have considered that.
And probably less than a month later, I had applied to the program that he had went through. It happened so quickly that I didn't even have my textbooks. I didn't know it was a two and a half hour commute. Wow. Um, I missed orientation, like it, it really happened fast, but I was very sure at that point that the doors had opened at the right time and that was where I needed to be.
Yeah. And so that was kind of what brought me into the field of just being interested, like I said, in, in being able to support and listen to other people feeling like I had a lot of those natural tendencies personality wise. And then God just kind of took me down that path where. We were ready to go and I knew that I wanted to start a [00:04:00] private practice, and that kind of talks a little bit more about the change that I wanna see in the field.
I knew that as I got into the field, I was not built for community behavioral health. Oh, um, the things that I had heard about, you know, carrying caseloads of 180 people and it, it just, I knew that I would burn myself out if that was the type of work that I was doing. And so with the entrepreneurial interests that I had, I just knew that I was going to do private practice and start my own business, and that it would give me the opportunity to do the work that I wanted to do, but at a pace that was sustainable for me.
And to be able to have a say over. The kind of clients that I felt like I could have the most influence with. Um, yeah, just being able to have a, a better pace, a better pace with the number of people that I could work with, a better pace with the schedule that I could work with so that the work that I could do would be sustainable for myself.
Yeah. And then allow it to be sustainable [00:05:00] for the clients. I think that a lot of ways that our behavioral health system is set up in our country is. A numbers game, unfortunately. Right? It's getting in as many people as we possibly can in an attempt to help them. Yeah. But there's not a lot of focus on the quality and sustainability of the work.
So one example would be just the emphasis on different metrics. So a lot of places focus on productivity as a metric. Mm-hmm. So if you're working 40 hours a week, you're expected to see X percent. Of that time be with your clients and be in billable hours. Mm-hmm. It doesn't really matter if I see you, Jennifer, every single week, like my treatment plan says I'm supposed to, or if I see.
You once a month. It just matters that I hit my numbers in that week for the number of clients that I'm supposed to see. Okay. What we're trying to emphasize is [00:06:00] quality over quantity. Mm-hmm. So if I've committed to seeing you weekly, then we hold our staff accountable to seeing their clients weekly.
Mm-hmm. And if that means that a little bit more of the pressures on us with. Seeing more cancellations because we're protecting our calendars to make sure that clients get the, the care that they need, then that's on us. Mm-hmm. But we wanna make sure we're not overcommitting, because that's what allows us to actually see progressive change.
Mm-hmm. And reliable outcomes in a way that you can't if you're only focusing on keeping your schedule filled. Yeah, I mean that makes so much sense. You know, so like, as a person, like I'll just name for listeners, I've not, have not seen Miranda, but over the years have seen different types of counselors and therapists and um, I'm curious 'cause we were in this business cohort, right?
Like what it means for you, because I think there's, what I would notice was this tug and pull, right? Mm-hmm. As, as business owners where they would want to be able to meet the client's needs. Right. And put the [00:07:00] client first. So if the client's in a crisis, let's just say making sure that mm-hmm. Seeing them in a frequency that makes sense to support them, the crisis, um, but then they bump up against the insurance.
Mm-hmm. Right. What the insurance would take versus not take the client, be able to afford out-of-pocket expenses. Mm-hmm. And then like we're seeing things like cuts to Medicaid. Like there's, there's so many things that impact the field. I'm curious, drew Miranda. What is your model and how you manage this?
Because I'm hearing there's this justice forward way you're looking at it, you wanna make sure there's a quality of care. Mm-hmm. There's a quantity of patients. You wanna make sure they're successful. Yeah. How do you. Navigate the business side, as it were, of, of doing, you know, mental health work. Yeah. It is a balance that, that is for sure.
And I think boundaries are kind of at the center of it. Mm-hmm. And knowledge on what we're doing with insurance companies. You know, because we're in a rural, rural area, we are very reliant on insurance payments. [00:08:00] There aren't a lot of. People in our population that we work with that pay out of pocket for services.
It's just not the demographics that we're working with. And so we do try to accept all major payers, Medicaid, Medicare, and all of that because otherwise services aren't accessible to begin with. And so you do have to be very familiar with navigating what the insurance processes are. I mean, I've read through every, this sounds excessive, but I've read through every line of every.
Payer handbook for every contract of knowing what the details are, because I feel like that's my responsibility as a business owner to know how to advocate, where we have influence with the insurance companies, where we don't, being able to use state resources like, um, the insurance commissioner for the state, being able to rely on them if we need to.
We've been able to work with legislators where we need to, if, if we need advocacy on that standpoint. So. It's being [00:09:00] aware of what your resources are and then developing a sustainable model within that. You know, we have a sliding fee scale. We offer pro bono services where we need to, but we also have very clear boundaries and structure around where those services get utilized.
And I think that that might be some of the difference in the model that we have versus the way that it might be done in other places because we're for-profit, our only. Revenue comes in for fee, for fee for service. Mm-hmm. We don't have any grant funding. We don't have any state or federal funding that's.
Supporting us in our budget. Mm-hmm. So we have to be really, really mindful of how we're using the resources that we have. Yeah. And make sure that we're not overextending ourselves, which means that we have really collaborative, collaborative, excuse me, relationships with our clients, upholding them accountable to their commitments, making sure that we're not, like I said, overextending ourselves, trying to bend over backwards to meet quiet needs where they're not.
Able to show up for [00:10:00] themselves. And that might sound harsh, but I think that it's part of what allows for sustainable changes, that we're all accountable for the decisions that we make and we have to have both feed in and change that we're making for ourselves. And so I think we, we set that expectation for our clients and then we show up to support them underneath that.
And that's what allows us to actually see them move forward. Mm-hmm. We don't give away services where we can't. Um, we try to help people connect to the resources that they really need and meet people where they are, but we try to utilize like everything that is available to us. Yeah. Um, you know, if a client needs something, we try to, I don't know if that makes sense.
Yeah. You what I'm saying? But it, it, it's, uh, definitely a balancing game of Tetris, of just trying to fit all of the pieces together. It's not the easy way to do it by any means. It's definitely what I've come to find out. Yeah. Over the years it's not the easy way out. Um, there are a lot of easier [00:11:00] models to do.
Sure. Well, and I think for listeners, you mentioned you're in Gainesville, so people are not based in Ohio. You know, it's, it's really Appalachia. Mm-hmm. And, you know, that's not known as a, I'll say an affluent part of the state right. At all. Um, people are struggling mostly. Right. And, and like working people.
So I'm just really curious, and this is also maybe culturally too. How, how do you, how do you offer counseling services when culturally, I don't know if that was really a part of the culture. Yeah. Or maybe cultural stigmas, let's just say, which is true for a lot of different communities, so mm-hmm. How do, how do you approach it so it feels different or it feels like something people in the community would want to partake in?
Yeah. I think a, a lot of that is moving in the right direction. We. On a macro scale are working with different coalitions and, and networks in our community. Um, like we have our family and children first council or healthier Ms. [00:12:00] Network. There's different initiatives with like our health department that we're a part of that, where we're trying to brainstorm ways, whether it's marketing campaigns through the health department, just different ways to overcome challenges that we're experiencing in the community when it comes to stigma and, um, access to care and things like that.
I think what we found over time as a team is that there's, there's no shortage of people who are reaching out for help. Um, you know, our. We're in a very underserved area, and so it's not uncommon for us to have a wait list. It's more common for us to not have enough providers in the community to meet the need, which it's good and bad in different ways.
Right? Like it, it's great that people are reaching out for help, but we, we need more resources to be able to meet the needs that exist. Mm-hmm. So there's definitely a cultural aspect of people. Not feeling comfortable with asking for support. I think [00:13:00] one of the ways that we try to combat that directly is the environment that we create.
The feedback that we get from a lot of our clients is that our, our physical location feels welcoming and comforting and that it doesn't feel overly clinical, which I think can be a barrier. Sure. In and of itself, um, I mean, I'm in my office right now. This is what all of our offices here look like in our, our building.
That we, we try to be really intentional with how we set up our physical spaces so that when clients come in, they're instantly put at ease that they feel like they're sitting more in a living room instead of in a doctor's office or something like that, because that's how you build rapport and trust with clients.
It's a very. Hard thing to reach out for help and there's a lot of hoops that you have to jump through with insurance and things like that. The last thing that we wanna do is make it an uncomfortable experience, and I think even if people have hesitancy, they've generally communicated with us, you know, after the first session or so that they [00:14:00] feel better.
Yeah, they form, feel more at ease, so that we're kind of trying to tackle it from two ways, the macro level of the initiatives with marketing and then with. Just how we are trying to make our clients feel when they do reach out for help. Even if that's just a friendly voice on the phone with our front desk staff and the the client experience doing anything that we can to remove barriers so that it doesn't have to be any more complicated than it needs to be is, yeah, it's, it's not an easy process for people.
Yeah. Well, I just used, you know, I grew up in a small town in northwest Illinois for listeners and, you know, there were so many negative stories or stigmas about therapy and counseling that was very much, um, embedded in the culture, you know, and, and so do you dare not say you're seeing a counselor or a therapist.
Mm-hmm. And then if, if you found out someone was, there was this. Negative narrative about them and what must be wrong with them. So just appreciating, you know, what you're doing there in Musk County [00:15:00] is try to shift that and make it more approachable and more accessible. And we know people are just more stressed out now.
There's more to be stressed about. There's more that people are, are struggling with than juggling in this current climate that we're all living in. Um, so I, I wanna shift to challenge, right? So I know we were in this, this cohort together. Uh, we were talking, you know, before the podcast and it sounds like things are going well now.
Right? But you had a two and a half years where it was, it was kind of rocky for you. Can you take us a bit on like what that journey was and just what you were trying to achieve? Yeah, so it, it was. A blend of personal and professional because, you know, our professional was never completely separate, especially as business owners.
Right, right. So a, a lot of it kicked off with my husband and I adopted our daughter who is medically complex. We got a, a call back in November of 2022, um, about a little girl that was in Texas and we had very, very little information. I'm talking like four sentences [00:16:00] of information and before we knew it, we found out about her on a Friday.
By Wednesday night I was in Houston, so it was a big transition for my team who was used to having me here full-time every single day. Um, you know, working definitely more than 40 hours a week, but being available and, um, able to give a lot of effort and energy and capacity to the business. To being literally halfway across the country and not knowing when I was gonna be coming back.
I knew we were going to be there at least two to three months. We had no idea what we were walking into with our daughter. Um, we knew one of her diagnoses, but, and we knew we, she had had a surgery and that was all that they were able to tell us before we got there. And so the first few weeks were just me trying to work with her medical team, figuring out.
What I had missed. She was two weeks old by the time we got there, so I had missed two weeks of her care and had no idea what had been done. At that point, we had to learn about her diagnosis. It wasn't something we were [00:17:00] familiar with. And so that started a really hard transition for my team, which is having their, their main leader be gone.
Yeah. And um, it was a hard transition for me in rearranging priorities of. Really getting clear on what matters to me personally in life, but then with the business, like what really makes a difference that I need to focus my energy and attention on and what can be cut out right now and and is something that I don't need to worry about as much and where can I rely on my other leaders to take over things?
So it was definitely a lot of lessons in that transition and. We spent three months in Houston. Then we came back and we spent five more months in our children's hospital here before we were home steadily and, and then just getting into a normal routine. And so during that time we had just started our accreditation and certification process with the Joint Commission and Ohio Medicaid, Ohio Mental Health and Addiction Services.
There were a lot of [00:18:00] different things. We had very and and a great timing. Decided to bite off right before I left and we were already in it. So that was a lot of what that time was focused on. Um, and there was a lot of struggle with change management Yeah. In the team with me not being able to be present.
So that really kicked a lot of things off. And then we hit a lot of barriers with billing and um, that really lasted about a year, year and a half before we're finally turning the corner, which had a really hard time. Catching our footing with that. Mm-hmm. Um, and it was it 20 23, 20 24 were probably the hardest years that I've ever experienced personally and professionally.
Yeah. Um, and it really challenged me to kind of get deeply rooted in what my vision is and why I am doing this. Because otherwise, I mean, I cannot say that there were not days that I just wanted to burn it all to ground. Yeah, I can't do [00:19:00] this anymore. This is just too much. It's too hard and I don't feel like I have it in me to keep moving forward.
But, um, yeah, it, it was a, a really hard season. We had a lot of challenges culturally with our team and just trying to get realigned with. What, what are our values and, and what kind of a team are we trying to build? Where are we trying to move forward in the future? Why are we doing the things that we're doing with accreditation and, and certification?
Yeah. Why are we launching these services that are giving us so many challenges? You know, again, just getting really rooted in the why. Yeah. Behind the things and cutting out things that weren't necessary or letting things fall where they needed to fall. Mm-hmm. We had, we've talked a lot as a team about.
Pruning seasons. And, um, there, there was a worship song that was kind of my theme song throughout my time with my daughter in the hospital and everything that talks a lot about letting God cut away [00:20:00] things that need to be cut away. And, and that was definitely my just personal theme throughout time. It just surrendering and letting what needs to fall away, fall away trusting that what needs to stay will and, um, working through that.
Personally, professionally, emotionally. Yeah. Um, but we're, we're finally turning a corner, like you said. We're, yeah. We're hitting a point now where our team is the smallest that it's been in five years, but it is one of the strongest teams that we've ever had. Mm-hmm. Strongest culturally. Um, everybody is aligned with our mission, our vision, and where we're headed and.
There's different pieces. We've rehired some key team members, like it's all coming kind of full circle and opening up the door for the next chapter, which we're very much looking forward to. Yeah. Well I just, I love, I love that. I really appreciate what you're saying, Miranda. 'cause I think as business owners, as organizational leaders, there's these seasons.
[00:21:00] ALC turns 10 next April. I often say you have to make it to 10, right? Like there, right. There's a lot. We gotta make it to 10. Right? Like there's things we need to do and it means we can't stay stagnated. And what I'm hearing is through this change, there was a lot of pivoting that you all were doing and you were getting clear on your, your mission, your vision, your values, your why there was pruning happening that I'm hearing that could be in insistent process, it could be people, you know what I mean?
Yep. In terms of making sure the right team, right. Oh, I see the right team in the right seats in the bus, right? That's right. So everything you were saying, we teach at ALC and also have lived through, and there's, there's seasons there. I, I think in entrepreneurship there's seasons, the highs are high and the lows are low, and you have to recommit.
To your why and why you do it. I'd say that's true for any change maker out there. Like we're not making widgets, folks we're creating. Right. So you've gotta be really clear about why you're in it, because you're going have these trials that are gonna come. There's gonna be [00:22:00] hard seasons. I like to say it's like pushing the bullet up the mountain.
Yes. And it doesn't, like, it just takes brute force and momentum and consistency. Like that's what it Yes. Right. So, so you've lived it. Um, so you said your, your team is smaller now. What's the size of your team today? So there, I believe there's 11 of us. Oh, wow. We're, we're in the process of hiring a few more.
So, but yeah, I believe there's 11 currently. Mm-hmm. Um, with our new biller that we just brought on. Mm-hmm. So back in 2020 when we first made the shift into group practice from me just being a solo practice, I think we had. About eight around that time. So this is the, the smallest group that we've had mm-hmm.
Since that point in time, since we kind of took off in our very rapid growth. Yeah. But it's like you said, definitely seasons with things we're. Cycling to a season of stable growth now. [00:23:00] Yeah, yeah. No, I love that. And that's in org development. Like we often say you start with infancy. It's like you're, it's like a baby.
You have to take care of, you have to keep an eye on the baby, right? Yes. And then there's toddlerhood and toddlerhood. It's a scary time because toddlers that we know can do some damage. If you don't, you don't watch them and they're quick. Right? So the business is doing all these things you just have to keep your eyes on.
Mm-hmm. Then there's what we call the adolescent phase, and that is like just in human development it's actually can be painful. There's a lot of growth that can happen exponentially. And also a lot of like icky, tricky mistakes can happen during that time. Things can fall through the cracks. Right. So I'm hearing that period when you were adopting your daughter and going through that, that was definitely an adolescent phase.
For you. Right. And your growth and managing all that. And so it sounds like now you're settling into what we call the adult phase of business. Not so there won't be challenges that come in the adult phase. You're just more equipped to deal with them 'cause you're more stable. Right, right, right. Yeah. I feel like we've been through this like teenage identity [00:24:00] crisis in the last year or so of just really getting, like we've talked about, like really.
Reaffirming, yeah. What our foundation is as a a practice and not getting distracted from that. And now that we've got our identity clarified again, we're ready to move into adulthood. I love it. And you're only just five years old, you said, right? This is just a, we're. Yeah. We're about to celebrate eight as a a business as a whole.
Okay. But five as a group practice. Okay. Where we, we've brought on other employees and everything. Okay. So you're, you're steadily approaching that 10 year mark, so that, that totally makes sense that this is, yeah. This is where you are in your growth. Well, this has been so wonderful to talk to you, Miranda.
Um, where can people find you if they wanna learn more about your work and your practice? Yeah, so we're, we're on Facebook and Instagram. Um, just restorative pathways. And, um, we have regular posts that we have on there. And then our website's, restorative-pathways.com so people can find us on there as well.
And, um, [00:25:00] reach out if they need any support with anything. Um, we have a contact form on there. People can always text or call our office if they need anything from there. Um. My email's listed online as well. Of course I have personal social media, but I won't share that because boundaries. Right, right. I love boundaries.
I love the boundaries. Uh, and we can share that in our show notes too. Yeah. For this episode. So, Miranda, before we wrap, do you have any, uh, final thoughts or words of wisdom or anything you'd like to share for listeners? Yes, I think especially with the climate right now, one of the things that I've been working a lot with my clients, uh, is being where your feet are.
Our feet are right here with us in this moment and trying to remain present and grounded in this moment. It, it is so easy for us to get distracted by all of the things that are going on outside of the room that we're in or outside of the community that we're in, we're exposed to. Constant input 24 [00:26:00] 7.
And so just the practice of being where your feet are and checking in with yourself and keeping yourself grounded, like this is where we can make the most change, is where we're actually present. Yeah. We don't have a lot of influence outside of where our body's at. So yeah, I think that's kind of the practice that I've been trying to practice myself.
Yeah. And, um, using that to get through any. Whether it's a political fear, anxiety, or, um, personal fear, anxiety that people are experiencing it, it's gotta start there with grounding ourself with where we're actually at and where we have control in the moment. Yeah. And where we don't. Yeah. I love that.
That's a powerful practice. That's when we champion here. Well, I had a, um, mentor say, find your feet. Mm-hmm. What's her thing? Find your feet and start there. And then kind of you can expand from there, but you have to start Exactly. You end. Ground. So that's, that's really sage advice. Well, thank you so much, [00:27:00] Miranda, for joining the podcast.
We'd love to have you back sometime in the future. Yeah, would love it. Thank you so much. Yeah, thanks everybody. Bye-Bye.
